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.

JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K, April 13, 2010

The JackRabbit Anyone Can Win 5K had the best premise for a race that I've seen yet. No watches. No mile markers. No clocks. Nobody wins at the finish line.

Instead, JackRabbit asked us to predict our finishing times for a 5K when we signed up for the race. The people who got closest to their predicted times would win - not the first people to cross the finish line. And they have some great prizes - JackRabbit gift certificates! Visions of keeping myself in Vanilla Gu all summer long danced through my head.

We also were asked to chip in $20 to keep Prospect Park pretty. Easy enough! I do love me some Prospect Park.

Now. My fastest 5K ever was 25:08, run during a test in the midst of my current Team in Training season. Because it was pitch-black and midwinter at the time of the test, we ran the 5K in a loop around the top half of the park and Prospect Park West. So the course was more or less flat. This race was a full loop around the park, which meant hills. Of the South and North variety.

Also important: I really thought I was going to die during the 5K test. I was getting a cold and could barely breathe. Also, I dropped my glove in the middle and lost about 30 seconds going back and picking it up.

So when I registered for the Anyone Can Win 5K, I based my time not on that test - because I had no desire to feel like that again - but rather on my PR half marathon pace of 9:10. I wrote down 27:30.

TNT BK ran this race in lieu of our normal Tuesday night practice, so it was great to be outside on a pretty night with all my teammates and coaches. It's not often that I get the benefit of my coaches cheering me on during a little 5K race, so that was great.

Know thyself. This was the theme of the night. And I don't. Know myself, that is. Because I ran the 5K in 25:15, possibly a bit faster. That's my 5K PR for an official race, in case you are counting. And also just seven seconds slower than that 5K test. Which I should have written down instead of the slower time, because I'd have won big!

I chalk this up to what every coach, every experienced runner, every race veteran will tell you: Don't go out too fast. To which I say: Then don't start your races on a downhill.

In sum, I'm pretty proud of myself for my PR - it was just about 8 months ago, in August of 2009, in Prospect Park, in a race sponsored by JackRabbit, that I ran my first 5K in under 30 minutes. So I've shaved off over four minutes in one training season, in a distance I really don't enjoy that much (I could go on and on about this, but I'll keep it short and just say that a 5K is a warmup for me.).

I just really wanted that gift certificate! Time to get serious about pacing. And get to know myself a bit better - because apparently I really can run a 5K in 25 minutes and change.

Sub-2! And Other Things That Happened in February

I ran three races in February. I think this was an impressive feat because February is the shortest month of the year. Even more impressive, two of the three races were 10 miles or longer. Even MORE impressive, I ran a sub-2 half marathon, one of my big running goals for 2010.

And then I forgot to write about it all.



First up was the Valentine's Day 5K in Prospect Park on - yes - Valentine's Day, February 14, 2010 sponsored by Brooklyn Road Runners and Slope Sports. I found this race courtesy of my friends at NYCRuns.com. If you run in New York, you should be hooked up with this website. This is also how I found the super-awesome Coney Island Turkey Trot. Join! Now!

This was a nice run - one loop around the park, easy. I ran with Kelly and finished in 29:39. Lady Southpaw played the afterparty at the KofC and rocked the house as always. Followed the race up with brunch at the estimable 7th Avenue Diner & Donuts with the girls.



On February 21, I ran the Cherry Tree 10-Miler in Prospect Park, sponsored by the Prospect Park Track Club and Slope Sports. This is a tough, tough race - you may remember I had some trouble with it last year. This year, I had a great race (finished in about 1:32). I credit better training and overall fitness, gorgeous weather and my TNT BK teammates for the support and the coaches who cheered us all on.

And then, the very next week, I ran a sub-2 half marathon!



I ran the Scenic City Half Marathon in my hometown, Chattanooga, Tennessee, on February 27.

The photo at the top of this post is of me around mile 11 of this race. Don't you like my arm warmers? I bought those with a Slope Sports discount I received for doing the Cherry Tree race. I gotta say, Kara Goucher is right - arm warmers rule. The weather was near-perfect for a long race - low 40s at the start, warming up to the mid-50s. I ran in shorts and an obnoxiously bright green t-shirt. I didn't want to wear a jacket, since I knew I'd want to ditch it a mile in, but I needed something. And that something was arm warmers.

This race was pretty all-around awesome. I was ready for it, I trained, and I had a goal: to beat two hours.

I was also battling a fair number of personal demons going into this race. Forget April - February is my cruelest month. I knew running this race hard and having a goal wouldn't eradicate my problems, but it would help me face them head-on.

There was a significant delay at the start because, apparently, the computer wasn't working to activate the start mat, and our timing chips would not register. The clock also wasn't working, but because I was wearing a watch I didn't much care about that. But I knew I wanted an official time. The race organizers should have told us to leave the start area and come back 20 minutes later, but they didn't. So we all stood around, freezing. (Thank you arm warmers.)

At 8:30 a.m., a half hour after we were supposed to start, we were off! To the strains of Matthew Wilder's "Break My Stride." Remember that - it comes back into play later, much like the proverbial gun that, if shown in Act I, must be fired by the end of the play.

The race left Finley Stadium, the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga's football stadium, and headed downtown. The first mile or so was a little downhill, which gave me pause as I realized mile 13 would be a little uphill. Sigh.

Running through downtown Chattanooga for the second mile was neat - the river to the left, the aquarium to the right. Straight ahead - giant hill. The third mile was all uphill. I ran this mile on-pace but it was not especially fun.

At mile 4, my family was waiting for me outside the Boathouse restaurant on Amnicola Highway - waving huge green-lettered RUN LELA RUN signs. This was so cool, I can't even tell you. What a boost! Thanks, family! They were so cool that I missed the 4-mile marker. No worries, keep running down Amnicola. The city really should have organized the traffic cutoffs better - runners had to cross traffic heading into town to turn onto the Riverwalk around mile 5.5. I took a Gu here.

The Riverwalk is one of my favorite places in Chattanooga - scenic path that runs, yes, along the Tennessee River. It's very pretty and I just let myself enjoy miles 6-7. Just before the Mile 8 marker, my family was back with their signs. Yay! They told me later that I looked better than everyone around me. I'll give TNT credit for that one.

The next mile was a sick, sick uphill. I've run it before, but not this fast and not this far into a run. Up, up, up, past UTC's practice football field and into the Bluff View Arts District. One more family surprise at the top of the hill!

I'd been keeping pace with a guy for the first 8 miles of the race or so, but I lost him on this uphill. This is partly because I knew what lay on the other side of the uphill - a very serious DOWNHILL. We're talking a nearly vertical downhill here, the result of a course change due to some bridge construction. After I passed my family and headed past the Walnut Street Bridge into the quadbuster, I passed the guy. He was not very happy.

Over the Market Street Bridge onto Frazier Avenue - not bad. I've never run over the Market Street Bridge, but it used to scare me to drive over it as a kid because it sings. It's a drawbridge and driving over the metal grates produces a weird humming noise. Some spectators on Frazier, but my mind was on getting uphill - again - to cross the Veterans Bridge, home of many speeding drives to high school (which I passed in the process - go Bruisers). Never run the Veterans either - but it's neither very scenic nor very fun for running. My legs were sore at this point, and I still had to go back uphill to the top of Bluff View again. Ow. More Gu.

Finally, downhill to the 11-mile marker, which I inadvertently missed while grabbing water. Sweet, sweet swooping downhill back into downtown. Got some water in me and got my legs back.

Little rise, almost missed the 12-mile marker, which had blown over. At this point, I hadn't looked at my watch in a while because I didn't want to know how close I was to my goal. But I figured I was feeling good, I had to be close. So I started singing. To myself. Loudly. "Nobody gonna break my stride, nobody gonna slow me down, oh no..." (This apparently works well as a mantra because I later found that I ran this mile at a 7:42 pace, which is pretty unreal for me.)

Uphill, uphill, ow. Into the homestretch, past the 13-mile marker, stadium in sight. Then the clock came into sight. Hey, it works! And it says...1:58?! I shrieked "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"...and SPRINTED full-on into the finish. High knees, high arms, I was Usain Bolt, people. Hit the mat, look at the watch...

1:59:32 says the watch!!! I did it! Got my medal, had my chip clipped, got a bottle of water, and saw my friend Jody who caught my photo finish. My mom appeared with my fleece and my dad and uncle with their cameras. Time for brunch!

When the official results appeared, I gained a whole second!

1:59:31. Take that, February.

9+1+$11+lots and lots of training = NYC 11/7/2010

I AM IN. On November 7, 2010 I will be running the New York City Marathon. I applied for my guaranteed entry today. I will try to be worthy of you, New York City streets.

NYRR Fred Lebow Classic 5-Mile, January 9, 2010

That's me, way over on the right with my foot going out of frame. I sacrificed a fair amount of warmth to sport some Team in Training Gear and have my number out prominently during this race, and this is the treatment I get from Brightroom. Hmph.

So there's no photographic proof, but there is proof in the form of numbers. And those numbers show I kicked some major ass in this race. Five miles in 43:40. What those numbers don't show you, and only my new watch (Timex Ironman, a Christmas present from my wonderful dad) showed me, was that I ran negative splits the whole way - and finished with a 7:46 final mile. Kick. Ass.

Did I mention it was about 20 degrees, less with the windchill, at the start? It was cold. Very, very cold. I had to talk to a friend for a few miles just to keep my face from going numb. However, my best races tend to happen in weather like this - I fade quickly in heat.

