Sunday, April 26, 2009

MORE & Fitness Magazine Half Marathon





Today was the More and Fitness Magazine Marathon and Half Marathon in Central Park. I registered with a few girls from my work (Organic Works) earlier this semester, and was so excited to run! 

This run was a lot different than my last because I actually got an amazing night's sleep last night. I went to bed at about 10:45, and slept soundly until my alarm work me up at 5am. I was so rested and ready! My friend Kristen (who lives in my building) had a friend in town, Lisa, running too. We met in the lobby and headed out around 7. I mention the time of day because it's quite remarkable how hot it was already. When we got to the starting area to check bags, I was already sweating. 


We were enjoying the usual pre-race excitement when they made a rather shocking announcement...Due to the heat, the full marathon had been cancelled! What? And furthermore, the half marathon was no longer going to be officially timed! WHAT? 

Apparently the race directors had a rather difficult decision to make. They wanted to avoid a potentially unsafe situation, remnant of the Chicago Marathon heat wave last year. Luckily I wasn't running the full, so it didn't matter much to me, but I can imagine a few people were pretty disappointed.

7, 700 women lined up at the starting line. It was possibly the most crowded race start I've ever been in. Because the full marathon (which had a separate starting line) was cancelled, everyone ran the half, and everyone lined up in the half starting area.


After picking my way through throngs of enthusiastic runners, all dressed in either pink or some other type of girl power gear, I settled into a comfortable pace with my new running buddy, Lisa. We ran 8:50 minute miles for the first two, and then I said good-bye and picked up the pace. I actually found one of my friends from Organic Works, Megan, while running. We hugged quickly mid-jog and I was off again. 

I picked up my pace to around 8:40 - 8:35 minute miles. Despite the heat I was feeling really great. The first 10 miles were awesome. I was actually surprising myself! I was on a roll! 8:40, 8:35, 8:30...really comfortable and fun.

Needless to say Central Park is beautiful, and it was a lovely run. But right after mile 10, the heat really hit me. My body was done. 10 miles! Time to stop before you pass out from the 90 degree weather!

I kept pushing and finished a few minutes slower than I had planned, but still PR'd and had a true runner's high when I was done.


After a bagel, banana and chocolate soy milk, we stretched out under a cherry tree. Way to beautiful. We sun-bathed, got a quick tan, treated myself to a mimosa and some frozen yogurt.

At the awards (which were based on clock times, no chip times) I saw USA Olympic marathon runner, Magdalena Lewy Boulet, which was pretty cool. She won with 1:08:10. (Jeez! In this heat?!)

It was an all-around beautiful day and a fairly successful race. Hopefully the actual professional running pictures will be in this week!

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4 comments:

MJ said...

Wow... I'm a bit surprised it's so hot there. That's not normal is it?

Congrats on the great race!

Dana Elyse said...

Thanks! And no it's not normal at all. We skipped spring today and went right to summer!

Mike said...

Nice job rocking out in the heat! It was HOT even out here in Ohio! I floated somewhere between 87-89 degrees. Nice job on your time as well!!!

JC said...

Great job on the race! Send some of that weather to Vancouver PLEASE!