Yesterday
I had my 1st race of the year, which was also my 1st race
since last year’s NYC Marathon. The
course and the weather conditions made it primed for a PR, and after coming up just short of my goal in the half marathon last year in Lake Stevens, I was
ready to attack. I had done the work at
NWCrossfit, the training assigned by Coach Kim of TN Multisports, and got my
training runs in with different folks once 2012 kicked off. A couple of aches and pains as the season started, but overall, things seemed to be going ok.
As
luck would have it, this race was the NYC Half Marathon so there we were –
trekking back to the east coast for a race.
It coincided with a big family gathering to celebrate my niece, so it
was going to be a busy, but happy, few days in Beck land. The course for the NYC Half changed slightly,
but it wasn’t anything that I would consider material in terms of looking at
previous years on the Garmin Connect website.
I like looking at the elevation profiles of courses I race so I can get
a sense of how to plan a race if hills are involved.
As
some of you may know, I wasn’t a “runner” when I lived in NYC so I was surprisingly
unfamiliar with the nuances of Central Park, which was where the 1st
10k of the race took place. I was told
it was hilly and it was going to be a bit tough. So when I worked out the race plan with Kim,
I figured that I should play it conservative in the 1st half of the
race and then “let it fly” in the 2nd half of the race which was
pretty much all downhill and flat.
It
was a pretty hectic few days leading up to our trip to NYC plus our visits to
the homeland always end up being fairly jammed packed. This trip was no exception, and I knew I didn’t
get the amount of sleep I had hoped for in the 2-3 days before the race. Whatever.
Gotta only look forward, I guess.
The wake-up call came in at 5:30am, had some breakfast and met a
high school classmate so we could head to the start together. We had a heck of a time getting a cab, to put
it mildly, which meant no time to warm-up since I knew I would have to hit the
always wonderful porta-potty line prior to the start of the race. It was good to see TR and have some laughs.
TR
and I were in different starting groups, so we split and I literally walked out
of the bathroom at 7:27am with very little time to spare before the start! OK, relax and have fun. Remember your race plan, Jill. About 9 minutes after the gun goes off, I
text Marc and cross the start line.
Miles
1-3: It was surprisingly uncrowded even with 15,000+ runners and I was easily
able to create some space between myself and other runners. The less weaving in and out, the better. Yes, we had some rollers but after Victoria,
they were pretty much non-events. My new
watch kept things at a steady pace and wasn’t jumping all over the place like
my last watch was, so I was pleased. It
felt a bit humid, which was odd because the temperature was about 47
degrees. I was taking in more water than I
was expecting and I know I was properly hydrated in the days leading up to the race. Hmmm....
Goal
pace for 1st 3 miles: 8:20 per mile.
Actual
times for 1st 3 miles: 8:18, 8:30 and 8:25. OK, better to be slightly conservative in the
beginning. Good start.
Miles
4-5: This is where the “hills” were going to be, one of which was Harlem
Hill. The person in NYC whom I have used
to stretch me out pre-race told me that this hill looks like it is over and
then “it isn’t”, so I knew not to get too excited when I first saw the top
because it wasn’t. These hills were the
types of hills that I walk everyday to and from the bus, so when someone yelled
“Great job! You got to the top!”, I chuckled.
Goal
pace for miles 4-5: 8:30 per mile.
Actual
times for miles 4-5: 8:19 (the one with Harlem Hill – grin) and 8:35. Again, good….
Mile
6-6.5: Wrapping up Central Park and heading into midtown. I looked at my watch at the 10K point and I
was really pleased where things were at.
I thought that if I could get out of the park feeling good and with an
average pace of 8:25, I would be in a good position for the 2nd
half. Mission accomplished - almost exactly.
Goal
pace for mile 6+: 8:20 per mile.
Actual
time for mile 6+: 8:12. Nice… feeling
strong and ready to go.
Miles
6.5 – 8: I knew at least Cousin Claire and Marc were going to be out in this
section of the course, and I was super pumped to see close friends, the Kaye
family, out in full force cheering me on.
Claire and Marc were exactly where I expected them to be.
But something strange was going on with my
watch. Yes, my new watch. It had me running a 9:00 pace, which I
thought was very odd and I started wondering if because I was running on 7th
Avenue in between lots of really, really, really tall buildings, if the watch
wasn’t calculating distance properly.
Unfortunately I started to pick up my pace too and at this point, the
race changed for me. When I hit the mile
8 marker on the course, my watch was now in total sync with the course. This means that part of my run wasn’t “recorded”. In other words, I ran 1.5 miles in what the
watch thought was 1.2 miles.
Goal
pace for miles 6.5 – 8: 8:10 per mile
Actual
pace for miles 6.5 – 8: ~7:30 per mile.
Uh-oh.
