Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon - 2min PR!

Saturday was a great day for a race! Temps in the 40s with the sun shining and a nice 17mph breeze from the north. Ok, so the wind was pretty brutal at times but it's hard to complain about near perfect conditions. My main goal for this race was to run my BQ pace of 7:17. I can get pretty competitive on race day so in the back of my mind this goal could get thrown out the window if I was feeling good.

I was on my own for this one. Of my two main racing buddies, one was in CT in a show and the other had originally thought the race was on Sunday and couldn't run as a result. I was on the subway platform at 5:45am as the ride down to Coney Island can be a doosy on the weekend. I ended up arriving around 7:10 which gave me plenty of time to check out the surroundings. Coney Island is actually kind of a cool place to be minus the summer crowds. The beach was completely empty save a few fishermen and a couple of dog walkers. I chose to stride out to the shore and just as I got there the theme to Chariots of Fire comes on! I couldn't resist running along the water and visualizing qualifying for Boston. It got me really pumped for the run!

I get in about a mile of easy warm-up jogging and line up about 10min before the start. I love NY races that aren't in Central Park! There is so much room at the start and I know I won't have to jockey too much for position once we start. The sun is pretty warm so I move my race bib to my shorts just in case I want to lose the long sleeve (ended up leaving it on for the duration). The gun goes off and my main goal is to hit 7:15-7:20 for the first mile. I tend to hit the first mile too hard so I really wanted to stay relaxed. I hit the first mile at 7:15! and I'm pretty surprised and feeling great. I'm settled in pretty well and hit mile 2 at 7:07 which is just under my desired pace. I'm still feeling really good and hit mile 3 at 7:24...what?! There's no way that was right but I'm worried so I push the pace a bit now. We pass the world famous Cyclone coaster and move off the boardwalk to the long straightaway of Ocean Pkwy. Mile 4 comes at 6:48 so I figure I'm at about a 7min pace assuming mile 3 was off.

Now the wind starts to pop up (later I see that it was about a 17mph headwind for several miles!). I'm in a pretty good zone and the next miles tick off at 6:51, 7:00, 6:49, 6:52, 6:45 and 7:00. At this point I know I'm going for a new PR instead of the 7:17 pace so I decide to keep pushing through. I can tell that I've lost some of my endurance over the past 2 weeks (missed 6 straight days on my Paris trip) and the miles start to get really tough. We make the turn into Prospect Park and now it starts to get hairy. The wind is gone but now we get the hills! Mile 9 ticks off at 7:00 and I'm really hanging on for dear life at this point. It's my first time in Prospect Park, Brooklyn and it's really pretty. It's mini version of Central Park but on this morning it's nice and peaceful save for the 5,000 runners. I knew to expect some hills but I had no idea what was coming.

I'm hurting pretty good now in Mile 10 and just have to take my gel. Of course, there hasn't been a water station for a while so I figure one is coming up soon. I know if I don't take it now it won't help so I pop it. Bad decision!! It's like trying to swallow a mouthful of cotton. It just won't go down. Now I'm really suffering and I have wild thoughts of walking. The mental battle continues until I see Superman up ahead. You heard me right. There's a guy in a Superman costume standing between 2 traffic cones giving high fives!! As I run past he's yelling, "Just get up this hill and then it's all downhill from here." I think to myself, ok, just this one hill and we'll cruise in. Well, the one hill turned out to be a massive and humbling climb. It's probably similar to heartbreak hill in Boston and it wasn't fun. My pace felt like a crawl and I prayed for the top. It felt like I lost at least 2 minutes of time and I started to worry about that PR. All of my work to this point would be for not! Luckily, an act of God or something allowed for only losing about 22 secs of pace for a 7:22 11mile split.

The climb really took everything out of me and my form went to hell from here on out. I had to pump my arms on the flats just to keep moving forward and my strides were really heavy. At this point I can't believe I hit mile 12 at 6:51 and I'm still in the hunt for a 7min pace finish. I'm battling a lot of negative self-talk saying, "it's OK to slow down, you're going to PR anyway, why push it?" I cross mile 13 at 6:58 with the finish in sight, thank God! I throw my hands up for what will hopefully be a good finisher's picture and hit my watch at 1:31:55! I'm psyched that I pushed myself to get under the 1:32 mark but just missed the sub 7 mile pace. Given my recent lack of mileage and this not being a goal race I'm very pleased. It was a very triumphant ride home on the train even though I now know it will take some serious training over the next 7 months to be able to maintain 7:17/mi in the marathon.