Race Recap: 2019 NYRR Pride Run

Another weekend, another race. This time the New York Road Runners Front runners of NY Pride run - If that’s not a mouthful, I’m not sure what is. This race would bring me one step closer to my 9+1 qualification for next year’s NYC marathon, and was sure to be full of LOVE! This would be my second time running this event, and we were slated for sunny skies.

When we registered for this race, I had Kasey, Mike, Sophie, and Sophie’s sister Janna planning to run with me. We all signed up, but only three of us made it to the start line. Mike wound up having a wedding in Connecticut that night, and the timing just wasn’t working out, and Kasey got put on the schedule for work. A bummer for sure on both fronts, but I was glad to at least have some good company as I headed into the city on race morning.

I picked up Sophie and Janna from my parent’s house, and they were in full rainbow mode and ready to run. I had opted for a neon pink shirt and neon ProCompression socks, as I just didn’t have anything rainbow that I really felt did the event justice.

I had decided to pre-purchase parking via the spot hero app, since every other time that we had headed into the city for a Saturday race this year we had wound up looping the streets surrounding central park looking for parking for so long that we had to kick one person out of the car to get the bibs which the other paid for a garage - and they’re expensive! Paying for parking day of in the city has cost us around $55, where as the spot hero app got me parking for $22 - a bargain in my opinion. We easily dropped the car off just a block outside of central park, and had a quick walk to bib pickup.

Once we had our bibs we moved over to bag check, and I sorted through the crap that I wanted to have with me, vs. the stuff I could leave behind. I had intended to run with my GoPro for this event, and carried it with me, but shortly after bag check discovered that the battery was dead. Once my stuff was dropped off we headed towards the corrals, with a quick stop at the porter potties along the way.

It was a big race, as NYRR was trying to set a world record for the largest charity pride run. They would have to net the most finishers, so there were over 10,000 runners in the field - much larger than the standard NYRR weekly race! We headed to the back of the corrals, as this was Janna’s first NYRR event, so she did not have a proper time-based corral placement yet. Shortly after we got to the corral, Carson spotted us as we waited to get moving, and joined us in the corrals. It was a long walk to the start, as they were releasing runners in waves that day.

When we did make it to the start, it was so crowded that I managed to loose sight of Sophie and Janna. I saw them right behind me, and Sophie waved me on. I planned to stay with them, but the next time I turned to check for them they were out of sight. So, Carson and I moved forward, figuring that we would find them by the finish line. We chatted as we made our way through the first mile, which brought us up Cat hill. Near the hill one of the members of MBTT spotted me, Michal, and we chatted for a moment until she decided to cut back her pace a little. It’s always fun to spot a familiar face on course.

We missed the first aid station simply because it was crowded, but pulled over to grab water at the second. it was a humid morning, and we needed to make sure to hydrate, even though it was only a 5 mile run. We continued making our way around central park, and as we approached Harlem Hill Carson and I parted ways, as she wanted to take a short walk break. I pressed forward, enjoying the challenge of the hill. I had needed to take a few days off that week, as my calf had been feeling a little strained, but it was feeling great during the race, and I was just happy to be moving. Did the hill suck? Yes. But there I was, running up it anyway, somehow happy about it as sweat dripped into my eyes. Running is emotionally weird, guys.

If you’ve run central park before, you probably know what comes after Harlem Hill - you finally make it to the top, praise the end of the uphill, have a moment of relief, and then head straight for the three sisters. Sigh. More hills. But I was still happy to be out there, happy to feel good running, even pushing the pace a little when I could. I wanted to play it smart with the heat, so I wasn’t going too crazy.

Once I made it through the ups and downs of the three sisters, it was smooth sailing to the finish line. A flat stretch, lines with spectators decked out in pride gear, cheering on the runners, a final turn, and the finish line chute. I almost crashed with another runner at the finish line, who came in HOT behind me, but crisis was averted. I moved through the finishers chute, being handed water, and apple, a rainbow bagel, and the real prize - a rainbow ice pop. Really, the ice pop alone would have been enough to convince me to run five miles.

I was very thankful for the many pockets on my shorts, as I crammed my apple and bagel into them as I enjoyed my ice pop. I waited in line to pick up my shirt, and once I had it I went to pick up my checked bag. Carson found me along the way, and walked over to get her bag as well. We then found a nice curb to enjoy our ice pops on.

Sophie texted me when she finished her race, and I walked back over to the shirt pickup area to meet her. Her and Janna briefly got separated - an issue as Janna had never been in central park before and had no cell phone on her - but Sophie found her surprisingly fast, and then they grabbed their shirts. By then we had all finished our ice pops, and made a group decision for another round - there were plenty of vendors in the park after all! Once we had our ice pops acquired, we walked towards the cherry hill fountain, where I knew some of the tri team had planned to meet up. I knew I was probably too late, but wanted to see if I could spot anyone.

I was indeed too late, but we snapped a few photos with the fountain anyway. We walked back up to race day central, posed with a few of the photo ops, then parted ways with Carson as we headed for the car and she headed for the subway.

It was another good week with the road runners, despite the warm temperatures. At the end of the race they announced that they had met their goal, and broke a Guinness world record for the largest pride run

Chicago Marathon Training: Week 6

If you’re looking for recaps 1-5, bad news: This is the first official weekly recap as i train for the 2019 Chicago Marathon.

Of course, as luck would have it, I wound up with a cold this week, so it was likely the least interesting week of training so far. If you’ve been with the blog with any of my previous training cycles, you probably know that I have asthma, and when I wind up with a cold it can take me out for a long time if I am not super on top of it.

Last Sunday I headed to Jones Beach for my long run, with my parents along on their bikes for the miles. Lately we have been riding up and down the boardwalk early on weekend mornings, dealing with a breeze in one direction and the sun being just a little too hot in the other. We got in 12 miles at a 9:19 pace - a little slower than my goal of 9:06 for long runs, but still within the upper end of the range I wanted to hit. After the run we stopped and got bagels and I hung out with my parents at their house for a bit, until I got a call from my husband - he was running a fever. Eek! As I headed home I swung by target and stocked up on cold supplies, and delivered them to Dennis, who spent the entire day in bed. I started taking Zicam, in hopes that I could avoid the wrath of the cold. I went for a swim in the afternoon, and generally tried to avoid being in the apartment as much as possible.

Den’s fever broke on Monday, and while he was still sick, I crossed my fingers that since the fever was gone, I had avoided catching his cold. I headed out for a run before work, with Dad along on his bike, and aimed for some easy recovery miles. Dad and I chatted as we looped around the neighborhood, and six miles flew by, despite my legs feeling a little heavy at the start. That night I was still feeling okay, so I headed to hot yoga with Liz and Rachel, who were both in NY for the week. We got to the studio a little later than I prefer, and wound up on the right side of the room, AKA the hotter side, right under one of the heating panels. We were in for a doozy of a class. I was dripping with sweat within the first five minutes, my hamstrings screaming any time a pose made me stretch them out. We somehow survived the hour, although I found myself wondering how I used to do hot yoga on a regular basis. I have another 8 classes left on the package that I purchased from the studio, so I suppose I have plenty of time to re-acclimate.

The plan for Tuesday morning was track to do some speed work - I set my alarm early, and dragged myself out of bed bright and early rolled into my running shoes. I had about a mile and a half run to the track, which was perfect for my warm up. My legs were unwilling to get with the program and get moving, but I pressed onward hoping I would hit a groove eventually. Dad was already at the track walking laps when I got there, and I pressed the lap button on my Garmin to get started with my repeats. The plan was four 1200m repeats, with 400 m of rest between each. I wanted the pace to be between 7:30 and 7:50 with the faster end of the paces being preferable. The first repeat rang in at a 7:49 pace, and wound up being the fastest of the morning. I struggled not to take full stops or walk breaks instead of jogging the 400m of rest, but my body was just not up for the fast paces. The other three repeats came in between 7:50 and 8:03, which isn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite what I was looking for. Dad biked along as I ran back to my apartment, on the cooldown after the hard work. All in all I had finished, 7 miles total, and I was wiped out when I got home. I questioned why paces that I have been able to hit lately had been so hard - and a few hours later I had a sore throat and was congested - I had the cold that I tried so hard to avoid.

I was wiped out on Tuesday night, so I opted to skip the swim that I usually go for. Wednesday I had a planned rest day, and truly took it easy, not even cross training like I usually do. By Thursday morning I was full of cold medicine, and getting out of bed was more of a struggle than usual, even though it was at a slightly later hour than normal - but it was the Fourth of July, and I was registered to run the annual Bellmore Striders 4th of July 4-miler with Rachel. Its not often that i get to run with her, as she has moved to California, so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity.

I scooped her up on the way to the race, and when we got to the train station we had about 40 minutes to go before the race was set to start. We collected our bibs, and had numbers right next to each other, now that we share a last name. Unfortunately they had run out of small shirts, so despite the fact that we had pre-registered, we wound up with tanks that were mens mediums, a little big for me and a lot big for Rachel.

Once we had our bibs we walked back to the car and stashed our tanks, pinned on our bib numbers, and pulled on our red, white and blue ProCompression socks. I had just gotten a new pair of their Sonic Boom print, so I loaned Rach my old flag pair.

The race was delayed by about 15 minutes due to long porter potty lines, but while we were waiting Dad made it to the start area on his bike. He had gone for a ride at the beach that morning, but had made it to the race just before the start to spectate.

Rach and I lined up next to the LIRR in the start area, and once the national anthem was sang, we were off. It was hot and humid, and when we spotted a sprinkler in the first mile we ran right through it. There are a total of 9 turns on the course, and we counted them off as we went. We clocked the first mile in 8:59, and I was feeling better than I expected to. Rach and I stuck together, chatting a little as we began to sweat our butts off. As we approached mile 2 Rachel needed to back off of the pace a little, as she was starting to feel nauseous. We walked into the a water stop at the second mile, taking a moment to cool off. The second half of the race didn’t go as well as the first, as Rachel was quickly overheating. Dad spotted us when he was spectating, and headed to a 7-11 to pick up some cold water for her. We did the best we could to alternate between walking and running, and Dad caught up to us with the cold water, which seemed to help. Eventually we ticked off mile three, and had just one mile between us and the finish line. Dad biked with us as we walked for a bit to make sure Rachel was okay, but eventually headed to the finish line as she managed longer run intervals. Since she moved to California she’s not used to running in humidity any more, and it certainly took its toll on her race today. We managed to run through the finish line, and then found Rachel a shady spot to sit while I grabbed us water bottles and watermelon. She cooled down, and started to feel a little better. I dropped her off after the race, and spent the rest of the day relaxing and hydrating.

I was bummed that I wasn’t getting in as many miles as I wanted to this week - my initial plan had been to run the 4-miler at a tempo pace, with a few warm up and cool down miles tacked onto it, but my body just couldn’t handle those paces while full of cold medicine. I decided to just go for a few easy miles on Friday morning, because something is always better than nothing. I got in a easy 5k before work, emphasis on the word easy. Even those three miles were a struggle - I was so ready to be back to 100%, and training as I intended. I wound up feeling like crap for the rest of the day, and actually headed home from work early because I just couldn’t breathe, and needed to use my nebulizer.

On Friday night Dennis and I attended Mike’s wedding, and I was so excited to watch him and Jude tie the knot. I wondered how many times I would wind up blowing my nose, and if it would lead to me having to re-apply my makeup. The wedding was beautiful, with their ceremony on the shore of Lake Ronkonkoma, where they exchanged vows that they wrote each other. I would be lying if I said happy tears were not cried more than once. We danced the night away, thankful that all of our miles gave us the cardio we needed to jump up and down to the music. When Mike’s brother gave the best man speech, he even paused for a shout out to Mike for qualifying for the NYC marathon - I was a proud run bully in that moment.

We had a late night on Friday, and when I made my marathon schedule I budgeted in a rest day for that Saturday, and was happy to sleep in. Since I had taken it easy with my runs on Thursday and Friday I considered going out for some miles on Saturday, but my body really was not up for it. Any time I tried to do little activities (such as cleaning up or cooking) around the apartment, I was feeling light headed, so I opted to park myself on the couch, and hope that another day of rest would give me the recovery I needed to get in a long run on Sunday. Dennis made us a hearty dinner on Saturday night - Fartlek Chili from the “Run Fast, Eat Slow” cookbook, and it was an excellent pick me up.

I didn’t bother to set an alarm for Sunday morning, as there were thunder storms in the forecast for the early morning hours. When I eventually woke up I procrastinated getting outside, even though there were no storms in sight. I ate some breakfast, used my nebulizer, and then watched some T.V. as i assembled my running gear. Eventually I was fully assembled, and there was no more reason to stall. It was going to be a solo 8-miler, as Mom and Dad had headed to Norman J. Levy preserve (AKA garbage mountain) to go for a walk before I got out of bed. It was in the 80s, but the sky was blue with a little bit of cloud cover, so it wasn’t too brutal outside. My only goal was to get some miles under foot, regardless of how fast or slow they wound up being. I popped on my headphones, set my garmin to show the time, and put on a podcast to keep me company.

The run felt better than I expected, and I made sure to keep the pace low- effort. Slowly but surely the miles ticked by, and as the miles stacked up it was more work to keep moving forward. But when the run came to a close, I was glad that I made the decision to get out there, despite not feeling 100%.

Here’s to hoping that things turn around next week, and my training gets back on track!

Chicago marathon Training: The First Month

If you’ve followed my blog for a while, you probably know that with previous marathon training cycles I’ve posted weekly training updates, where I talk about what I’ve been up to and how I’m feeling. It keeps me accountable, and lets me compare how I was feeling in previous cycles with how I’m feeling today. 

Well, if you’ve been wondering “aren’t you marathon training, where are the updates?” I’m here to let you know, they’re coming!

I opted for a longer than usual training cycle with Chicago, so that I could have a bit of wiggle room built in for travel that I knew was going to happen between June and October, and the first month of training was going to include travel for 3/4 weeks, so I opted to not make a hectic month even busier with trying to squeeze in weekly training updates (but don’t worry, I still clipped together some race recaps for you guys!). 

But going forward, somewhere between weekly and bi weekly training updates will be coming back to the blog, starting with a quick recap of what I’ve been doing for the last month. 

This time around I decided to try a new (to me) program for training: The Hanson’s marathon method. I ordered the book, read the reasoning behind the program, and took a deep breath at the thought of such a large undertaking - it’s a lot of miles, and a much shorter ultimate long run distance than I am used to, but I am a believer that growth can only occur outside of your comfort zone, so I am going to go for it.

While I try to tell myself that my “A” goal for any marathon is just to finish and to have a good time, I also get a lot of joy out of pushing my limits - and that is why this time around my goal is to aim for 4 hours. So using the Hanson method, that means longer tempo and track workouts, and higher mileage weekdays. Then weekend long runs cap at 16 miles - this part scares me, and I can’t promise that I’m not going to do at least one 18 or 20 miler at some point.

So far, I’ve been feeling strong with this training plan. There have been a few times that I am definitely feeling the cumulative fatigue of so many miles, but I just make sure that I am listening to my body, and really slowing down on easy days.

Since I was travelling most weekends in June, two of my long runs happened out of state. First, when I headed to Disney for memorial day. It was a short trip, just Saturday to Tuesday, but Dennis’ whole family was going to be there, including his sisters who currently reside in California and Grenada (for most of the year - she is in vet school, so when school is in session she is far away). Our decision to tag along on this trip was somewhat last minute, but we were both happy that we were able to make it work. It was already HOT in Florida, even though it was only May. We were hydrating a ton throughout the day in the parks and were exhausted anyway, largely from the heat, by the time we were back at the hotel . One morning I woke up before the rest of the family, and went out to get my first “long” run of the training cycle in, since I had the time. We were staying at Saratoga Springs, the same place we stayed when we did the Dopey challenge in 2017, and running loops around the resort brought back memories of Greg and I running our make-up half marathon when the race was cancelled due to thunder storms. It was hot, but I found a water fountain on one of the paths, and would stop for a drink every other loop. Of course, my garmin died mid-run, but anticipating this happening I had started Strava on my phone when I began running. To my own surprise, I pulled off 8 miles at a 9:07 pace, which is my “goal” pace for long runs, and according to my schedule every other weekend I am supposed to be hitting this pace. It was humid and hotter than I was used to, so I was really pleased with myself.

The following weekend I was in Gettysburg, where my Aunt and Uncle live, to celebrate their 50th anniversary. The start of the weekend was dedicated to the party, but on Sunday morning Dad and I headed out to the battlefields and did an 8 mile run/bike ride through all of the memorials. It was super hilly, but the sights were well worth it. I loved running through all of the history, and was surprised by how many other runners and bikers were out there getting their miles in. This one was slower, coming in around 9:50 or so, but I was happy with it, and it was a great run.

As for hometown runs, I have spent three weekends at Jones beach with my parents, running up and down the boardwalk and bike path as they bike along to varying degrees of success. The weekend that I raced the queens 10k, I somehow pulled off 10 miles at a sub-9 pace the day after, and while I was exhausted as a result, I felt so good about it. The other two weekends weren’t quite as successful - one weekend I decided to do a tempo run that was 9 miles total, with 6 of those miles being around an 8:40 pace, on a Friday night and when I went to do my long run Saturday morning, I managed to stay at goal pace for the first half of the run, but then had to back off in the second half, as I crashed and burned hard. That particular morning may have even included a mid run temper tantrum, where I had to fully stop and sit down on the side of the path for a few minutes. It was just hard and mentally, I wasn’t coping well. Most recently I had a 12 mile long run, where I managed to stay on pace when the wind was to my back, but lost it once I had to run into the wind. The final pace came in around a 9:20, and I was happy enough with that.

My weekday runs were pretty standard for the first month, if it was a Tuesday or Thursday and Kasey had school she joined me for a few miles. Dad biked along for most of my morning runs, and my younger brother Tommy even gave running another chance, and joined me for about two weeks for the last miles in the morning. Most Wednesday nights I headed to track night with the Merrick Bicycles Tri Team, and most Tuesday mornings I did a track workout of my own, either on the treadmill or at the track. I also squeezed in tempo runs on Thursdays or Fridays, and boy, are those harder than I anticipated! This is the first time I am doing a training plan with tempo runs, and they are more challenging than I expected.

Despite the cold that I am currently dealing with, I feel strong in this training cycle so far, and I am very much looking forward to the miles that lie ahead.

Gear Roundup: Running Shorts

There are two things that I really look for in running shorts:

1. They have to be long enough that my thighs don’t chafe

2. They need to have some kick ass pockets!

New Balance 2 in 1 Shorts

Honestly, I wish I could tell you that the first thing was the most important to me, but if a pair of shorts had great pockets, I would probably happily load up on body glide in exchange for them being able to hold all of my crap when I am heading out for a long run.

My go-to shorts for the last few years have been the new balance 2-in-1 shorts, which used to have a great pocket in the waist band that my cell phone could fit snugly into. The downside was that when I raced in them – something I did often, as I have run 3/5 of my marathons in these shorts – I needed to also wear a fuel belt with them to hold my inhalers and Gu, as there is no way that anything other than my phone is fitting in that pocket. But last summer when I looked to expand my collection of these shorts, I found out that they had been redesigned, and the pocket that was previously large enough to fit my phone now could barely fit my inhaler – a total bummer.

So, I began my new shorts quest, since I would really like to own a pair of shorts with enough pockets to comfortable fit my cell phone, inhaler, and race fuel. I like my SPI belt, the fuel belt that I own, but sometimes the weight of anything beyond gels in it makes my back hurt, and lately I have been using Skratch gummies over Gu as long run fuel, which takes up more space.

I already owned a few pairs of shorts other than my trusted 2-in-1s, all of which I like for shorter distances, but just weren’t capable of the carry capacity that I need for half and full marathons. I’m going to run through a few of them here, because I would still recommend these shorts, and the new shots that I purchased that have become my go-to shorts:

For track workouts:

New Balance accelerate 2.5” shorts:

These shorts have a wide opening around the legs, and allow you to really get moving with some strides. They do have a small interior pocket that I would say is sized to carry a key, but there is no means to close the pocket, so I have never used it. The one downside? They are a little bit on the short side, so on humid or rainy days, I do apply body glide before running in them to avoid chafing.

Oiselle Roga Shorts

For a long run when you don’t have much to carry:

Oiselle Roga Shorts

I purchased these when oiselle did a warehouse sale last summer, and they are a little on the short side, but are made of a super comfortable material. They have a good sized zipper pocket on the back of the shorts, large enough for my inhaler or one Gu, but too small for my cell phone. I ran in these for the Star wars Dark side half marathon in 2018, and while it was a humid day I can happily report that no chafing occurred.

Reading the product descriptions on the oiselle website, it seems that the “toolbelt” rogas offer more pockets, but I have yet to try a pair of those shorts myself.

But as for my hands down, favorite shorts:

So, in my search for the holy grail of pocket shorts, I spent a lot of time on running websites, looking at photos and descriptions of pockets. I checked out shorts on the brooks website, on REI – which carries a variety of brands, and at target, hoping maybe they would have something a little more budget friendly than the big running brands offer. Ultimately, I decided to order a pair of Pocket Jogger shorts from Oiselle, because I was basically drooling at all of that pocket potential, and I had a $20 coupon code to Oiselle for referring a friend to their site.

Two weeks or so later my shorts arrived in the mail, and I fell in love with all of the pockets. They have two deep side pockets, that full fit an iPhone X, one back zipper pocket, and two small open pockets in the waistband, which fit fuel well. It was still winter in NY when I ordered them, so I hopped onto my treadmill with them, and they fit like a dream. They stayed in place, without rolling up along my legs, an issue that I have with some spandex shorts. Heck, I can’t even wear the Nike PRO shorts that so many runners love because they immediately roll up on me! To really test these shorts, I loaded them up with my phone and race day fuel, and put them through the paces on the treadmill. Everything seemed to stay put, with no bouncing despite loaded pockets.

When I ordered these shorts, I figured I would continue to try other styles and brands if I was not happy with them. But I never did get around to ordering any other pairs, and for valentines day Dennis surprised me with two more pairs of pocket joggers – I had talked about how much I liked them so much that my non-runner husband had decided that I needed more pairs of these perfect pocket shorts.

My next warm weather race was the events at the princess half marathon weekend, and when I packed for Florida, I gave myself options for shorts – I had never run outside or over 6 miles in these shorts, so I wasn’t sure how they would compare to my New balance 2-in-1 shorts on race day. I packed a pair of each short style to go with my outfits for the princess 10k and Half, figuring I would make a race day decision. I was wearing a skirt for both events, so figured I had time to decide as things didn’t need to coordinate perfectly.

Oiselle Pocket Joggers

The morning of the 10k it was hot and humid, and I was going to attempt to race the event. I made the decision to go for the pocket joggers, since it was the shorter distance of the fairytale challenge, and if I liked them, then I would do the same for the half. My gamble paid off, and even when I was pushing the pace, my phone stayed securely in the side pocket. Plus, I no longer had to fumble with a zipper with pulling my phone out for photos, which is a frequent occurrence during RunDisney events. Since the shorts had served me well at the 10k, I decided to wear another pair for the half the following day, when they would really be put to the test, as I would be running with my GoPro.

I ran the WDW half marathon in January while wearing my newbalance 2-in-1 shorts, and spent most of the race just holding the camera in my hand, as I didn’t have a large enough pocket for it and it bounced too much when I clipped it to the waist band of my shorts, even if I was clipping it to my SPI belt at the same time. I figured worst case I would just wind up holding it, like I had done in January. But when we got moving, I slid the camera into one of the side pockets, and was shocked to discover that it sat there comfortably when I wasn’t filming with it, with no real bounce or annoyance. So, the pocket joggers passed yet another holding stuff test, and officially became shorts that I would wear for longer distance runs.

I plan on continuing to run in these shorts as I train for the Chicago marathon this summer, and will update this post if I purchase any new shorts, or have anything to add. But as of now, the Oiselle pocket joggers have officially become my go-to running shorts.

Race Recap: 2019 Brooklyn Half Marathon

Earlier this year when registration for the Brooklyn Half Marathon was approaching, I reached out to my friends to see if anyone was interested in running the Brooklyn half with me - When Mike, Sophie and Carson all wanted in, we made sure we were at our computers right when registration opened, since this race always sells out fast! Luckily, the three of us got into the race, and made sure to get our miles in leading up to race day.

I’ve written about running with these three before, but I am going to take a moment to introduce them here -

Mike and I first met in 1998, when my family moved to Wantagh. Our younger brothers were on the same baseball team, and we were the reluctant older siblings that got dragged to every game. But we forged a friendship that lasted through our days of doing plays together in high school, and into adulthood. He is often encouraging and a co-conspirator in my running shenanigans.

Sophie and I met in 2013, after she started dating my younger brother in 2012. They’re still dating today, and the two of us are truly kindred spirits. She has become one of my closest friends since moving to Long Island last year. Sophie, Kasey and I spend a lot of time together in a group message and in person, and this was set to be her first half marathon - until she decided to run the Long Island Half two weeks before the Brooklyn Half. Unfortunately, she injured her foot at the LongIisland half, so we really just wanted to get to the finish line without additional damage for the Brooklyn Half.

Carson and I met through work - when I moved into a new role last year she was occupying an adjacent cubicle, and we struck up a friendship that lead to days at the gym after work. We don’t work for the same company anymore, but we still find each other for runs!

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let talk about the Brooklyn Half! This race happens on a Saturday, which means you have to pick up your bib in Brooklyn, on a week night. Lucky for me, Mike works in Brooklyn and was able to stop at the race expo on his way home one night. I have heard the expo is epic, and I hope to experience it one day, but it just wasn’t in the cards with my work schedule this time around.

On race day my husband, Dennis, had agreed to drop us off at the starting area. We picked up Mike and then Sophie, and Dad of course had to assemble us for a pre-race photo - Sophie and I look super prepared, right?

We hopped in the car and were on our way. I made sure to organize the bag I was planning on checking as we drove towards Brooklyn. After a very rainy month - I did five weekends in a row of racing, and 3/5 were pouring rain - it was nice to have good weather on race morning. Mike and I always joke that if he is signed up to run, it is going to rain, so when it was pouring during the run as one four miler, we made sure to shout to the skies “It always rains when Mike does races shorter than half marathons!”

