Thomas G. Labrecque Classic
I was on fire this morning. Well, not all of me. Just my shins.
My legs haven't felt right all week, so I didn't expect much for the race this morning. I planned to just go slow, without any thoughts of a PR or anything. I figured a 9 min/mile pace was a good goal to shoot for. (That would get me to the finish more than 3 minutes slower than my PR.)
For once, I got there early. I had told ShoreTurtle I'd meet him a half hour before the race at the registration tent. (I figured that was the latest I could tell him. He was there a half hour before that!) Anyway, I'm used to showing up in the last few minutes, and the registration area being pretty empty. I guess when you show up at a normal time, that's not the case. It was mobbed! I picked up my bib and chip, and somehow was able to spot him in the crowd. It's a good thing I did, because he would never have found me. For one, I'm shorter and tougher to spot in a crowd. And secondly, as he pointed out, I was wearing black like everyone else in New York City!
Anyway, we got all set and headed towards the back of the starting area. I think he was shocked at how crowded it was. They kept announcing that there were over 7,000 runners, but according to the results there were 5,368 finishers. Still, it was pretty impressive. Especially considering how cold it was this morning.
At the start it was pretty packed as usual, and there wasn't much room to run. I didn't particularly care, since I wasn't going for speed at all. Both of my shins were bothering me by a few minutes in, and part of me felt (and still feels) it was because I was going slow. It was annoying, but not too surprising. I kept on going.
When my Garmin told me I was at 1 mile, some event staff person was announcing "almost at 1 mile". I couldn't even see a mile marker in site. I was pretty sure the marker was off, but it was demoralizing anyway. I crossed that first mile marker at about 10:40. As I approached the second marker, I could see that there was no "correction factor" in its placement. I was at that marker at about 20 minutes. I wasn't feeling great, and I had to go to the bathroom as well. When I saw the portapotties there, I knew I wasn't doing well on the clock anyway, and used them as an excuse to rest. The pitstop ended up taking between 4 and 4 and a half minutes.
The second half of the race went a lot better. I didn't feel amazing, but I felt slightly better. I still wasn't pushing too hard though. The sun came out, and that waas nice. The view coming South on the West Side was really stunning. I've run there tons of times before, but having the sun come out at the right time made things look really great today.
I eneded up finishing at 41:17. I was sure the whole time that I was going to set my PR, as in personal record for worst time. But I actually beat it by 2 seconds! So that record still stands.
I really consider this race just another trip for my chip from the start line to the finish line. That's 6 of the 9 I need to have guaranteed entrance to the 2007 NYC marathon. I was a little down during the race, because I'm not sure I'll be able to do the Broad Street Run next month. I hope to run long this weekend, and see how it goes.
Somehow the total mileage seemed to work out in the end. After editing my GPS data, I ended up with 4.03 miles. You can see that my splits were a lot better than I had thought. I was actually doing pretty well up until my bathroom break at the beginning of mile 3. Taking that break into account, I'm going to say that I ran negative splits, and that my last two miles were about 9:00 and 8:49. Nowehere near my PR, but closer to what I had expected.
Now back to cleaning for Passover. I ran into flygirl after the race. She's even less excited than I am about the upcoming holidays. Although I'm sure I'll be sick of it a week from now, I must admit I am looking forward to that hand made matzah. Truly the "bread of our affliction" at $19 a pound, but that first piece at the seder is really great.
My legs haven't felt right all week, so I didn't expect much for the race this morning. I planned to just go slow, without any thoughts of a PR or anything. I figured a 9 min/mile pace was a good goal to shoot for. (That would get me to the finish more than 3 minutes slower than my PR.)
For once, I got there early. I had told ShoreTurtle I'd meet him a half hour before the race at the registration tent. (I figured that was the latest I could tell him. He was there a half hour before that!) Anyway, I'm used to showing up in the last few minutes, and the registration area being pretty empty. I guess when you show up at a normal time, that's not the case. It was mobbed! I picked up my bib and chip, and somehow was able to spot him in the crowd. It's a good thing I did, because he would never have found me. For one, I'm shorter and tougher to spot in a crowd. And secondly, as he pointed out, I was wearing black like everyone else in New York City!
