Race Recap: NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon

My month of racing continued last weekend as I took to the streets of Brooklyn with my brother, John, and his girlfriend, Emily, in the New York Road Runners' Brooklyn Half Marathon. This was only my third ever half marathon and first since the three of us ran the Asbury Park Half Marathon last year. John and Emily had joined NYRR last year in order to automatically gain entry into this year's New York Marathon.

Me & John before the start of the race.

Joan, John and I took the train into New York on Friday afternoon. I got them to Joan's cousin's apartment near Central Park before I headed to Brooklyn to meet up with John. I didn't use the subway line that I was used to getting there, so I had to wander around a bit before I finally figured out where I was. The timing was fortunate, though, as I finally made my way to John's neighborhood just in time to catch FDNY trucks responding to a reported fire the block over from his apartment. I made my way to the call to see if I could catch any fire action, but it turned out not to be anything. John finally found me making my way back to his apartment. We plowed through some spaghetti and meatballs before getting to bed.

We were up early Saturday morning since the race started 7:00 in Prospect Park. We caught a taxi down there and made our way over towards the start. One thing that amazed me right away was the great organization of this race. I can't recall ever participating in a race with that many people where everything seemed to go so smoothly. The field was full since the race filled within two days of registration opening.

John & Emily rehabbing with chili
cheese dogs and lemonade.

The course was two loops of Prospect Park for the first 6.5 miles followed by 6.5 miles down Ocean Parkway all the way down to Coney Island. Running in the park was scenic and generally pretty wonderful. My first two miles were in the low 8 minute range, but then I settled in and dropped to the mid 7:00's. Once we swung out of the park and on to the city streets we were out of the shade, but I was able to maintain my pace. The second half of the race is almost identical to the second half of the Broad St. Run. It's slightly downhill, straight as an arrow and boring as anything else in the world. Keeping my heart rate in check and maintaining my pace, all I could do was keep ticking off the miles until we hit the boardwalk.

I finished the race in 1:43:00 even which was about 5 minutes better than my previous half marathon best achieved at the 2009 Philadelphia Distance Run. Considering I wasn't really pushing the pace and I made sure to run comfortably and take in plenty of nutrition, I am happy to see how much time I dropped. I feel good in saying that if I went out focussing on just a half marathon I could get down into the mid 1:30 range. It's good to have goals for next year.

John and Emily crossed the finish line in 1:50. Unfortunately, Joan and John got there right as they finished. Although they had planned to see us on the route and then catch another train down to the finish, the best laid plans failed to workout. At least they made it down there and found us fairly easily. John had been wonderful on the train, but he needed some time to run around, so we decided to rehab at Nathan's.

The happy family after the race.

The rest of the racing field seemed to have the same plan for race recovery, but given that this was still a week before the boardwalk opened for the season, we appeared to be the only reason they were open. John took care of getting the food while we held a table and let little John run around. The wait was worth it. Never has a hot dog tasted so good after a race. We finally wrapped things up and caught a train back to John's place in Brooklyn Heights.

I'm glad that we made the trip to New York for the race and to see my brother. This was John's first trip there, and we spent Sunday morning wandering through Central Park. John was in all his glory running around, playing with other kids and watching everyone jogging and biking. We got a chance to catch up with Dave Lazarus, a friend of mine from Colgate's Outdoor Education program. Dave and I ran Colgate's caving program and have probably spent more time with each other underground than above. Dave also competed in Ironman Lake Placid a few years ago, therefore placing himself, unknowingly, on Joan's "List of Blame." To me, he's been a great resource and motivator.

This Memorial Day Weekend has been a good weekend off from racing. I had a big day of training on Saturday with a long swim and long bike, but now I've started to taper into next weekend's Ironman Mooseman 70.3. Next weekend will be the first big test of the season, and I'm looking forward to the longer distance race.

Correction: The post originally stated that John and Emily finished in about two hours. John promptly notified me of their actual time. He wasn't happy with the author.