I started this blog last year with the goal of becoming a runner, as opposed to someone who signed up to do a half marathon and felt compelled to follow through. In the last year I ran a marathon, two half marathons and qualified for the 2010 New York City Marathon by running nine New York Road Runners qualifying races and volunteering at a 10th - another goal I set out to chronicle here. Running my marathon was really hard. I didn't love all of those qualifying races. But I did become a runner. I go out for runs now and it's no longer a struggle. It's become something I have to do, a part of me. I was away from the city over the holidays for three weeks, and while I was gone I made an effort to run regularly, in places both familiar and un-. I found a playground that time forgot near my grandmother's house and discovered that hill training pays off when running in my parents' neighborhood (at one point I found myself running perpendicular to a hill).

Team in Training reeled me in again this year. I signed up to run the Long Branch Half Marathon in New Jersey on May 2 with them, as a way of beginning my training for NYC. They asked me to serve as a mentor captain, which was an honor, and I'm enjoying the challenge of keeping my fellow mentors plugged in. I'll probably follow this season with the fall one and train with them for NYC. There's not enough space on this blog to talk in detail about how much the TNT family has given me, but suffice it to say I owe them a lot more than my fitness, and a lot more than I would likely fundraise even if I participated in every season for the rest of my running-able life.

2009 was one of the most difficult years of my life, personally. I dealt with a salary cut and layoffs at work, lost my grandmother, miscarried twice, struggled with a lot of Deep Thoughts and overall spent the year wondering what, exactly, I had done to deserve such a karmic blow. It was a year of loss. Running kept me sane (well, that's a questionable word - perhaps "balanced" is better) through it all. Remembering that I set goals to improve my speed, my times, my race performances and to qualify for that marathon kept me going. I owe many people - coaches, running partners, friends and family - lots of thanks for getting me through, and here's to a better 2010.

Prospect Park Track Club 5-Mile Turkey Trot, November 26, 2009

This was my second Turkey Trot in five days. This one lacked the pomp and circumstance, er, beer, of the first one, but did include a medal with a turkey on it. Oh, and it was actually held on Thanksgiving. Swag-wise, I received a very nice running hat and a pair of fleece gloves along with my bib number and chip. Kudos, Prospect Park Track Club!

The course was a five-mile loop of Prospect Park, starting at the corner of the park drive and Wellhouse Drive, cutting across Center Drive, back up the North Hill and around to finish near the northeast corner of the park. Water stops were great, the support of students from Bishop Ford High School enthusiastic and the company - a motley crew of fellow current and past TNT BKers - most excellent. I caught up with friends before, during and after the run and enjoyed myself immensely.

This was a great and rare race in that there was little sense of competitiveness or urgency in the air. People came out to burn off calories before eating a big communal meal. That was it. It was a big turkey (or tofurkey, if you swing that way)-themed party in the park, and I was happy to be a part of it.

Coney Island 5K Turkey Trot, Sunday, November 22, 2009

This race was my first of two Turkey Trots this Thanksgiving week. Frankly, while I'm sure the other will be fun, it will be hard to top the Coney Island 5K Turkey Trot for good times.

First of all, the race started at 11:30 a.m., which in and of itself is awesome. It allowed me to sleep until 9, have a cup of coffee and chill out with NY1 News before taking my 15-minute Q train ride down to Coney Island.

The swag was amazing - a really nice hooded sweatshirt with a running turkey on the front. Plus we got a party! Free beer and hero sandwiches, accompanied by a DJ, at Peggy O'Neill's outside Keyspan Stadium, after crossing the finish line.

I also got a t-shirt, courtesy of Muscle Milk, that I will be debuting on Thursday morning. It has a trompe l'oeil pilgrim collar and belt on the front and says "SexyPilgrim.com" on the back.

PSA: Before reading further, please go watch the video at SexyPilgrim.com

Now that you've stopped laughing, you have some idea of the general mood of this run.

At 11:30, all the runners - including two dressed as Pilgrims, complete with a guy in a bonnet - gathered on the Coney boardwalk next to the parachute jump and some guy with a thick Brooklyn accent announced into a microphone "OK, here's the race. You start here (pointing to the parachute jump) and run down to there (gesturing down the boardwalk towards Brighton Beach) and then back to here." And then he blew a whistle and we were off.

There was a guy stationed at the 1- and 2-mile markers holding a stopwatch and yelling off splits to people as we passed. I ran a 9:30 pace the first mile and something close to 9 for the second. I was feeling good, if slightly overdressed, and sprinted into the finish with the goal of coming in under 27 minutes, which I accomplished running full blast. My last mile was run at 8:41 pace - better than my current NYRR bib pace. Sweet! Then it was time for beer.

The scene in Peggy O'Neill's was pretty hilarious - picture a lot of people in their 50s and 60s wearing spandex and dancing to disco. Although I have to say, many of them were far more, er, flexible than I - there were some moves I'm sure Patrick Swayze approved as he watched down from the Great Beyond. The beer was free and cold, the heros were tasty, and there was much applause as the race winners accepted their grand prizes of free Butterball turkeys.

I capped off the day with a Nathan's hot dog and a return trip on the Q train, summarily followed by a nap. Thanks, Coney Island Sports Foundation, Polar Bear Club and Peggy O'Neill's for an awesome day at the beach.