2012 New York City Half Marathon - Shooting for 1:31

I live about 40 miles outside of New York City so yesterday started real early. Alarm went off at 3:50 AM and picked up Mr. Kenny Baldo at 4:30. Logistically we were very concerned coming into this race as everything was very spread out in the city (from the baggage dropoff to the start of the race to the finish line). However, in the end it actually wasn't that bad and everything went smoothly on race day.

My goal going into this race was 1:31. I ran 1 other Half Marathon in 2010. I finished that race in 1:36. That was with minimal training and virtually no prior running experience. I felt that knocking off 5 minutes from that race was doable.

Conditions were ideal - Mid 40's with virtually no wind and cloudy. 15,000 participants and by far was the largest race I've ever participated in. It didn't feel that big while running so I guess the NYRR did a good job spreading everyone out. Race started at 7:30 sharp.

The first 6 miles is a loop around Central Park and for those that don't know there are some pretty intimidating hills in the park. Once out of the park the last 7 are basically on a decline or flat roads. Strategically going into this race my plan was to start out a little slower in the park and then hopefully pick up the pace the last 7. The last thing I wanted to do was come out too fast and have nothing left in the tank once out of the park.

Based on my splits it looks like for the most part I succeeded. I had my Garmin set on Auto Lap (still a novice GPS user and Ken told me next time I should be marking the miles myself for accuaracy) First 6 in Central Park (7:18/7:10/6:54/7:04/7:16/6:52). Shins were bothering my a bit the first 2-3 miles and I started to get concerned but the pain seemed to dissipate after mile 3 and wasn't an issue.

Once out of the Park I knew I had to pick up the pace and like I said earlier, the course was built to do just that. Here are my last 7 splits and again, I don't know how accurate it is because being surrounded by Skyscrapers could make GPS wacky and the last mile we had to go into a tunnel - 7:29/6:36/6:53/6:44/6:46/6:37/7:14.

Regardless of the splits I did feel like I was getting stronger once out of the park. It did help that there were so many spectators cheering you on. It got the adrenaline going. Once out of the tunnel(not sure of the name) you have this steep incline that looked daunting considering how late in the race it was. Once over the hill you had about 800m left and at that point I just gave it everything I had and it felt great when I crossed the finish line. I stopped my watch at 1:31.00! I called my wife right after the race as she was getting text alerts of my progress throughout the race (very cool feature) and she confirmed my official time at 1:30.59! I just made it under my goal (by 1 second) and I was ecstatic. PR by over 5 Minutes!

Here are my results with 5k/10k/15k/20k Splits:

Net Time : 1:30.59
5k Split - 22:22
10k Split - 44:29
15k Split - 1:05.38
20k Split - 1:26.40
Pace/Mile - 6:57
Overall Place - 916

After the race Kenny and I had a great breakfast and recapped the race which is always fun to do. Kenny's experience and guidance throughout my training and the day of the race was unbelievable and so helpful. Thanks Brotha!

I've developed runners knee over the last few months that has gotten progressively worse. My plan now is to take the next few weeks off, do some strength excercises and come back strong so I can get ready for the Philly Half and Full in the fall.

Thanks for reading.
Evan

Outstanding Evan! Like the marathon, this NYC half is in a class by itself. You will be hard-pressed to find another half that is as enjoyable and rewarding. And you did it very well indeed. Do what it takes to deal with your runners' knee ... and keep it up.

Great race execution, Evan! 5 minutes PR and 1 second beating the goal are just priceless.

That's an incredible job of pacing, both coming in within 1 second of goal time but also check this out....these are your 5K segments as standalone times:

First 5K 22:22

Second 5K - 22:07

Third 5K - 21:09

Fourth 5K - 21:02

That is just crazy well done with you smartly and slowly pushing the gas pedal down throughout the race.

Chris M wrote:That's an incredible job of pacing, both coming in within 1 second of goal time but also check this out....these are your 5K segments as standalone times:

First 5K 22:22

Second 5K - 22:07

Third 5K - 21:09

Fourth 5K - 21:02

That is just crazy well done with you smartly and slowly pushing the gas pedal down throughout the race.

Thanks Chris, I actually didn't notice that until you pointed it out.

Impressive race. Great job on the PR.

Congrats on the PR and the excellent, well executed run!

I remember the first race that I ran in the Park back in 1983 - a 15K for Women as part of the old Avon series. I was shocked when I got to the north end of the park by the hills as I didn't realize they existed. I was not too upset at the time as I was a) young and b) living in hilly Westchester county, but they can be a surprise. I think I'm putting both the NYC Half and the BAA Half races on my to do list as I really love NYC.

Not sure which is more impressive - the 5 minute PR or the fact that you NAILED your goal. Nice job on both.

Congratulations Evan, that was a great race. I hope your knee gets better over the next few weeks.

Evan - Thanks for the kind words glad I can help out although you put in the work and it paid off dividends on a spectacular run! Love the 5k split times!