Brooklyn Half Marathon

A kind of main race for the year but not really... but kind of.
I entered this race before I had fully committed to doing the marathon at Bear Mountain but then thought with all that training I could get away with doing very little in the two weeks following the marathon and have a crack at reducing my PB from 2013.

It hadn't gone wuite to plan in the build up. I had gotten the cold again two days before Bear Mountain and although it was just in my nose and didn't affect me that much during the race I was laid out for the two days following, even having to take a day off work on the Monday.

The race, the cold and bike to work month meant I biked the 14mile round trip 9 times in the two weeks but only managed three runs of 4-5 miles during which I felt pretty shit and heavy legged.

Race day night I decided to go for it from the start and see if marathon training could keep my form and legs going towards the end. I also decided it was easier for me to gently cycle the 1.5M to Grand Army, lock my bike and jog the other 3/4 mile to the wave 1 check in area for the 7am start!

With the size of event it was, 26,500 finishers, pretty much the largest half marathon in the states, you had to check in your bag, go through security then enter your coral where the toilets were (no outside toilets), then wait. I think partly for security and partly to get people into the corals early instead of them hanging about.

I got near the front of my coral and in the end I was standing beside the 1.20 pacer which was a bit too much as the gun went and they disappeared into the distance. Indeed, the 1.25 pacer went past and slowly pulled away which was a little disheartening as I was running strong for the first three miles with some good splits of 6.18, 6.17 and 6.05 heading into Prospect Park. A 5K split of 19.26 was a nice surprise as all I could remember from looking at 2013's even splits were they were around 21 minutes.

The start is nice and scenic, slightly downhill, slightly uphill, round Grand Army Plaza and back downhill and into Prospect Park.

Grand Army circle

The Brooklyn Library at Grand Army

Some good signs on the course again, didn't really see many as I was really concentrating on this one, ha ha.

Up the dreaded hill in the park, but with the downhill exit out of the park onto a dual carriageway road, Ocean Parkway, ALL the way down (6miles) to Coney Island.

Park entrance/exit

I passed through the 10K split just before exiting the park in 40.17.

Once on Ocean Parkway I was determined to not look at the Avenue roadsigns that basically count down from Avenue A all the way to Ave Z and try and just get into a focused straight line run aiming for 6.30 pace. At this point there is much more room to run so I moved out a little and just did my own thing.

Rocking the PPTC kit

6.25, 6.30, 6.22, 6.28, 6.32, catching the 1.25 pacer, now in sight but feeling really tired. The last mile was pretty tough. I just wanted it to be over at this point.
I didn't feel I was going any faster but managed a 6.17 split up onto the boardwalk and as the 1.25 mini group crossed the line I gave it everything and finished not too far behind them and cracked 1.25, taking nearly two minutes of my last time in 1.24.46.

The last few hundred metres on the boardwalk

Really struggling

Am I gonna puke??

380th place but 29th in my age group which was fairly decent I thought.

It had been a little humid during the race but a nice temperature. There had been a chance of rain and indeed just as I walked to get my bag it started to rain. By the time I got my bag I was fast walking to get some shelter as the heavens opened. The other runners and especially wave 2 which didn't start until 7.40am got drenched. Although the way the weather is here, by the time I got the train back to my bike it was around 24 degrees and bright sunshine.

The family meet up and post-race 'party' was inside the MCU Park (minor league baseball) stadium.
It looked like this when I entered to take a sneak inside.

And when I seen the pics from later it looked like this!

Took the train back to my bike, bought a danish pastry at the farmers market and enjoyed a leisurely cycle home. My legs are sorer then after Bear Mountain though, must be the roads!

The novelty of an empty train

The winner

Friday nights alright for fighting

Little post to say Heather took me to Friday Night Fights.
Her gym had a couple of fighters in action that night and she'd been to a previous one and said it was fun so I went along this time.

It is Muay Thai fighting, in the Broad Street Ballroom which was basically like an empty bank, it was down the road from the Stock Exchange after all.

We were super close, although we were in there for nearly 4 hours and it got so hot in there.
Tonnes of fights, all slightly different rules and styles and like boxing they all turned out slightly different in the way they went down.

Bit of blood flying about in one fight which the crowd loved. Certain fighters got really loud support from their gym/teammates and it's definitely something I'd go to again!

The Big Endurance Challenge

The North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon at Bear Mountain. Big title, big race.

This is what I'd been training for through winter and what I'd nervously been looking forward to for the last couple of weeks ever since I'd started to taper down and have that tired feeling where you just want to do the race and not carry on the training.

