ING New York City Marathon Tune-Up

Today I did the 18 mile NYC Marathon Tune-Up. I wasn’t sure if I would go until about 30 minutes before I left my house. It was a late start (9:30 am), which meant I would be away from home until early afternoon. I am always loathing spending time away from my kids, especially when the day is as beautiful as it was today. I also wasn’t sure I should go, since I was concerned my Plantar Fasciitis would rear its ugly head and I didn’t want to be so far away from home if I needed to walk off of the course. As it turned out, my foot didn’t bother me and I had a decent race.

I drove to the start of the race so I could minimize the amount of travel time. I found a spot pretty quickly and made it to the start with plenty of time to spare. I was able to do a 2 mile warm-up while waiting for the appointed time. It was a pretty crowded start with over 3700 people showing up to do the race. I had to dart and weave through many runners as I loosened my legs.

With my foot acting up over the last couple of days, I probably should have taken this race easily. However, once in a race I find it impossible to run at an easy to moderate pace. Something compels my body to strive for race pace and that is what happened to me today. I pretty much ran a steady pace throughout the race with the average being a 7:20 pace. My legs started to get fatigued at the end, but I forced myself to maintain my even or negative splits. I was surprised that my legs were speaking up as I began my third loop. I’ve got the distance in lately, so I was wondering why the later miles should have begun to feel like a struggle. My running watch was a comfort though as it showed my pace was holding steady or was increasing. At one mile marker I had thought I just ran my slowest mile, where in fact I had just run one of my fastest. Maybe I am just not used to running fast for distance.

After the race, I grabbed my bag quickly and headed back to my car. I was able to see many runners still running on their second loop. I was really glad I was finished and not only two thirds of the way through. I exited Central Park at 102nd Street and 5th Avenue and happened upon a taxi unloading passengers. The temptation to relaxing in a can instead of the mile back to my car was too tempting to pass up. Besides, I wanted to get home as quick as possible. Unfortunately, a Fresh Direct truck was blocking me in so I had to give up some of the time I saved to wait for the truck driver to return. It wait wasn’t so bad and I was back in my house by 12:30pm. I was back home in Brooklyn, while many people were still completing the race.

It would have been nice to spend the rest of the day relaxing around the house, but I have two children at home and it was time to get them active. We went down to South Beach in Staten Island and walked along the beach around the end of the island and under the Verrazano Bridge. The walking over giant rocks and plenty of large stones wasn’t very relaxing on my legs, but it did make for a very nice adventure. To the right is a picture my daughter took of me.

The beach is very interesting around this area. All sorts of debris wash up on shore. The kids loved climbing over all of the rocks as well as collecting a bunch they found interesting. My daughter also found a playmate on the beach as another family happened to come out and explore the view under the bridge. We wound up hanging out together for over an hour and everyone had a great time.