Park to Park Half Marathon Race Report

RACE REPORT - NYC Marathon

I have so much to share it's hard to figure out where to begin. The entire NYC Marathon experience was unforgettable. I suppose I'll break this up into a few sections beginning with the training leading up to the race and then go through race day. This will be an extremely long post as I haven't sat down and written anything about running since probably early 2016, gotta make up for my lack of updates as of late.

Training

Overall I had a solid training block leading up to the marathon, not as good as 2014 but probably my second best out of the five marathons I've trained for. Mostly consistent running basically five days a week except for a nine day stretch in August where I went on an insane road trip to view the solar eclipse followed almost immediately by a trip to Florida which left little room for running. I fit in a couple short runs in the swampy weather in Florida that week but missed out on a quality long run and only ended up running 11 miles during that stretch. Other than that I was very consistent with training, peaking at 61 miles in mid-October.

A quick look at the most critical month of training before tapering, (Sept 25-Oct 22)

This was quite a bit of running for me. Got in two solid 20 milers with the most mid-week 10 milers (8) I've ever done leading up to a marathon. To complete the 61 mile week I went with a two a day on Tuesday and Thursday, five miles in the morning and eight miles in the evening both days. This was actually turned out to be a great way to get through that kind of mileage in a week which was the most I'd ever run in a week before. Oct 2-8 was a really difficult week as it was insanely hot and/or humid for almost that entire week in Fairfax. Both of the midweek 10 milers there were a real struggle and getting in the long run on the weekend was near impossible due to the weather conditions, on that Sunday I set out for an 18 miler and felt like trash two miles in and ended up turning around and going home after four miles. I ended up splitting that day into two runs and got in a slightly better run in the late afternoon. It was apparently the most warm/humid October day in 30 years in the DC area so I really wasn't too rattled by having a horrible day running wise but still it was mentally difficult being about a month away from a marathon and struggling through four miles in a training run.

Similar to last year I ended up not doing any structured workouts this training block. I think I only went to the track twice all year, I followed similar training as last year and focused on consistency and staying healthy and feeling great above all else. Taking plenty of full rest days and backing off the pace if anything didn't feel good. For the second year in a row as a result of this mentality I had next to no issues or pain anywhere other than one minor toe blister at one point. I'm thinking if I run another marathon next year the biggest thing that would help would be to re-introduce once a week harder workouts back into the schedule and maybe work more structure into my training instead of just running almost everything at an easy pace.

Race Weekend

At long last race weekend arrived! My friend Christian(also running the race) and I drove up to NYC from Virginia on Thursday morning to get to the expo shortly after it opened to avoid crowds and pick up our race packets. The expo was massive, we ended up spending about two hours there buying some race gear and checking out all the vendors and enjoying the free food samples. Definitely the biggest marathon expo I'd ever been to.

Posing with race bib at the expo!

Did lots of touristy stuff in NYC Thursday-Saturday, highly recommend the tour of Madison Square Garden if you are a basketball/hockey fan, getting to see the Knicks/Rangers locker rooms was cool as well as getting views from various areas of the arena including the suites. I'd like to go to an actual event there sometime but ticket prices are usually crazy even if the Rangers/Knicks are having terrible seasons.

I did not want to walk 10 miles on Saturday the day before a marathon so we went to a Broadway show in evening. We ended up eating dinner after the show at 11pm which was late but with how late the start time was for the marathon (10AM) eating your last "big" meal 11-12 hours before racing is about what you want to do, it just stunk getting four hours of sleep the night before.

I really appreciate the support I received on social media for this race, it was really cool to be contacted by so many friends and family members before, during and after the race, I was at dinner responding to many friends and family who were wishing me good luck it meant a lot and I want to thank everyone who reached out to me individually or on social media, I really appreciate the support and encouragement.

Race Goals     

I did not have a true set time goal for this race. I definitely wanted to shoot for sub four hours like I tried for in Richmond last year, but due to the fact that it was going to be such a massive race with 51,000 people running, the late start time, doing touristy stuff in NYC/walking around for miles on the days leading up to the race and unpredictable weather conditions on race day I didn't want to get myself hung up on a specific time going into the race. I set two fairly general goals for myself for this race over two months before race day.

