NYC half marathon (+2.9!)=16, a personal record!

Yesterday, I woke up at 4:30 am and headed to Central Park in the dark to run 2.9 miles with TFK prior to the start of the NYC Half Marathon. It was REALLY early and kind of freaky, and I was a little anxious because I'd had knee and ankle pain all week. Shockingly enough, though, I was on fire--I had perhaps my best run to date! We finished our 2.9 just in time for the start, and ran as a pack of 11:30 "fire asses" for the whole 13.1. It was crazy--there were 10,000 runners total (including, I learned today, Natalie Morales from the Today show and several Kenyan world champions). It poured for a few minutes, but misted for the rest of the race. I was grateful not to have a repeat of last weekend's 14- mile swim in Maine!

After an endless loop of Central Park (oh, I was SO ready to get out into the street after nearly 10 miles in the park!), we exited onto 7th avenue and ran through Times Square! It was the COOLEST--no cars, just a runners ahead! We passed stages through the whole race, include one that featured the cast of RENT singing "Take me or leave me." You all probaly know that's my favorite song from the musical--I sang along for a few lines and then decided it was taking too much energy, so I stopped. We ran down 42nd St to the West Side Highway, where we finished the race at Battery Park. All along, there were people cheering us on, which was totally motivating. I can only imagine what marathon day is like!

My time was 2:39:28, which is quite slow considering that the leaders were running a 4:50 per mile pace, but I felt great at the end. We alternated between 15 minutes of commute pace (11:30/mile) and 5 minute intervals of warm-up pace (about 30 seconds faster per mile) and supported each other. How cool that I was able to SPEED UP for the last mile after running for nearly 3 hours (including the 2.9 miles prior to the race)!!

Orientation at CUSSW started today, which means school is just around the corner. I really like my group of first-years so far, and I'm totally telling them that cheering me on at the marathon is a group event! Why not, right? ;)

(Photos courtesy of New York Road Runners)