New York, NY
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Applying: I applied to get into NYC Half back back in October, using my 1:23 time from New Bedford Half from last year. The qualifying standard for my age group is only a 1:41, so I felt confident I would get in, which obviously I did.
Race day minus one: Took Amtrak with Matthew from Westerly last Saturday morning. Got in with plenty of time to take the afternoon easy with nothing rushed. Got a bagel sandwich at Liberty Bagels and walked over to the expo at Center415.
For a race with 28,000 runners there actually wasn't that much of an expo, but that was just fine as we weren't looking to spend much time there anyway. Picked up our bibs and shirts and then checked in at our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Central South-Midtown West. What a mouthful! Pasta dinner just a couple blocks away at Joe G's. The linguine alla vongole dish that I had was really good.
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Nova lox bagel was fantastic! |
For a race with 28,000 runners there actually wasn't that much of an expo, but that was just fine as we weren't looking to spend much time there anyway. Picked up our bibs and shirts and then checked in at our hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Central South-Midtown West. What a mouthful! Pasta dinner just a couple blocks away at Joe G's. The linguine alla vongole dish that I had was really good.
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Pretty easy check-in at expo. Short lines. |
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My race "kit" is all ready next to the bed for me. |
Race morning warm-up: After a very fitful night of interrupted sleep, the alarms went off at 4am. Ugh. I was tempted to wish Matthew a good race and sleep in, but after lingering for about half an hour more in bed, I was up and ready to get moving. Had my usual oatmeal with granola, and we were out the door at 4:55am for a warm-up of about two miles. Obviously it was dark (which I seldom run in) and I was initially a little leery of running in the dark in a large city, but there were many (like more than a hundred) NYC police officers on the streets already, and that made me very comfortable. What was not comfortable was the strange and not at all pleasant smells emanating out of of grates and pipes on our run.
Travel to race start: Large races in big cities can often make for difficult logistics, and this was compounded by a point-to-point race. Ran to Times Square, where we took a subway to Franklin Ave in Brooklyn. The anticipated 20-minute subway ride ended up being closer to an hour, on a packed subway train with a bonus of a couple of freaks in our car. The main freak might have been under the influence of drugs, as he babbled incessantly to himself in gibberish, sometimes exploding into laughter, and sometimes just making guttural noises as he alternated standing, sitting in a seat, sitting on the floor, and precariously lunging towards subway riders with his Taco Bell tall cup full of some green liquid. Between that, the guy playing rap music loudly, and just a lot of quick starts and stops making my stomach queasy, the subway ride couldn't end soon enough for me.
Race ready: Fortunately, the security check-in and bathroom lines were both surprisingly fairly quick and we ran some strides in a coned off area not far from the start. We were in Wave 1, Corral A, and just like Boston, you had to show your bib to get through a gate and into the corral, although the process here seemed much more lax. We got as far to the front of the corral as we could and were soon packed in like sardines. With about five minutes to our wave's start (7:20am), Matthew bid adieu to me as he wriggled his way further forward. I went for one more pee break, and due to time constraints and crowds, I went behind the line of porta-jons, only to find three women squatting to pee. Awkward! I said sorry and was starting to turn around, when the first woman mid-pee just said "no problem" and said I can come back there also. Time was really tight, so I opted to go there, albeit again awkward as the woman was pulling up her shorts as I got to the narrow area and went past her. Got back into the sardines, took off my long sleeve shirt to toss/donate (much easier than dealing with bag check), and had an UnTapped Maple Waffle.
1st Half - Brooklyn to Manhattan: After a countdown, we were off. Kind of, as it took me exactly 30 seconds to get to the start line.
Once we get started, we very quickly hit two right turns, right in the first quarter-mile. The course is still very congested at this point; and there are a few runners that I bump into and vice versa. But the difficulty of navigating these first two turns pales in comparison to the 180-degree cone turnaround about 2/3 mile in. Here we came to a complete stop, with my analogy of "rounding the buoy" in either a sailboat race or triathlon, the latter where you're bumping into a lot of bodies at least for a slow swimmer like me. I could feel hands on my back of runners coming up on me, but the runners in front of me were at a stop so it's not like I had a choice to continue running myself, and I also come to a complete stop and walk a few steps.
