Staten Island Half - 1:26:52 / 6:37 & Amazing NY Race

Chip Time: 1:26:52 (PR)
Pace: 6:37
Rank: 117/3983
Age Grade: 68.1%

Back in 2007, SI was where I broke the sub 7 barrier for a half marathon. 2 years later, I was finally able to perform a sub 1:27. I registered for this race late in the game and never had any intentions of PR-ing it. I was planning to use this race as a tune up before the Kansas City Marathon. Furthermore, the fact that I've ran a marathon (Clarence Demar) two weeks ago and judging from my previous halves, the thought of achieving a sub 1:30 never occurred. I'll be honest, after barely breaking a 1:30 @ the '08 NYC Half and hovering around the 1:30-1:31s on my previous halves, I asked myself "when will I ever break it again?" I'm definitely satisfied with my previous halves, however, the thought of ever repeating it had always eluded me. Very dubious.


Since I was shut out from the blue corral, I started at the red one. I was glad I used the first mile to warm up, as such, miles 2-7 were a blur to me. Going through miles 2-7 was risky because I was concerned that I could not maintain the pace and die at the end. I figured since this is my last NYRR race of the year, I uttered to myself "what the heck; might as well just go for it." As I went full throttle to mile 8, the giant hill as I have always remembered was a killer. Luckily I was able to pace with Chris who was always ahead of me. Mile 9-10 were good recovery miles after the killer hill. It was up until mile 11 that I realized that I could destroy my previous 1:29. Mile 12 was where I struggled. I don't know, maybe I was running low in reserves, but thankfully was able to pick it up on the last mile with a sprint finish.


I gotta' thank my coach for the track sessions which really helped in maintaining pace for most of the race (except mile 12). Moreover, I'm glad I made the last decision to run this. If not, a half marathon PR would still elude me. Hopefully I can piggyback on this on Kansas City next week then NYC and of course Las Vegas ;)

After the race, I hung out with a couple of friends from TRD and ADOB and headed back to the city to prep the Amazing NY Race. As a group of 4, we are huge fans of the Amazing Race. Judging from our team uniform we were the TMNT (ninja turtles) team and seriously, way to perpetuate the stereotype! Since this event came up a few months ago, we jumped to the opportunity despite the fact that it was a few hours after the half marathon. In essence, we were running and "mta-ing" around NYC for 4 hours and 15 minutes looking/finding clues with some obstacles etc. I couldn't ask for a better team as all of us provided different strengths. One was an excellent navigator, one schedule the time well, one was aggressive and assertive and the other de-stressed the team with her relaxed/indifferent attitude. We definitely made some mistakes and took some risks. In the end, we came in first place - HA! I heard there's another event like this where it takes the whole day - Can't hardly wait! Well, maybe after several marathons ;)

Splits:
01: 7:00:69
02: 6:38:21
03: 6:33:95
04: 6:34:22
05: 6:39:53
06: 6:21:74
07: 6:29:09
08: 6:47:03
09: 6:25:22
10: 6:32:26
11: 6:42:80
12: 6:58:43
13: 6:31:57
.1: 37:53

Amazing NY Race































Cheers,
Moz