A Tale of Two Half Marathons

Tra la, tra la, the lusty month of May...so the song goes. I guess it applies to me in terms of lust for racing: I ran two half marathons in May.*

(*But wait, you say, I think you're missing a race! So I am going to mention quickly that I ran the JFK Runway Run 5K on April 18, which does not merit its own entry because it could not even live up to its very name. A race that is supposed to be run on the runway at JFK Airport, which requires a lot of time and energy to get to, should actually incorporate the runway. So, grrr, JFK Rotary Club.)

Back to those half marathons. Which I ran. Both of them. In the same month. Lustily. Same distance, same metro area, very different outcomes. You can see it in the photos above: in the first, I resemble a dying animal; in the second, I'm beaming.

The Long Branch Half Marathon, part of the New Jersey Marathon Festival, was...hot. Very hot. Ninety degrees in the shade, humid, dehydrating hot. Suck the life out of your race hot. Photo #1 hot.

I ran this race with Team in Training, and had ostensibly been preparing for it since November. The truth was that the TNT season was so long (our first practice was the week before Thanksgiving!) that I kind of forgot about this race until just before it happened. I had a big project at work that required my attention. And I also was invited to audition for Jeopardy! (The invitation arrived in January, but the actual audition was held three days before my race.) That was one very cool experience - they asked a question about my birthday ("The holiday that has been celebrated on June 14 each year since 1885. What is FLAG DAY!")! It's a sign! - but again, loss of focus. See? I can't even write this post.

So in between all the editing (and apologizing for the wedding I missed on its account) and answering trivia questions, I was lucky I found any time at all to focus on 13.1. For my last pre-race TNT practice that week, I packed two left sneakers. My mind - and subsequently, my heart - just wasn't in it.

On Saturday, May 1, I met my road-trip mates at the 7th Avenue Diner & Donut Shop for brunch before we hit the road. Five girls, lots of laughs, even more carbs. Then we hit the road. I think you won't blame me if I say that the car trips down and back to Jersey were the highlight of my weekend. I've met some awesome people through Team in Training, and our little road trip gang was no exception. Love you Kelly, Christy, Michele and Mary!

Once we got down to Long Branch, we checked into the Holiday Inn, hit a craft store for supplies to make gifts for our mentees, dashed into the race expo to get our bibs/chips/shirts, and went to the TNT NYC team meeting and the pasta dinner. Then back to the room to get race-ready - clothes laid out, shirts decorated, D-tags on shoes. The girls came by to get their gifts prepared. Then finally we got ready to get a little sleep, only to discover that there was a car bomb in Times Square being covered relentlessly on TV. One more thing to lose focus over!

Race morning was hot. No doubt about it - even by the water, on the boardwalk where we lined up at the start, it was already in the 70s. This race should have started at 8 or even 7 a.m. - NOT at 9 a.m. Even if they'd made a last-minute change, no one would have blamed them. But they didn't, and so it was hot.

Less than a mile into the race, we turned off the boardwalk and the full force of the heat hit like an oven. Suddenly, there was no more breeze off the water - but all of the humidity stayed behind. I passed the two-mile marker and knew it was going to be a very long day. I said as much, and Kelly rightfully told me to shut it.

I will give huge props to the people of Long Branch who stood out in their yards with garden hoses to spray down us runners. (Fewer props to the runner dude who filled his water bottle with one of said hoses while a line formed behind him to get sprayed. Loser.)

Six miles in, I knew I had to slow down. I knew when I started that I wouldn't PR. I now knew I just needed to finish without collapsing from heatstroke. I dumped water over my head, refilled my bottle with water and Gatorade, and settled in to a drastically slower pace.

Eight miles in, I finally saw a coach I knew (I saw a couple of the Manhattan coaches earlier on the course and they ignored us - NICE). Amy kept pace with me for a mile while I complained bitterly about the heat and lack of water between miles 7 and 10. I saw Coach Jim at mile 10 and he ran with me for a bit - at this point, I knew I would finish and told him not to waste energy.

