Sunday, January 25, 2009

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.

1 comment:

Andrew P Brett said...

Congrats on a good start to the season. I did that race last year and the conditions were very similar.