This race is 2 + loops in Central Park. This was my first multi-loop race. It sort of messes with your head when you konw you have to do the same hills mulitple times! And then the dodging of the slower runners...
There are two steep hills - Harlem Hill (2x) and Cat Hill (3x), and there are some rollers in between. 500 feet of elevation gain and loss - this is huge for NYC! I run along the river every day - no hills there. So the hills were harder than usual. The rout of my spring goal race - the United NYC Half - in March does both of these hills within the first 5K, so I need to get after these hills in my training runs!
Got helpful strategy advice from NYRR when I picked up my bib on Friday night. They had a walk through the course and recommended a strategy that I followed.
I ran the first 10K at an average of about 7:30. Then I re-assessed and decided I could pick up the pace a little bit. I ran the next few miles about 10 secons faster. Then last three miles, I ran as fast as I could.
This result is in the middle of the pack in my half marathons. I feel good about it because I executed my race strategy. I am a little disappointed in the result. I had a great few months of training before this race, so was expecting a about a minute faster.
Couldn't have asked for better weather in January. It was 45 with high humidity. This was my first race where I got a plastic blanket afterwards!
1. 7:32
2. 7:47 (Cat Hill)
3. 7:23
4. 7:29 (partial Harlem Hill)
5. 7:47 (partial Harlem Hill, this could have been faster)
6. 7:17
7. 7:25 (Cat Hill)
8. 7:21 (partial Harlem Hill)
9. 7:23 (partial Harlem Hill)
10. 7:22
11. 7:10 (Cat Hill)
12. 7:33 (burned out from a fast Cat Hill)
13. 6:57
the rest 6:28 pace
Got 10 in my age group and 30 female. About 5,000 runners total.
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