Grete (F1) before the 1981 NYC Marathon

Did my second 1/2 marathon of the season last Saturday. I turned out a great run, but it was a really hard race.

Named after running great, Grete Waitz, who’s won more NYC Marathons than anyone… ever… Grete’s Great Gallop (GGG) is a celebration of all things Norwegian and the unofficial opener to the fall running season in NYC. I’ve never done the race before, but it’s been on my radar to try for awhile. It’s crowded, but well organized and the post-race snacks are pretty good — Norwegian waffles, plums, lox and bagels with cream cheese!

Taken early. My form still looks good.

Going long again

For the second year in a row I’m training a group to run the NYC Marathon. GGG works in as part of their training and gives them some experience running in a race environment. Last year I was unable to train along with the group due to exhaustion and fear of setting myself back health-wise. I think that for anything over 8-10 miles I rode my bike. However, this year I’ve been running alongside them for their 14, 16, 18 and even 20 mile long runs.

It’s been a real pleasure and a great thrill to get back to these distances. I haven’t run 20 in over three years. 2008 and 2007 due to Lyme and 2006 because I was focused on short distance triathlons. Training for those never required a long run of more than 10 miles.

It’s not been all that easy though

Just about every time I run, the first mile tells me I should quit. I feel stiff all over, but particularly stiff down my right side. So much so that I some times have to watch my form to be sure that I’m not limping or jerking to compensate for it. If I wasn’t suffering from Lyme, and suddenly experienced these sensations, I’d probably turn around before I got more than 2 blocks from my house. I’ve learned, though, that if I just take it easy for the first mile or so, these sensations diminish and often times go away all together. Thank Buddha for running.

Setting a race strategy

If you’ve never run in Central Park, it’s very hilly. There’s only one major hill, lots of slow rollers, and only a couple of segments in the roughly 6 mile loop that’s flat. I set a 1/2 marathon best back in May on the half hilly half flat Brooklyn 1/2 Marathon for a time of 01:33:42 @ 7:09. Due to the Central Park course I decided to drop my goal pace to 7:20 and see what happened. It felt like the right goal to, but I worried about it… a lot.

Feeling oddly nervous

I think most runners get nervous on the days leading up to a big challenge, but I was feeling particularly freaked by the goal I had given myself. I had done five runs at or above the 13.1 miles of the race so I was very confident that I could finish, but I wasn’t sure I could keep the pace or if my body would hold up.

Since I’ve been running with my group who’re training for the NYC Marathon I had been running considerably slower than 7:20. I ran 20 at 8:30 pace, but most of the group trains at 9:30 or 10:00. Any coach will tell you that you race what you train and I wasn’t training to run very fast.

I’ve also been doing everything I can think of to keep my left Achilles tendon from giving up all together. I irritated it back in July while experimenting with some new running shoes and it’s been bothering me ever since. The 30+ miles a week of marathon training has had me icing, massaging, Advilling and stretching it almost daily.

Fighting off a last mile challenger

It all ends well

I won’t bore you with the mile-by-mile details, but, to my continued shock and confusion, I did exceptionally well. I churned out a 01:34:03 for a average of 7:10 with all miles being within :15 seconds of that give or take! A nice, steady pace throughout.

The last three miles felt as long as the first 10, but I held on and even found my kick at the end to out pace some tool who wanted to race to the finish. I held him off to capture 309th place out of 4,316. That still put me about 28 minutes behind the winners and way down the list in my age group, but I’ll take it! I never won anything in a pure running race outside of high school anyway.

The aftermath

The days after the race have been fine. Or, should I say, as I would expect them to be. I felt rather wiped the afternoon after the race, but I only napped a little and later went out for some soccer with my 5 year old daughter. My legs were killing me, but in a normal i-just-ran-a-half-marathon kind of way. Beyond that, the usual end of the second day after tightness set in, but I was not overly exhausted.

One side effect that I have noticed while doing the 16, 18 and 20 miles runs is that I get weirdly depressed within 6-8 hours after a long run. This sometimes last for a few hours, but it can also carry over into the next day. It’s almost like I use up all the happy brain chemistry when running and then need a day or so to replenish. Perhaps I’ll talk to Bergland about this and see what he says.

For now, that’s it. No more goals for the season. I promised my Achilles that if it got me through GGG that I’d give it a break. I’m going to take a running “break” for six weeks or so and see what happens. I still have to get my group to the start line on November 2nd, so I’ll be out running with them, but I think I get back on the bike again and stop pounding my body so much.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading