The Manhattan Half Marathon: A Race Inconveniently Too Cold for Al Gore

Fat lot of good all those much ballyhooed CFC's and greenhouse gases did yesterday. This is from the New York Road Runners Club website's race report:

Weather: 21°F, fair, 32% hum., wind chill 14°F

Not sure what is "fair" about 14 degrees, but I suppose we all had to run in the same weather, so I guess I can't complain too much.

The night before I didn't have a good dinner, I had some jalapeno poppers while watching basketball at a bar called Rumors on 8th Avenue between 55th and 56th. Then I went to hang out with my friend Farrah and watched 3 episodes of "Dexter" on Showtime on Demand. It is an amazing show, starring Michael C. Hall from "Six Feet Under". Definitely check it out if you haven't already. I think it is actually going "off demand" on January 23rd (they tend to run for limited intervals), perhaps the DVD will be released soon.

After the "Dexter" mini marathon of mayhem I headed toward the subway, stopping at Japas 55 which was right around the corner to perform a couple of songs. I did "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line", did a good job as usual. Somebody was celebrating a birthday so I scored a piece of cake. Not sure if that would help me the next day or not. Got home at a fairly reasonable hour, 11:30, asleep by midnight.

Woke up at 7:30 and headed over to meet my friend KC to give her race number to her. That is a good way to guarantee that you will actually roll out of bed and attend the race, to impose upon yourself an obligation to show up such as delivering a race number and timing chip to your friend and teammate. I also had KC call me at 7:30 as a failsafe. So I showed up and met her outside the Met and we headed to the start.

My attire was running shorts with long running pants over them, running socks with normal cotton socks over them, my grey technical shirt that they gave us when we registered for the 2006 ING NYC Marathon, with my Team for Kids singlet over that, and a fleece top over all of that, which I intended to take off for the race, but wound up wearing because it was so damn cold. I had on new high tech earmuffs given to me by my nephew Charlie for Christmas and a hat. Finally I had a mismatched pair of gloves, well one black marathon glove and one blue sock. That's right, I emulated the fashion of many homeless people here in the city, and had a sock on my right hand (the left hand had to go on the glove because that's the hand I use to grab water with, so I needed the fingers on that side).

I ate a chocolate Gu before the race, which was better than nothing, and certainly better than the honey bun fiasco (see earlier post). I started out fast, weaving in and out of traffic. I did the 2nd mile in 7:00, which is very fast because that mile includes Harlem Hill, the toughest one in the park. After that I maintained about a 7:15 pace until Mile 10, at which point the wheels came off. :-(

Prior to that, around Mile 6, a girl with a pink hat was running near me and I got in front of her and used her to maintain my pace. This is a good method to use to make sure you don't lose your concentration, as I am prone to doing on occasion. It is easy to accidentally slow down if your mind wanders. So I pick somebody that is going a good pace, get in front of them, and if they start passing me or if I hear their footsteps getting closer, I know to speed up a bit. So pink hat girl was behind me until Mile 10, at which point she scooted by me. I was starting to get fatigued, so I let her go. I kept my eye on her until mile 11.5 or so at which point I couldn't see her anymore. It was then that Jack & Philip from my team passed me (I had passed them earlier). Around mile 12 (90th street), KC passed me, asked me how I was doing, I told her I wasn't feeling it and she should go on without me.

Mile 12 was pretty rough, that is the 2nd toughest hill in the park, Cat Hill. I felt like slowing down and walking up it, but I pushed myself to keep running, albeit at a slow rate. When I got to the top there was a water stop, and I did grab a water and walk as I drank it, so that gave me a bit of a respite. Then I started up again and tried to speed up and finish strong which I was able to do. When I hit th 13 mile mark, the clock read 1:39:00, so I decided to try and speed up and beat 1:40, which would just entail doing the last 0.1 in less than 60 seconds. My time was 1:39:52, so it took me 52 seconds to go 192.5 yards or 577.5 feet, or .109375 miles, for a pace of 7:55 minutes per mile. It felt like I was going pretty fast, and that is really not that fast for me, which goes to show how bad I was doing at that point.

After the race I stopped at the school on 103rd street between 5th and Madison where NYRR gives out the awards and free hot chocolate for the rest of us. I saw pink hat girl and commended her on her great race. We talked a bit about football (her pink hat had the 'C' logo for the Bears) and marathons and I emailed her info on Team for Kids and a link to this blog, so perhaps she'll read about herself here. So thanks to you again pink hat girl, and good luck to Da Bears in the Super Bowl!

Today I was pretty sore, especially in my calves, but I'll recuperate in a day or two. So overall it was a kind of humbling experience. I always thought I could roll out of bed and run a half marathon without really training, and I guess I did to some extent, but I did not perform anywhere near my potential. But now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'll keep improving and do better next time! :o)