1) the marathon schedule only had me going 8 miles this week for the long run, so I knew that running 13 on one day this week would allow me to cut one 4 mile run out of it. I also thought that 13 miles at race-pace was going to require me to be well rested..
2) my ankle has been as big as a grapefruit for about 10 days after landing weird in Prospect Park and I thought that this might be the week where I could condense my runs to give me 2 and a half days off..
I think it paid off
Race was pretty well set up, with the first 7+ miles in the park, then onto 7th avenue and into Times Square. The race banged a right on 42nd Street and continued to the West Side Highway which we took all the way down to Battery Park.
It was a weird run because I figured the last 6 miles would be fairly easy since the course was so flat and the first would be pretty gruesome. My experience was the exact opposite!!! Ran the park really well, although with 10,000 people running the race it was really busy and crowded, I don't think I even really hit a comfortable stride until mile 3 or 4 but running in the crowd with people at my goal pace (8:30 per mile) kept me going!!!
The funny thing was that when I left the park and hit 7th Avenue to a pretty loud crowd, I actually started to lose my legs a bit. Maybe it was the temperature, maybe the humidity or maybe I just ran too fast through the park because I hit the NYC street and I felt dead.. I struggled through Times Square which was cool because there were a ton of people plus a Karaoke band playing to get your mind off the humidity. 42nd Street wasn't much easier and the West Side Hwy was comfortable but long. At this point we had traded the hilly but shaded Central Park Run for a pretty flat but no coverage of the HWY. I am sure that I hit EVERY water station from mile 7 to 13 and with my new method of walking through each station to make sure I could get the water into my system, I 'm sure I "lost" about 3 minutes which I am fine with
At the end I finished the run in 1:51.32 on the official NYRR.Org website which got me at a very nice 8:30 pace. This run was slightly slower than the Brooklyn Half marathon from earlier in the year but I think the weather was a big part of that.
My average Heart Rate was 160 on my Reebox watch, I am not 100% sure that was accurage but I know it was flying .
Good news is that it's over and i'm ready for next week!!!!
Schedule has me doing 28 miles next week, three runs of 4 miles, then 13 on Saturday and a 3 mile recovery mile on Sunday!!! should be interesting..
Watching Maceo as I type this blog today who just woke up, so going to have to cut this short.
thanks for all the support guys.
In the meantime, as many of you know I'm running this race for a charity called Team For Kids which is the official NYRR charity fighting childhood obesity. I'm about half way to goal of $2500 for which I want to offially THANK everybody for helping me with.
If anybody else would like to support me.. Please follow the link
https://www.nyrrc.org/cgi-bin/
Be sure to have all donations list my ING NYC Marathon entry # and last name.
my entry number: 252845
my team name/last name: Spelbrink
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