Manhattan Half Marathon, race report, BIG PR!!!

The goal of this race was to break the 2 hour barrier that has plagued me over my last 3 attempts at the half marathon distance. I SMASHED it this morning with a time of 1:47:58, for an 8:15 pace. My prior PR was 2:00:10. So 12 mins faster?

Splits:
Mile1: 8:39
Mile2: 8:28
Mile3: 8:08
Mile4: 8:19
Mile5: 8:11
Mile6: 8:04
Mile7: 8:00
Mile8: 8:09
Mile9: 7:22
Mile10: 7:58
Mile11: 8:04
Mile12: 7:55
Mile13: 8:59

I feel like the race wound up in 4 pieces, because my legs felt different 4 times. After a 1.5 mile warm up, the first 3 miles were basically shaking the rust off the legs. I wasn't too thrilled with my first 2 miles after seeing my splits and I thought that I was in for a VERY rough day. Fortunately by the time I got to the top of the hill at the top of the park my legs FINALLY loosened up and I went into autopilot mode until mile 8. I felt fine and I was comfortable.

After mile 8 I switched another gear and went into the pain fog. I knew it was going to hurt (and boy did it hurt!) and just trudged through it and it paid off. My splits started to decrease and the damage started. By the time I crested the top of the hill for the last time at the top of the park, my legs entered into the third stage of pain and I knew it was mental going forward. I realized that I was going to go under 2 hours, but now it was how FAR under 2 hours did I want to go. Well, I let my legs decide.

I held the pain until mile 12 and then another switch went off, which was just surviving to the finish. I felt fast still, but my 9 min split showed otherwise. It was ok, anything at this point was pure gravy.

The funniest part of the race occured around mile 12.5 when this older non runner type woman on the sidelines asked a runner in front of me in a thick NY accent, "What are you all running for?" The runner responded with simply, "Health." Woman: "Health?!?!? Oh gaaaawwwwd." That was enough to give me a chuckle and survive the final .6 miles. Yes, we endurance athletes are an intriguing bunch!

As for my race tactics: My breakfast was appropriate 2 hours before the gun time. Bowl of cheerios, two slices of toast with butter, banana, glass of OJ. I shot a Gu 15 mins before the gun, and took another @ mile 6.5. I got water 3 times on the course. For pacing, I started off slower (not that the legs would let me go any faster) and increased the pace until survival for the final 1.1 miles. My tactics paid off and I "get" this distance now. I would repeat these tactics again and with more and more running, I think I can bring my time down further.

Today was a SUCCESS!!!

For my post race meal, I turned back into a 5 year old and had PB&J on white bread with chocolate milk. Sooooo gooood!

results for tri #2 are in!

http://nytri.org/results_full.cfm?ID=55

1:42:12 for 103/286

So the cool thing about the results from this race are that I can compare them to the results of last week's race! Overall I beat last week's time by 2 mins 26 seconds. Below are the breakdowns, minus the transitions.

Swim:
This week: 19:48.2
Last week: 20:12
Difference: 24 seconds

Bike
This week: 51:36.36
Last week: 52:04
Difference: 28 seconds

Run
This week: 26:52.0
Last week: 28:09
Difference: 1:17

I am happy to see faster times overall. I was surprised that the swim went faster, as it felt slower. The bike I know I could have gone a LOT fast had I not raced the previous weekend. I am VERY happy about the run though. The fact that I shaved off 1:17 off of my time is HUGE and shows that I am improving in this part of the race.

For the next three weeks, its going to be a running boot camp.

triathlon #2 in the bag!

Just got back from triathlon #2. Overall I felt more exausted than last week's race, yet I still put in a faster time. This race course was mostly the same as last week with the same exact swim portion, a bike course that went in the opposite direction, but a completely different run. I think my approximate finishing time was in the 1:42 and change area.

I think I felt more exausted because I raced last Sunday, tried to recover as best as I could during the week and then raced again. I felt strong and hopefully recovered going into the swim, but quickly realized that things were going to hurt more right from the start my arms hurt, and I mean bad. I kept going and was happy to finish. The real clincher that I was more exausted was the transition out of the water. I just couldn't run out of the water and had to walk. Then on dry land running to the transition area was really difficulty.

Transitioning from swim to bike took forever it felt like, but whatever, it was just a transition (I am going to start working on faster transitions when I start racing to place better).

The bike portion felt a lot faster than last week because the uphill this time was more of a stairstep up after I flew down the huge hill that I climbed last week. I just couldn't find my rhythm up the hill. I was passing people (and was passed more this time) so that was good that I was moving faster, but still I didn't have the legs that I normally would have. I am going to attribute this hurting to again not recovering fully from last week. I am curious to see what my time is for this leg.

Now for the run. I just wanted to walk from the start. It hurt so bad, almost as bad as the brooklyn duathlon, but still not as bad. But I still wanted to walk. It was hot @ this point and the water that one of the volunteer's poured over my head saved me @ the very beginning.

At the halfway point of the run they had more water (thank GOD!) and I actually walked through this little section. Mentally I hardened up from this point on. I said to myself that others will pass you, that you are racing at your pace and now try to block everyone out and think of this as just another run through the neighborhood. This helped A LOT and I started to find my groove and run a bit faster and with some more determination.

At the finish I just wanted this thing to be over with and to get some water. I felt HUGELY relieved to be done and am glad that I have 5 weeks until my next race.

This race was a good learning tool in that racing two weekends in a row is hard. Very hard. Mentally it drains you. I need to spend this next week recovering and not doing any hard work.

