Manhattan Half Marathon

Time: 117:00
Distance: 19 mi.
Course Map

Target: run comfortably at target marathon effort (and a little faster), hopefully beginning around 5:40 effort and average 5:35 (~1:13:10)
Race: 1:12:19 (5:31 average) for 6th place; ran controlled and even effort throughout

Splits:	Loop 1 - 5:38, 5:44, 5:25, 5:43, 5:37, 5:21
	Loop 2 - 5:31, 5:34, 5:21, 5:40, 5:31, 5:16
	Loop 3 - 5:25, 33 (5:31 average)

Full Results

Nick, his friend Nat and I got up early in Brooklyn to trek to Central Park for the first race in the New York Road Runners Half Marathon Grand Prix. The NYRR put on a half marathon in each borough in New York City throughout the course of the year, beginning with today's race in Manhattan. While we were treated with beautiful sunrise, it was shy of 20 degrees F out with moderate gusts of wind.


Race morning in Central Park, by fellow runner ECWC

While my legs were a bit stiff throughout the race, due to the cold, after warming up in the first few miles it wasn't too much of an impediment at the pace we were running. I ran pretty much exactly the way I was hoping to, keeping the effort very under control early and then slowly dropping the pace to a faster, but comfortable clip. While the splits were all over the place, due to the hills in Central Park, I dropped the effort fairly evenly, running 33:28 for the first lap (5:35 pace) down to 32:53 for the second (5:28 pace). Luckily I had company throughout the race, as T. Patrick Hynes of the Greater New York Racing Team and I figured out that we had fairly similar plans for the day. We led a chase pack for most the race and picked up many of the people who fell off the leaders in the second lap. He and Victor Vientos, who ran with us for a while, kicked fairly hard at the 13 mile mark and I didn't really give them a run for it. I was having a great day and wasn't going to jeopardize it by threatening my tight right hamstring on such cold day. I finished feeling aerobically comfortable and with my legs in good shape. The "cooldown" was rough, though, as the cold seized my legs very soon after finishing.


The start of the race at 8 AM

Nick and Nat also had good races, and we were in good spirits (despite freezing again) heading back into the subway. The only thing I missed out on today was practicing taking some GU and water while running hard because, well, it was just too damn cold.

More: NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon Video, NYRR Photo Gallery

Oklahoma City Half Marathon

Time: 90:00
Distance: 16 mi.

Target: Would like to be under the course record of 69:08, shooting for 5:15s (~68:45)
Race: Third place, 71:11. Running decent until ~10 miles, when I got a bad side cramp.

  
Near 3 miles and the finish. Ouch.

Fun experience overall, but the result was fairly disappointing. It was a bizarre morning to start off with, as it was near freezing and raining when we got up, and the race started at 6:30 in the morning. I felt fairly good to start off, going out under 5:00 and then settling in with some miles in 5:15 to 5:20 into the cold Oklahoma wind. I ran with Bernard through about 10k and then he started to pull away. I was in an okay place through about 10 miles, but then got a really bad side cramp that required even stopping to try to massage it out. There was no coming back from it, though, and I pretty much packed it in as I really couldn't breathe at all. I got beat in the last stretch. Terrible.

Didn't even consider cooling down. It's time to rest and do school for a few weeks.

More: race site, full results

Decker Challenge 20k

Time: 83:00
Distance: 14.5

Goal: run conservatively, shoot for 5:30s, get long distance racing experience
Race: 68:41 (?) for 5th

Mile splits: 5:25, 5:23, 5:16, 5:20, 5:36, 5:29, 5:21, 5:35, 5:18, 5:51 (54:38 10 mi.), 5:43, 5:39
5k splits: 16:36, 16:58, 16:46, 17:48 (not exact, calculated from pace)

Overall a good experience, but at the expense of the bottoms of my feet (parental discretion advised) and my digestive system. Felt physically aerobically good running the entire way. The splits aren't representative of my effort because of the hills (PDF), but the effort was pretty consistent through 15k, at which point I was somewhat bogged down by the massive hill and blisters on both feet. Started out just off the leading group of Derek Yorek, Bernard Manirakiza and Lance Parker and ran with Gilbert Tuhabonye for about the first four miles. At that point I went after and caught Mark Farris (who looked like he was running pretty easy) who I ran with until I got dropped heading towards the 10 mile hill. I caught Parker with a mile to go, but as he sensed I was on him, finished quite a bit harder than I was able to. I really had to avoid getting on my toes whatsoever for the last 5k.

Had the worst workout stomach I've possibly ever had for a few hours after the race. This was probably a combined result of not having gotten in this many miles in a single day in over a month and just having gotten over being sick.

Place  Name                Age   TIme        Pace
=====  ==================  ===   =========   ======
1      Bernard Manirabiza  28    1:06:06.5   5:20/M
2      Derek Yorek         23    1:06:30.4   5:22/M
3      Mark Farris         23    1:07:49.0   5:28/M
4      Lance Parker        26    1:08:28.3   5:31/M
5      Owen Washburn       24    1:08:41.8   5:32/M
6      Gilbert Tuhabonye   33    1:09:17.7   5:35/M

More: Wish has a write-up at RunTex.com, there should be photos online sometime, and full results are up on the race site.