This was the info from the course guide I'd been looking at all week.

Trying to plan out my fueling strategy and still trying to get into my head how the hell I was going to pace this.
From last year's results I thought maybe a finish time between 4.15 and 4.30 and somewhere around 10min miles would be good enough with a bit of luck to get close to the age group awards.

We left just after 6am and the roads were nice and quiet. As it started an hour later (9am) than the half marathon version I'd done the previous two years the sun was already out and heating things up nicely.

Partly having the confidence of a solid training schedule behind me where I barely missed a session and a love of getting back onto some proper trails meant I was really looking forward to this one.
We also took two friends along to keep Heather occupied while I disappeared for the 4 and a half hours!

Here's me smiling at the relaxed start of the race and an example of the mixed terrain that lay ahead.
There were regular marked trails, unmarked little trails and rocky stretches that they tried to guide you through rather than following any actual path.
There were a couple of real boulder scrambles where I had a little smile to myself when I looked up ahead and seen this was where the little coloured flags were directing us to go.
There were a few moments like that. Is it left? Is it right? No. It's straight ahead off the path and up through the trees. Of course it is!
There was even a 1/4 mile of Tour De France alpine road climbing with an aid station right at the top. At least I managed to get down to 6.40min mile pace coming down the other side, which considering I'd done 15miles at that point tells you how steep it was.

Back to the start. The first 4 and a bit miles to the first aid station were the same as the half marathon I have done the last two years. I really tried to go slower than my body wanted to knowing there was so far to go and so much climbing to be done.
They had a timing mat here and I found out afterwards I was through here in 19th place averaging 8.50 pace.

I had my shorts with their little hip holster pockets containing one gel flask with 3 gels mixed with water and a little soft flask with water. The plan was to take these if needed and consume the water and hydration drink at the aid station combined with trying to take a gel from my flask or the aid table every 30-40 mins depending on where I was on the course.
They had a volunteer stationed like a 1/4 mile away ringing a bell or shouting that the next aid station was coming up which was really useful.

It's getting hot out here

It didn't take long to heat up and despite being in the trees for most of the course the sun got through very easily. It got up to around 20 degrees which wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that I'd just trained through the winter for this and it had only really been this warm for like three days this year so far.

I used my Garmin to gauge the distance run but that's all really. All the training and knowing your own pace and effort helps as I would look at the watch to see 9min something pace one minute then 11min plus the next so it really helped that I was semi-comfortable knowing what effort I could sustain even though it was going to be an hour longer than I'd ever run before!
At the start the starter asked how many people were running their first ever marathon and there were way too many shouts of 'yes', I would've been really worried if that was my first marathon.

What path?

As I kind of suspected the race settled down after a few miles and as happens to me quite often I ended up running mile 6 to mile 12 all on my own with nobody in sight whatsoever!
I was alone in the woods, just running along following the little coloured flags thinking my thoughts.

There were a few stretches where I ran and ran and then checked my watch only to see a mile had gone by and I was barely at half way. 13M still to go?!

The mixed terrain and not knowing the course kept me going and also I started to run into the back end of the 50K field, maybe even the 50M competitors? I seemed to be flying compared to them of course.

At the 14M aid station I was up to 12th although as I say I didn't know this at the time.

The next aid station was just after 20M and Heather had agreed to be there to cheer me on. I've never down a race before where I felt I needed any kind of cheering on or support to help me through the race but on this one I was really looking forward to seeing someone I knew. I didn't really need a cheer just a little break and like a mini reward along with the hydration and gel!

Pour that water in my cap

Hey, posing mid race, a novelty!

Okay, better get going.

I ran off up to the t-junction, the tape was on the left corner and after 21M you're pretty tired so my head was down going up the short climb. I turned left and ran about 50m then thought, oh oh, this doesn't seem right as I couldn't see any more tape up ahead.
Just then, two runners came round the top corner and were saying that wasn't the right way. Just then we looked back to see another runner run straight across the road and up through the trees.
Of course it was straight up the hill.
The other two runners took off and disappeared out of sight, the other guy I slowly caught and passed which kept me going for that couple of miles!

With a few miles to go we met the 10K course which I remembered from the half last year. This time it was the marathon relay that were using the 10K for their loops. I sped past a couple of them and was feeling good knowing I only had around 2 miles to go.
Then I was thrown off slightly as the marathon course deviated up and over another rocky little climb, I was cursing the organisers at this point, what the hell.

We rejoined the 10K course and there were a couple of slight rocky little uphills on this never ending course. These last 3 or so miles really were the longest 3 miles of my life.