1. Get into Manhattan(mile 16) feeling great so I'd be able to fully enjoy the massive crowds and spectators. 

2. Beat Kevin Hart. 

Goal #1 was the most important because in 2014 I was extremely well trained for the Marine Corps Marathon, but had a terrible race pacing wise and ended up having a horrible second half of the race. Unable to enjoy any of the crowds or sights and was just run/walking my way to the finish line feeling like total garbage. There was NO way I was going to let something like that happen in New York City running the biggest marathon in the world with the biggest crowds in the world. I WILL run through all five boroughs of NYC with a smile on my face and take in the sights and crowds along the way no matter what it does to my time or result/placement.

Goal #2 was important because Kevin Hart was one of the most well known celebrities running the race and was pretty open with his training in interviews. When I heard he was shooting for a 3:45 marathon I was a little skeptical especially since he said his longest long run was just 15 miles about a month before the race. I learned the hard way with my first marathon, it's one thing to look at a marathon pace chart and see what sort of times you run in a five mile run and think you can sustain a pace like that for a marathon, it's a very different thing to actually do it. I was banking on the fact that Kevin Hart was over estimating his time goal like I did my first marathon so I figured anything under four hours would be good enough which was in line with what I wanted to run anyway. The good thing about this goal was there wasn't a set time I'd have to worry about on the clock as I was running or concern myself with. I would be able to just run my own race with no pressure and let the chips fall afterwards. (Unless of course I found Kevin Hart on the course as I was running which was unlikely in a field of 50,000+, but I decided if that happened I would push the pace a bit no matter where it was to get ahead of him if I could)

Race Day

5:15AM wake up after going to sleep after 1AM the night before wasn't ideal. At least the time change helped somewhat. Getting to the start line was a journey in itself. First we took a 40 minute subway ride from my sisters apartment to the Staten Island ferry. Then waited 30 minutes to get onto the ferry, then a 30 minute ferry ride to Staten Island, then stood around for at least 30 minutes waiting to board a bus for a 15 minute ride to the start line. Three and a half hours after leaving the front door of my sisters apartment we exited the bus and walked nearly a half mile to the starting area. It literally took almost as long to get to the starting line as it was going to take me to actually run the marathon. I was scheduled to run at the very end of wave 1 to start at 9:50AM. During registration they ask for a recent race result for your wave assignment. I linked my most recent Cherry Blossom 10 mile race which made me look like a fast runner because I'm apparently just better at 10 mile races than full marathons. I mainly just wanted to start as close to the front as possible to avoid the mass mid-pack chaos. I've run mid-pack at Marine Corps and it's like running through a forest of trees that are constantly closing in around you and running alongside. Increases risks of random stuff happening like getting stepped on from behind or someone fall in front of you or forces you to make a weird move and come down awkwardly and roll an ankle or anything.

I finally got to my starting area at 9:15AM and sat down and tried to conserve energy and listen to music since I had already walked close to a mile and a half with almost over an hour and a half on my feet just getting to the starting area. This eats much needed energy out of your legs so I really tried to spend the next 35 minutes just doing some light stretching and sitting down in the starting area before the start.

The weather conditions were apparently the best they've been in a few years for the event, but it was still not ideal running conditions for me. There was a light misty rain and the air felt damp in general with temps in the upper 50's. In training, running in conditions like this can be difficult for me because it makes it more difficult for me to judge my perceived effort especially early in a run and for pacing. 2015 Marine Corps marathon had similar conditions to this with rain at points and I ended up taking the entire run very easy as a result to not risk "blowing up" like I had the previous year and hoped this wouldn't lead to a repeat of that. I already sweat a bit more than average in dry conditions and if I notice that I'm starting to sweat more than usual I have time to back off the pace to conserve energy. However when it's raining I have no way to know if my shorts are drenched because my body is working overtime or if it's just rain and usually in a long run I wouldn't know until too late. As I mentioned to Christian and my sister the night before the race, If I can't determine my sweat level mid-run I could be in for a bad day.

I heard the starting cannon go off at 9:50AM. From where I was at that point was over a quarter of a mile away from the starting line at the VERY back of the first wave. By the time the 15,000 runners ahead of me worked their way up to the starting area about 10 minutes later they were holding my area for the wave two start. So I ended up starting a few minutes after the second wave was released. The NYC marathon is so huge they have four waves of runners go off spaced by about 20 minutes to help space people out and not overload the course, they also have three different routes in the early miles so a group of runners runs on the lower level of the bridge and two other groups run on opposite lanes of the bridge on top. Standing at the starting line and looking out across the massive Verrazano bridge gave me goosebumps. The first two miles of the race are up and across that bridge. Just getting to the starting line of a marathon in good shape and healthy is an accomplishment in itself and I took this moment to just enjoy and appreciate that once again I was setting off on another marathon run and just not any marathon but the New York City Marathon, one of the six major marathons in the world and the biggest in terms of participants and spectators. BOOM the second cannon goes off literally right next to me and off we go finally at 10:18AM!

