I'm not going to throw platitudes your way. Training hard for a race and then doing worse than you hoped for sucks. Plain and simple. But even though you won't end your twenties with a PR, it'll be a fabulous way to start your thirties. Dating pool aside, my 30s have been far more enjoyable and affirming than my 20s ever were. Happy early 30th; live it up!

 

As a boy from Hope once said..."I feel your pain." In the midwest, innacurate courses come with the territory. I wouldn't expect so much in the NYC. It still sucks. Anyway, welcome to thirtysomethingdom.

 

You ran a good race 10 days before the half-marathon, didn't you? My guess is you were not fully recovered from that effort.

Bad days happen. Put it into the "experience" drawer, and don't get discouraged.

 

OK, Flygirl, you know that this is a good HM time, so don't tell yourself and others that it's not! You beat your Queen's HM time from this past spring, and given that 7.5 miles of this course were in Central Park, the weather conditions were lousy, and the field of 10,000+, you kicked butt. And personally, I didn't find many people PRed in the race. It sounded like an average course, performance-wise.

My first Half was a year after finishing my first NYC marathon, and it was slower than yours yesterday, so comparatively, you are doing very well on your way to NYC this fall.

From all you're training, it sounds like you will have an excellent first marathon, and this Half just demonstrated that. Congrats on a great race!

 

Your time, in my opinion, is awesome! However, I realize that everything is relative, and when you put in the training effort, you expect the payoffs. But sometimes it just isn't a good race--so many factors out there can make or break your finish time (including the weather!) I think I mentioned this after the race, but give it a month--you will kick ass at Grete's. The weather will be cooler and you will have had more time to let all that hard training sink in.

 

Thomas and Skylight are correct! You had a very decent race in spite of the weather conditions and not *feeling* great. And don't forget your EXCELLENT, BEYOND EXPECTATION Team Championship race!

Not every good race is a PR (and as you get older and slower like me, you will find that more and more to be true), and not every PR is a good race. You may even find that some of your best races will feel like crap. It's how you handle the adversity that counts!

 

I was disappointed I didn't sign up early enough. But, I didn't realize it was $60 until I read your headline.

Also, there's no excuse for misplaced mile markers.

How crowded was it on the course? From your splits it seems it was not overly bottlenecked at the start. How'd they manage that? Or, how were able to avoid it?

Anyway, congratulations on our run. You may not be proud of it, but at least you made it without injuring yourself, right?

 

well, since you know my ass is much slower than yours, and I really wish I could've run the 1/2......I have to say congrats on your fabulous time! Much better than my 18 miles at 5am in TX heat :) PS welcome to the REAL darkside, miss almost-30!

 

Sorry to hear the training didn't pay off as planned, but I have to believe it's a glitch. Historically, your training has paid off - everybody has glitches sooner or later. Grete's will be better. I'm running that one, too, tho only as part of a long-run day. I didn't even try to look for other bloggers this last Sunday, but I'll look for at Grete's just to say hello.

 

Sorry it didn't work out for you as planned - These things happen, and they suck.

Happy burpday for turning 30, and think of the new challenges ahead.

 

I'm sorry, but the course was accurate it had to be. It had to be certified because a WR could have fell. I'm sorry you did not do well, but don't blame it on the course it was layed out well before hand. You knew the entire 13.1 and my splits were accurate, why were yours off.

 

chicagogal-thanks :) this post really wasn't meant to be a pity party, but just an opportunity to let off some steam or something. (could you tell it was that time of the month for me as well...lol)

jeff-you'd be surprised, NYRR has had quite a few slip-ups with inaccurate mile markers/courses being long/short. I know we're all human and we all make mistakes, but still...

thomas-yep you are correct :), but i did feel it was sufficient time to recover from a 5-miler :) oh well.

skylight-thanks dear :) as for PRs, if you look at the PR zone, there were a lot there (plus another couple that I know didn't report it)

runner26-thanks-and you did very well too. i know it's all relative, i'm sure there are some peeps who were trying to break faster time goals and had their own bitchfests :)

picture dude-thank you, and thanks for putting things in perspective :)

david-i had a preferred start, so i got to cross in about 30 seconds, so the start was pretty clean for me. the park wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, we weren't limited to the rec lane for once...but when we hit 7th ave it was wide open.

yelbis-thanks...and great job on the 18. who knows, you might have been better off than i was! im just glad i remembered the bodyglide :-p

brooklyn-yep, i really hope that was all it was :-p congrats on your race!

liam-"new challenges", huh? :-p i at least got another month before facing em...

anonymous-i'm sure the course was 13.1 miles, but EVERYONE i spoke to agreed that miles 9 and 10 as well as the 15K mat were off. I'm not blaming my race on that, but it doesn't exactly help matters. why were my splits off? why don't you ask everyone else the same question, why their mile 9 and 10 splits were off. oh and BTW, if you want to slam me on my blog, at least have the balls to sign your name. thanks in advance.

