Tag: running

New Jersey ½ Marathon, Long Branch NJ (May-1-16)

Posted on by Anthony

After qualifying for the 2017 Boston Marathon at this year’s Los Angeles Marathon, there was no reason to race another 26.2 miles before the triathlon season, so I downgraded from the full marathon to the half.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

I drove down on race morning and got to Monmouth Park a few minutes before 6am. The race started at 7:30, so I plenty of time to pick up my race number, chat and take pictures with friends and sneak in a short warmup jog.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE3RxA3PDv5/

^Can you spot me?

The first wave to go at 7:30am were the wheelchair athletes. A minute later, the Elite wave started. And then another minute later, my wave started. I’m still unsure why the race director did not start my wave at the same time as the Elite wave…especially since the Elite wave consisted of both men and women running the half and full marathons. Nonetheless, that meant I had some ‘rabbits’ up the road to chase down.

After hitting the first mile at 5:45, I actually felt pretty relaxed. I crossed the 5km around 18 minutes and by the 10km mark, I had faded slightly, clocking in at 36:38. The fade continued and by mile 7, I decided that I would continue my efforts until I hit the 10 mile marker. I crossed 10 miles around 58 minutes in, then dropped the pace down to 6:30 for the remainder of the race.

 

After running 13.1 miles through Monmouth County and Long Branch completely alone, I found myself running down the finisher’s chute in 1 hour and 19 minutes. Although I would have been completely content with slowing down, giving high fives and enjoying the crowds near the finish area, I had no choice but to speed up in the last bit to finish in JUST under 1 hour and 20 minutes.

Finish time – 1:19:50, 10th place

The race was a fun experience and I took home exactly what I wanted – a hard solo run effort on fatigued legs. I would have liked to wrap up this 22-hour training week by cheering on the marathoners, but Mother Nature had other plans, and with downpours, I decided that the best course of action was to warm up, get back to the car, and start the recovery process.

Congrats to all the 2016 Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon and Half Marathon finishers. Shoutout to Otto, Pace Team Coordinator, and his team of 45+ pacers!  (Pretty much everyone I knew running was a pacer).

 

Next up is my first triathlon of 2016! 

May 14th – Kinetic Half Ironman, Lake Anna, Virginia

See you out there! 

United Airlines NYC Half Marathon [2016]

Posted on by Anthony

Just 8 days removed from a 1:17:30 personal best at the Rock n Roll Washington DC 1/2 Marathon last week, I was able to bounce back quite quickly with some high intensity training. Or maybe it was all the chocolate milk I chugged. Either way, going into Sunday’s NYC Half Marathon, I was confident that I could better my result from Washington DC. After all, Harlem hill is much shorter than the Rock Creek Climb.

 

On race day, I woke up at 4am, out of the house at 4:30, picked up Karen, scooped up Derek, and carpooled into Manhattan. We landed in Chinatown a 5:30, hopped on the uptown 6 train to Central Park. Derek and I arrived at the UPS baggage trucks around 6:15, so we had plenty of time to chat with other running friends.

NYC Half Tip: When driving to the NYC Half, park your car in Chinatown so you can hit up some delicious Chinese cuisine post race!

By 7am, we we had passed the security gates into Central Park. We jumped into the corral at 7:15, with only 15 minutes before the start of the race.

After the instructions from NYRR’s Peter Ciaccia, we were off!

In the first mile, I was able to stay on Derek’s heels. The plan was to stay with him throughout the race, but even the best laid plans are still subject to outside variables…one of those variables, my legs. After descending down Harlem hill, I had lost Derek by a few seconds. In fact, I lost contact with the large pack. Where were my legs? My turnover felt consistent but the pack kept on creeping away.

After running through 5km in 17:48, I knew that it would be tough to keep the pace for the next 16km. Harlem Hill always seems longer on race day and after getting to the top of it, the legs were screaming. I put my head down and tried to extend my stride as I hit the rolling hills throughout the west side of the park. According to NYRR, I hit the 10km mark at 36 minutes flat.

After leaving Central Park, I found a couple of guys to tuck behind…but that did not last long by the time we got to the West Side Highway. For the next few miles, I tried my best to keep the rhythm going. It was hard. I was getting passed. My legs were shot. And my form was definitely starting to fade. The 3rd 4km split was an 18:11, which clocked me in at 54:11 for 15km. Another 5km in 18:39 got me to 20km at 1:12:50. At that point, I knew that a sub 1:17:30 was in the bank, but was sub 1:17?

Thank you Tom F. (Dashing Whippets RT) for taking this shot of me running down the West Side Highway.