When the boardwalk - and the final mile - came into view at the end of the race, I overheard a woman say she now knew what heaven looked like. I still maintain that it looks more like mint chocolate chip ice cream, but she wasn't totally off the mark. The last mile felt so much better. I ran into Mary at the end and we crossed the finish line together. My final time: 2:13, an extra minute for each mile off my PR. That's how freaking hot it was.

We collected our medals and hats and checked in with TNT.

I think I can safely say I won't do this race again. Just too much pain for not enough gain.

Now, the Brooklyn Half Marathon on Saturday, May 22 was a completely different story. See Photo #2!

This race, I love. I had a good run last year despite some serious organizational issues on the part of New York Road Runners. It's in my backyard (aka Prospect Park), it finishes at one of the happiest places on earth (Coney Island) and you get discounted roller coaster rides at the end. Really, what's not to love?

Maybe that 7 a.m. start time...but after my experience in Long Branch, I didn't mind this at all. Even getting up at 5 to eat - not a problem.

Maybe that they put bagwatch in the center of the park...but I know my way around, so no big deal.

Maybe Marty Markowitz...fuhgeddaboutit!

The Brooklyn Half this year started with two laps of Prospect Park. I like to think of this like a Cherry Tree race without the third loop - in other words, a piece of cake. Mostly, I wanted to save energy here by not trying to push ahead of people and by taking the hills efficiently. Kelly and I saw lots of friends here and it was just nice. It is NICE to run a race in your backyard.

On our way downhill on our first loop, finishing our third mile, we heard sirens. Already, I thought? Someone is hurt? And then I realized...no, it's just the LEADER of the entire race, lapping me fully - and that's his pace car.

When we finished the second loop and exited the park at Mile 7, my right hip started to hurt. I've been having lots of IT-related hip issues lately. But I was proud of myself - I took stock of the pain, decided it wouldn't cripple me, decided it wasn't really worth slowing down over, and kept going. I am not so good at the mental game of running yet, and this took a lot of willpower on my part - but I did it.

By Mile 9,I was ready for a water stop, and I poured a bit over my head as well. I stopped at Mile 10 as well, more for a mental boost then than for any actual hydration.

For the last two miles on Ocean Parkway, I sang "Break My Stride" to myself, over and over. I find that if I do this, my pace stays steady and it's easier to push through pain at the end of a race where I'm really exerting myself.

Bon Jovi's "Livin on a Prayer" was playing when I hit the Coney Island boardwalk, and I sang that too. Out loud, this time!

And then finally I finished, in pain, sweaty, salty and exhilarated. I did it! And I'm at Coney Island! (For the record, I finished in 2:05, which I'm quite pleased with although I would have liked to get closer to my PR.) Kelly and I got the cute photo at the top of this post taken before picking up our bags.

Postrun activities included a run into the ocean, an Egg McMuffin, a ride on the Cyclone (that I loved and Kelly hated, and we have another awesome photo to prove it) and a Coney Island Lager - all before noon! Then there were more Coney Island Lagers as we met up with friends at Coney Island's premier outdoor bar, Beer Island - my new favorite spot in what is already a favorite spot.

Brooklyn: same time, next year? OK.

Bed Stuy 10K, October 11, 2009

Gorgeous fall day. Brooklyn neighborhood that I haven't explored. Both good elements for a fun race. I really enjoyed this one - I kept it slow so I could enjoy the great scenery. I loved all the little kids who cheered on the racers! And the group with water at mile 3 - actually handing it to us rather than forcing us to mob a table! Nice touches.

And I enjoyed supporting Brooklyn. It was nice to do a local race that gives back to the community. I love New York Road Runners and all, but I see the most amazing spirit when I do smaller, more local races and it's very satisfying both as a New York City resident and a runner.

This was a good course - almost completely flat - with good signage. I was taking it easy today but I can see how it would be a great race to really run all-out.

All in all, a very chill way to spend my Sunday morning.

