Race Report: 13.1 New York
Race Date: 2.4.2011
Official Finishing Time: 1:25:15 chip time (PB)
Official Overall Position: 14/2484 (finishers), which puts me in the fastest 0.56%
Race number: 2488
I had been looking forward to the 13.1 New York for some time and was finally hoping to get below 90min after the crowded disappointment of the Great North Run 2010. I was confident that I could do it, since I did a 15k training run at 4:10min/km pace not too long ago. The idea was to set off at that pace and get somewhere close to 1:27. Well, I set off a bit faster and never slowed down! I thought that 1:26 would be a dream time, but it never occurred to me that I could already get so close to my season’s target, which is sub 85min. In fact, with 5k to go I realized that a sub 20min 5k should indeed get me there — and I ran a sub 20min 5k, but the extra 200m (which were not a surprise given that the course has a lot of twists and turns) on top of the half marathon meant that it wasn’t quite enough after all. In any case, this was a PB by just over 8min, fancy that!
This was only the second time that the race was organised, and there were some glitches with the gear check and signs, but I had no major difficulties and was happy enough with the race and the post-race offerings (which included a fancy medal and free beer, although not very good beer). The weather was almost perfect: around six degrees Celsius and sunny, with just a tiny bit of wind. The course is extremely flat and fast, although it does include a lot of tight turns and parts of it were a bit flooded. Couldn’t have hoped for much better conditions though.
Finishing Sprint
I ran much of the race with the second lady, I think we gave each other nice pacing as we were doing a very good steady pace. In the end I overtook her with some 4-5k to go and ended up finishing some 15 seconds in front of the first lady, whom I overtook with just 1k to go. In general I didn’t really struggle at any point of the race, although at first I was concerned that I was going too fast. I started to overtake people after 10k or so though and no one came past me, so nothing to worry! The battle only begun around the 17k mark as I really started to push, fortunately I managed to pull it off.
Here are the splits (from Garmin):
5k 20:20
10k 20:18 (40:38 total)
15k 20:01 (1:00:39 total)
20k 19:46 (1:20:25 total)
Total: 21.29k in 1:25:19
So I managed a negative split despite the faster-than-planned start; in fact the second 10k was sub 40min. I ran the last km at sub 3:40min/km pace, so clearly I had something left in the machine! My average heart rate was 166 bpm, which is also the lowest I have had in a half marathon (168 bpm at the Great North Run).
The overall winner crossed the line in 1:09:10, more than eight minutes ahead of everyone else. Must’ve been pretty lonely!
By the way, Ulrike, who was visiting me from the UK, also ran the race and got an excellent time: 1:32:34 — she was the fourth lady!
My next race will be the Scotland Run (10k) in Central Park already this Sunday. Due to it being so soon after the half I don’t expect anything amazing, but I’ll be looking for sub 39min. I did run a 39:01 10k in training recently, so it should be doable, although there is one big hill on the course… Report to follow!
Official results here.
Garmin data here.
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