Yesterday was my third Manhattan 1/2 Marathon. It was a close to perfect day for a race.
The best part of this race was the proximity of the start line to my bed (approximately 10 blocks). I left home at 7:30 to make sure that I got to my corral on time. As I walked to the park the early morning streets of Manhattan were taken over by the quiet bustling of runners.
The corral system is based on your fastest NYRR race. My placement is based off of a 7:18 pace, which I wouldn’t come close to yesterday. Knowing that ahead of time, I headed to the back of the “golden” corral to avoid getting caught up with the speed demons.
Photo from this summer, but I was in the same corral.
My game plan for the race was to stick with Pacey. On my long runs leading up to the race I averaged a 8:20-8:40 pace. The plan was to stay within that range. I was afraid that if I winged it like normal, I would burn out quickly. Entering a race without wanting to “race” or doing any speed work to support racing is a dangerous formula for crashing.
First 3 mile splits
Right from the gun I was ignoring Pacey, but I felt good. In the back of my mind I knew I had to slow down, because feeling good for 5 miles does not mean feeling good for 13.1 miles.
Mile 4-9 splits
I seriously have a problem slowing down enough to maintain a pace that I can hold onto for the long run. Which is obvious from the last 4 miles of the race.
Mile 10-13.1 splits:
Around mile 10 my right IT started to scream. I began to think that at any minute it would either cramp, freeze up or pop out of my skin. Otherwise, I felt great. Mentally, I felt stronger than I have during a run in a long time.
I really got worried about my leg freezing up when at mile 12 I decided to take a bathroom break. I figured I had two choices: 1) pee my pants or 2)risk having to walk the rest of the race due to my stupid IT. I chose the bathroom break.
Luckily, my IT actually felt better after the pit stop and allowed me to run to the finish line. I crossed the finish line in 1:49:42 which isn’t too bad considering two pit stops.
This race totally has me excited to begin speed work next week so I can rock the More 1/2 Marathon.
Awesome job on the race and great time!
Not bad at all! Congrats and good luck in your next half too. Are you following a training plan?
Thanks Caronae! I will be following some sort of training plan that I made up for myself that will include lots of speed work.
Awesome job!
Speed work is SO beneficial and produces awesome results! I am a huge fan of it as it greatly improved my times.
congrats Jess on the marathon, awesome!!!!
glad you enjoyed the yoga post today! 🙂
xoxo
Congrats girl!!! 🙂
Congratulations!!
Yay, Congrats!
That is SO awesome that the race was so close to you! I think my least favorite part about races is waking up before the sun and trying to motivate myself to push my body haha
Congrats! Just doin it is a win in my book!
Glad you chose the option c) pee! Congrats to you for a successful race. Again, I truly admire you for doing races, it’s something I was never really able to do, but always wanted to. Good luck training for the next one! We’re all cheering for you 🙂
Congrats! You’re speedy *and* you were in pain. Way to go!
Awesome job! Congrats!
I will be running the More 1/2 as well 🙂
Whoop whoop! Congrats on the race…glad you didn’t pee your pants. That would have made a great blog post though!!
Courtney
adventures in tri-ing
WOW! Great race. Awesome pace times!
you are so amazing! I can’t wait for the day that I can run that far and because of you, I know I will! you are such an inspiration….
Aw, thank you for the sweet comment Mari! You totally will rock a 1/2 in the near future!
I think that’s an awesome race time. Congratulations!
Congrats! Sounds like an awesome race! Do you have any tips/advice for speed training to increase my average pace…especially on longer runs?