NYRR Half Marathon Grand Prix: Manhattan
This morning was the NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon in Central Park. It’s two full loops of the Park, plus another 1.1 miles or so. The morning was freezing cold. Officially, the temperature was 21 degrees (14 with the wind chill), but whatever it was, it was just plain cold. I’m happy with my time: 1:36:17, which is a PR by about 30 seconds (I did the NYC half in August in 1:36:50). Well, it’s a PR other than the half marathon to start the NYC marathon (which I did in 1:35:01), but I won’t count that one…
I was worried about overheating, but still dressed pretty warmly. I wore a thermal base layer, plus a mid-heavyweight Hind top, tights, a hat and my thicker gloves. I wore a few extra layers on my way up to the site, but was freezing just during the walk from the train to NYRR to the luggage buses. At about 8:10, I took off the layers and stashed my backpack on the bus. I was hopeful that I’d chosen well for the race itself, but while I was walking to the start, I could feel my insides slowly freezing. On my way to the start, I realized that I wasn’t going anywhere without going to the bathroom first. The lines were as long as I’ve ever seen. I waited and waited – the wait made worse by the cold and the fact that the race was about to start. The gun went off and there were still about ten people in front of me. At that point though, I wasn’t going anywhere. So I waited, knowing that my net time would be the one that mattered. When I finally started, I was over eight minutes behind.
I assume that because even the slow people got a three or four minute headstart on me, the first mile wasn’t really crowded and I breezed through it in 6:55. I cruised down the big hill at 102nd Street, and on the way up the other side, it started getting crowded and I could feel the hill in my legs. My heart rate was also racing – right around 170bpm. After the hill, I eased into a comfortable pace and decided to try to keep my heart rate down a bit. Miles 3 – 7 (the rest of the first lap) all felt great. My heart rate was a little lower (mostly in the mid-160’s) and I felt good. It was right around the time I hit the 102nd Street hill for the second time that I really started feeling the run. Pretty much all of a sudden, my legs got really heavy and I could feel myself struggling. My pace dropped into the 7:30’s. I thought about pushing it harder, but frankly, I was worried that if I did that I would lose it before the end of the race. I started getting pissed at myself, but the remembered the hard 3:30 I did on the bike yesterday. Additionally, I did my hardest swim workout of the week on Friday. I also remembered that I really haven’t been running all that much recently. All that, plus the cold, and I feel like I had a pretty good excuse. I ran mile 12 in the high 7:30’s, then for 13 got back down to the low 7:20’s. I tried to find that extra push at the end, but didn’t really have enough in my legs to do it.
I spent the rest of the day just sitting around the house. I watched a little TV, read some and took a nice nap. I took Charlie out for a couple attempts at walks. In addition to freezing his tush off when we go outside, he injured himself on Friday night in the dog park. He was running around like normal and just came up lame. Now, every so often, he won’t (or can’t) put any pressure on his left rear leg. It seems to flare up most often when he’s either nervous or excited. It’s happened each time I’ve tried to take him for a walk, but it also happens seemingly randomly around the house. I took him to the vet on Friday night on the way back from the park and she wasn’t sure what it was. It doesn’t look like anything’s broken and he doesn’t appear to be in pain, even when I touch his leg. The vet thought he might have injured a ligament. If it’s not better on Wednesday morning, we’ll bring him back and have it checked out again. Poor guy.
I have a tough week coming up this week. Fourteen hours with three hours swimming and running and six on the bike, plus two hours of strength training. Supposedly the next few weeks are going to be high volume, but low intensity. I’ll have to work on keeping the intensity level low(er), especially if I hope to survive! Hopefully I’ll be able to do my long ride next Saturday outside.
Run – January 21
Time: 1:36:17
Distance: 13.1 miles
Average heart rate: 166
Average pace/mile: 7:20
Course: Central Park, two loops+some
Conditions: Sunny, clear, 21 degrees, 14 degrees with wind chill
Mile 1 – 6:55 (started fast)
2 – 7:21 (102nd Street hill)
3 – 7:09
4 – 7:08
5 – 7:20
6 – 7:21
7 – 7:18
8 – 7:29 (102nd Street hill, started feeling heavy legs)
9 – 7:27
10 – 7:32
11 – 7:36
12 – 7:38
13.1 – 8:07