 

flygirl:
first off, it was lovely to share the little swedish restaurant at downtown after the race with you guys...
then, I am sure you will do break 1:45 and even more, you sound to have the dterminism it takes. I had a similar experience as yours after Bronx Half and things changed...
And a technical detail: You are technically still in 20-29 age group until the year end :-) Having talked about technical: That tech. race t-shirt was way too big for men. Even size small was like a night gown, so look for me in CP wearing a women's size medium :-)

cheerio. see you at the races.

 

hey nyflygirl- I just got back from the open and didnt get a chance to comment!!! Damn, Im sorry to hear your disappointment. But then again, everyone has their good and bad days right? Shit happens and there's always a redemption! Grete's Gallop!!!! :)

I think your time is really good! You achieved an age grade of 61.0% and kicked ass on the first 5K split. There's always another half marathon. Use this to get fired up and destroy your PR! ;)

 

Okay, yes you're right, I didn't look at the PR zone before I commented, so I take it back: It wasn't an average course, it was apparently a pretty tough one. Of the 208 NYFlyers that ran, only 8 got PRs (one got an age award, but no PR). That's only 3.8%, "dear". A smaller percentage than I thought. (Even if there were a couple more, that's still less than 5%.)

Yeah you apparently performed pretty poorly, and finished a measly 16th out of 108 Flyer women. Must be really tough to be that slow.

And yes, I'm being sarcastic!

 

cenk-ah yes, same here. the food (and Bellinis too, heh heh) were pretty good, service kinda meh, then again i'm sure they're not used to hordes of runners on a Sunday morning :) as for the shirt, i'm surprised there were even size smalls when you were there-a lot of guys i talked to said there were only men's L and XL by the time they got there! good luck to you too at the races!

morrissey-yep I know...shit happens ;-) As for the first 5K, I'm almost positive that the split on the NYRR site was wrong-it has a clock time of 23 minutes flat and if you look at my first 3 miles, that's not possible (plus I even remembered the clock ticking to 26 minutes when I ran over the 5K mat.) yep, yep...one month to get my revenge. I'm looking forward to the Open though! Hope the weather cooperates...

skylight-OK, OK, i'm over it now!!
Really, I am.
Remind me next time to take my Midol before writing a race report so it can be a cute happy fluffy bunny post. But then it probably would not get so many comments now would it? :-P

 

well, that was interesting to read a race report from the inaugural half, sorry it didn't go your way.

and welcome to the most competitive age group!!

 

"cute happy fluffy bunny post"... that line made me smile.

You're going to kick ass at grete's.

 

Ugh inaccurate courses stink. I'll see you at Gretes..:)

Sounds like my decision to miss out on this one wasn't such a bad idea (not that I had a choice;)).

Keep chugging along...and your eyes on the main prize in November!

 

yvonne-thanks, i wish it could have been a less jaded report :) i think the actual concept of it was great, though certain logistics really needed fixing

derek-haha, i've said that one before. it's a schtick :)

uptown girl-thanks and welcome back!! yeah, i think your alternative was much better-and i can't wait to read the report!!

(and yay for 20 comments. although 3 of them were mine. my most-commented blog post ever. i oughta write bitchy race reports more often :-p )

 

I just found your blog through somewhere (follow the blog map and where does it lead?)

I ran the NYC Half 2 weeks after the Chicago Distance Classic.
While the race had a lot of kinks to work out, it was far better than the old standard Classic. At least there was room for all the runners.

The first water stop? I think I lost 40 seconds picking up empty cups.

And the mile markers were totally off! I gave up on my pace in that mile because I thought I was just slowing that much. It pissed me off to no end when I realized it. I wasn't even trying for a good race so I can't imagine how you felt.

I feel your pain on the PR -- you'll grab it next time!