As we pulled away from the cone turnaround, I had one of my last minor bump ups against a runner, and unfortunately, unlike everyone to date, this person was not at all nice. He turned to me and yelled, "YOU'RE GOING TO KILL US BOTH!". I was dumbfounded and didn't say anything. I'm honestly not sure if it was my fault or his, but who cares? It was clearly unintentional and so minor that our gait didn't even change. Since I didn't say anything and ignored him, he turned my way once again, and yelled the same phrase even louder. This time runners around me were clearly annoyed with him, as I heard, "Oh, come on!", "What's wrong with you?", and other phrases. I know I shouldn't let it get to me, but it did, and took my focus away from the race.
That first mile was a 6:42 split, way off anything I was looking for, but I accepted it based on the congestion and tight turns and told myself my pace would get faster. Which it did.
We left Prospect Park on a straightaway and my Mile 2 split was a 6:28, despite being uphill. Miles 3 and 4 were downhill and at least according to my watch, were both in the 5:50s. I remember thinking to myself that OK, maybe it's game on again for this race, but that is failing to account for GPS inaccuracies in the city. What I should've done was recalibrate how far off my watch distance was at the next mile split, like I successfully did at Detroit, but didn't even think about it here.
Mile 5 was our last full mile in Brooklyn, and at least according to my watch, was by far my slowest at 6:53. Mile 6 was on the Brooklyn Bridge. People were saying to me later, "wasn't it amazing to be on the Brooklyn Bridge?!". It was interesting, I guess, but I wouldn't use the work amazing. We were definitely in some pea soup fog on the bridge and I couldn't see the span completely for most of it.
2nd Half - Manhattan finish: I would say the descent off the Brooklyn bridge was more interesting than either the ascent onto it or running the main bridge section crossing the East River. Miles 7-10 were along FDR Drive, on the west shore of the East River. I heard and read about some people marveling about great this section was. It was pretty flat here, but I really didn't like the vehicles headed southbound in the opposite direction towards you. They were separated by a jersey barrier, but it still wasn't pleasant. Just my opinion, of course. My pace in these miles was mostly in the 6:20s and 6:30s.
Miles 11-12 head away from the water and through Times Square, but I was focused on my race and barely noticed when we went through there. My watch pace shows 6:25 and then 6:04, but I'm pretty sure both are inaccurate as my GPS lines look really wobbly (instead of a straight line) through these sections, most likely due to tall building interference.
I was so glad when we finally entered Central Park, as I knew we roughly only had one mile left. Just wanted this race to be over. I was passing a lot of runners (many were also passing me) but my interest in the race and result had long disappeared.
Final result: 1:27:06, 5th of 475 in age group. 82% age graded. Full results here
I was super disappointed with my result here, borderline depressed. I kept comparing to my 1:19 PR from just three years ago, and two 1:23 half-marathons that I ran just last year. But that is neither helping nor healthy.
Did some soul searching a day later, and among many other takeaways, I need to focus less on past results and overall placing, and more on age group and age grading. Which isn't bad then, to finish 5th out of 475 in my age group in a race with over 28,000 total finishers, 82% age graded, and 1:10:56 age-graded if you believe that. I'll focus on at least the first two and be happy with that.
Leaving my performance out of this, here is what I felt went well:
- Race communications to registrants
- Ease of check-in at expo
- Finish line efficiency
- New Balance tech shirt
And what could have gone better:
- Transportation to the start (not saying this was the fault of the race, just that the logistics of getting to the start were not good)
- The race and accommodations are expensive
- We were told repeatedly not to just toss extra clothing and that there was a specific place to put it, but that was far from clear
- The two immediate right turns in the first 1/4 mile were not good and jammed things up
- The cone turnaround less than a mile in was horrendous (I really wouldn't expect this from a major race with 28,000 total runners)
- While results were immediately available after finish, overall positions and age group placing were not available for a few hours
- Course map was not available until less than month before race day
- Post-race, many of the NYC Half links and pages were removed, including a link to a race recap highlighted in an e-mail sent out by NYRR CEO