3 Straight Weekends, 3 Different Half Marathons

Over the last 3 weekends I’ve run some 56 plus miles. 39.3 of those miles were collected running Half Marathons in Chicago, Manhattan, and Staten Island.

Week 1: Chicago Half Marathon

I signed up for the Chicago Half Marathon a while ago. This was my 8th official half marathon and 5th state where I’ve run a half marathon. I had initially planned to run the race with my friend Kevin, who also happens to be the same person who ran with me at my first half marathon in Nashville back in 2012.

Unfortunately, Kevin had some last minute work travel come up that kept him from being able to run, which sucks, but that is life. I was still able to catch up with Kevin, his girlfriend, another good college friend, Philip, and his new baby Emery (pictured below), as we watched the Heels eek out a victory! GO Heels, Go America!

Always remember, to drink and hold babies responsibly

But what about the running? Right, I digress.

The race was scheduled for Sunday. After the miserable long runs the previous two weeks, I was a bit nervous about this race. I decided to go out on Saturday and get a few miles in. About 1.5 miles in, I had to call it quits. I was a bit of a mess mentally and my body was super tight.

This created a lot of extra concern and nerves for the following day.

Day of the race: I was very fortunate to have another college friend, Jimmy, who lived a few blocks from Hyde Park, where the race starts and finishes. I woke up early, grabbed a couple pieces of toast, a banana, and some Gatorade. I did some extra stretching and headed out to the start. The weather was in the high 60s and low 70s with a little bit of humidity. While this was the coolest the weather had been for me, many in the starting corral bemoaned the humidity and heat. Either way, we all had 13.1 miles ahead of us.

I found a 10:47 pace group I decided to run. For some reason I was having major issues getting my music to play to my blue tooth headphones. As a runner who rarely ever runs without music I thought I was going to be done for. Fortunately, the pace group leaders were the best I’ve ever run with. One has a real love for the history of Chicago and shared information about various building and locations that we ran by throughout the race. The other pacer was jovial and knew how to engage with other runners without talking too much.

The race is a relatively flat race, which I greatly appreciated. I slowed down a bit towards the last few miles, but with some support from my friend Jimmy with the below photo, I finished strong.

Jimmy isn’t known for his political correctness

Fortunately I was feeling pretty strong at the end of the race, because the race organizers went a little overboard with the finisher medals. Not only was it the largest I’ve ever received, it also spins!

BLING BLING!

Thanks again to Jimmy for hosting me for the weekend.

Week 2: Grete’s Great Gallup

Back in St. Louis during the week, I got a couple more miles in while running with a local running group, as well as a couple different workout.

Back in the city, the RunMigos (KT, Ashley, and I) signed up for an “underground” race. The 7 mile race had 5 different starting locations. One for each borough. Ashley lives in Queens, so we all decided to run together and started from there. When we arrived at a local coffee shop, which doubled as our starting point, we learned that we were the only three competitors representing Queens, and ironically 2/3s of the group live in Manhattan.

This twist ended up working out well. First off, our “host” Philip (not to be confused with the father of Emery, above) rode along with us on his bike and helped us navigate as, some of the turns were a little hard to remember and find. He took a lot of photos and chatted with us as we ran.

After a few turns in Queens, we made our way over the Ed Koch Bridge and down 1st Ave. The fall weather was greatly appreciated. As we made our way to the “Center of the Universe,” aka 1st and 1st. We ran by my apartment and then KT’s apartment and thought to ourselves. We could just end this now.

BUT WHAT IS THE FUN IN THAT!?

We make it to the finish line and force Ashley to be the true winner of Queens. The group of 30 finishers from the other boroughs were already there and seemed to have been done fore a while. That was no sweat off our backs, and I can only speak for myself, but I had A LOT of sweat on my back already.

After munching on some homemade cookies and rehydrating, the organizer of Renegade Rebellion, Leigh Gerson started handing out awards. To my amazement, they had these awesome drawstring bags imprinted with each borough made for the male and female winners from each borough. Yes, you are reading this correctly, I WON A PRIZE FOR RUNNING!!!!!!!!!!! It was a first and most likely a last! It’s also important to give a big shout out to KT Wall who pushed Ashley and I along the last 10 blocks of the race while also finishing her longest run EVER!!! WAY TO GO RUNMIGA!!!!

Did not get the Lisa Frank memo. Next time though.

The next day was Grete’s Great Gallup, a Fred’s Team sponsored half marathon named after Grete Waltz, a 9-time New York City Marathon winner who lost her life to cancer. This seems to be as good a time as any to promote my Fred’s Team Fundraiser for the New York City Marathon. If you can, please take a moment to donate. Every dollar supports Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Research Center. Here’s the link to my page: Donate

I was running a little behind as I got to Central Park. I had a bit of an accidentally frazzled morning and got off the subway at the wrong station. Running to the start, I dropped my new, awesome drawstring bag, and made my way to the starting corrals. By the time I got there, the race had started and I just ran through the start line.

