A Tale of Two Beaches (Part II)

Recovery was the key after the Brooklyn Half-Marathon, as I had 26.2 miles to go the next day. Unfortunately, I went out of my PowerBar Recovery Mix and I desperately tried to find something with a "#3" on it after the race. I didn't want to go to Paragon at Union Square because I needed to get some rest, and didn't want to make an extra stop in between Brooklyn and home, so I went straight back to the Upper West Side and hoped Super Runners had it.

Nope, they didn't. I did chat with one of the salespersons there (I assume he's a Kenyan runner) and we talked about the Goofy Challenge I was doing. He said a friend of his was going down to Jersey to qualify for Boston, and I was like "If I didn't run today, I would try that, too." He then suggested me to go to GNC for some recovery drinks.

On my way home I saw a Mister Softee truck, I was like "What the heck, I need some calcium!" so I bought myself a vanilla cone before I headed home and hit the shower. After a brief recess, I trekked up to GNC but they didn't have what I wanted... no PowerBar #3 shake, no Amino Vital Pro, but I found Accelerade. I never tried that before but I really had no choice (and no time) so I bought a bottle. For dinner, I had Barilla Plus pasta and chicken, which I bought as a Manager's Special at the Food Emporium. I shop there like, once a year?

Since I had to get up at 1:30 am to catch the 4:00 am train, I pretty much had to force myself to sleep early. Though, the damn Mets were on I had to stay up for that. In the end, I was only able to catch like 2 hours of sleep and my six alarm clocks roared in the middle of the night.

I quickly packed my stuff and jetted out of my apartment around 2:40 am. Since there was only one special train going down for the New Jersey Marathon I didn't want to (and couldn't) miss it. When I stepped into Penn Station, I reunited with all the drunk kids from the [Long] Island. I used to work the graveyard shift and take the 3:49 am train back to Central Islip, seeing kids lying on the floor all over the place at the station was a norm to me. But the NJ Transit entrance was locked up, as it turned out the "Marathon Train" was also a "Hush-Hush Train" because it was free. I bumped into two runners and we had to look for the train on the platforms -- a scavenger hunt in the middle of the night. Finally, we found it and it was on track 13.

It was a lonely ride down to the Jersey Shore as the train was only about 5% filled. Thanks to my iPod I had some entertainment during the 1-1/2 hour trip, but I wasn't going to read anything because I was tired.

We finally made it to Long Branch, and the weather didn't look too promising at the time. It was very humid with the Atlantic mist and fog filling the air. My digital camera didn't work properly because of the moistures, but the good thing was that the staging area was in a hotel and we had a nice shelter to drop our bags and going to the bathroom like 3 times, before we headed out to the start.

People were very energetic before the race and the race itself had a good crowd. Unlike the NYRR races, there were no seeding corrals (just like old times), and the fact that we started with the half-marathon and the relay runners made it a bit tricky. I heard a lady said, "Just don't get sucked in." She was right, the half-marathon runners only needed to run 13.1 miles, and the relay runners only needed to run 10k/person, and we were going to run 26.2 miles!

And just like old times, we had to deal with slow runners who elected to start from the front. Thankfully the field wasn't huge we quickly went through the dodging stage by mile 2.

I started to get down to 7:30 pace, but I urged myself to start to save fuel on mile 6. Since I had experience running a marathon before I knew what my weaknesses were, and with the 13.1 miles I had the day because I knew that I couldn't go all out for too long. Meanwhile, I had to keep myself from thinking about the half I had the day before because it would affect me psychologically. The whole time I kept reminding myself that the Brooklyn Half was a week ago.

And then I saw two guys in fluorescent green singlets, "Aussie" and "Gee" from Team for Kids. Of course I ran for them last fall so they were kinda my teammates. I first passed Aussie and then Gee, but we went back-and-forth for 3 or 4 miles. We also caught up with the 3:30 pace group by mile 11.

Looking back, I think I ran too fast 1) battling with the TFK duo and 2) holding the 3:30 group behind me before the half. I didn't like running anywhere near the pace group because there were too many people running as a pack, and there wasn't any breathing room in between. Anyhow, we returned to the shoreline to finish our first lap (the NJ Marathon is a two-lap race.)

I started to slow down a bit after the half, as I just completed a full marathon in 2 days and now I had 13.1 miles to go. My pace began to fall back to 8:12. "Aussie" and "Gee" were pulling away and I couldn't hold the 3:30 pace group anymore. They eventually passed me around mile 15.

I had to maintain the pace, but I quickly consumed the two PowerBar gel packs on me and had nothing left. I was vulnerable. By mile 18 I had to stop for bathroom but the johns were so far off the course! I had to walk through a grass area for that and lost some time there.

I returned to the track and I was praying for one more gel pack in order to boost my energy. Thankfully when we reached the Theater District a kid handed me 2 packs (I dropped one) and I kept it in my pocket for latter use. I then caught up with a runner and he said "Hey, good job!" and I told him I had to slow down because I was doing a Goofy. I was kinda rude though (or I didn't have the sense at the time) to encourage him to keep on going as I jetted away. Bad manner for me, poor guy...

