i paid 60 bucks and all i got was this lousy nike dri-fit shirt

yep, this race report is gonna be a bitchfest. if a bitchfest is not what you want to be reading, then i suggest you press your browser's back button immediately. thanks in advance.

and if you continue on, i simultaneously thank you and apologize.

well actually, the dri-fit shirt was actually the only good part about the much-hyped NYC Half-Marathon for me. (what can i say. baby blue is my color.) i hate to say it, but I was very underwhelmed by today's race, and very disappointed in my performance.

Mile	Split	Comments
1	8:07	nice clean start from the purple corral...down cat hill
2	8:17	around the bottom of the park, up to Tavern on the Green
3	8:25	up the west side incline to around west 90th
4	8:08	up one of the first harlem hill inclines...down the big downhill
5	8:31	steeper harlem hill. meh.
6	8:23	to just past the start line...and i'm thinking this mile was a little long.
7	8:08	same here...this mile marker should have been much closer to the mile 1 marker
8	8:13	yay...finally out of the park and onto 7th avenue
9	9:11	oh you gotta be f*ckin kidding me. we're on 42nd street now...and it starts raining. hard.
10	6:51	on the west side highway...well that comfirms mile 9 (as well as the 15K mat) was long...
11	8:23	so much for negative splits...
12	8:20	the road is slick. im trying to pick it up as much as possible without wiping out.
13	8:05	the faster i run, the faster i finish...
.1	.49	finally...

Final result was 1:47:51, 8:13 pace. (not even bothering posting my 5k/10k/15k splits, as they were all wrong.) Yes, I know...there are plenty of people who would love to break 1:50...break 2 hours, or whatever else!! But when I was gunning for 1:45, this was an extremely disappointing result. If a lot of others had a bad race, that would be one thing, but it seemed like almost everyone else PR'ed, or had a good race today. (yep, the green-eyed monster rearing its ugly head...why can't that be me??) I don't understand, I'm not slacking off with my training or anything. I stuck to my plan...average an 8:15 pace for the first 8 miles and then use the kinder terrain of the city streets to pick up the pace but my legs just did not want to get with the friggin program. It frustrates me to put in the effort and continuously fall short. I could and should have done better than this-I've already gotten 1:47 before, I want to improve on that-I'd love to not have to have that damn asterisk next to my half-marathon PR.

I do have to admit, running down 7th avenue was pretty cool, and it was a good thing that the rain did hold off until after the race start, it sorta felt good and beat the hell out of 90 degree weather. (And I do have to commend the volunteers and spectators who came out in this-your efforts were really appreciated!) I do think there was really no excuse for the mile markers being off, and that both the start and baggage logistics could have been much better as well. it was a nice novelty race, not sure I'll be doing this one next year.

and as this will be my last race as a 20-something runner...this wasn't exactly the way I wanted to be closing out my 20s. Next race will be Grete's, 5 days after hitting the next age group...