I left my apartment around 4:30 in order to catch one of the chartered buses from the Subway station to the race start. I took the 2 train from Bergen to 42nd Street, and from there I took the 7 train the entire length to the Flushing stop. To those of you who aren't from New York, I just described one of the longest subway rides it's possible to undertake.
Arrived in Flushing around 5:45 and got on the bus, the ride was about 15 minutes... ugh, so there is no way one can walk from the race back to the subway, just too far...
My pre-race was uneventful enough, just changed and packed my stuff up. Since the weather report threatened rain I wore one of my heavier tech-shirts and packed a bag of spare warm clothes. Well, it didn't rain, it just hot and humid - very humid.
Coach AW instructed me to take it super-easy on this race so I placed myself a little further back in the line up. I can usually do a half at around 6:25min/mile so I set a goal of 7:30min/mile which is about an extra mile-minute slower. It's also close to my marathon pace which is even better for training for the East Hampton's Marathon.
The race itself was pretty uncomfortable due to the heat and my heavy clothes but I walked through each other aid stations and still managed to come in 288th of 3000 runners, final time 1:39:14 or 7:34min/mile. I also managed to run into Serge (see Block Island RR) after the race, he's headed to Berlin in 2 weeks to run the marathon there, fair play to him, it's one of the more notorious races in the world.
So after the race the buses weren't coming to pick us up until 10:30! I finished the race around 8:30... sheesh. So I walked the 4 miles back to the subway (which took over an hour) then rode the 7 for 45 minutes, then took the 3 back to Brooklyn, another half-hour. All said I walked back in the apartment around 11 and proceeded to do nothing for the rest of the day... When does Coach come back again?
Coming Up - Philadelphia Distance Run 9/21/08 13.1 Miles
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