Running in the Big Apple

It is amazing to me how big cities pull off such a huge feat of closing down miles upon miles of heavily populated roadways in the city center but the NY Road Runners have managed to do just that in what I now consider one of my favorite half marathon courses.  The course itself starts on the Upper East side of Central Park and takes you on a scenic, hilly 8 miler perimeter tour of the park before dropping you off at 7th Avenue where the lights and energy of Times Square propel you towards the Hudson River for a finish at Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty smiling upon you.  Yeah, awesome, right?!!! =)

Battery Park

I arrived into the city on Friday evening after a long day of travel from San Diego but was excited to meet up with Olympian and San Diego running Superstar, Meb Keflezighi and my friends from Infinite Running, with whom I work with on a nutritional front, at a local hotspot near Columbus Circle.

Dinner with Olympian Meb Keflezighi, Infinite runner and pro-entrant Caitlin Smith, and Infinite Running founders Hawi Keflezighi (Meb's brother) and Rob Hill

After dinner, it was back to my Big Apple Digs at Holiday Inn to try to get some rest and somewhat acclimated to the 3 hour time difference.  I think the long day of travel caught up to me because I had no problem hitting the pillow at 8pm (San Diego time).

A perfect spot for a 4-mile pre-race shakeout run

After a sound 10 hours of quality sleep, I was ready to take in the sights of the city which started with a beautiful 30 minute shake-out run uptown through Central Park and ended with a journey via sub/foot downtown (in NYC, you are either headed "uptown" or "downtown") where I took in some of the architectural gems of the city, enjoyed watching the diverse lineup of people roaming the streets, paid tribute at a fire station hit especially hard by the events of 9-11, and picked up my race packet.

Never forget

After exploring the city a bit, it was time to put the feet up and saturate my muscles with carbohydrate with the ritual pre-race pasta dinner while catching up on March Madness action.  With my alma mater Florida State being knocked out last night, I am now cheering for the Wildcats (my older sis went to Kentucky for grad school when they won twice in '96 and '98...I was in town visiting during the '96 title).

LET'S GO KENTUCKY!!!

I think most athletes can attest that there is no such thing as 'sound' sleep the night before a competition.  Fortunately, the accumulation of sleep the week leading up to race day is much more important and that I have been doing just fine as I hit my peak mileage of marathon training.  So, after another failed attempt to rest my race day excitement, I found myself bouncing up prior to my 2:30am (San Diego time) alarm. Seeing that the race day temperatures were hovering around freezing with sustained winds in the 10-15 mph category, I quickly made the decision to ditch my shorts and instead run in my sweet Saucony Amp Pro compression tights plus 2 layers up top, gloves, headband, and speedy Kinvara flats. In my mind, there is nothing worse than going into a long run frozen like an ice cube and at this particular race, you have to drop off your gear bag a full hour before the gun goes off which means those who dressed in typical near-naked race day fashion were going to be expending a ton of unnecessary energy shivering pre-race.  

Even more important than my race day gear was my race day fueling.  Low blood sugars actually can increase your risk for hypothermia as well as decrease performance.  I made sure my blood sugars were charged appropriately with the easy-to-digest and low-glycemic energy bar, Pure Fit (www.purefit.com) and 4 quercetin chews by FRS (quercetin is a natural anti-inflammatory found in the skins of apples and red onions that may help boost endurance performance) alongside my ritual dose of caffeine, which can help lower perceived effort and extend endurance, and a bottle of Infinit Run to aid pre-race hydration.

My main goal for this race was to test out the pace (6:20 per mile) I would need to run to qualify for the US Women's Olympic Marathon Trials next January in Houston.  As professional runner Kara Goucher mentioned in her postrace interview, it is not always easy to run hard when you are in the midst of peak marathon mileage so I wasn't sure how my body would respond but I was going to give it my best shot.  After some inspiring messages from the STACKED line up of Olympians, World Record Holders, and professional  runners also racing, I, along with 10,000+ runners lined up in Central Park, was ready to conquer the 13.1 mile journey that lay ahead of me.

Sporting my sweet Saucony gear at the NYC Half (I'm #634 just left of the Team for Kids sign)

The first couple miles, I found myself still a little chilled after being forced to give up my warm gear an hour prior to and having to check into my assigned corral 20 minutes prior to gun start.  Fortunately, the first 8 miles of this course provide plenty of hills to help get your body warmed up quickly so by the time I hit the 5k mark, I was fine with the near freezing temperatures.  The wind and hills made keeping a consistent pace a little challenging in the park but once we were let off on 7th Avenue, I was able to concentrate on picking up my pace to make my final 5 miles my fastest.  

Cruising past the 10k mark

Times Square is by far the coolest section of the course; it's hard not to pick up your pace when you are pumped up by the lights, energy, and sounds of this 7th Avenue stretch of the race!

Times Square Magic (I'm under the Kodak sign)

Speeding down 7th Avenue about 15k into the race

The final 3 miles takes you alongside the Hudson River.  It got a little windy in this section but with only a few miles left in the race, tunnel vision set in so these obstacles didn't phase me.  Feeling strong, I clipped off my fastest 5k and fastest mile of the race this last little stretch before greeting the Statue of Liberty at the finishline in Battery Park.  My official time: 1:22:20.  This represents a 12 second PR from last year's race only I achieved it in tougher conditions this year.   This placed me 306th out of 10,203 finishers, 38th out of 5,440 female finishers, and 11th out of 1,149 in my ultra competitive 30-34 age group (I was the 3rd amateur finisher in my age group, the rest started in the pro-wave with the Nike athletes Edna Kiplagat of Kenya, Kara Goucher of USA, and Madai Perez of Mexico taking the top 3 podium spots).  All and all, I am very happy about my effort and now look forward to clipping off a few more weeks of intense mileage before tapering for my "A" race of the Spring, Vancouver Marathon on May 1st.

Clipping off my fastest mile en route to the finish

Tunnel Vision

Crazy enough, I ran with the pictured guy finishing with me last year too!  

All smiles after posting a new 13.1 PR of 1:22:20

Successful weekend for Infinite Running

A huge thanks goes out to...

Rob & Hawi of Infinite Running for treating me to dinner on Friday and Saturday night and making my race experience that much more enjoyable.  Caitlin, it was nice meeting you and I hope we can hook up when I'm in town for Bay to Breakers in May =)

Paul Greer, my long-time coach whose continued guidance and friendship has helped me to continue to excel as an runner, as well as my teammates with San Diego Track Club, who always put a smile on my face and provide an amazing amount of support as I look to achieve some pretty lofty goals.

Robb Dorf of Pure Fit for the awesome flow of a bar I consider the best on the market.

My partners at Infinit Nutrition for sharing my vision for custom nutrition for race day.

Robb Latimer (sports massage), Ryan Schuler (body mechanics) and Nicholas Linn (MAT) for providing different types of massage therapy and helping stay injury free and rocking my intense training.

Saucony for providing me with some sweet gear to keep me running at peak and looking good doing so =)  I LOVE my Kinvaras for racing and the Amp Pro compression line worked wonders for this race!

Armone's Core Connection (pilates) and Rehab United (functional strength training) for helping improve my strength, flexibility, and overall athletic performance.

All my family and friends who continue to provide awesome support while I dedicate a ton a time to training and racing.  You guys ROCK!  Love ya all!