• Date: Saturday, October 1, 2011
• Time: 9:00am
• Location: Central Park – start at 70th and East Drive, two clockwise loops ending on the West Drive (like the marathon finish – !!!)

• Conditions:

• Pre-Race:
• Felt pretty good in the morning. Ate 1/2 bagel with a shmear of pb, honey and sea salt. Didn’t have any digestion issues (which had been plaguing me, lately).

• Had a tough time wrapping my head around running 7 miles before a half-marathon… The run before was fine – comfortable, easy. No problem. Got to the start about 30 minutes early (since when does the subway run efficiently on the weekend?)
• Race Time:
• Aaaaaand about getting to the race 30 minutes early… I was warmed up and ready to go… then stood around for quite a while. Not so hot. Race started and I felt okay. I planned on taking it easy the first loop, then picking it up on the second. Uhh, not so much. Last week’s 18 in the park was a cake-walk compared to this. By mile 4 my hamstrings were on fire. The rest of the race was a struggle. I managed to finish in just under a 10:00 min/mile pace which is a far cry from what I had hoped for and was capable of. Boo. At the very least, though, I ran 20 miles. Done and done.

• Official Time:

 (+7 miles beforehand, just sayin…)

• Overall:
• Meh. I mean, I’m glad I did my 20 and all things considered, my half time wasn’t terrible… but still. I’ve had a few great long runs lately and this one just didn’t measure up. I think I also went into it expected to race my half… not happening, obvi. My mental game wasn’t on and I kept thinking about how much better I could have done had I only been running the half. Maybe next time… Looking forward to next weekend’s long run, and pretty much all of October!