Sunday, January 25, 2009

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..

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great job Emmy. Another amazing performance.

ChickenUnderwear said...

Thanks for taking my picture!!!. If 14 degrees is chilly when does it get cold?



chrij

what an appropriate word verification

A Plain Observer said...

we're all hoping that it will be warmer by March 8! Donations are low, hopefully we will pick up at some point. It is such a good cause! Looking forward to seeing you