2017 United NYC Half Marathon

Going into this race, I tried not to have any expectations. Being only 3 weeks removed from the Tokyo Marathon, I was not in optimal condition to race. In fact, I was in poor condition. My recovery from the Tokyo Marathon has not gone well. My legs have been tired and I am low on energy. But what's more troubling is that my head hasn't been in a good place either. Tokyo dealt me a bad blow, and I'm still dealing with the disappointment that I experienced on that day. Since that race, I've been lacking enthusiasm and I feel overwhelmed by the thought of enduring another marathon training cycle. While I tried not to have any expectations for yesterday's race, I was hoping for a good performance to help restore my motivation and excitement for training.

On Friday after the expo, I bumped into Meb on the 1 Train. We rode together and talked about recovering from a disappointing race. He gave me some meaningful and inspiring advice, and he encouraged me to keep moving forward. Meb is an invaluable gift to the running world, and it was an honor to spend this time with him.

My race plan was to start out at a very comfortable effort for the first half of the race, and see if I could gradually get faster in the 2nd half for a strong finish. At 6:00am I met up with my teammate, Steve, and we walked to the start line. Despite plenty of pre-race speculation, the weather ended up being manageable. It was 33 degrees with winds that would be at our back for most of the race.

The gun went off and it was very congested, but I was fine with that since I wanted a conservative start. The start of the race loops through Central Park, and while it was nice being in familiar territory, the hills made for a challenging and uneven effort. I moved through the first 4 miles at 6:50-7:00 pace. That pace that should have felt easy since it's close to my marathon pace. But the lack of recovery from Tokyo was noticeable here. 6:50 pace required far more effort than I would have liked. By mile 5 I started having flashbacks to Tokyo and I developed anxiety about crashing. I became very worried that I wouldn't be able to hold this pace and I might fall apart. I just tried to relax, focus on my breathing, and have faith in my abilities.

Around mile 6 we exited the park. At this point I got a nice boost of energy and I was ready to start pressing. I quickened the pace and was feeling decent. I wasn't feeling amazing or anything, but definitely more energetic than before. This part of the race runs south down 7th Avenue. It was pretty neat running through Times Square. At this point I was all smiles and waiving to the spectators that I recognized.

When we turned West on 42nd Street I was blasted in the face with a strong headwind. I tried to draft behind some bigger runners, but it didn't help. Fortunately this stretch only lasted for a half mile. Once I got onto the West Side Highway I was cruising. I passed the 8 mile marker and dipped below 6:30 pace. I was passing a lot of people and feeling strong. This was the old me, this is what I love about racing. I started to remember how good it felt to close strong and push through fatigue. It had been so long since I've felt this way.

By mile 9 and 10 I could still tell that the recovery from Tokyo was holding me back. On fresh legs I'd be absolutely hammering these miles, but under the circumstances, all I could do was try to hold onto the faster pace of 6:25-6:30. I was still a little nervous about crashing, but by mile 11 I knew that I'd survive.

I latched onto a guy from New York Harriers, and we worked together over mile 11 and 12. This was a big help and enabled me to deal with the intense fatigue.

With one mile remaining I was ready to rock. I surged hard! I was flying by people and pouring everything I had into the finish. I passed my friend Jeremy who jokingly yelled something derogatory at me. It made me push even harder! I kicked to the finish with everything I had, and despite the searing pain, I loved every second of it. I ran the last mile in 5:35.

As always, it was a pleasure seeing my teammates both on and off the course. They pushed me to run harder and it was great catching up with everyone at the post-race brunch.

Overall, this race was a positive experience that I desperately needed. The Tokyo marathon was only 3 weeks ago, and I'm certainly not recovered from it. In yesterday's half marathon my body had no "pop" and it noticeably held me back. On fresh legs I know that I'm capable of so much more than 1:26. That said, this race was encouraging because it reminded that I'm still capable of running strong. It helped spark some of the enthusiasm that Tokyo snuffed out. I'm looking forward to reaching a point where I'm 100% recovered so that I can resume working towards my goals.