I definitely hit the wall between mile 18 and mile 22, but that GU gel pack helped me to get through the final 4 miles. I spilled some gel on my hands and they were now all sticky! I just didn't like that and I had to look for water to wash that off. In the final four miles, my pace went back down to the 8-minute range again and I felt better as we returned to the shoreline one last time.

I knew I was going to break my PR by then, but I was determined to have a strong finish. The sun just broke through and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity for a nice finish. I finally crossed the finish line with both of my arms in the air, where I broke my PR by 11:43 at 3:45:04 (Previous PR: New York City Marathon 2006 at 3:56:47.) It was a pretty good achievement.

Like the NYRR 8000, emotion took over I just couldn't believe what I did. And I kept my promise to my partner that I was going to finish under 4 hours. Though I wasn't able help her to break the barrier because she couldn't run in this race.

I truly enjoyed the experience I had in New Jersey. The event was well organized and gave a lot of value to us -- the runners. I might want to run this race again next year!

Next Race: 6/1 - Japan Day @ Central Park 4-Miler

Stats
Overall Place: 432/1703
NYF Team Place: 2/9
Finish Time: 3:45:04
Pace/Mile: 8:35 (PR)

A Tale of Two Beaches (Part I)

To be honest, I can't believe I did that myself.

A lot of things happened in March and April, and the New York Road Runners didn't make my life easy as they moved the Brooklyn Half-Marathon April 26th to May 3rd -- the day before the New Jersey Marathon due to Passover. Like the role I had in the Philadelphia Marathon, I was supposed to be a pacer in the NJ Marathon, but well... things happened and the deal fell apart.

For the longest time I went back-and-forth of whether I should run the Brooklyn Half or the NJ Marathon because I signed up both. At one point I was going to drop New Jersey for an obvious reason, but then I revisited the opportunity and asked myself, maybe I could do both.

I really had no long distance training since the 13.1-mile training run on March 2nd at Central Park, where I slightly hurt myself running on the trails. Though, judging from the performances I had at the NYRR 8000 and the Adidas Run for the Parks 4-miler, I knew that I was in mid-season form and I shouldn't pass this opportunity to really challenge myself. Moreover, thanks to the NJ Marathon organizer where they added a special "4 a.m. Marathon Train" from Penn Station on race day, I didn't have to worry about overnight accommodations. Eventually I decided to do "The Goofy" on May 3rd and 4th. Actually it was like racing in the Indy 500 and then the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend!

The anxiety of running both races didn't really sink in until Thursday afternoon at my softball game. I was thinking about the races during the game and tried to preserve myself as much as I could in order to build up my endurance. Though, I had some Brooklyn Lagers at the Dive Bar that night... Brooklyn Lager and the Brooklyn Half? What a match!

On Friday, I first went to NYRR headquarters on the Upper East Side to pick up my Brooklyn Half packet, and then took the NJ Transit to Long Branch, NJ to pick up my marathon packet. Long Branch was a really nice town and I truly enjoyed my brief stay down there! When I picked up my packet in the "Big Tent" people were very friendly. As a matter of fact, it was so relaxing down there I didn't really want to take the train back to NYC! But I had a race Saturday morning in Brooklyn so I had to go back.

I got up bright and early on Saturday because the subway ride to Coney Island was... looooong. I got on the Q train at Times Square and it took forever to get down there. Whoever invented the iPod, thank you!

I was assigned to the first corral (#0) based on my Run for the Parks pace (6:23), but I wasn't sure if I was going to go all out because of the marathon the next day. Well, when you got the adrenaline rush you just couldn't back down and I didn't. We started on the boardwalk and since I ran the same race twice before, I knew how to tackle the crappy wood logs and it was actually a nice run next to the beach.

On the boardwalk I was focus, and consistently ran at 6:45 pace for the first two miles. And since I started from the front it was a smooth sail early, as we stormed down to Ocean Parkway for the yawner. Ocean Parkway was pretty much a flat straight and you had to run flat for four miles. Since I had a few flat traning on the West Side Highway the flat section didn't bother me anymore, and the whole time I was just trying to keep the pace and occasionally looked for people to draft to save some energy. Though, near the end of the straight I wanted to have some PowerBar gel on board and when I reached the back pocket of my new shirt, it wasn't there! I guess I dropped it somewhere, oh well...

As we entered Prospect Park, my previous Brooklyn Half experience came into play. The NYRR often falsely advertised the Brooklyn Half as a flat half-marathon... not true. When you hit Prospect Park you would realize that you run uphill 90% of the time. Lesson learned, as I saved enough fuel early for the final 4 miles in the park.

Unlike the previous years, the hills weren't as steep solely because I had something left in my tank. I was able to re-pass some runners who used up the power2pass on Ocean Parkway, and it really helped my psychologically. In the end, I crossed the finish line at 1:32:57 (7:05 pace), which set a new personal record that I set two months ago in the Bronx Half-Marathon (1:34:11). I actually felt pretty good after the race as I walked back to the finish line to watch other people crossing the wire.

But unlike the Manhattan Half-Marathon and the Bronx Half, I was by myself when I exited the park, and tried to get ready for the next race within the next 20 hours.

Stats
Overall Place: 483/5832
NYF Team Place: 7/109
Finish Time: 1:32:57
Pace/Mile: 7:05 (PR)