A chilly Manhattan 1/2 marathon --Jan. 25, 2009

north pole or central park?

after the race with the '50 for 50' runner --trying to soak up the sun

It's over -now we can get the heck inside!!

Don and I before the race

Michael, Frank and Don at baggage --Mike putting on all his layers!

Don and I after the race at mile 13
A quick report --still thawing out from the 13 degree temps (and that was the high this a.m.) of this a.m.'s 8 a.m. Manhattan 1/2 marathon. The 2 months' 'rest' of low mileage, no long runs save for last weekend, and some speedwork must have helped because I really felt good this morning and ran 1:32:20 --a 7:02 pace:)--Frank ran well and finished in 1:37, despite running 8 miles yesterday and a high mileage week. This was probably my fastest time since the NYC 1/2 2 and a half years ago.
Don also was his strong self-finishing under 2 hours (I am trying to convince him to run an ultra -Lake waramug). --I drove into the city with Frank and Don (thank you Pat for picking up our numbers) in the dark ---we saw the sun set over the east river as we got off the FDR --it was 7:20 when we parked-plenty of time to get across the park to the 63rd street start. One problem -it was so cold we didn't want to get out of the car. When we got to baggage I really didn't want to relinquish my parka. At the last minute we put on extra layers -I could have used mittens, and extra socks -duh. In baggage we ran into Frank' friend Michael ---that was fun. The start was cold --the worst part is standing around shivering. Frank pointed out my friend Sharon, who had a mylar space blanket wrapped around her --I knew she would blow me away so I told myself 'It's just a training run' --I knew I felt rested, but my only goal was to break my Queens time of 1:35 --first miles was 42:07 --ahead of schedule. Since all the water along the course was frozen, the runners became quite thirsty! Ended up stopping at mile 9 to break open a gatorade and water cup.
At about mile 9, I saw Sharon ahead. She was slowing down and so was I --was content to just stay behind her. I also knew that Frank was close behind --last mile was tough but just wanted to get it over with ---ended up coming in 13 seconds behind Sharon...I'll take it, as she ran faster than last year at age 53!!!! I also finished behind a local boy scout father, John, who is training for his first Boston. I found Frank and Don at baggage and the best part of the morning was sharing Frank's thermos of hot coffee...Don also had hot lemon tea ---love the smell of it -warming!
Next weekend, who knows what will happen --we are hoping to run in an low key ultra 'run around manhattan' in honor of Ted Corbitt's birthday --but not sure if it will happen. If not, will run in a shorter race ---guaranteed to be cold again.

Don's 60th birthday is coming up and Frank, Rob, Kate and I are going to 'celebrate ' with him by running the Celebrate 1/2 marathon..it better be warmer! Oh, when Frank and I were changing we met a man running 50 races for his 50th birthday year --been there, done that' I told him -haha -but it's a fun thing to do --I think I ran 50 without trying..