Race Report: MORE Women's Half Marthon 2011

First, super big thanks for all your well wishes about the big announcement that we are moving to California! Our departure date is rapidly approaching and even though I have so much I want to tell you about my days are consumed with wrapping up lose ends at work and my nights are spent training, packing and/or hanging out with all our NYC buddies.

Our official move date is April 21st - less than 2 weeks away! I am very excited about our cross country drive and I am really hoping I can keep up the motivation to blog about it. I've never driven across the US but it's something I've always wanted to do. Right now the agenda includes a visit to the Grand Canyon and a Los Angeles Angeles game :)

Anyhoo, on to the official purpose of this post - my race report!

The Short Story
The short story is that I SMASHED my half marathon PR by 26+ minutes and my met my goal for a sub 1:55 race.

Swag Bag/T-Shirt Review
I picked up my registration and swag bag on Friday. The swag bag was okay, but I was bummed that it was a cotton t-shirt. The race fee was $75 which I think is very high for a road race in Central Park. The costs are minimal and most other NYRR races in the park cost less than half the price. I don't get it... I guess the plus side is the t-shirt is women's specific (as it should be since it is a women's only race) so maybe I will get some use out of it.

The Back Story

My first and only half marathon was in October 2009. I finished that race in 2:20:48 with a pace of 10:44/mile. I ran the entire race, but walked some through the aid stations. At the time I was super proud of that accomplishment.

Now, 18 months later I was set to do my second half marathon. I knew that I could finish under 2 hours, but my true goal was under 1:55. This would require holding at most an 8:47/mile average.

The Clothing 

The race was last Sunday morning. The weather was absolutely perfect. Clear and cool (but not cold). I had an extra sweatshirt, hat and gloves to wear before the start. About five minutes before go time I tossed the sweatshirt, hat and gloves to the side for the Goodwill pick-up. I really struggled with what to wear for this race. It was in the high 30's for the 8am start but expected to warm up quickly and be near 50 degrees by 10am.  

I opted for my long sleeve Smart Wool running shirt and my new CW-X capris. I skipped gloves and stuck with a regular cap instead of my winter running hat. I also taped my shins with KT Tape which worked great.

Miles 1-9I won't bore you with a mile by mile recap. To be brief(-ish), my plan was to start with a slow pace and work my way into the 8:45 range in the 2nd or 3rd mile. The start was very congested (to be honest the whole course felt congested) so I'm glad I wasn't trying to keep 8:45 for mile 1. Mile 2 was down to 8:29 and I managed to hold a steady pace ranging from 8:26 to 8:48 for miles 2 through 9.

Miles 10-13.25
I felt like I hit a bit of a wall at mile 10 and I when I saw an 8:56 split I wondered if I would make my goal. Thinking back that was totally acceptable since a majority of mile 10 was uphill. I regained my strength with a speedy down hill and hit 8:42 for mile 11. At this point I was catching up to all the walkers (it's a two, 6 mile loop course so the walkers were at mile 5 on their first loop). The walkers were spread across the road, even though they should have been staying to the inside of the road. I kindly asked a few people to move over as I ran through and around groups of people (but I tried not to get too aggressive and I didn't throw any elbows).

With the end approaching I gave it everything I had and wrapped up with 8:12 for mile 12 and 8:09 for mile 13. The last .25 (the course was .15 long according to my Garmin) was an average pace of 7:31. This is insane to me because I don't think I've ever done a 400 at the track with a pace under 8 minutes. I don't know how the heck I managed this after 13 miles!

Looking a little shell shocked... And this was 20 minutes after I finished...

Overall, I am extremely happy with this race. I far surpassed my goal and I felt strong and fast. I'm already scouting out some courses in California for my next half marathon!

TIME: 1:53:16

AVERAGE: 8:33/mile

Recovery
I was tired and sore after the race. My feet and ankles were tender and I was a bit worried that I might have pushed too hard. I'm happy to report that after taking off Monday and Tuesday I felt 100% better. I did short and easy runs on Wednesday and Thursday. I could feel that my body and my running joints/muscles were tired on Wednesday but by Thursday I was feeling almost back to normal!