2007/04/15

Brooklyn Half-Marathon

I ran half-marathon in Brooklyn last Saturday. It was my second one of this year.

The race is one of the NYRR Half-marathon Grand Prix, which consists of 5 races in 5 boroughs in NYC.

It was so beautiful day. The temperature was 41F. It was the best day for a running race.




My plan for this race was to run a build-up training, to run with picking up the pace gradually.
I think I might be able to run at 6’45” per mile pace to finish 1:28’30” if I tried. However, as I have NJ Marathon 2 weeks ahead, it is not very wise to challenge my limit in this half marathon.
So I planned to run the first 4mile at 7’15” per mile, next 5miles at 7’00” and last 4.1 miles at 6’45”. The finish time would be 1:31’40”, which was my PR.

The course was from the Boardwalk of the Connie Island to the Prospect Park.
As I saw it, there were two points to care along the course; first 3mile and last 4miles.
The rest of the course was so flat and straight.

The first 3mile was on the Boardwalk. At the start line, there were almost 5,000 runners, and the Boardwalk was narrow. So if I lined up back of the crowd I would loss a couple of minutes.

The last 4miles was in the Prospect Park. There ware some uphill there. The first one was so long and tough to run after 10miles at race pace. So I kept in mind that I should save some energy for the hill.

The result was…

0-1 7'04"/7'04"
1-2 6'50"/13'54"
2-3 7'07"/21'01"
3-4 6'48"/27'49"
Maybe it was because I started from 7minutes per mile mark, the start was much smother than I expected. I was able to set the tone soon. But 6’48” in 3-4 was too fast, so I slowed the pace.

4-5 7'00"/34'49"
5-6 7'01"/41'50"
6-7 6'50"/48'40"
7-8 6'50"/55'30"
8-9 6'50"/1:02'20"
The middle miles were along the Ocean Avenue, it was so flat and straight.
After 6miles I picked up the pace as I planned. It is not so easy for me to keep the same pace in such flat and straight road; I tend to run faster. But in this race, I found a Mexican runner who was running at the slightly faster pace than my pace just ahead me at 6mile mark. I followed him. He was the best pace keeper I ever had. I was able to run at exactly same pace from 6 to 9 mile because of him. Actually I was not sure he was a Mexican or not. He might think that I was a Chinese.

9-10 6'50"/1:09'10"
10-11 6'47"/1:15'57"
11-12 6'24"/1:22'21"
12-13 6'36"/1:28'58"

Now we were in the Prospect Park.
The uphill between 10mile and 11mile was tough as expected, most of all the runners ahead slowed down so much. The pace keeper also did. But I did not. That was the hill that I focused on during the race. I saved my pace only to run through the hill, and it paid off. I passed almost all the visible runners on the hill all the way.
I was able to pick up my pace last three miles with using runners up ahead as target. Finally I was able to run as the race strategy in Bob Glover’s book.

13-13.1 0'35"/1:29'33"

Wow, I broke 1:30 for the first time!
As a result to start at slightly slower pace might help me. I was not sure whether I could brake 1:30 if I rushed at 6:45 pace from the start to aim 1:28’30”. I might get tired and slow down.
It was interesting and good experience to think about my pace in the NJ Marathon 2 weeks later.

My place was 256 of 4,847 runners, and 234 of 2,828 male runners
.

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