How’s that for a solid end to the 2014 racing season?
After the Richmond Half Marathon I thought I’d relax and take it easy for the rest of 2014 before gearing up to race the NYC Half in March. I was already registered for the Houston Half in January, but I considered using it as an NYC training run before keeping up with the tradition of joining my dad to cheer on Emilia at mile 26 of the full marathon. But when I shocked myself with a 1:46:45 in Richmond I decided i wanted to capitalize on that fitness and continue to build on it. And so I registered for a 10K on NYC’s Roosevelt Island. The price was right and the course was flat, so I figured that elusive sub-50 would have to be a piece of cake there, especially since my Richmond 10K split was 50:52, only 5 seconds slower than my October 2011 10K PR of 50:47. (Note: According to my 2012 Houston Half stats, I ran my fastest 10K midrace in 48:53/a 7:52 pace. However, I once had a long history of improperly racing 10Ks, essentially going out like it was a 5K and promptly falling apart in the second half, hence my incapability to break 50 in “real life.” Spoiler alert: no more!)
I originally signed up for this race as a solo adventure. No one else I knew was running it, but that was alright; I was simply on a mission to check off that 49:59. But a few weeks out, several of my PPTC teammates caught wind of it and signed up for the 5K or 10K themselves. Gabby was determined to break 25 in the 5K and recruited our super-speedy teammate Luca to pace her…and it didn’t take much convincing to get him to turn right around and pace me in the 10K on the logic that if Gabby wanted sub-25 and I wanted a sub-50, both races would be at the same easy-for-him pace. Game on. Race day arrived, and I almost ran a perfect negative split: 7:58, 7:54, 7:48, 7:40, 7:43, 7:40, 2:14 (7:18 pace for .3 miles per the Garmin). I don’t doubt that I could have executed the same results on my own, but (mostly) ignoring my pace and simply chasing Luca around the island proved to be a great distraction, making it easy to just get it done. Sub-25 and sub-50 ended up being sub-24 and sub-49 when Gabby and I finished 5K and 10K in 23:58 and 48:58 (officially a 7:54 pace), respectively. Success!
My new favorite race photo. Thanks, Gabby!
Post-race team brunch
PR mimosas!
On to the next: Houston is just three weeks away! As I alluded above, I’m no longer set on having this race be just a training run. After coming so close to my PR in Richmond, I’m determined to actually go for it back at my hometown race, exactly where I set my current one three years ago, and maybe even chase it again in March back here in New York. It’s been nothing but hard training since I hired Coach Hadley back in June, but somehow I’ve managed to avoid burnout thus far. I’m sure it has to do with my determination to get back to my prime and then build on that. I really want 2015 to be the year of the major comeback marathon, but I believe nailing a strong half PR first is a crucial step in that direction. I can’t wait to make it happen.