Race Recap: Doylestown Duathlon

My second race of the season was supposed to be the first. At least that's the way it was when I signed up for it. The Doylestown Duathlon is typically held in April early in the season before the area lakes are warm enough for triathlons. Unfortunately, this year's race got moved due to some logistical hang-ups. Registered competitors had the chance to get a refund, but I kept it on my calendar figuring it would be a good training session. Plus it would be a chance to compare myself to last year's performance to benchmark where I am fitness-wise. Keeping it on my schedule, though, would mean racing on four straight weekends with only one weekend off before Ironman Mooseman 70.3.

I was on the fence about going, but then Marita, my most wonderful training partner, told me she was in, so I was committed. I'll be honest - I didn't really prepare for this race. Sure I had all the training under my belt, but I hadn't really looked into the details. I just assumed it was the same as last year. Once we got there, however, it was evident that this year's race was smaller and on a different course - we weren't even starting from the same place. Also, it wasn't until the pre-race meeting that I learned the length of the bike was going to be shorter than last year. Lastly, I hadn't even studied the run course. I really had no idea what to expect. Regardless of this piss-poor preparation, I was ready to go.

Accused me of eating breakfast in T1.

The racking was open, so Marita and I were able to set up next to each other. She would be starting in the wave six minutes behind me, so I had this fear that she'd be chasing me the whole time. I was lucky enough to be in the overly competitive first wave of men 39 and under. The 5k run course was a figure-eight affair with the first mile completely uphill. The gun went off, and I was pretty much out of the race. These guys took off like they were shot out of a cannon. I made it to the one mile mark in a little over 7 minutes and couldn't even see the leaders anymore. This was ridiculous. At that point, I knew I didn't have much of a chance of winning, but I was at least hoping for a respectable finish.

The run finished and it was off on the bike. After the race Marita asked me if I stopped for breakfast during the first transition. I'll take that as constructive criticism, and file it away in the "needs work" category. I hopped on the bike and took off as quickly as I could. I knew right away that this was going to be a great day on the bike. I remember last year laboring up the first hill to make it from the marina out to the road. This year I really pushed, got up to speed and tucked down into the aero bars. The bike course was a 15 mile route with two U-turns involved. I kept my pace up, stayed in the big chain ring for all but one hill towards the end and headed back into the park.

It was back to transition, and I knew Marita wasn't far behind. I may have been out of the race for my age group, but the ride home would be worse if she caught me. With no one to chase leaving transition, it was hard to get going fast, but I turned in a decent first mile. The second mile was downhill to the lake, and I was able to run it in about 6:54. One more to go, and I'd be done. I finished the race with another 7:15ish mile, and then it was time to wait.

I was there when Marita finished just minutes later taking 3rd overall in the women's race. She told me right away about her race and how her strategy paid off. We were even hopeful that in battling out 1st and 2nd on the bike, the two women in front of her had possibly picked up time penalties. Turns out that wasn't the case, so 3rd would have to suffice. We loaded the truck and then made our way over to the awards ceremony where she picked up her hardware and, most importantly, chocolate chocolate chip cookies for the ride home.

So, how did this year compare to last year? Quite a few variables were different, for starters. The course was completely different with a hilly run versus last year's flat out-and-back course. The bike was shorter too and not as hilly. I was also on a new bike and the weather was much better this year. Here's how it breaks down by the numbers:

2010
Run 1: 7:27/mile
Bike: 16.3 mph
Run 2: 7:21/mile
Overall: 176/340

2011
Run 1: 7:37/mile
Bike: 19.9 mph
Run 2: 7:11/mile
Overall: 37/128

Overall, I was happy with the result - finishing in the top third in 37th place with decent splits and a fast bike by my standards. Oh yeah, it also didn't hurt that I beat Marita by 12 seconds.

Race Recap: New Jersey Devilman Half Lite 50

My first triathlon of the season was Piranha Sport’s New Jersey Devilman Half Lite 50. I had heard good things about the race, and the fact that it was relatively nearby made it a no-brainer that this would be a good way to start the season. The Half Lite 50 is comprised of three non-traditional lengths that come out close to 50 miles in total. The race starts with a 0.8 mile swim, followed by a 40.3 mile bike and then an 8.8 mile run; it’s longer than an Olympic race but shorter than a half Ironman.

