1:36:24

First half-marathon race in the books, pretty happy with 7:21 average pace. Over 7000 finishers meant a pretty packed start in Prospect Park. Despite NYRR doing a great job separating the start corrals by pace, including color coding bib numbers, plenty of people started closer to the front than they should have been. At mile 1, an older woman who was cutting back into the still packed crowd after getting water (who gets water after mile 1?) stumbled over my foot. She looked back and gave me a dirty look. I waved and made a noise approximating the sound of “sorry” on an exhale. She turned to her friend and complained that I did not apologize for tripping her, and how she hates people who wear headphones. I did start the race wearing headphones, but I keep the volume low enough to hear people quickly approaching behind me so I can let them pass, or people having casual conversation during the race. She was one of the people who started too close to the front, and eventually I got around them. First mile took 8 minutes.

Towards the end of the first lap I ditched my mp3 player as I had planned. I tossed it to my dad on the side of the road (both parents came to visit, my mom ran the race) but hit the woman next to him. Sorry! Second lap was quicker and easy feeling.

I thought the long, straight, flat second half of the race down Ocean Parkway might get boring, but running with a decent crowd it went quick. I zoned out from the surroundings pretty hard sometimes; the alphabet seemed to go by really fast.

Finishing on the boardwalk felt great. And loud! Those loose boards! Anyway, overall good race!

Who else raced this weekend, anywhere? How were your races?

1. foxandbunny liked this
2. elainecorden liked this
3. runningthistown posted this