Manhattan Half Pics

Just a few pics from the Manhattan Half.

Coming in for the finish with Nic from Trilife. He and I ran the last 5 miles together.

Ditto the first comment.

Crossing the line.

Chugging away around mile 8.

Starting to speed up for the last 3 miles.

Nic and me starting our kick for the last 200m.

Race Report #1: One down, four to go

This morning I finished the Manhattan Half Marathon, the first of the five halves making up the NYRR Grand Prix.

Woke up around 7, had a small snack of Cheerios and headed down to the start at 63rd and Central Park West. One word to describe the conditions: cold. Twelve degrees cold. Nonetheless, the 5000 racers took off promptly at 8 and completed just over two loops of Central Park.

The first half of my run was mediocre. I was cold, not all that happy to be awake early and a little sluggish. Paced myself with two guys from my team but let them go when they took off during series of rolling hills. Found my stride by mile 7 and caught a guy from a rival tri team, TriLife. He and I hung together for the rest of the race and talked about the upcoming Ironman season. Made the rest of the run pass by quickly.

Finished in 1:40 (7:37min/mi). Not that fast but a good start for the season and a nice shock to the system. Last year, injury had me wait until May for my first race. This time around, I'm (knock on wood) uninjured and four months ahead of last year's fitness. A good start to hopefully a great season.

Bring on the racing!

The Manhattan Half Marathon, tomorrow, marks my first race of the 2009 season. I'm still a little sluggish coming out of off-season, but am excited to lay down some miles tomorrow and gauge my fitness. For reference, this time last year I was laid up with a pretty bad case of ITBS that kept me from running for more than two months. In fact, my first race last year didn't come until the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May. So, if all goes somewhat according to plan, I should score a decent time tomorrow and be four months ahead of last year's schedule. Not a bad way to start the year, especially with Clearwater and Kona as big goals for the season.

Also, of interest, I've started to figure out the finer details of my training plan for the year. So far, I have Base 1 complete and Base 2 and Base 3 mapped out. For those who are interested: