Brooklyn Half - May 17, 2014

Brooklyn Half Marathon - Saturday, May 17, 2014 (Wave 2)

Hey all ... the elusive, the grand, the much talked about Brooklyn Half Marathon.  My first of the five borough series runs.

I made a lot of mistakes during this run.  None that were truly detrimental (not to say that they couldn't be, but they weren't this time, thankfully).

I started the race .... moved down to an unassigned corral to start with a friend.  I don't mind in the course of my racing to end up alone, but I like to know that I start with my friends and of course, at then end, meetup with my friends.  It is part of the camaraderie of a race after all.

My friend, bless her, we started the race and she said "see you at the finish line".  There was no malice in her tone just resignation in it.  I knew what she meant, I was fidgeting with my ipod trying to get the darn thing started, but I heard her and I knew what she meant.  After I got the ipod started (only moments after crossing the start line) I felt the rush in my legs, the anxious in my blood, the burning desire coursing through my veins, I saluted my friend with a wave of my hand and a nod of my head and I turned to look forward and I never turned back around.  Not because I didn't care, not because I thought I was better, but because my focus was before me.  My race, the behemoth I had been watiting for all year ... the Brooklyn half, loomed before me, the ghost that I'd been chasing and training for, for the last 5 and a half months beckoned me.  "Face me!  Conquer me! Or fail ...."  Failure, I knew ... was not in my options.  So I turned from my friend, my comrade in training and faced my biggest challenge yet ... the Brooklyn Half.

The first few miles felt good, I wasn't even paying attention.  There were parts of the race I frankly don't recall ... was I in my zone?  hopefully so.  Then I looked up as I entered prospect park and realized as I checked my clock that I was at mile 4 and at 33 minutes ... "oh no, chang!"  That pace is NOT sustainable.  That was a 8:15 pace.  While that's OK for a shorter distance race, I knew without a doubt that it would not be sustainable for 13 miles.  So I endeavored to slow my pace. Passing mile 5 ... 42 minutes ... I had slowed to a 9 minute/mile which is a sustainable pace to the 13 miles.  Just stay here Chang, you got this!  Mile 7 ... 1 hour (yikes!)  Exiting prospect park and making my way onto Ocean Parkway, I knew that I had taken a quick far too fast pace for my endurance and that I would pay for that dearly in the upcoming miles ... my IT band, which had been bother me the entire week prior to, was starting to pull and pinch and tighten up .... A bad sign. "Keep loose Chang, you got this! Relax!"  On my half marathon wristband, it says that you have to maintain a 9:09 pace in order to achieve a 2 hr marathon.  So I figure if I keep a 9 min/mile pace that I should be fine.  Reaching 7 miles in 60 minutes meant that I had an average pace of 8:34.  Not good.  Even though I slowed down ... I knew I had gunned it too much at the beginning and the latter part of my race was going to suffer for it.

We rounded the corner to cross the bridge that would lead us onto the ocean parkway and as we descended the downward ramp onto ocean parkway, I knew what should have been a recovery downhill felt like misery and that doom would shortly arrive.  I expected fatigue to come knocking, but what I did NOT expect was for my IT band to start tightening up.  Going into mile 9, I felt the twinge of what would become an excruciating experience for me for the remainder of the race.  As mile 9 progressed I felt the tightness getting worse, there was really only one thing I could ... slow down.  But as I slowed, I felt the pain was getting worse, but I couldn't speed up because my body was fatigued ... ugh!  Stuck between a rock and a hard place.  Needless to say, miles 9 through 11 were plagued with multiple stops and the meaning of "mental toughness" was never more needed than in those moments.  That easy stretch of the ocean parkway that's just flat was one of the most excruciating mental tests of my life.  Why???  Because it seemed like the road stretched on FOREVER.  You spend 6 miles running into ETERNITY and with a bad IT band ... it's just ALL BAD.  LOL!

Somehow though I managed to continue the run and as I approached the 20K mile split, I checked my time and it said 1:50 ... hallelujah!!!!  I was at the 12.5 mile marker and still 10 minutes under my goal pace, how could this be?!?!?!  I had committed at mile 11 to running this slower than my last half (the more/fitness magazine women's half at 2:01:41).  That spurred me on ... you can't quit NOW!!!!  As we rounded the last stretch onto the Coney Island boardwalk ... the finish line was clearly in my sight, now all I have to do is push the Nitrous Oxide button for that last dash to the finish line, aaaannnnnnndddd.... PUSH.....nothing.  What?!!?!?!?!?!?  A fizzle at best, clearly I had expended all of my energy fighting through the last 4 miles, I barely picked it up near the finish line but I finished and stopped my ipod in time to hear it say ... 1:56 .... whaaaaaaat?!?!?!?!?!  No way!!!!

Here are my stats for the Brooklyn half (it was clearly filled with much more competitive runners! Huzzah!)

Final Time:  1:56:43
Average Pace:  8:55
Rank: 10,303 / 25,587 (top 40.3%)
Age Place: 964 / 6,634 (top 14.5%)
Gender Place: 3,583 / 13,678 (top 26.2%)

Splits:
5K - 26:24
10K - 53:38
15K - 1:21:25
20K - 1:50:34

Take Away:

All - I want to say quite plainly that I DID NOT for any reason, pace myself appropriately for this race and as a result, I suffered tremendously on the back end.  Yes you can say that I had an IT band issue as it was stemming from earlier in the week, but the IT band issue may not have become a factor in the race at all if I had not over exerted it in the beginning.  I made a lot of poor decisions in this race and the first one started with underestimating it.  While it's true that the last 6 or so miles of the race take place on the mostly flat course of Ocean Parkway, you can't deny the difficulty of running down a road that seems to have NO end.  The head game that one endures is mostly unbearable.  In my speakings with other runners, almost all have agreed that the worst and toughest (though not physically) part of the entire course was those 6 miles down Ocean Parkway.  I am eager to run this course again in 2015 and look forward to it with nothing but excitement!  But I will NOT underestimate it again ... btw, the Brooklyn folks came out in force all along the way and showed some serious LOVE!!!!  If you are a Brooklyn half spectator reading this and you came out and showed the runners some love, I can't THANK YOU enough!!! =)  I don't think you all understand how much each and every one of you bolster us ("the runners") along.  You're support makes our run that much easier, so THANK YOU and I hope you never stop supporting us!!!!

Next Run: NY Tri-State Spartan Sprint (Saturday, May 31, 2014)