Brooklyn half

The NYRR Brooklyn half was my first NYRR race back in 2014.  Back then, it was my comeback race back then after my first marathon left me with an IT band injury for a few months.  I got a massive PRed with a 2:02 (shows you that months of stretching and rehab training could lead to improvements).  I returned to the Brooklyn half in 2015 as part of 9+1 for the 2016 NYC marathon.  That NYC marathon was also my last NYRR till this Brooklyn half!   

I wasn’t in shape for the half marathon.  I had a long 4 week taper going into the NJ marathon and then took 2 weeks off so I ended up going into the half with a week of quality training.  I didn’t know how to pace myself for it.  I figured I would find a 1:40 pace group which should be a pace between my marathon and 10k pace but the corral I was in had a 1:50 pace group.  I decided to go with run 5 miles a bit slow and then pick it up. 

I ate a little bit of pasta for breakfast (something new) 3 hours before race.  I also ran a little more than 1.3 miles to the Queens Distance shuttle.  I was hoping the run to be my first shakeout and then to do a 5 minute shakeout before the race started.  However, I got to the race just in time to drop my bag, get through security and wait in a long line for the porter porties.  I ended up starting with corral H, one corral after me with no warm up.  It was a cold morning despite having a poncho. 

With so many people running the race, the race is like a reunion.  I met Jeremy who ran the North Face NY 50 miler just two week prior.  Then I saw college friend Grzergory.  A mile in I saw Kenny!  At mile 2 I started feeling hot so I took my goretex bluff off my head and wrapped it around my hand.  Julie said hi during that motion and I missed my chance to say hi back.  Around mile 3 I caught up to David and we ran together and talked for a bit.  I ran through all puddles and one particular long stretch in Prospect park I heard someone say that dude is nuts, then someone said he’s like a machine.  I never really minded puddles but ultras taught me how silly trying to avoid them are.  5 miles in and towards the end of the route of the race in the park I saw two other QDR members and waved as I passed by.  Then onto the Ocean parkway. 

This long stretch was a lot lonelier as I didn’t catch up to any more familiar faces.  Volunteers here and there said go QDR and go Queens which gave nice boosts but I feel like overall I didn’t have much motivation to push myself.  Like I was running in a hard effort but I think I could have ran a bit harder if I had a strong time goal or if I was chasing someone or a pace group.  At mile 10 I saw the Claudia and Danny at the Queens Distance cheer station.  I saw Claudia reach her hand out to give a high five and I immediately started sprinting to give the high five back.  Seeing them gave me a huge boost and I found motivation to dig deeper.  You could also see the end of Ocean parkway from the last 5k which also helps visualize the end (I focused on the Belt PKWY Bridge first).  I saw Youseph in the last 400 meters or so and then Ginia Guzman in the final stretch. 

I ran the whole race on feel and I got 1:45 which I was a bit disappointed at.  Still an 11 minute PR over my half marathon last fall so still good process.  Shortly after I saw senior Guzman and said hi.  I next went to get my drop bag, I knew I won’t last long in the cold.  There was a bit of a crowd in and I couldn’t tell where the line started (it didn’t look like there was a line).  After a few minutes (my brain wasn’t fully back yet), I figured out how they organized the drop bags and I found mine.  Oddly it was my ultimate direction bottle that stuck out, not my yellow jacket.  Alternative I now realized I could have used my watch to activate an alarm on my phone which was in the drop bag.  There were people that were waiting for an hour, I saw two runners actually joined in to volunteer as well.  Then I went to change in the porter potty.  I probably took over 10 minutes, it was pretty slow going but I’m glad I brought a change of clothes.  I regret not brining a change of socks and shoes however.  I thought the drop bag was a bit small so decided not to pack shoes.  Changing got my warm initially but after a half hour I started getting cold again.  I then went walking around to find more familiar faces.  I met Jordan, Rinchen, Deki, and Drylee shortly after and hung with them till they left.  Then I met Solanny and got a picture.  I next went into the stadium and met up with WSR.  They soon left and then I tried wandering around but just got too cold with the wet socks and shoes.  I packed a cow bell in my drop bag to cheer on finishers but as soon as I got cold I decided against it.  One hour and 20 minute train ride home X.X.