Our shout to the skies seems to have worked, because there were nothing but blue skies that morning, and we had a easy ride into Brooklyn. Dennis headed home to go back to bed, and Mike, Sophie, and I headed to the start area. We were all starting in wave 2, so we tracked down the wave two bag check area. One thing I hadn’t considered was that I was going to have trouble checking a bag - my bib was for wave one, and the bag check area was completely separate, about a mile away. We decided to just cram my stuff between Sophie and Mike’s bags, and once we dropped them off we headed for the security line.

While we were milling about the bag check area Carson found us, and we all waited together to get through security. As we inched through the security line I managed to apply KT tape to Carson’s calf and to Sophie’s foot, which was harder than I expected while having to move forward a few feet every so often. This line took much longer than expected, and by the time we got though the metal detectors we only had 20 minutes or so to go before our wave was set to take off. The porter potty lines were long, but we realized that there were more in the corrals, so we decided to walk to the corral and hope for shorter lines. Finding our corral was easy, but finding the end of the porter potty line was significantly more challenging. It weaved through the corral, and we hopped onto the end, hopeful that we would make it to the front of the line before the corrals collapsed forward. Luckily, we all got our chance, and the corrals were just starting to inch forward when we finished up our business.

We moved forward towards the start line with the masses, all eating a Gu as we shuffled. We were excited and ready to get moving, as the day was warming up as the sun moved up in the sky. The shuffle quickly turned into a run when we crossed the start line, and in her excitement Carson briefly swapped from running to prancing.

We didn’t have any particular plan for pacing this race, beyond wanting to enjoy the miles - which I always find is a good approach. We ran the first two miles through the streets of Brooklyn, eventually getting to grand army plaza, where spectators lines the street. We chatted as the miles rolled by, and entered Prospect park around mile three. After running the Hot chocolate 15k in prospect park, we were very familiar with that scenery - but at least this time we only had to take on the hills there one time!

Sophie and I stuck together, with Mike and Carson slightly ahead of us for most of the race - most of the time when we hit a mile marker, I could hear Mike celebrating ahead of me, and when we stopped to walk aid stations, we often found Mike and Carson along the way, and all reunited for a few minutes. Sophie’s foot was hardly cooperating with her, but she did a great job of moving forward despite the pain.

There were musicians along the course, and even some people offering snacks - among the snacks were doughnuts, and possible the most amusing sideline snack I had ever seen at a race - someone holding a bag of lucky charms. In my excitement over seeing the lucky charms I of course grabbed a handful, before realizing I really did not want to eat them - but the good news was that Mike was ready for a snack!

Eventually Carson decided to push her pace as we closed in on the end of the race, and Mike fell back to run with me and Sophie. Mike is basically the mayor of New York through, and did find his cousin and a friend along the race course! His cousin was working, so we had some idea of where she would be, but we just happened to find his friend among runners!

As we approached Coney Island there was a bio freeze station, which was funny to run through, as it was full of people in jumpsuits and goggles, armed with spray bottles of bio freeze to spray onto runners - we ran in, pointed to a body part, and got some relief. Once we could see the cyclone in the distance, we knew that we were in the home stretch. We hit the boardwalk, and once we turned the corner we could see the finish line. Mike and I shout-sang to each other, as always, and Sophie looked like she wanted to kill us both for it.

We crossed the finish line, and just like that our race was complete, 13.1 miles later. We spotted Carson before we got to the metal rack, and all collected our metals together, and then walked to the bag check area. It was slow going, but it felt good to be done with the race. The temps had climbed as we ran, and it was nice to be cooling off.

There is an after party at the baseball stadium that is on Coney Island, which we walked through on our way to Nathans - which was our primary post-race goal. The Nathan’s location on Coney Island is the original of the chain, and was our primary motivation any time we had a tough moment during the race. Plus, Carson had never before had a Nathan’s hot dog so we had to make sure she got the full experience. The wait for Nathans was almost as long as our half marathon, and just as we were finally receiving our food - chili cheese dogs and cheese fries, of course - Dennis called to let us know he was right around the corner. We had time to witness Carson experience her first bite of Nathans, but then we had to find Dennis to head home, hot dogs and medals in tow.

I carried my GoPro along for the race, so if you’re looking for a more detailed race recap, check out my video below!

