Race complete.

Yesterday I ran the Manhattan half marathon (13.1 miles). As I mentioned before, I hadn't been running very much, so I had no idea how the race would go, but I was fairly certain that I would finish. Let me clarify a few things, tell you how I did, and post some observations about NYC runners.

I ran twice last week, about 4.2 miles each time. Before that I hadn't run since mid-December. In fact, I have run maybe 8 times since November 1st, and I can't remember the last time before that. When I run, I run with Yilin, who (despite her great progress) still only runs at about a 10:30 pace. (She never ran much before she started running with me.) That pace is not difficult for me, so I am never really pushing myself when I run. However, I felt that I could run that same pace for the entire 13.1 miles.

Except that I have never run that far before. I have never run half that far before. The longest distance I have ever run was 6 miles. I did that maybe 4 times last spring. One of those times was when I ran with Hyunmi and Mike in Central Park (we did the loop). That was the only time I had ever run in Central Park, that I can recall.

Therefore, on Sunday morning (21 degrees Fahrenheit, 14 with wind chill) I lined up at the starting line with those runners who planned on running an 11 minute/mile pace. I was trying to be realistic.

Well, I finished the race in 2:04:33, which is a 9:30 pace. While not stellar, I am not a runner (nor am I in shape), and I was pleasantly surprised that I beat my (admittedly lax) goal of an 11 minute mile pace by 1:30 per mile. I came in 2970th place, out of 4394 runners.

The weather was perfect, in my opinion. I don't perform as well in heat, so the colder the better. At the "fluid stations" (places where you get water or Gatorade), I grabbed water cups only to have to break the rather thick ice that formed at the top so that I could drink the water within. I mean about 1/4 inch think ice, using my index and middle fingers to punch a hole in the top. Some people were frustrated that they couldn't break the ice and spent a lot of time looking for freshly poured cups. I barely slowed down enough to grab any cup I could, slammed my fingers through the ice, took two large gulps, tossed the cup in a trash can (unlike hundreds of other people), and kept running.

Some observations about NYC runners:

Most people drastically over-estimate what pace they will run. As a result, I was blowing past people for the first 3 miles, and still passing a lot of people after 6 miles. In fact, I didn't cross the starting line until 5:20 into the race, and my first mile was run in 10:30 because there were so many people and it was difficult to pass them all.

Also, even up until mile 3, I was passing people who were walking. Why were they so far up in the starting position if they knew they would have to walk so early in the race? The worst was the speed walker I passed at about 2.5 miles into the race. Granted he was speedwalking really fast, but come on. He should not have started so far up. "Frustrated" doesn't begin to describe how I felt, especially since I purposely slowed down a number of times to keep pace with runners who I thought knew what pace they were running/going to run, and then realized that they were way too slow.

A large percentage of NYC "runners" like to think that they are real runners, and that the latest greatest high tech running shorts, shoes, socks, hats, tights, sunglasses, water-bottle-belts, and other crap will improve their performance. It won't. Some of these people passed me in miles 1-3, only to be found shortly thereafter huffing and puffing and/or walking as I cruised on by. Many of the others started ahead of me and ate my dust.

Don't misunderstand me: I don't think I am a great runner. I am definitely an athlete, and even when out of shape still far more physically fit than most people. But who signs up to run a 13.1 mile race when they should know that they can't run it? I seriously doubt that there were many people like me in that race: people who had never run a race before, had never even run half that distance before, and hadn't been training at all. So why were they performing so poorly? My answer to that question: they're weak.

Now to speak of the strong: The race course was two laps around the Central Park loop (6 miles each lap), followed by an additional 1.1 miles to the finish line. So, you actually cross the finish line 3 times: 1.1 miles into the race, 7.1 miles into the race, and at the end (13.1 miles). Thankfully, nobody lapped me (passed me while finishing their second lap, when I was still finishing my first).

However, the top five finishers did pass me after I finished the first loop, but within that 1.1 mile stretch before I crossed the finish line the second time and they crossed it for their third time. I think the winner ran the race in something like 1:10:??, or at a 5:30 pace or so. I am pretty sure that he beat all the wheelchair guys, who usually smoke everyone due to the slight advantage of having wheels on the downhill.

Something I learned about running long distance: at some point, you can't slow down. I became concerned that I might be running too fast at around mile 9, so I tried slowing down a little to conserve energy. I couldn't. For some reason, when I slowed down, it felt like I was using more energy to run slower. So I just let my legs keep going at whatever speed they wanted to. Also, after I crossed the finish line, walking was hard. Which is really odd since I had been running for 2 hours, you'd think walking would be a refreshing change. It wasn't. I felt like I was unsteady while standing. Very strange indeed.

One last funny thing: the loop in Central Park is also a road which is only open sometimes. Sunday it was closed (of course), but the race was supposed to be run only in half the road (the left lanes), while the other half was supposed to be left open for non-racers to use the park. Therefore, there were cones set up in the middle of the road, with race marshalls positioned every hundred yards or so asking everyone to stay to the left.

Well, the race marshalls were mostly 10-15 year olds. Take a guess at how many NYC adults would take orders from a 10-15 year old. Very few. It was sad and funny to see these kids trying so hard to get people to obey them, people who would inevitably run right past without even acknowledging the marshalls' existence, just like most people ignore homeless people on the subway. (I stayed in the proper roadway the entire race, except once early on when I ran outside for about 15 feet to pass a wall of people.) This was despite the fact that the rules of the race state that if you leave the racecourse (i.e., go outside the cones) you will be disqualified from that race and any future New York Road Runners races.