After my logistics coordinator (Joan) pointed out that this race wasn’t as close as I thought, I decided to splurge and spend the night before the race in a hotel a few miles away. My room was $45, and the hotel was attached to a 24-hours Denny’s, so this was an easy choice to make. There were a few other triathletes staying there, which was reassuring. I liked knowing I wasn’t the only one who valued not getting up a 3:30 in the morning in order to drive a few hours and then race hard before returning home.

The next morning I made it to the race site without incident, despite the incorrect directions provided in the athlete guide. Being one of the first ones there allowed me to check in quickly. It also allowed me plenty of time to set up my transition area. Most races allow previous day packet pickup, which helps to alleviate the morning-of rush. This race didn’t, so getting there early was certainly advantageous. There’s nothing worse for pre-race jitters than having to rush through the transition set up and then sprint over to the race start. I know people who have missed, or have come close to missing, the starts of everything from small, local sprint races to full Ironman races. With only an hour before race start, the check-in line was still hundreds of people long, but all I had to do was get into my wetsuit and head to the lake.

Quite a few people have asked me how the race was, but given the odd distance it’s hard to make an immediate assessment. Since this was the first race of the season and not the “A” race that I’m training for, I was really just approaching it as a long training session. To compare it where I left off last year I’ll have to break it down by the numbers.

The Swim

There’s an adage that says never to try out anything new on race day. While this should hold true for the most important races, sometimes you have treat a race like a training session. Given that it’s still early May and there are a lack of open water swim opportunities in general, I was trying two new things out. The first was wearing a full sleeve wetsuit. I wore a sleeveless one last year, but due to high water temperatures in some of my races, I only got to wear it while competing in the Delaware Diamond Triathlon (DDT). The second change was swimming with my Garmin 310XT. I was using its multisport mode, which allows you to track your total time including transitions through the entire race.

The swim start was much more organized than the DDT race, which is also produced by Piranha. The course was two laps around a 0.4 mile course marked by four buoys. The swim is renowned as one of the dirtiest, murkiest, muddiest endeavors around. Visibility is zero. I seeded myself in the back to help reduce the chances of getting run over by faster swimmers. Even with the extra precautions, the first few hundred meters of the swim were generally a full contact event. It wasn’t until I rounded the second buoy that I decided it was best to swing out a bit wide and find some clean water - as in “no-one-around-me water”. Once I got out there, I settled into my stroke and could see that I was moving quicker than the others about 25’ to my left. I held this strategy on the straightaways, but the turns were always congested, especially with multiple waves of competitors starting at different times.

I wasn’t the first out, but I know I didn’t labor as much as I did in the DDT. I glanced at my Garmin on the way out of the water and saw that my time was about 22 minutes to complete the 0.8 mile course. The half Iron swim in the DDT is 1.2 miles long, and it took me 47:30. Assuming I could hold the same pace for another lap, I would be on track for about 33 minute 1.2 mile swim. That’s a 14.5 minute drop from last year – a 30% reduction. My position in the race was greatly bolstered by this as well. In the DDT my swim split ranked 215 of 236. In the Devilman I ranked 186 of 293. Not great compared to field, but a big improvement on the personal level.

While the weather conditions were better this year, and I was in a full suit, it would be hard to attribute the change in time to those two variables alone. I would like to think that my time in the pool over the past 5 months has begun to pay dividends.

The Bike

This race was my first race on the new bike and only the second time I’d ridden it outside i.e. not on the bike trainer. The course was billed as a flat and fast out and back. The Half Lite competitors made two laps of the course for a total of 40.3 miles. It was hard to check my Garmin regularly as my polarized sunglass lenses made it next to impossible to read the screen. I occasionally caught some glances and saw that my speed was ranging from 22-24 mph. I wasn’t working that hard to maintain that speed, which led me to believe that I had a slight downhill working to my advantage.

It wasn’t until I made the turn 10 miles out that I figured out that it was the wind pushing us out fast. That made the ten back in much tougher than anticipated and of course slowed me down. I was happy that for the first 20 miles I was able to hold the aero position most of the way. It wasn’t until the second leg that the position really started to get to me. The only discomfort that I had was in my neck. I could hold the position for a few minutes, but between the pain and the wind I was forced out of the aero bars for most of the way back.

