The Half Marathon Freeze!

As I'm sure many of you know, Jessica and I ran the NYRR Manhattan half marathon yesterday morning.  Overall, it was a very fun trip for me (and hopefully Jessica), as I got to go back up to NYC and relax a bit from school.  Jessica and I were a little worried all week about the weather, as it has been frigid, blustery, and snowy all week in both NYC and DC, but when we woke up on Sunday morning it was actually sunny!

Post race clothes shed and then
an immediate fight for the hot shower

This past week neither Jessica nor I did much exercise because on top of our busy work and school schedules, we caught a nasty little cold, and this continued on into the weekend.  On Friday and Saturday day, we both relaxed and slept in, in an attempt to recover from our colds.  We also wanted to sleep a lot on Saturday night, but we both suffered from nerves induced insomnia and over hydration, so we had a very interrupted/short sleep.  

But like I said, on Sunday morning it was sunny and we were momentarily excited that it might be above freezing for the race.  Unfortunately, we were duped and the whole race was a freezing cold 19 degrees.   During the actual running part of the race, the 19 degrees wasn't too bad, but before the race, while waiting in the corrals, and after the race, walking back, the 19 degrees was absolutely, positively horrendous.  I'm pretty sure after that walk back, I am incapable of getting warm again.

In terms of the actual race, Jessica and I ran the whole thing together, and we were pretty pleased with our time: 1:47:51, which means we held around a 8:10 mile pace the whole time.  We probably could've been a little faster (or at least Jessica could've), but I had to stop for a quick bathroom break within the first 3 miles (apparently my bladder is minuscule :(  ) and my knee was acting up the last couple miles, so I couldn't give a good finishing kick in the end.   Regardless of me holding Jessica back, we decided that an 8:10 pace is respectable for this race, what with the frigid weather, our sickliness, and the hilly course (damn you Harlem Hill!!).

All in all, this was a very fun and successful race!  Additionally, this race has fueled our fire for IMAZ and other training races, and we are currently looking for our next one...although hopefully it will be somewhere warm!