Brooklyn Half

I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon last Saturday, probably the most diligently I've ever trained for a race. Because so much of the race is flat and straight (5 miles on Ocean Parkway) I was gunning for a personal best and going under 1:55 (my best was 1:56 at Staten Island, a very flat course). I was (for me) running like gangbusters, at one point averaging 8:30 for a good 3-4 miles and thought I was going to be in good shape. But the final 4.1 miles is in Prospect Park and while I remembered that the final stretch had some rough hills, I forgot how bad they were, especially around Grand Army Plaza where my infamous "lets get that Chinese kid's bike" story took place.

Long story shit, my legs gave out on the final 3.1 miles and while I entered mile 9 well ahead of my personal best pace I got my ass kicked by the hills and ended up at only 2:00:58 (close to breaking 2 hours which I've only done once and not that far off my best time).

I'm frustrated because I know a different level of preparation is going to be necessary to have the necessary kick at the end of a race like this so this doesn't happen again. I made a conscious effort to be aggressive and attack miles 1-9 which I have always been hesitant to do (this goes back to my swimming days and how I did distance races). I think I’m going to do a running class and crank up my overall mileage a little more to get closer to 20 weekly. You can click on this picture to see my results (don't know why they're so blurry here):





Poking around the NY Road Runners Website I also found myself on the video they shot the day of the race. Ok so it’s only my legs and its for like two seconds as I run by, but I'm in it (I know its me from the white and blue shorts and sneakers).

















About one third of the way though you can see me gracefully cut across the screen here:
http://www.nyrr.org/races/2007/grandprix/brooklyn/video.asp

It was great to see so many people from Explore run the race. It was the first time running a half marathon many of them (and I only started last year) and the sense of accomplishment they felt was great to see. And we’ve been raising money for a great cause, which was a nice motivator. The donation site will be up for awhile so go ahead please make a gift if you can.