I completed the course in 2:06:40 which made me 144^th overall at a 19.2 mph average. In the DDT I was 155^th of 236 which is exactly 2/3 of the way back. My Devilman split put me right in the middle of the pack – a marginal improvement.

The Run

Coming off a fast performance at Broad St. last weekend, I knew that no matter what I did in this race I’d feel slow. Yes, it’s comparing apples and oranges, but a run is a run, and you’re either faster or slower than before. I was slower by about a minute a mile, which seemed like an eternity sometimes.  I ranged from 7:55-8:10 per mile for the first 6 miles, but after that I started to fade. It wasn’t much, but the last few miles drifted into the 8:20 range. I ended up averaging 8:09 on a course that everyone seemed to measure closer to 9.1 miles than the posted 8.8. As usual my run was my strongest leg compared to the rest of the field as I came in 116^th of 293. My DDT pace was 9:03 and good enough for 114^th of 236.

Summary

With transition times included, which need some work by the way, I finished the race in 3:50:18 – good enough for 131 out of 293 finishers. Playing a hypothetical numbers game I can try to convert this to a half Iron race keeping my transition times the same and assuming I continued to drift a bit on the run.

Swim: 0:33

Bike: 2:54

Run: 1:51

Transitions: 0:05

Total: 5:33

Comparing this time to my performance in Diamondman is fair given the overall similarity in terrain. I finished DDT in 6:04, so this looks to be an improvement. Now that I’ve broken down the race by the numbers, I feel better about how I did. Unfortunately, it doesn’t make my killer sunburn any easier to deal with. Time to put on more aloe.

Next Race: Saturday, May 14 - Doylestown Duathlon

2011 Broad St. Run & April Totals

Sunday marked the beginning of a busy month of racing. "Racing" isn't quite the right term since as I like to think of these events as organized training events. I didn't originally sign up for such a busy month, but a schedule change now means I'll be racing four straight weeks. The annual Broad St. Run was the first.

The weather was perfect for running and exponentially better than the dangerous heat we faced last year. I was joined this year by Joan, my brother John, his girlfriend Emily and 25,000 others at one of America's largest and fastest 10 mile runs. The run starts in north Philadelphia, goes straight south through the city and ends at the Navy Yard. Runners and non-runners make it an annual event.

The last thing I want to is get hurt in a race that doesn't mean too much this year, so I tried not to push it too hard. However, it's very hard not to get caught up in the excitement and sheer mass of humanity moving down the street. I settled into a nice pace at the upper end of my comfortable heart rate zone and turned in a 7:25 first mile. That felt good, so I went with it to see how long I could hold that effort. I was consistent through the first five miles to city hall staying within a five second range at each mile split. Mile 6 picked up a bit as everyone made the move around city hall. Just as a slow moving river speeds up as it narrows, everyone moved a little faster through the most congested part of the race. The result was a 6:44 mile with four to go. I pulled back a bit, and the rest of my splits came in around 7:00 even. I finished the race in 1:12:56 - about 7:15/mi pace.

I'm happy with the effort and glad to see that all the running I've been doing over the past year is really starting to pay dividends. I wouldn't have wanted to go much faster this early in the year with so much more in front of me, so I'll take the result. I've already marked the calendar for next year's race where I hope to go sub 70 minutes.

Here's how the rest of the month plays out for me:

- Saturday, May 7: Devilman Half-Lite 50 Triathlon in New Jersey. More than an Olympic Distance race, but less than a Half Ironman. First tri of the year for me and first open water swim of the season, so I don't have high hopes. This will just be a brick training for me.

- Saturday, May 14: Doylestown Duathlon (originally scheduled for April).

- Saturday, May 21: NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon (with John & Emily).

I'm off the next week, but then it's up to New Hampshire for Mooseman 70.3 Ironman. After that my schedule is open until Wisconsin. I may pick up a shorter race for training somewhere in there, but nothing too big.

The goal this month is to race hard but smart, and to avoid injuries. If I do that I should be in good shape for the rest of the year.

April Totals:

Swim - 26,550 yards

Bike - 335.20 miles

Run - 67.80 miles

Year-To-Date Totals:

Swim - 94,150 yards

Bike - 966.80 miles

Run - 316.25 miles