Planes, Trains, and Running Shoes

To say that it was raining at this race would be a bit of an understatement. It was pouring. I have never run in rain like this before. To give you a little bit more context before I begin this report, let me show you some pictures from the Event Gallery at NYRR's website.


The race was in Central Park so I stayed at my friend Nayeli's apartment. She lives on just off Central Park West so she's my go-to gal when I'm running a race in CP. She was running too so that was helpful. We left her apartment at 7:45 and dropped by her gym to drop our stuff off before trekking out in the rain to the starting line. Now, the only way to go into a race in these conditions is to smile about it so as I lined up in my corral, I said, "Great day for racing, huh?!" No one seemed to like that. Ok, I'll keep my humor to myself, you can be miserable in the run but I'm going to have fun in this.

The gun went off and I slowly made my way to the starting line before crossing. I was expecting this course to be pretty flat since I know that the famed rolling hills of Central Park are more so at the top of the park but I was wrong. While it wasn't tremendously hilly, there were definitely some hills which slowed me down a little bit. And as with any NYRR race, it always takes a bit for the crowd to thin out so I hit Mile 1 (at the Guggenheim!) in 9:02. Nayeli was aiming for a sub-30 race and wanted me to keep up with her. I thought she was crazy but I tried.

I managed to hit Mile 2 at 7:52 before I started getting winded and Nayeli took off. I was getting a little dizzy and started to worry because the night before, I didn't even know if I was going to run this race since Thursday morning, I was in Emergency Care because I literally couldn't stand up for more than 45 seconds without feeling like I was going to faint...and that had been going on since I came home from Boston.

Keeping that in mind and not wanting to collapse on the course of a 4-mile race, I slowed down a bit. I rounded out Mile 3 in 8:31 before I started to feel a little better. At this point, I couldn't see anything with the rain and fog covering my glasses (this whole not being able to wear contacts for 6 weeks is hell) so I took my glasses off (I'm not quite but almost legally blind, mind you) and let the crowd lead me. I ran into a few people (oops!) and when the Finish Line came up, I couldn't even see it until I was practically across it. But I did my best to sprint across the line I was already on and round out Mile 4 in 7:50 finishing in 32:43 an even 2 minutes faster than the last NYRR 4-mile I did in February!

The fact that I ran 2 miles in under 8 minutes is huge for me. At this time, 1 year ago, I had 1 race under my belt and If I could run 1 mile sub-9, I was elated. This race showed me how much stronger of a runner I've become in the short span of a year. But really got me thinking about this race is how much better I can become. Until I started training for the NYC Half, I had never done speed work. I've done minimal hill work and I don't strength or cross-train. As Base Training for my Fall Marathon approaches, I'm realizing how much more potential I have to be a better runner and I know that if I incorporate all of these things into my training and really hone in on my sub-8 miles and try to stretch them out over longer distances, then my goal for my Fall Marathon might be a lot more than a sub-4 hour race.

And that is something I'm really excited about. I can't wait to test my potential and really see what I can do in the Fall.