Participated in Allstate Life Insurance New York 13.1 Marathon run on 23rd March 2013 in Queens, New York. Though this was may fifth half marathon run I consider this as special one because I was unable to participate in events after Jan 2012 due to minor injuries and work travels. This event has helped me to get into momentum again.In this doodle I will share my fifth half marathon run experience.
After I recovered from my injuries I started my regular run back on Nov 2012. As winter has already started I was unable to run outside so I was doing all my runs only in gym on treadmill.I was quite consistent and logging an average of 20-25 miles a week. As I am running on treadmill I never log more than 7 miles a day. Before running this half marathon my longest run was 7.5 miles in the past one year. Though I didn't practice focusing this event I was confident that I can manage to complete this run. With this confidence I registered for this event on 8th March 2013. After registration I targeted to complete the run by 1 hour and 55 Minutes. Though I fixed my target I didn't plan or prepare to meet this timeline.
Before the race day I had plan of going to bed by 11:00PM so I can wake up 5:15AM. As I have to make some important calls to home didn't go to bed till 1:00AM. I had only 4 hours left to rest my body before the race day. My alarm gave me wake up call at 5:15AM, after couple of snooze I was out of my bed at 5:25PM and started getting ready. Started from home at 6:10 AM to catch the 6:35AM PATH train from Journal Square to 33rd Street and made transit to subway in 34th Street Herald Square. Reached the race place Arthur Ashe Stadium, Flushing at 8:00 AM. It was bright and little cold day. Temperature was at 40F but due to wind feels like was 30F. My last run in similar low temperature was in Feb 2012.
Even after 10 minutes stretching I was still feeling cold so did 10 minutes slow run to have myself warm. Walked to start line at 8:55 AM. At 9:02 AM race flag was waved and I reached the start line at 9:04 AM. I decided to run this race not listening to music. During my run I was focusing on my body and fellow runners. First mile was very slow mile took more than 11 minutes. After first mile realized this pace is not going to help me meet my 2 hour target time so decided to increase my pace. Also crowd was spread after the first mile and increased my pace. I was on consistent pace till 6 th mile which took me 1 hr 02 min. Loop between 5th and 7th mile was very windy and this was slowing my pace. I was worried because again for the 9th and 10th mile same loop has to be covered. After this decided to increase my pace further and was pushing me for 8 Min 30 Sec a mile. By now I know I have very less chance of meeting less than 2 hour timeline. With no speed training in the last 6 months decided not to do over speed. Decided to stay on the comfortable pace. After pushing myself in the last 2 miles managed to complete the run with the chip timing 2:03:38.
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