Rear View Mirror - Bronx Half-Marathon

As I mentioned earlier, I didn’t have much training before the Bronx Half due to my illness. In theory it wouldn’t make a difference if you walked to the starting line sick, so it was wise to put myself in recovery mode and pray for the best.

As it turned out, I recovered just in time before the race. However, like many things in life some other things popped up the night before, and I didn’t get much sleep before the race Sunday morning.

The Bronx Half -- it was a very significant race to me in many [bad] ways. I ran three of these prior to the 2008 edition, and I had zero good memories about this race. The first one was in 2005, and it was my very first half marathon. I wasn’t really ready for running 13.1 miles and I finished poorly at 2:06:54. I walked and suffered, and I asked myself “Why am I doing this in July?” But believe me or not I learned one thing or two that day. In 2006 the race was by far the hottest as we ran in the 90-degree heat the whole time. The sun was out and despite having a few showers on Grand Concourse, the race was simply brutal. I kept telling myself that I wouldn’t return the next year.

Ultimately, I ran the 2007 race. The NYRR was nice enough to move the race from July to February. Now Instead of battling the extremely heat, we had to fight the extreme cold. The temperature of the 2007 race was around 20 degrees. And I survived.

For this year’s race, I had to get up earlier in order to catch the 2/3 train at 6 in the morning. Naturally there were some crazy characters in the subway and this guy just scared away a female runner in the middle of Harlem. What else is new?

This year they moved the baggage area away from the start/finish line, which made it very difficult for people to navigate the area. Thankfully I was there early so I didn’t have to fight the extra elements, but I was distracted. I was distracted the whole time until 10 minutes before the race, and I had to force myself to put my focus in the race.

The weather was mild compared to recent years and I actually had my running shorts on. Off we went at 8 am, and I quickly picked off people one by one on the outside of the road. The traffic wasn’t bad at the start and I was able to hit the 7:00/pace earlier than expected.

I picked up the speed after the 4-mile mark and I felt good running uphill on Mosholu Parkway. Thanks to my broken arm last April I stopped all my upper body training until the end of 2007, but I was able to pick it up again in 2008, and it definitely helped my running. Unfortunately, my left forearm still hurts at times, and I still can’t put more than 22 ½ lbs or the metal plate and the seven screws are going to pop out right through my skin.

Going back to the race… My pace dropped down to 6:55/mi and it was time to maintain my speed, especially the fact that there were 3 people running at the same speed so it was good to run as a group.

I encountered a slight problem when I arrived the 6-mile mark. I went into the corner way too hot (it’s an auto racing term, meaning too fast,) and the water stands were right there at the exit (another auto racing term.) I was unable to grab my water twice, and I had to put on my brakes to stop. I almost slipped and dropped dead. Thankfully I didn’t injure myself, and the journey continued.

Now we were entering Grand Concourse for the most difficult 4-mile in all of 5-Borough Half Marathon Series. Not to mention that the headwind picked up all of the sudden and we had all kinds of issues running forward. I was still with my group and we started to duck behind each other for shelters – a real energy burner right there.

It was the first time I ran up front with not too many people running around me in a half marathon. It was a nice feeling. Though, I was still distracted when we turned around on our return trip on Grand Concourse at the 8-mile mark. I was still looking for someone on the other side of the road.

I looked at my watch and my pace went back to 7:00/mi. I tried to maintain my speed but fatigue started to sink it at the 12-mile mark. I struggled a bit but I was able to maintain my form until the final front straight. With the finish line ahead of me, I saw a runner 20 feet ahead of me and I was determined to pass him before the line. With the help of my iPod (I wore it for the first time in 46 races, and I was listening to What Hurts the Most from Cascada at that moment,) I used my final boost to pick him off and I was able to past him. I crossed the line at 1:34:11 – about 1:30 faster than my previous PR, which was set at the 2006 Staten Island Half-Marathon.

My next race is NYRR 8000, which will take place on March 15th. I added this race because of my poor performance at the Manhattan Half. In the meantime, I’m starting to prepare for the New Jersey Marathon on May 4th. I just ran a 13.1-mile training run on Sunday at 7:46/mi pace I think my condition is quite good. We’ll see what happen.

Stats
Overall Place: 268/3265
Finish Time: 1:34:31 (PR)
Pace/Mile: 7:11