Sunday, July 27, 2008

Nike NYC Half Marathon: 1:29:43 / 6:50


Chip Time: 1:29:43 (PR)
Gun Time: 1:30:26
Pace: 6:50
5K Split: 21:36
10K Split: 42:45
15K Split: 1:03:53
20K Split: 1:25:13
Rank: 389/10506
Age Grade: 66.0%


After 18 Half Marathons later, I've finally broke the elusive sub 1:30. The reason why I had this goal time in mind was because I was able to hit a 1:30 at the half marathon split in the 2008 Long Island Marathon. Hence, I figured if I could push it a little more for this half, I could finally get this sub 1:30 monkey off my back.


Coming into this race, I had a sub 1:30 in mind, but judging from my last 8 miler race at Putnam County, I casted doubts to myself as if i could off the sub 7 pace for awhile. If I struggled on an 8 Miler, how am I suppose to tackle a half marathon? In addition, I didn't want to repeat my 2007 NYC Half fiasco. But after today's race, I've come to conclude how rest days are so vital. Plenty of times, I have reminded myself that even if you do not run 1-2 days, it should not inhibit your fitness. Well....saying and doing it are two different things. I'm glad that I did absolutely no running for the remaining 48 hours. That decision was probably my best preparation for the race.

As bib #1854, I was set on the second corral. After the healthy kidney, I'm glad that's where I belong because it keeps me honest with my pace. Man, I keep hearing random runners complaining about their corrals, but in the end, you have to run your own race and better yet, if that really affects the runner, use that to leverage the corral system by trying to pace or go faster with the blue corral to better your time :)


As usual, Akko and I arrived at the start as we parted ways to different corrals. The nerves on this race never really went away for the past few days. But when i met with DK, then pedro, Cass and JR on the second corral i felt better. Just having some regular conversation not pertaining to the race really eased my nerves. At the start, my intention was to pace with the fantastic four. So I decided to use the first mile to pace and if I feel better, I'll just speed up. After clocking the first mile at 7:17, it was now or later so I decided to make a move now and sped up a bit. I have to say I panicked a bit when I hit 7:17 on the first mile, but that's how the usual first miles go! After picking up the pace and clocking a 6:51 on mile 2, I began to settle down to a comfortable pace. Asides from the slick roads, I felt great running in the central park loop and the hills didn't matter much to me. After exiting the park, I felt even better. Even with my music on, the cheers, the noise, the ambiance and running through my work building provided an andrenaline rush - no joke. By mile 11 on the west side highway, I slowed down a bit because I had trouble opening up my GU, but it was smooth sailing afterwards. The remaining miles got more humid and muggy and I just wanted to get this race over with. I really had no clue whether I had a chance to PR on this race. But after hitting a 1:25 on my 20K mark, I felt that if I pick up the pace a bit more, the elusive sub 1:30 would be mine. In the end, I clocked at 1:29:43 and finally landed another PR. Regardless of the PR and time, I enjoyed every moment of the race. What's so great about running is that even though you may have one bad race (Putnam County), rather than getting yourself down, leverage that experience and bring it to another race or thereafter...no biggie.


More importantly this was one of the more important races where 3 of my best friends were running as well. I have to congratulate my buddy Ace for achieving a 1:53 on his FIRST half marathon, training buddy Kieran for burning the course with a 1:20...I can't keep up with him anymore- dammit! And lastly Akko for a great comeback and completing ANOTHER half marathon with minimal training. Lastly, special thanks to the dogs on the 1st corral (jr, cass, dk, pedro), Kate P on Harlem Hill, flygirl on 57th/7th, kruda for her words of wisdom, jud with his awesome speed sessions, and the TRD crew stationed on 57th/7th. Thanx!



Here are my splits below:

Splits:
01: 7:17:69
02: 6:51:43
03: 6:47:15
04: 6:41:05
05: 6:45:90
06: 6:54:79
07: 6:47:37
08/09: 13:35:76
10: 6:51:26
11: 6:59:18
12: 6:48:08
13: 6:44:24
.01: 43:49

Cheers,
Moz

2 Comments:

Blogger nyflygirl said...

congrats!! very well-deserved...looks like you did very well at pacing :)

and you're welcome-always glad to play cheerleader :)

9:18 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow! Congrats! One of these days, I'll see you race.

8:40 PM  

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