I felt good coming through to the finish but I knew I was totally done. As soon as I stopped, I downed some water and found Heather sitting on the hill.
I collapsed on the ground and my leg muscles were so tired. I've never felt my legs so tired before, like a weird pain where you can't sit still, I probably shouldn't have been sitting that was the problem!

I barefooted it down to the ice bath and sat for a few minutes and rubbed the cold sponge on my calves. We got some free food but after a bite of hot dog I decided I didn't really feel like eating that kind of food right now, I did down the entire cold Diet Pepsi though.

As we got ready to leave I went to check the results and was really pleased to see I had come in 8th overall and had secured 1st place in the 40-44 age group.

Look at the winner's pace, ridiculous!

The prize was pretty poor, a buff and a couple of gel blocks (ha ha) but after thinking back and despite not having any time reference to go off unlike a road marathon I felt this was the most proud I've been of how a race has gone for a long long time.

This event was tough. The terrain was unforgiving, very little flat or sections to relax on, total concentration required (I did trip 7 times!) and with the sunny weather and thre fueling needed to run for an hour longer than I've ever run before. I overheard some people say the 50K was one of the hardest 50K's you can do.
After the last couple of weeks though, I definitely prefer the trails and am going to pick out some more events like this in the future.

Interestingly my legs got rid of the soreness pretty quickly and I look forward to seeing how they feel when I bike to work during the week as it's Bike To Work month here in NYC.

Onto the next one, I have the Brooklyn Half Marathon on the 16th so we'll see how my legs feel when I actually try to run!

Leatherman's Loop 10K

I entered the Leatherman's Loop 10K race back in January through their lottery system. Luckily I got in at my first attempt but the way things worked out it turned out to be one week, actually just six days, before I do my main goal race, The North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain Marathon.

I should be okay as it was soft enough in places (see below!) that I don't have the same soreness normally associated with 10K trail events and another good reminder of how good it is to get back into the countryside and get some proper off-road running done.

I shared a car ride up with one of the guys from the Prospect Park Track Club and we left at 6am to avoid the long wait to get access to the car park we had heard about if you didn't arrive before 8am.
We got there at 7.40am which felt really early but by 8am the place was heaving.

The warning pic form their website!

This was my first event competing in my new PPTC club kit which lead to me getting my first shout from a spectator of 'Cmon PPTC'.

It was the 29th running of the event and apparently it is one of the largest fields for a trail race in the US that isn't a Spartan or Tough Mudder event, there were over 1200 finishers this year.

The start was like a cross country, wide open over a rough dry meadow with the herd of runners trampling their way to a left hand bend and sprinting to get to the front as the path narrowed to single and double file for most of the next mile. 

Where's Chris?

Ready, Set, GO!

I had heard the first three miles were the hardest but without knowing the course it was difficult to know how hard to push it from the start. We started near the front but I was definitely delayed due to the number of people around me. A little here but more once we turned into the woods and the path and roughness underfoot meant it was difficult to run close or pass people.

Once the field separated and things settled down I began to enjoy the varying terrain, being able to see where you are going helps!

There were rough forestry trails with gnarly (a favourite word with a lot of REI employees) tree roots and rocks, then the mud flats!

Small video of the mud.

Then after a bit of narrow trail action it opened up to a dirt hill that was short but so steep everyone was using their hands to claw their way up.
Just before that I had a smile on my face as there was both a bagpiper and a mariachi band!

There were two mini water crossings during the first 4 miles and after a bit of a downhill stretch towards the finish there came the infamous water crossing where all the spectators lined the exit up the bank cheering as you jumped up and sprinted the final few hundred meters to the finish.
One of the best finishes to a race I've ever done.

There were tonnes of photographers there and they post the photos on their website for free!

1.

2.

3.

Despite the above 'technique' surprisingly picture 4 was me exiting the water and not falling face first in as you might have expected.
I felt good towards the end and finished with 7.03 and 6.47 mile splits.

Not everyone was so lucky:

On purpose??

I came in 17th and had heard beforehand that under 45mins was considered a good time. I did 45.41 and as is my thing nowadays I thought I might be close to the age group awards but similar to Scotland the 40-49 age group is very competitive in the rougher, hillier trail events so I could only manage 7th!

Definitely one I'd travel up to do again.

Hopefully not as wet next week!

Secret show and secret trail race

On Sunday it was announced that Mumford & Sons were playing a kind of secret show at a small 500 capacity venue in the city. The tickets went on sale the next morning but we couldn't get any.
Late Monday night they announced they were playing a second night so on Tuesday morning we tried again and after a couple of page refreshes after entering my card details I managed to get two tickets!