My supervisor at work knew that I had a race today and on friday was coming up with a list of things to work on come monday, and I got this feeling that he was trying to take it easy on me because I was going to be tired because of the race. I thought that was funny.

race results are in!

http://www.sbrshop.com/triathlons/raceresults_20080601.php
1:44:38

So I cleaned up on the bike...31/213... but got destroyed on the swim(165/213) and run(151/213) portions. Guess I know what I need to work on! I guess biking for 9 years has payed off!

completed my first TRIATHLON!!!

So I did it! I don't have official results yet, but I finished around 01:45:00 and change. Over all the swim was a bit harder than I expected, the bike was as I expected, and I could have gone harder on the run. Here goes the breakdown:

Swim:
First off the water was a balmy 72 degrees!.....72 degrees! Thats freaking WARM! I dipped my toes in the water expecting it to be cold (not as cold as last weekend) but cold. No way was it that. I got my wetsuit on and warmed up a bit. No hyperventilation. No issues putting my face in the water. That water felt AWESOME.

So it finally came time to line up. Before the horn went off a group of buzzards decided to swarm over the water. We all had a good laugh at that one! I went into slower than the front guys to keep out of the mayhem. The water still looked like rapids from us running and diving in. I dove in too soon cuz the water was still too shallow, got up ran a bit more than went. I just need even more practice in the wetsuit. The suit constricts your arm movements and it felt like I was swimming 2x as a hard to go the same speed as usual. I did great sighting this time and swam towards the big orange bouy .25 miles out. After turning the bouy I was happy to get onto the final stretch, but the sun was in our eyes so sighting this time was a bit harder, so I aimed for the big boat house until I could sight on the final two orange giant inflatable balls on the shore.


Coming out of the water my legs felt like rubber and I couldn't run that fast, which was strange because I wasn't using my legs! I guess maybe the little bit of kicking I did was enough. I did the swim in about just under 20 mins (new record for a .5 mile swim!) even though I felt like a slow moving barge in the water.

Transition from swim to bike was easy. I got my wetsuit no problem, dried my suit no problem and put on socks no problem.

Bike:
After running through transition, I had a bit of trouble getting my first cleat into the petal. I finally got it in and got moving.

I started passing people. Then I passed more people. I passed a LOT of people on the biking portion just like I passed a lot of others on the bike in the two duathlons I have done.

The came "The Hill." I did much better up (meaning went faster) up the hill than the last two times, and at a race pace. It still hurt as bad but I was going faster and legs were turning the petals faster. I again passed quite a few folks on this leg. The stupid race number that goes onto your bike this time was basically a sticker that you wrap around your top tube. The thing was a POS. It came loose on the downhills and after the last uphill on the flats it was totally loose flopping around and scratching my inner legs pretty hard. It was pretty frustrating.

Also, I got a new water bottle that goes between the aero bars. That thing works great but the spongy thing that keeps liquid from spilling out fell out of the top of the bottle on one of the flying downhills, so whenever I hit a bump, liquid would splash out and hit me in the face. Another frustration. Oh also at the very beginning of the biking portion a bee hit me and stung me on the upper lip. That hurt a bit but kinda fired me up. My lip is fine now, but what a freak accident!

I came off the bike @ 01:15:00 so that mins 20 mins is what, a 55 min bike? I think its less because of the transition from the swim to bike with took 2-3 mins.

The transition from bike to run was non eventful and something I have done 3 times now.

Run:
My legs were slow and I was bit more tired, but it still wasn't as bad as the two duathlons that I have done. My legs were actually able to GO this time, but again, not as fast. The run course was an out and back course which mostly went uphill for the first half and then you got to go down it on the 2nd, so the 2nd leg was much better than the first, and I felt like I could have pushed it a bit harder on the run. And again, those who I passed on the bike passed me on the run. Something I STILL need to work on.

I think my run time was 30 mins or less, due to the transition from bike to run. I prolly ran around a 9:45 min mile pace.

I wasn't here to win or to place well. That wasn't my goal. My goal was to finish, and if I happened to finish in under 2 hours, then thats cool too, which I did do :)

race results are in

http://threadsandtreads.com/tt_results_biathlon2008.htm

Came in 96/234 finishers and 6/14 in my division.

My official time is:

1:11:35

greenwich cup biathlon

Finished my duathlon in 1:11:38. YES! I AM HAPPY ABOUT THAT TIME!

I don't think they recorded split times, but I did look up and see that my first run (2.5 miles) was finished in 20 mins flat, or an 8 min mile. 8 mins! YES! Thats crazy! At the brooklyn duathlon in March I ran a 9 min mile on the first run stretch and for me then, that was a new record. A minute difference! YES!

The biking portion of the race was my strong point again. I was zipping past people again. But this time, I was using my TT bike. Man that bike is fast! Or rather, I hope the engine on the bike is fast ;)


I felt very confident on the TT bike and when I hit the hill I just got into my lowest gear and cranked up it. Kinda troubling, but at times I wanted to puke on the bike I was going so hard. I even thought I was going too hard and that I would crap out on the 2nd run.

Which didn't happen. Of course the begginning of the 2nd run was slow and it hurt, but soon my legs adjusted and I went into autopilot mode. I knew I was going to finish, but just had to "do it."

My right calf cramped up again and I felt it throughout the 2nd run. Fortunately it was not as bad and doesn't hurt as bad right now. We shall see tomorrow how that goes.

Again, I gotta do more bricks. Its as simple as that! Overall, I was pleased with the race. I think I came exactly in the middle of the field. A big confidence boost today!