2016-03-20 22.47.43

So, it came down to how fast I could run 1.1km…4 minutes?

Well, 4 minutes and 1 second.

So after a tough 13 miles… from getting dropped in Central Park, running up Harlem Hill alone, trying again and again to regain my rhythm, I sprinted as fast I could down the finishers chute and crossed the tape in 1:16:54. A personal best (for now).

Thank you Central Park Track Club – New Balance! It was fun to see everyone on course!

This was certainly not the race I wanted to execute. Anytime I positive split the second half of a running race, when I should be kicking it into overdrive, is a disappointing and mentally challenging, uncontrolled part of the game. But like I said up above, even the best plans can change in an instant. This race has helped teach me how to adapt to factors that I can control and to roll with the ones that I cannot.

Thanks for reading!!

…for the next few weeks, I will be enjoying some more cycling (and a little less running), as I transition into multisport and triathlon season.

 

See you out there & Happy Easter!!!

Los Angeles Marathon Race Report & Olympic Team Trials

Posted on by Anthony

It’s true. Time flies!

It was only 6 weeks ago that I decided to run the Los Angeles Marathon. The opportunity to spectate the Olympic team trials, watch my friend Karen run her first marathon, and then cap it all off with a marathon seemed like a perfect idea!

Due to busy season at the day job, I was left with only one flight out of New York on Friday evening. After a 90 minute delay, the JetBlue “red-eye” flight landed at 3:30am Pacific time. I went straight to the hotel, dropped my things and got a bit more shut eye. At 6am, Carlos and I went on a 6.5 mile shakeout run along Figueroa, on the Olympic trials course.

2016-02-13 06.20.12

We got breakfast, made sure Karen was ready for her marathon debut, and then spent the next few hours cheering. The trials marathon course was extremely spectator friendly and we were able to see the action unfold with little to no down time.

go Karen go!Go Karen Go!

After Karen had finished her race, it was back to the hotel to regroup, and then party! From 3pm onward, I carb loaded with tons of Angel City IPA. Jetlag finally hit me around 1am…

LA LIVE!
LA LIVE!

 

Race Day – February 14th, 2016

3 ½ hours later…I woke up at 4:45am, got my CPTC-NB race kit on, ate breakfast and chugged a steaming hot cup of coffee. My friend Sky and I hitched a ride from one of her friends to the start of the marathon. Luckily for us, Jimmy (who drove us), is an LA local and intelligently shuttled us into Dodgers Stadium at 6:15am.

Since I registered after the corral assignment cutoff, I was assigned a very high bib number, which did not initially allow me to enter Corral A, which included all runners who are capable of finishing the marathon in 3:15 or faster. With a little more luck, me and 3 other racers were able to convince one of the race coordinators to allow us into Corral A. What a relief! In the corral, I was joined by 10 or more of my fellow Central Park Track Club – New Balance teammates. We chatted a bit and at 6:55am we were off!

The first half mile of the race was slow since it was into an incline. But after that, we were met with a significant downhill as we left the confines of Dodgers Stadium and entered the streets of LA. My strategy for the day was split up the 26.2 mile race into 5km increments. Additionally, I wore a heart rate monitor to make sure I was not overexerting my pace. Everything was going spectacular for 30km. I splitted: 20:05, 20:21, 19:52, 19:48, 19:44, and 19:51, which was spot on as I wanted to run evenly. But just as things were going well, the wheels were beginning to fall off – I was met with an incrementally painful side stitch, which I first experienced at mile 20 of the IRONMAN Louisville marathon. When I passed the 20 mile marker, I could no longer handle the pain to my side, so I significantly slowed down my pace in an effort to relax the pain. The pain goes away but subsequently returns when I increased my effort.

The last 10km was simply damage control.

  • How was I going to limit time lost?
  • Is there a pace that I can sustain that will not increase the amount of pain on my side?

The answer was yes – the remaining two 5km splits were 22:28 and 22:59, respectively. I had accumulated a 5 ½ minute deficit.

The crowds along the finishing line were AMAZING! With the time lost, I finished in 2:55:11.

Despite the painful side stitch, I enjoyed every minute of the LA Marathon course. The course was spacious throughout, crowd support was spectacular, and aid stations were fully loaded with enthusiastic volunteers. I couldn’t have asked for a better race experience.

2016-02-14 10.02.45

With my 2:55 result, I may use it as my 2017 Boston Marathon Qualifying time.

And until then, no more marathon distance running until I lace up for 26.2 miles at the IRONMAN World Championship on October 8.

Next up, the NYRR New York City Half Marathon on March 20th!

Thanks for reading.

 

 

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