weekend recap and half marathon wrap up

So…..the half marathon didn’t go as well as I hoped. If you’ve seen my facebook, you know the story, if not:
I ran well the first half, in hilly central park. I felt hydrated and strong and took those hills and passed people all along the way. Then after mile 7, we turned out of the park and down 7th Ave. The crowds and flatness were very welcomed. I took a gel at the mile 8 marker and accidentally snorted water, which burned. Barrelled through the next mile, then as I was approaching mile 9, I had trouble breathing and kept coughing from the exhaust from the cars driving and idling next to us. The last quarter of the race seemed so long. The air was heavy and I was drenched from sweat and humidity, I hit a wall. Not enough miles logged before this race, I just wasn’t prepared. Judging by the first half, I could have PRed, but definitely not with the second half. And I lost a toenail.

I was fine at the end, not exhausted…just done. 2:05 finish, my worst half, but I honestly don’t think I could have ran any better, my feet just weren’t having it. Now I know I have a lot of miles to run before Nov 22.

Ryan Hall placed third, his feet also weren’t having it. One of the things I like about running is that its you against you. Everyone runs the same race, but you are really competing against yourself.

Other than the race, I had an enjoyable weekend. I met up with my Canadian twin Lana for drinks and rock on Friday night and what was going to be a sober an early evening turned into a late night fueled by many glasses of cabernet. We made fun of hussies and finally enjoyed some down time with the brits. Good night all around.

Walked ALLLLLL around Manhattan on Saturday and finished the day with a fantastic dinner in Little Italy. A few pictures of our random travels below… when I post a regular photo, wordpress distorts it, so if you click the thumbnail, it goes to the larger photo in this so-called gallery I have.

i met ryan hall today!

While out today, I stopped but the NY Runners Shop on the Upper East Side to pick up shot bloks for the half marathon… and low and behold, Ryan Hall was there signing posters. Apparently it was a last minute thing…

And I just put together my stuff for tomorrow… I always lay my things out the day before since forgetting anything is not acceptable. Especially since I don’t think clearly in the morning.

The bruising on my foot has gone down slightly, hopefully it will be all gone by tomorrow…

Pics below because I’m a goon .

NYC Half Marathon

Tomorrow I’m running the NYC Half Marathon, my fifth half marathon in 2009.

I wanted to PR this race, but seeing how I’ve deviated from my marathon training plan and the past month has sucked for me in regards to running (and well, nearly everything else). And the top of my right foot has been bothering me, every time it pushes up, it’s a little bit more painful than the step before. Also, there’s a heat advisory, despite the 7 am start time, and 15,000 other runners to weave through. Central Park races are tough enough when there’s a 5,000 runner limit, I can’t imagine what this race will be like with triple that. Regardless, I’m going to try to run my best and have a good time while doing so. To add to the fun of running 13.1 miles, they close off Times Square and we run down the West Side Highway and finish in Battery Park, so we really do run through most of Manhattan. Unlike the rest of the halves, there is course entertainment and fans throughout most of the course. Plus many more fluid and misting stations. All the info is here: http://www.nyrr.org/races/2009/nychalf/index.asp#

If you want to track me, you can do so here: http://fanalert.nychalfmarathon.org/Alerts.aspx
If you want to watch it live, NYRR will be broadcasting the melee at 7 am: http://www.nyrr.org/races/2009/nychalf/index.asp
If you want to watch the highlights and you live in the NYC area, ABC 7 will air an hour of the race at 11:35 pm

You have to be in the corral by 6:30 am…which means I’ll be waking up at 5:00 am so I can properly eat, get dressed, and make my way over to the start. I haven’t woken up at 5:00 am since…I don’t even know when. I just hope I get plenty of sleep beforehand. I have trouble sleeping as it is, let alone when waking up before the sun does. Half marathon breakfast always includes: 16 ounces of water as soon as i wake up, 8 ounces of coffee plus soy milk (no sugar), 1/2 cup of steel cut oatmeal with almonds and cinnamon, 8 ounce smoothie made with soy milk/banana/protein powder. And of course I’m always famished when I finish.

In addition to an elite field, Ryan Hall is also running this event. Ryan Hall is my favorite distance runner (and most of America’s). He caught my interest after winning the US Olympic Marathon Team Trials in 2007 (same race that one of my other favorite runners, Ryan Shay, collapsed and died while running) and I’ve followed his career since. He’s also on the Asics team, and I’ve only worn Asics for the past thirteen years, so that only helped his cause. A year later, The New Yorker wrote a fantastic piece about his life and running. Granted, he’ll probably win the race while I’m still trudging through the loop in Central Park, but hopefully I’ll see him run past me or at least on the podium at the end.

I’ll let you know how it goes…