In prepping for the race, I had decided to run the first half of the race around an 11 minutes pace and then based on how I was feeling push the tempo on the second half. Having had a rash of bad long runs in Central Park as of late, I didn’t want a repeat and figured the slow start would keep me positive and focused on consistently running.

The plan seemed to work. After my first lap, I pushed the tempo a slight bit, and even as I hit my nemesis, Harlem Hill, I kept my form and powered up the hill and then right down the opposite side.

Finishing strong, I grabbed another medal, some much appreciated snacks, and headed home to rest and watch some football.

Week 3: Staten Island Half

After two great races on Saturday and Sunday, I headed back to St. Louis and took my first boxing class at Title Boxing on Monday. Not sure why I’ve never gone to a boxing class before, but man did I LOVE IT! It was such a great way to get my work related aggression out and get a SERIOUS sweat on.

I also tried out a new running group this week through a local running store True Runner.

Once back in New York, I went to a weekly bootcamp class at Throwback Fitness on Friday and hit up one of my favorite Mile High Run Club coaches, Laura, for a 60 minute distance class. Laura always has really great stories to tell and shares some great workout philosophies while forcing you to charge up treadmill created hills. 5 miles later, I headed home to shower and get ready to watch the Heels eviscerate VA Tech. Unfortunately, the Heels were not able to handle the Hokies and the torrential downpour.

Sunday brought another half, this time in Staten Island. I wanted to match the 16 miles that the rest of Fred’s Team completed on Saturday, so I decided to run from my apartment to the Staten Island Ferry, where I would board the boat to the start of the race. I usually bring a bag with some extra layers, crocs (no judgement please), and snacks, but seeing as I was going to run to the ferry, a bag was not in the cards.

When I left my apartment, the temperature was around 62 and there was a slight drizzle coming down. Though the rain was expected to come down all day, I wasn’t too worried, as long as it didn’t get heavier and there wasn’t too much wind. I met with RunMiga Ashley at the ferry terminal, which was a complete mess, and off we rode to Staten Island. Once there we tried to find bathrooms and cheered another friend, Philip (Not the same one from Chicago or from the previous week. A third, completely different Philip), who was running the Staten Island 5K.

As Ashley and I waited under her mother’s umbrella, the rain and wind started to pick up and the temperature started to dip ever so slightly. A few minutes before the race, another of Ashley’s friends found us and we headed to the starting corral. With some awesomely cliche 90s and early 00s pop music blaring, we semi-danced to keep ourselves warm as we worked our way to the start line.

Once on the course, I ran with Ashley for the first 3 or 4 miles. Ashley, who was running her first half marathon ever, was rocking a strong 10:15–10:30 pace. The course starts off pretty flat and downhill, which is awesome, but I knew that on my legs and given my recent long runs, I needed to slow down if I was going to make it to the end. I wished Ashley godspeed as she powered ahead and I got myself into a comfortable 10:45 pace. Comfortable isn’t quite accurate, as I found my body wanting to push a little harder. I continually had to tell myself to slow down. Not sure if it was the cold or rain, but between miles 5–8, I was feeling really great. That being said, I knew I needed to slow it down and did my best to keep it slow and steady.

While the first half of the race is enjoyably flat and downhill, the second has some uphill portions that are really tough without inclement weather, but on this race day, the wind had started to pick up and the temperature continued to drop as the rain poured. At one point, I watched a woman get pushed off the course from a wind gust as we pushed up a nasty hill.

The wind over the last 3 miles cause me to take some walking breaks where I would scrunch down to minimize my body size. The weather also created another issue I hadn’t dealt with before. Because it was so cold, my fists had been clenched pretty tight for most of the race, and around mile 6, mile forearms started to seize up. It was a very weird feeling and experience, though maybe it helped me focus on something other than running in the awful weather.

Once I hit mile 12, I knew I only had a mile left and pushed myself through the pain and wind. As I turned to finish the race through the minor league ballpark next to the ferry terminal, I and the rest of the runners were confronted with 100 yards of mud that we had to traverse to cross the finish line. I carefully charged through the finish praying that I make it through without slipping and hurting myself, which I luckily achieved.

The post-race area was a mess, so I quickly walked my way to the heat of the terminal and texted Ashley to meet back up. Ashley, who crushed her first half marathon, finishing ahead of her goal (WAY TO GOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), found me in the terminal and shared a little gift that her mom received, a 2016 NYRR Volunteer hat that I had been eyeing for a while. Thanks Mrs. Lund-Pearson!

Another ride on the ferry back to Manhattan and then a short trip on the subway separated me from my bed. Another half marathon in the books. Now it was time for a nap.

Coming Up:

Friday — Throwback Bootcamp

Saturday — 20 Mile Loop around Manhattan (GAHHH I’m So Nervous)

Sunday — The MOST NAPS

Monday — Boxing Class