NYC 2010 Qualifying Races #5 and #6: Healthy Kidney 10K, May 16, 2009 and the Brooklyn Half Marathon, May 30, 2009

Here's the story of two races, because your blogger is lazy.



I ran the Healthy Kidney 10K on May 16, a mere three weeks after my marathon. It was my first time doing anything other than a slow, lazy loop around Prospect Park since 26.2 (not counting the miles we ran while cheering on fellow Team in Training spring season folks at the New Jersey Marathon on May 3). Kelly and I drove to the race and ran it together, but failed to anticipate the lack of parking. No spaces ANYWHERE. It didn't help that I'd been running late that morning to meet her and felt terrible. We finally found a spot on the East Side, across the park from the race start, with five minutes to go until gun time and no quarters to be found on either of our persons or in the car. We called a friend to come fill the meter and ran. We later calculated that we ran a full additional mile to the starting line. It started raining on us halfway there (OF COURSE) so we jumped into the queue to cross the starting line soaking wet. Five minutes later, it stopped raining but all of us runners were soaked to the bone for the duration.

I enjoyed this race, mainly for the course, which was a full loop of Central Park that minimized the uphills. I love the uptown part of Central Park, which is quiet and woody and doesn't feel like an urban park at all.

The race took us about an hour to complete at our post-marathon recovery pace and we ended up getting a parking ticket for our troubles - our friend arrived just as the ticket was being written. But, we finished, we felt good and we got another qualifier under our proverbial belts. The tech t-shirt souvenirs were nice. And more people, presumably, have healthier kidneys.



The Brooklyn Half Marathon was yesterday. I had an unusual preparation strategy for this race, which went something like this:

5 weeks prior: Run full marathon in 92-degree heat and 67% humidity.

4 weeks prior: Run 7 miles with friend at the end of her full marathon in pouring rain and persistent chill (foreshadowing. That means keep reading.). Begin running slow 3-mile loops in park with friend.

3 weeks prior: Run 10-K (see: Healthy Kidney 10K saga, above). Continue running in park. Begin taking circuit training class that consists of running uphill holding water bottles and a lot of pushups. Question sanity.

2 weeks prior: Run 7 miles through Brooklyn and across Manhattan Bridge with friends. Become winded. At end of week, run 5-mile loop in Prospect Park, successfully and without massive exhaustion. Sign up for Brooklyn Half Marathon. Plan to run an 8- or even 10-miler beforehand.

1 week prior: Become sick. Go home from work sick the next day. Call out of work sick the day after that. Cough up both lungs to the consternation of several coworkers when you do return to work.

Two days prior: Take the kind of cold medicine that makes you contemplate flying out of your office window (the kind you can only buy behind the pharmacy counter because SOME PEOPLE decided to make meth out of it, that's how awesome it is). Under influence of aforementioned cold medicine, make plans to meet up with lots of people at Brooklyn Half Marathon.

One day prior: Stop taking cold medicine because the heat advisory on the New York Road Runners website calls out pseudoephedrine, aka the meth-maker, as a dehydrator. Foiled again! Drink lots and lots of water. Miss speed-y feeling. Understand meth addicts. Cough. Write gently mocking Facebook status about how New York Road Runners thinks 77 degrees Fahrenheit is hot, and how you ran a marathon in 92-degree heat, haha, in an attempt to psych yourself up. Cough.

Morning of: Exit apartment. Think, hmmm, it is warm out. Comfort self by knowing that New York Road Runners posted that heat advisory, and thus will be out in force with extra water and Gatorade and misters (more foreshadowing). Smugly chuckle, thinking of Nashville.

I met my friend Alex and her friend Michelle at the 15th Street entrance to Prospect Park at 7:15 and we headed to bagcheck. Bagcheck was my first sign that New York Road Runners might have underestimated the wave of humanity that was running the Brooklyn Half. It wasn't disorganized, but the people manning the checkpoints seemed overwhelmed. I saw a lot of TNTers along the way, which was nice, and we all wished each other good luck.