Miles
9-10: I was on the West Side Highway and my stomach started to feel not so
great. I knew the watch was working
properly again, but unfortunately I had slowed down from what my goal pace
was. I was in such disbelief that I was
so dumb about not listening to my body and being a slave to the technology
(especially after I managed the 1st half so well), and it was
costing me my real goal time that was totally achievable. Mentally, I was pretty down at this stage
plus the headwind didn’t help.
Goal
pace for miles 9 – 10: 8:10 (mile 9) and 8:00 (mile 10).
Actual
pace for miles 9 – 10: 8:17 (mile 9) and
8:24 (mile 10). “Jill, you’re a schmuck”
was a constant refrain in my head at this stage.
Miles
11 – 12: At this stage, the math calculations started in the head about getting
in under 1 hour and 50 minutes. OK, if
you can keep around 8:15, this is doable but darn – it is going to be
close. I remembered my experience at
Lake Stevens about letting up a bit to recover after a bad hill, and that is
what cost me my goal in that race. The
conversation with myself then shifted to me repeatedly saying “Jill, don’t you
****ing quit! You will never forgive yourself. We will NOT be repeating Lake
Stevens.” I saw Marc at around 11.5 and
that cheered me up, although I suspected that he knew I was hurting big-time.
Goal
pace for miles 11 – 12: 8:00
Actual
pace for miles 11 – 12: 8:16 (mile 11) and 8:12 (mile 12). We passed by the WTC site and I thought about
my friend, Vinnie, who perished on that horrible day 10+ years ago, and quickly
cycled through my experience on that day, and again implored myself to not give
up regardless of how crappy I felt.
Miles
13+: I was in pain and then I thought that if I could still beat my PR of
1:50:10 and really get in under 1:50 (an additional 11 seconds) feeling as
awful as I did, I would be so grateful. The
last time I was *THIS* miserable in a half marathon was when Andria and Michael paced me to my 1st sub-2:00 half at the Seattle Half Marathon in November, 2009. Heading into mile 13 was just a
matter of not leaving anything on the course and giving everything I had. Of course, we went into an underpass and my
watch didn’t track again (!) so I had no idea what was going on and how much I had left in
that last mile plus. Conversation vacillates
between “Seriously?” and “Come on! Finish this now, Beck!”
I
get out of the underpass and the sign says 800m left (1/2 mile) and of course
we had a slight uphill which made me think back to that evil little dip under
Aurora in the Seattle ½. Heh. My watch
was at 1:45+ at this point. I am going
so hard, pumping my arms and just trying to will my way to this finish
line. Again, “Don’t you give up! Stay with this!” I get to the 200m sign and
the watch goes to 1:49. “Come on, Jill!” I cross the finish line and I was pretty sure
I got in because by the time I hit my watch to stop, it said 1:49:56 and I err
on the side of hitting the watch after the finish. I guessed my time was 1:49:51, but the
official results were nowhere to be found.
But I was exhausted and cautiously optimistic that I came in under 1:50.
Goal
pace for miles 13+: 7:50
Actual
pace for miles 13+: 7:20. This takes
into account the “lost 3/10th of a mile in the underpass. Wow. I
don’t even know if I have ever run that fast in a 5K and I did that in the last
mile of a half marathon. Actually I just
checked my 5K PR. I haven’t. Uh, wow.
I guess that’s why that 7:30 pace in the middle of the race really hurt.
Sure
enough – say hello to a new PR: 1:49:51 – official chip time.
Some
excellent lessons learned here, most notably:
- The fact that I didn’t let up when the times got tough was the difference between getting the PR and not. Lake Stevens taught me a good lesson last year. Don't ever give up. And the fact that I pushed through pain like this in November, 2009 was a good mental note as I had to fight through those last 3+ miles.
- The plan I had was good and it worked really well in the 1st half. Unfortunately I didn't make adjustments quick enough when things went awry. Need to do better on this because I know this will only help me in future races of all distances.
- Technology can help you be smart in training and racing, but ultimately you need to go with “feel” if things do not look right with the technology. As soon as I knew the watch wasn’t “right” with the distance and pace calculation, I should have run that section based on how I felt and not try to force the pace to appear on the watch. What a dumb move, but hopefully one I will not make again.
Post-race
was great. I received a nice text from
TR after she finished. I saw my friend,
Mike, and we walked over to Marc, who, as usual, was ready with my sweatshirt
and sweatpants. Then we had a really fun
lunch with the Behar crew (my sister’s family) and the Kaye family (who were
out on the course really early to cheer me on) at OTTO. Pizza and gelato is a great post-race meal.
Played with the niece and the nephew, napped and then went to dinner with
another friend.
I
slept really well last night.
And
yes, I was and still am very grateful for that PR given how bad I felt for the 2nd half of the race. :-)