NYC Half

I was certain that I already wrote about my NYC Half "race" here. Turns out I didn't. Let's start with the facts for those of you who don't want to skim through the whole thing in search for the result:

1:20:59

Yes, I didn't even break 1:20 and that depressed me. As I said earlier, it will take a great day to go sub 1:20 but - alas - hope dies last. Truth is that 1:21 is very much in line with my training. The good - and bad - about running is still that WYSIWYG (who remembers this from back in the 90s? Google it, youngster.).

Conditions were near perfect apart from a headwind on the second half but as a cyclist, I know how to draft off a meaty dude. It is, however, a new experience for me to run with so many women. While I generally enjoy their company, having them in my group isn't great. Women who run that pace are at elite amateur level and their race is more important than any dudes' race at the same speed. Consequently, I do my best to stay out of their way. While I mostly succeed in that, a hilly course can be tough because my weight and height favor me on the downhill and are detrimental uphill. You can see the yo-yo effect there because we all have to even effort our race.

So between trying to not piss off a lady and crying along the way because what used to feel like 5:45s now was 6:10s, I finished a fairly even paced race. Only on the last mile I ran a bit out of energy which isn't a surprise because I usually only run 6-8 miles per run and 40 miles per week.

I followed up the race with almost a week off thanks to racing GFNY Barcelona. Now I'm heading into the Scotland 10k (one loop in Central Park) having done - again - barely any proper training. I did one tempo run to be precise. Not sure where I'm going from here. I hope I can do another 4 miler before summer and European cycling hits me. "You're never going to break 2:40 again," Lidia said yesterday and - damn - she's right. Not because I can't but because I'm half assing this running thing. I'm still bullish about August to October but it's the level I arrive there which will ultimately determine my marathon fate.

Update on Markus: he remains steadfast about that sub37 10k. I think he really is only scared to put his name on something that doesn't have many readers. I OTOH value each of you 23 readers.