race report: brooklyn half marathon

this was another race i signed up for on a lark, mainly because a ton of my teammates were doing it so it sounded like fun.

in the end, more than 70 people from my team ran it! awesome! we arranged a bus to take us to brooklyn, so i got up at 4am and got sean to drop me off at van cortlandt park by 5am. race start was 7am and we should've had plenty of time but as we got closer, the traffic got worse and people started getting antsy. so the bus pulled over and we walked the last half mile or so.

me and beni pre-race

i met up with julia near bag check. we had decided to run the race together. i wasn't looking to PR, just to finish in 2 hours or less. julia really wanted to finish sub-2 as well so we decided to run together. we had planned to run the first half or so at a 9 min/mile pace then once we got out of prospect park and the hills were behind us, we'd pick up the pace if we felt we could. if not, we'd stick with 9's, which would give us a 1:58 finish.

so we checked our stuff and headed to our corral. we met up with penny there who decided to run with us as well. once the corrals closed and they took down the dividing tape, we were able to use the port-o-potties before the starting horn. it was another 12 minutes before we even got to the start line! sheesh. huge race. we started out well with the first mile faster than planned, but it was an easy mile (downhill) so we took it. by mile 3 we were entering the park, and it got tough. the east side of the park is basically one looooooong hill and we were definitely feeling it by the time we crested it. after we rounded the north end and headed back down the west side, we regained a little time and got back to our planned pace.

somewhere in the park

around mile 7 we left the park and headed to ocean parkway. from there, it's basically a straight shot to coney island. i thought this would be the easiest part of the race, but i really struggled the first couple of miles on ocean pkwy. i ate a gel around mile 8 and promptly got a cramp in my right side. i think i should've eaten one sooner (hindsight). thankfully it was entirely overcast, so my sunglasses remained perched helpfully atop my head. ha. it was quite humid though. just after mile 8, i noticed our pace was dragging and i was worried we were jeopardizing our sub-2 finish. i asked julia if she wanted to pick it up but she said she was really struggling and i should go on without her. i waited a couple of minutes, then checked in with her, but she wasn't feeling great. i tried to convince her to stick with me til mile 10 thinking she would feel much better but she declined, so i reluctantly went on ahead. i picked the pace back up to around 8:45-9 for the next few miles, reminding myself to breathe, focus on form, and just run one mile at a time.

sure enough, mile 12 eventually arrived. we banked right onto surf avenue and you could just catch a faint whiff of ocean. the course narrowed drastically as we turned left, through a parking lot, and up onto the boardwalk for the last quarter mile or so (i think).

i knew sub-2 was in the bag, so i was happy about that. crossed the finish and began the slow zombie parade off the boardwalk. collected water, gatorade and pretzels, and then my medal (yay). continued down the boardwalk and then realized we had to climb down a flight of stairs to get to the bag check. LOUD COLLECTIVE GROAN.

lookit me, i gotta medal!

after the race, i met up with a bunch of teammates and compared notes. we ended up at peggy o'neill's pub, where an 80s cover band entertained us as we drank beer and sat around. it was still overcast and the cool breeze off the ocean combined with some sprinkles. but mostly everyone remained cheerful. the bus came back to retrieve us and we began the far-too-long trek back to the bronx.

all in all, i had a good time. i was really looking forward to hanging out, eating hotdogs and drinking beer, but the post-race period was calmer than i had anticipated. i was a bit disappointed that i couldn't pace julia to a sub-2 finish. and i wasn't feeling 100% great myself after the race. but once the nausea/exhaustion faded, i felt much better.

added another HM to my accomplishments, and another medal to my collection. :)

official time of 1:57:53, neither my best nor my worst! i'll take it.