I can’t count the amount of times I’ve said “it’s one of my two favorite races of the season” in the past two weeks.

The New York City Half Marathon really is an incredible scene from start to finish. It draws a professional field thanks to the hard work of Mary Wittenberg and the New York Road Runners, it basically starts in my backyard – Central Park, it closes Times Square (the only other time is New Year’s Eve) and you get to run down the West Side Highway. Essentially it’s a flat or downhill race once you get out of the Park. What’s not to like?

The Review:

Expo

I’m never that impressed with the Health and Fitness Expo they do for this race. While I give the NYRR credit for trying to make this race a big deal by actually having an Expo, they just don’t get the caliber and amount of vendors one would expect for a national race (which is what they’ve been trying to make this). Vendors included local sporting goods stores, some nutrition companies (both local and national), health-based companies and an assortment of sponsors. All in all, the usual of what you see at this kind of thing, it’s just on a smaller scale and in a bit of a cramped space. Overall I wasn’t psyched about the products the vendors had for sale or the marketing materials they were sampling.

This year the Expo was held at the Penn Plaza Pavilion right across from Penn Station/Madison Square Garden – not the most scenic of neighborhoods. Picking up my number on Thursday (with a high school friend I’ve connected with on Facebook and haven’t seen in 25 years) was at the same time a surreal and easy. Surreal in that Carolyn and I gabbed like we had last seen each other the week prior and easy in that we were able to grab our numbers and take a quick stroll through the place in record time. I think we were out of there in less than 15 minutes.

I decided to fulfill my +1 volunteer commitment and signed up to go on Saturday to hand out numbers. By then it was a little more hectic. That said, it went smoothly, but working from 8:30 until 1:30 is a long shift. And while it may not sound tough, standing there making small talk with the people around you and engaging out-of-towners for that long is a tiring experience the day before a race. Lesson learned.

One thing I’ve learned about the NYRR is that they are very conscious about lines when runners come to pick up numbers. I’ve volunteered at enough number pick ups to know that if one of the ever-present part-timers sees a line forming, they jump in and try to get people out of there as fast as possible. Kudos to them, I mean, who wants to stand in line waiting for your number? We’re NY’ers and we have places to go and people to see. However, when you’re trying to find a particular name and someone jumps in and starts looking over your shoulder, it can become a little disconcerting.

Race Day

It was cold about 30 degrees and WINDY. I’m not sure what the wind chill was, but it was COLD! I dropped my bag at about 6:30, met up with some friends and went to stand in a corral for an hour waiting for the race to start. Before I left my house, I decided to put on the sweatshirt I had bought to wear to the start of the 2012 ING NYC Marathon (since the race was cancelled, I was keeping it for another race). These are throw away clothes – every runner has them. Cheap sweatshirts or sweatpants that I buy to wear to the start of a cold race and throw away. Most big races collect them and donate to a local organization. In fact, this race resulted in 15,625 pounds of donations for GoodWill of NY & NJ. I couldn’t have been happier to have my sweatshirt. I only wish I had thought to bring some hand warmers with me too.

By the time the gun went off I was pretty well frozen. I started out at a decent clip that I figured I could hold and settled into the run. I’ve run thousands and thousands of miles around Central Park and am so familiar with the terrain that, if I’m feeling good, I know what kind of pace I can sustain since I know what’s coming around the next bend. Little did I know what was to come when I got out of the Park.

I got through the first 10K with consistent splits, averaging 8:11/mile. Not bad for where I am in my training and assumed I would push myself a little harder as I got further into the race.

I love running out of Central Park down 7th Avenue and into Times Square. This is where it starts to feel like a big event. The crowds are amazing, the music is loud and the wind had taken a little respite until we turned onto 42nd Street. Once rounding the corner, runners were smacked in the face with a freezing cold headwind. It had taken me four miles to warm up and take the outer sweatshirt off and by the time I got through Times Square, I was pretty well soaked with sweat – so when that wind hit, it was brutal.

When we go to the West Side Highway and made the turn, the wind became a cross breeze which I always like. While not as good as a tail wind, and as long as it’s not too strong, I feel like a cross breeze helps pump more oxygen into my body making it easier to breathe. I know that’s nuts, but this is where my head goes when I’m running.

So on to the flat part of the run. After about two blocks north on the West Side Highway, we make a U-turn and head south. It’s just surreal. This is a highway I’ve driven hundreds of times and now I’m running it. I love that I can visualize the end which helps me a little. My splits are still pretty even at this point, when I crossed the 15K mark at 1:16:37 (I lost two seconds off my average). And this is where I started to fall apart. Well, maybe that’s too strong a phrase. I just started not feeling great.

You know when you’re running, and you get into your own head and you can’t stop the negativity? Sometimes I can and sometimes I can’t. This race was the latter. I started feeling every step. I started thinking about my knee, my foot, my breathing. I was not thinking positive thoughts. And I had no music to blast away that negativity.

By the time I hit the 20K mark I had slowed to an overall average of 8:14 – not the negative split I was hoping for. And by the time I got to the finish, I lost another second overall on my pace. So after rounding the bottom of the Island I made my way through the Battery Park Tunnel and  past the finish line, it was all I could do to keep my head in the game.

Overall I’m happy with my performance. I wound up not beating my buddy who I had a little friendly competition with, but I was thrilled that I came in just over a minute behind him.

With another Half Marathon in the books, I’m ready to bring on the next long run in preparation for the 2013 Flying Pig Marathon!