Course Overview: 

Verrazano bridge (Miles 1-2)

Note: These mile splits are from my Strava data not from actual race results. Pace = actual mile pace, GAP = grade adjusted pace basically estimate time had you been running on flat land.

Super easy mile 1 going up and across the bridge into a pretty decent headwind. Also I was boxed in behind a bunch of other people so I wasn't focused on pace on the first two miles at all. Others I have talked to who have run this race told me the first mile split you should really pay any attention to is mile 3 when you are off the bridge. Views of Manhattan at the top of the bridge were mostly obstructed by fog. I've heard this view is amazing on a sunny day and it was still pretty spectacular at the top, but most of the skyscrapers were obstructed. I think running the orange wave(left side of bridge) you don't actually spend quite as much time going up the bridge which played into my advantage but I picked it up a bit more than I would have wanted to coming off the bridge and rising up across the off ramp near the end of mile 2. A large group of people started flying by me at that point and I noticed it was because the 3:50 pace group was going through, I happily let them pass me. The old inexperienced me would have seen that pace group and maybe tried to run with them but I would not be deterred from running my own race today.

Brooklyn (Miles 3-13)

The course keeps you in Brooklyn for a big stretch of the race, nearly the entire first half. My main goal through this section was to keep a steady effort and just settle into a groove and keep it dialed back. There were many downhill miles in a row through this section so it was a bit tempting to pick it up going through here but I refused to make any moves and risk anything whatsoever so I just kept it at a pace that I've trained at and knew I would give myself the best chance to get the later stages in decent shape. 

My Aunt and little cousins were tracking me through the app. Watching me running through Brooklyn between Miles 4 and 5 early in the race here they display your initials and estimated location on the map, so neat!.

Ate the first fourth of my nutrition (honey stinger waffle) at mile 7 as planned and it went down great. A big first test during a marathon for me is how I handle the first "on the run" food. It's taken me 2-3 years to really understand this aspect of marathon running but I think finally I've found a good mix of timing as to when to eat and how much. Too little and you don't have enough fuel to get to the end, too much and you risk stomach cramping and feeling like garbage or worse needing an emergency toilet detour. Too early and you risk going through it too fast, too late and your body doesn't have time to absorb and work it in when you're still feeling good. Alternated between taking a splash of Gatorade and water through each alternating mile during this stretch (water and gatorade stops were every mile except along the bridges). At mile eight both sides of the roads converged, up until that point the blue/green and orange wave runners were running on opposite sides of the street, things got a bit dicey during miles 8-9 dealing with the extra congestion, it was similar to the beginning of the race again but I got through it unscathed except for a couple elbow bumps here and there. 

I was surprised at how amazing the crowds were all throughout Brooklyn. I was expecting Manhattan to be insane but Brooklyn exceeded my expectations there were some massive crowds all through this stretch. I've run two other marathons Marine Corps(3 times) and Richmond(once) and there are plenty of big crowd moments during those races but the amount of sustained support along the course of NYC was unbelievable, some of the early miles in Brooklyn were like the biggest and best miles of Marine Corps and Richmond. Just miles and miles of huge amounts of people lining both sides of the street to watch and cheer. It truly was awesome through some stretches here, running alongside people from all over the world, at one point there was a guy wearing Argentina colors, a guy wearing Brazil flag and a guy wearing Peru all next to me. In that one moment I remember thinking almost half the population of South America was represented all next to me and how far these people traveled and how much training we all put into running this race and sharing this moment together in the biggest marathon in the world, it truly was an amazing moment. 

Random side note, I was at mile 12 about to leave Brooklyn when the overall winner cross the finish line.