Alex, Michelle and I got into our starting corral, which seemed to be for everyone who had signed up with a pace time over 8 minutes. That was a lot of people. It took us about 20 minutes to cross the starting line. The first wave of runners passed us while we were still waiting, in fact.

At one point during the endless patter of runners making it to the starting mat, a familiar, heavily Brooklyn-accented voice rose over the din. Alex and I turned to each other and said, "Is that Marty Markowitz?" Indeed, it was Marty himself on the mike, welcoming runners to his fiefdom.

I made the mistake just before the start line of bypassing a Port-a-Potty, which came back to haunt me about three miles later.

The first few miles were good. Tackled the North Hill in the park with no problem. Even made it around the morale-sucking lower stretch of the park still feeling cheerful. Appreciated the separation of the faster runners (those who lapped us at the start) from those of us who still had to go up the North Hill again here.

Second time up the North Hill, the siren call of the Port-a-Potty became too much to handle (or was that just the smell, which you could detect from the road?) and I veered off, telling Alex and Michelle I'd see them at the finish. I estimate that this took me about 10 minutes, but there's no way to know for sure since although I was wearing a watch, I didn't actually look at it the entire race. I passed Coach Lisa and MK somewhere around here, as well as some of the Pace 4 Success girls.

Then it was around to the South Hill. I wanted to stop for some water here before exiting the park and hitting the shadeless stretch of Ocean Parkway. When I got to the water table, I got elbowed, hard, in the back by some guy who reached over my head (not an easy feat) and grabbed one of the few cups that was resting on the table away from me. Thanks, dude. And then I realized - there was nothing else on the table. No Gatorade, no water. One woman said that the faster people had drunk everything. Um, so the slow runners get screwed? The volunteers were basically just standing around looking overwhelmed and not getting out the cups. At this point people were just reaching into the Gatorade and water barrels themselves and scooping out what they needed. I felt badly for anyone running this race for time, since I'm sure they either lost valuable minutes here or risked dehydration by skipping it entirely. I took a Gu on my way out of the park.

Out on Ocean Parkway was where I'd anticipated hitting a morale dip. Surprisingly, I still felt great. The water stations continued to suck and I was glad I was carrying my own Gatorade. I saw Alex again and we ran together for a bit until she stopped to stretch. I stopped once to adjust my shoelaces because I felt blisters forming. I saw Jasmine just before mile 10 and she said I looked great. Then I saw the sign that said "Misting Station Ahead." Misting station! All right! The awesome misting stations in Nashville totally saved Kelly and me. We had run through these giant sprinkler setups several times and used them to wet our hats along the way. I was all ready to forgive NYRR for the water station debacles. And then.

I got to the "misting station" only to find that it was ONE GUY. HOLDING A FIRE HOSE. UPRIGHT (since you obviously can't blast a crowd with a fire hose). I even asked him if he was the misting station, and he sheepishly answered that he was. He did soak my hat, though. I laughed myself silly for another couple of miles and then realized I had passed the 12-mile marker and was in the homestretch, baby!

I saw Pamela and Melanie here - Melanie wasn't officially running, but she got us up on the boardwalk and Pamela and I ran in together. Lots of crowd support on the boardwalk, and the Coney Island publicity people did a good job of fixing the accidents-waiting-to-happen that were all the loose boards along here.

I finished in what NYRR tells me was 2:26, but if I subtract my restroom stop I end up with something around 2:16-2:20, I think. Pretty awesome for someone still in marathon recovery, no?

The finish area was chaotic but I got my stuff, made sure Pamela was OK (she had a massive blister), saw Alex, and met up with Jess and Erin and Chris. Jess, Erin and I ran into the freezing-cold Atlantic to ice our legs, and then got some fried food. Good times, all considered. I really had a fabulous run - never really felt tired or hurt or over- or under-hydrated. I would run this again in a heartbeat, but hope that NYRR gets its act together before next year and makes for better water stops and a more organized area at the start and at the finish.