Race Recap: 2019 Queens 10k

Well, we are half way through 2019, and I’m almost done with my 9+1 program with the New York Road Runners, which will earn me a spot in the 2020 NYC Marathon.

My 6th race of the year with the road runners was the Queens 10k, which takes place in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY. This was the third year that I was participating in this race, and it is one race that I have looked forward to each summer. The ride into queens is a bit shorter than the ride into Central Park, since I live on Long Island, and Dad has come along each year to cheer me on and snap some photos as I run. This year Sophie was also signed up to run, but since I wanted to race the event, we weren’t planning on running together.

I headed over to my parents house race morning, as Dad had agreed to drive to queens, and was surprised to see that my mom was awake and ready to join us. Sophie and I piled into the back seat and we were on the way. We were able to find parking in the park, so we managed to avoid having to park in citi field. We had a little walk to race day central, which had moved from where it was located previous years. This of course lead to me leading us entirely out of the way, but a volunteer eventually pointed us in the right direction, and we found it near the entrance to the subway stop at citi field.

We were able to get our bibs quickly enough, but the diversion in getting to the pick up meant that we didn’t have time to stop at the bathroom before the race. Instead, I headed for the corrals of wave one, and Sophie and I parted ways as I climbed into the corral.

A few members of the Tri team, including Sami and Nicole, were in a starting corral near mine, so the three of us were rapid fire texting before the race, trying to spot each other. We all wanted to run similar paces, so I was trying to spot them before the race began. Eventually Nicole flagged me down, and we found Sami shortly after.

The national anthem was sung, and after a bit of corrals shuffling forward, we were off! The first mile was a bit crowded, and it seemed like a fair number of runners with wave 2 bibs had somehow wound up in wave one, and it was probably a big part of the congestion that was going on. Eventually the narrow park road opened up as we made a left and headed under some highways, and we got a little more space to spread out.

While overall the course was flat, we had a few sections that largely consisted of getting up highway overpasses. Mom and Dad were positioned just after the first one the race went by, but I managed to miss them. Mile two took us by the queens museum, and then on a very long out and back, which lead to the entrance of Citi field before turning us around and sending us back to the park. As the sun rose in the sky the humidity picked up, and we were all reminded that the park was once a swamp, as buckets of sweat ensued. Throughout the race I caught glimpses of my teammates, and seeing them pushing made me continue to cling onto what was, for me, a hard pace.

As we entered the park again and ran through mile 4, I reminded myself that it’s only a 10k, it would be over in just two more miles! I spotted my parents as we ran through the park, and knew I would spot them again by the unisphere. I just kept pushing to keep up with Sami, trying to focus on running and ignore the urge to constantly check the pace on my watch. Mile five took us passed the worlds fair pavilion and observation towers, AKA those space ships that you see in the Men in Black movies.

Mile five took us passed the unisphere, and then over to the area race day central was, before heading back towards the unisphere, and making one final turn towards the finish line. So close, yet so far! I managed to keep moving forward and stick with Sami until the end of the race, and we finished in 53:19. Not too shabby for a humid day. I was happy with the time, and even happier to be done running. I was handed a medal, and collected my finishers bag, which had an Apple, a Gatorade, a water, and some pretzels.

After the race Sami and I found Nicole and Gabby, and snapped a mini-team picture, before I headed back to race day central to collect my tank top. I always get nervous about getting a shirt my size, as they sometimes run out, but I got the size I wanted this time.

I headed back towards the unisphere where my parents were waiting for Sophie to run by, and got there just in time to spot her and cheer her on. I met her by the finish as she completed her race, and then we took some photos around the park before heading home.

I love the historic scenery that you get to run by in this race, with the relics of the worlds fair scattered throughout the course. If you’re a Disney fan, this is where it’s a small world and the carousel of progress first debuted! It’s a “must do” on my race calendar each year, and I always enjoy exploring the park with my family after the race.

We hit some traffic heading home, but it enabled a little post-race nap, which was perfect for me! All in all, it was a fun start to Father’s Day weekend.

Video Recap: The 2019 Brooklyn Half Marathon

Still working on a written blog post about the 2019 Brooklyn Half Marathon, but at least the video recap is complete!

I met up with Sophie, Mike, and Carson for the Brooklyn half, and we lost and found each other throughout the 13.1 mile distance.

Check back soon for a blog post, if you’re more into reading than watching videos.

Video recap: The 2019 Disney Princess Half Marathon

Did I carry my go pro for another 13.1 miles? You betcha! Today I’m sharing a recap of Kasey and my experience running the princess half marathon together.