They were playing all the songs from their upcoming new album, basically practicing the songs live before they go on tour. Because of this, they specifically stated there would be no phones or cameras allowed inside and you would have to leave them at the door.
As it was close to my work we left our stuff there and headed over around 5.30pm, Heather wanted to be close as normally she struggles to see over tall folk at standing gigs!

The doors opened at 7pm and they were due on at 9pm. We ended up being about the 10th people in line and I wandered around the corner to get some mexican food which we ate in line then we went in and ended up right at the front corner of the stage basically a couple of feet away from the bass guitar every time he swung it round.
The two hour wait inside was pretty painful on the feet and back, old people problems, but once they started it was pretty amazing. So close, so loud and brand new songs!

Of course there was the odd person that smuggled in their phone as there were a couple of pics floating about the internet the next day buy the singer commented that it was amazing to look out and see actual faces and not phones and ipads staring back.

As we were up front we were also lucky enough to come away with one of the guitar picks jettisoned at the end of the gig.

REI has been trying to boost its running business, specifically leaning towards the trail running market. They started a running group and are organising a trail race series, the first of which was last Saturday.

I wasn't planning to do it as it was an hour and a bit drive North at the Blue Mountain Reservation but a couple of other people at work said they were doing it and would drive if I wanted to go so I jumped a the opportunity to get some proper trail practice.

They hadn't really advertised it much on purpose as they wanted to keep it low key as it was their first real attempt at orgainsing a running race. The other races in the series are later in the year.
There was only 40 something in the 10K and maybe 30max in the 5K so of course I hit the front within the first few metres and lead the whole way round, coming home first by a good distance.

The course was good, rough in parts, little climbs, and a good warning reminder to not go off too fast in this upcoming marathon with pacing being more difficult to judge.

The course was a little short at 5.9M but I average a solid 6.50 pace overall and represented work, coming away with a nice silver mug.
Annie from work finished 5th overall and 1st female but they only did awards to the first three across the line so we gave them feedback, maybe something they can think about changing for their next ones!

Four weeks to go!

Still training well, just got over the cold which really only made me miss one of the speed sessions.
Last weeks key weekend workout was 18M with the last 14M of that around 7.30 pace. Felt good during but lay on the sofa absolutely knackered later that afternoon.

Then now that we are outdoors for the speed workouts I stepped onto a running track for the first time in years to do a session. 10x400m with a 200m jog rec. Not much lighting when the sun went down halfway through and light drizzle that turned to rain as we finished but in the absence of the two faster guys I led the pack round in fairly consistent 75 to 72 secs.

One of the hardest workouts I've done in ages, the short recoveries were hell.

A slightly different week this week. On Monday, I went with a couple of colleagues and managers to our off-site warehouse (freight company) storage place in New Jersey and basically did a days tidying up of the entire stock we had there.
This mostly meant throwing fixtures away, taking stock of fixtures left there, finding two pallets of stock we didn't know was there and then lining up a pallet of old backpack hip belts to dispose of  due to a (very stinky) dead squirrel being found inside.

It's getting near to my three year anniversary of arriving to stay in the USA.
Three years ago who'd have thought I'd be sitting on the ground, in a warehouse car park, in New Jersey, eating a Subway sandwich!

Thursday our (flagship) REI store had a big event instore. The US National Parks have their centennial celebrations and REI are a main partner associated with this.
This meant a tidy up before a visit from some various big wigs! Just at the end of my shift we went upstairs and provided the audience for the CEO of REI and the Director of National Parks to make their announcements.

The bad news was I was on the edge of the photo and just got shrunk out, the good news, I was one of a few he shook the hand off. I thought that was a pretty cool thing.

This weekend Heather and I went out for a nice meal then went to the Beacon Theater to see Damien Rice.

Apart from one song where he was joined onstage by fellow Irishman Glen Hansard, plucked from the audience no less, he did the whole concert himself.
Similar to KT Tunstall (& Ed Sheerin) he uses the recording loop effect to make different background sounds and even backing vocals for himself.
Really good gig, really strong voice, one of the best I've seen in ages. The Beacon is a really nice old style theater venue too with comfy seats and plenty of leg room, what we look for now, ha ha.
Even though it has some strange Roman architecture thing going on.

Home late but up this morning to do my latest long run, 17M and I threw in a few random hills along the way as I ran through a lot of small parks.

A productive busy week!