Queens (Miles 14-15)

As I hit the 13.1 halfway point in 2:00:28 I knew I was at a pivotal moment in my race. I was just over 4 hour pace but knew I'd have to negative split if I wanted to come in under 4. Negative splitting, running the second half of a marathon faster than the first, something that I had never even come close to doing in my four previous marathons. Something that only 3% of runners do at the NYC marathon. I knew I would have to be that 3% if I was going to come in under 4 but surprisingly I was really calm thinking about that at that moment. I was feeling amazing thanks to how conservatively I had run to that point which made such a difference. A decent amount of people ahead of me were slowing down and/or walking at the halfway point as you rise up across a small bridge to leave Brooklyn and enter Queens. I just held my pace and zig-zagged my way up and across the bridge into and through Queens. Once I got off the bridge I ate the second quarter of my stinger waffle and took water at mile 14 amazed at  how well I was still feeling. You don't spend much time in Queens as you quickly turn and head onto the Queensboro bridge. Part of miles 15/16 got wonky in terms of GPS data because you are running on the lower level of the bridge for a full mile along that stretch, I remember looking at my watch while I was running through that section and it was showing I was running at 15:00/mile pace which I knew was totally wrong. Just ignored that and let the fact that I was nearing Manhattan sink in. As I got to about a quarter of mile to go on the bridge I could hear the crowds in Manhattan and remember thinking I had achieved my #1 goal of getting to Manhattan feeling great. I could tell more and more people around me were hurting a bit or slowing significantly, maybe because this was the last point without spectators for almost the entire event and they wanted to look good for 1st ave. Off the ramp we were and suddenly we were into Manhattan.

Manhattan (Miles 16-19)

"The sound wall coming off the Queensboro bridge and 1st Ave is worth the whole of the race."

One of the coaches I met through a Potomac River Running training program, Michael Gibbs had run the race in 2014 and 2015 and has much more experience over a wide range of races said this stretch was the best and worth the entire race and he was 100% right.

Everything that I had read or seen on TV made this part of the race look truly amazing and people have said this is one of the best four mile stretches you can experience anywhere in any marathon in the world. As you come off the Quensboro bridge and hear that wall of sound and cheering it's one of the most exciting moments I've ever had running in any event. You roll off the bridge and loop around down onto 1st ave and it's just masses of people everywhere. When you make that turn onto 1st ave all you see all the way up is just a sea of runners with hundreds upon thousands of people lining both sides of the street. You run along here for four miles and it's nonstop cheering. I chose to run near the center of the road all the way up and forced myself not to pick up the pace too much. Many people I've heard have entered Manhattan and picked it up at this point but you still have 10 miles to go and even though it's starting to feel like you are nearing the end, 10 miles is a long long way if things start going downhill for you.

The sheer masses of people all along here is well worth the entire race. It was almost surreal seeing the amount of people. I thought I was prepared for the amount of people but it was insane, some areas easily 30-40+ people deep on both sides of the road for blocks and blocks, it's hard not to just keep running strong out of sheer adrenaline when you have that much crowd support. I got through mile 20 almost sad I couldn't turn around and run that four mile stretch a second time. I ate the third quarter of nutrition at mile 19 still a bit shocked that I felt so good as I prepared for the final 10k.

The Bronx (Miles 20-21)

They say you should use 50% of your energy getting through the first 20 miles of a marathon because you'll need everything else to get through those last six miles. I reached the 20 mile mark and about felt amazing. I cannot understate how ridiculous it was to have run 20 miles for the past 3 hours and still feeling good basically like I had just started. 

The Bronx was slightly more sparse than Manhattan, but only really felt that way because I had been running through the wall of sound on first avenue for so long. As people around me were slowing and having a plethora of issues, literally one girl that was running near me started crying out in agony, at first I thought something had happened but then glanced her way and realized 20 miles of running at maybe too fast a pace had just happened. Countless other people started pulling over to the side to stretch or just start walking. So many people  seemed to stop running or slow way down in the middle of the road or turned directly left or right to get to the side of the road. I calmly just started increasing speed in some sort of weird zen like state where everything felt perfectly fine. It was through here I passed Tiki Barber who had started in wave 1. I had no idea at the time but my sister who was tracking both of us told me that after the race as evident by a screenshot here which is now one of my most treasured moments in my running career:

Willis Playgound, forever known as the place where I passed Tiki Barber in The Bronx. (RGI=Me, TB=Tiki Barber and EE is my sisters friends Dad who was also very nearby at that time as well)

Zig zagging around people became sort of problematic as swerving all over the place over time would start to add distance to my run. When running a race you want to run tangents well meaning you don't want to take wide turns around corners which over time especially over a marathon can result in you running further than the actual distance which adds to your finishing time. Regardless of the risks of screwing up my tangents I would not be denied picking up the pace here so zig zagging continued. I had essentially transitioned from running a marathon to playing a game of frogger, except all the traffic was moving in the same direction with me and I had to keep sliding around people.

