Long Island Half Marathon - 1:32:52 - 7:07 / mile

http://flrrt.liglobal.com/results/li06hn.txt

With a net time of 1:32:52 (7:07/mile), I posted another PR for the Reckson Long Island Marathon. Coming into the race I wasn't expecting to go for a PR. Considering the fact that I was extremely happy with my Queens Marathon time from last week (1:33:46 - 7:09/mile), working hard on my Wednesday Speed Sessions, and running on Mondays, Tuesday and Thursday, I knew I shouldn't be too hard on myself regardless on the end result of the race. To make matters worse, during the Saturday session, I ran four loops on the reservoir then met up with the dogs to run a 6 miler (?) on the bridle path in Central Park. Crazy eh?



Waking up at 4:30am, I decided to set low expectations for the race and was aiming for an 8 min/mile pace. To digress, after picking up gf in Merrick, we arrived in Eisenhower park around 7:40am. Upon waiting at the start of the race, believe or not, we saw random people urinating on the lawn due to the lack of porter-potties.



Anyway so I started at the 7 minute mile marker and was telling myself to be consistent and not go too fast because my left calf was a little sore. Furthermore, I kept aiming for a time between 1:42-1:45.

Being extremely prudent on the first mile, I netted a time of 7:45. I wasn't sure rather I should pick up the pace or not. The fact that I wasn't mentally feeling it, I decided not to push so hard. Secondly, I was really afraid of spazzing out by walking and taking short rests. By mile 2, I was under 15 minutes. Then I saw gf cheering me on so I guess I'll just kick it up a notch. Feeling a little better, i hit mile three at 21:57.

After mile 3, I decided to pick and follow a random pack to stick with them. Mile per mile, I decided to get to the next pack. Until the 10K split of 44:54, I was in the zone and feeling pretty good and realized that I can keep it up and possibly get close to a PR or under a 1:35:00.

From mile 7 to 9 I was neck and neck with this 6'4'' dude with the crew. Mile 9-10 was crazy. It was the long hill on Wantagh and right before the split for the Half/Full Marathon. At that point, the 6'4'' dude was way ahead of me and that is when I realized I should just go for it. That's basically what I did. On mile 11, I slowly caught up to him and passed him eventually on mile 12. Around mile 13, I saw gf again cheering me on and that helped a lot! Gearing up for full throttle for the last .1 mile, I heard the announcer announced "Here's ________ from New York!". Being extremely corny, i raised my arms, looked up at my time and realized that I hit another PR, a week after my Queens Half Marathon. My final time was: 1:33:12, net time of 1:32:52, ranked 10 in my age group and 131 out of 3,500 runners.



Although I hit another PR, I would never ever schedule a back to back half marathons. But the pride of testing my endurance and stamina was definitely a prime motivator. Well I did it and would I do it over again? My answer? A "No" as risking an injury is definitely not worth it.

Oh yeah, i played 7 games (200, 149, 148, 175, 160, 178, 162) of bowling right afterwards and today my legs feel ok even though I have a little sore spot on my left calf. There is a Monday night run today and I may even look into that!

Aloha and Cheers,

Moz