Anyway, we got all set and headed towards the back of the starting area. I think he was shocked at how crowded it was. They kept announcing that there were over 7,000 runners, but according to the results there were 5,368 finishers. Still, it was pretty impressive. Especially considering how cold it was this morning.
At the start it was pretty packed as usual, and there wasn't much room to run. I didn't particularly care, since I wasn't going for speed at all. Both of my shins were bothering me by a few minutes in, and part of me felt (and still feels) it was because I was going slow. It was annoying, but not too surprising. I kept on going.
When my Garmin told me I was at 1 mile, some event staff person was announcing "almost at 1 mile". I couldn't even see a mile marker in site. I was pretty sure the marker was off, but it was demoralizing anyway. I crossed that first mile marker at about 10:40. As I approached the second marker, I could see that there was no "correction factor" in its placement. I was at that marker at about 20 minutes. I wasn't feeling great, and I had to go to the bathroom as well. When I saw the portapotties there, I knew I wasn't doing well on the clock anyway, and used them as an excuse to rest. The pitstop ended up taking between 4 and 4 and a half minutes.
The second half of the race went a lot better. I didn't feel amazing, but I felt slightly better. I still wasn't pushing too hard though. The sun came out, and that waas nice. The view coming South on the West Side was really stunning. I've run there tons of times before, but having the sun come out at the right time made things look really great today.
I eneded up finishing at 41:17. I was sure the whole time that I was going to set my PR, as in personal record for worst time. But I actually beat it by 2 seconds! So that record still stands.
I really consider this race just another trip for my chip from the start line to the finish line. That's 6 of the 9 I need to have guaranteed entrance to the 2007 NYC marathon. I was a little down during the race, because I'm not sure I'll be able to do the Broad Street Run next month. I hope to run long this weekend, and see how it goes.
Somehow the total mileage seemed to work out in the end. After editing my GPS data, I ended up with 4.03 miles. You can see that my splits were a lot better than I had thought. I was actually doing pretty well up until my bathroom break at the beginning of mile 3. Taking that break into account, I'm going to say that I ran negative splits, and that my last two miles were about 9:00 and 8:49. Nowehere near my PR, but closer to what I had expected.
Now back to cleaning for Passover. I ran into flygirl after the race. She's even less excited than I am about the upcoming holidays. Although I'm sure I'll be sick of it a week from now, I must admit I am looking forward to that hand made matzah. Truly the "bread of our affliction" at $19 a pound, but that first piece at the seder is really great.
posted by Danny on Sunday, April 09, 2006
12 Comments:
Congrats!
Neg splits are a plus! No pics from the meet-up????? Are you letting me down???
So where did you guys end up brunching at? And why don't you think you'll do Broad Street? Is it training time or other life stuff?
Have a great rest of the weekend!!
Just visiting from steverunner who mentioned you. Good job on your race. Keep it up.
yes, congrats on a new PW! (personal worst?)
So even though you generally ran faster miles than I did... I beat you? I think that's a first. And a last. Hope to meet you out there next time.
Any day running in Central Park can't really be a bad day, I think.
I really like the new PR listing in the sidebar. Nicely done.
Way to Go!
Re: Matzoh...is that all you're looking forward to?
It's funny either people did really well by not knowing their splits or felt demoralized. Hopefully NYRR gets their act together next time!
Regardless, nice job avoiding the worst PR?
Hey Danny. It was great to see you again. I know that you were disappointed with your race. On the bright side, you got a technical t-shirt and you're a race closer to qualifying for NYC 2007.
Have a nice holiday!
maybe i'd be just a little more excited for Passover if my family did the homemade matzah thing...oh who am I kidding, I broke Passover with 2 days to go the last 2 years!
Good seeing you yesterday!
There's something really neat about running races to earn a place in a big race. Maybe not a PR, but you've got bigger fish to fry.
I thought that the NYC was by lottery, so if you run a certain number of races you are guaranteed a place? Are these races that are hosted by a New York Running group?
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