Unfortunately I missed my sister at mile 21, she was waiting near the water stop there and as I was running through I knew she would be around that mile mark but I didn't see her. She managed to spot Kevin Hart though and has some good footage of the race and stuff on her vlog here. Ate the rest of my nutrition at this point and settled in for the last 5 miles.

Manhattan/5th Ave/Central Park (Miles 22-26)

Mile 22, rolling through back in Manhattan and parallel to central park was my fastest mile of the race at 8:36/mile pace. This was probably the best mile I've run in five years of marathon running. All I really remember was I tucked in behind this guy wearing a jersey that said "Cook" on the back and we absolutely crushed it. Whoever you are dude in Cook jersey, we owned this stretch of the race. Must have passed 400-500 people in that eight minute stretch alone in a rolling uphill leading to the entrance of central park. This is where I literally remember thinking "Holy **** am I really going to crush this last 10k without a disaster happening?" I entered central park on cruise control, starting to feel some real pain for the first time but I knew to expect this and how to handle it.

One of my local running buddies, Chang, who had done a couple training programs with me previously and is a frequent runner at Potomac River Running Fairfax managed to find me at mile 24 and run alongside me and we even high fived. I had given him my race info the week before at the last local group run and he told me he would likely be spectating at some point along the course so it wasn't a complete surprise to see him but I had no idea where he would be exactly of if he would see me amidst the tens of thousands of other runners. He must have been camped right after a timing mat and got an update as I crossed it because he timed it perfectly and was literally jumping out onto the road to cheer me on. Seeing a local guy at that point was especially amazing because I was sad to have missed seeing my sister along the course earlier. To be running along for that long past hundreds of thousands of faces I didn't recognize and then for one of those faces to jump out at me and cheer me on was indescribably amazing. That little high five gave me an extra boost on finishing off the last big uphill through the twists and turns of central park. That entire mile 22-24 stretch were my best three miles of the entire race and probably the proudest 20 some odd minutes of running I've ever strung together anywhere in any race or in any training run at any point ever. It took four tries but I finally ran a proper marathon for the first time. I remember thinking that as I was passing countless people during that stretch. For the first time at that point in a marathon I was more worried passing people cleanly and not wondering where the finish line was. Feeling perfectly calm at mile 24 of a marathon and being able to sustain a solid pace is the kind of stuff a marathon runner dreams of, I have notoriously been terrible with pacing in the past as well so this was an extra sweet moment.

I started feeling the first signs of real fatigue at mile 25 but I was able to push on without any major slowing. When I saw the 800M to go sign I couldn't believe I did it, I actually ran a full marathon without even thinking about walking at any point. The thought of walking never even began to cross my mind in the later miles. In the last 400M I was actually pushing up the final hill and wondering how much time I might have left out on the course or if I had run too conservatively. I crossed the finish line feeling like I could have continued pushing on if I absolutely had to. Official finishing time: 3:57:48.

End/Conclusion

A perfect and conservative race strategy paid off with an eight minute personal record. Previous best was 4:05 and change last year in Richmond on an easier course. I found out after the race that Kevin Hart finished in 4:05:06 so both of my goals for the race were met. A closer examination of Kevin Hart's splits confirmed my suspicion that his goal time was too aggressive. He ran his first half in 1:47:05. I was 13 minutes slower than that through the halfway point but ended up finishing eight minutes ahead of him by the end of the race meaning I ran the second half a full 21 minutes faster. The last 10k of a marathon is where a race is won or lost and that's definitely where my race with Kevin Hart was decided. I learned alot from this marathon and will treasure the memories and experiences I had this weekend. My friend Christian ran an amazing time of 3:39:33 as well (with two restroom breaks) and was an awesome training buddy throughout the entire training cycle for this marathon, we did almost all of our long runs together all summer. I don't know how I'll train next year with him going off to grad school in VCU next year.

I also need to give a shout out to my wonderful girlfriend Andrea who has supported my running endeavors since the beginning and was following along from Maryland on race morning and encouraging me all training cycle. Her encouragement and support helped motivate me to run better and train harder than I ever have for this race and I truly appreciate how she has helped not only be a better runner but also a better person.

Also a shout out to my sister Melanie for housing myself and Christian at her apartment for the weekend having a place to stay made running the race much easier!  

Overall running the NYC marathon was an amazing experience, I hope I will have another opportunity to run it again sometime in the future. If you made it through this wall of text congrats to you, it took me almost as long to write as it took to get to the starting line of the marathon on Sunday. Until next time!

Post race victory! Ran a PR wearing =PR= gear, must have been good luck