Quelle Chaleur!

Sometimes it's pretty funny how my French calendar is right on with it's phrase of the day. Sunday's was "Quelle chaleur!" which loosely translates to "Man, it's hot!" And it was hot yesterday. (Of course, the first weekend we start to see 90 degree temps happens to be the same weekend as the NYC Half Marathon.)

It was actually HOTTER than the Chicago Marathon, but at least NYRR had the foresight to set up many water tables. (According to the National Weather Service, at 7am, which is when the race started, it was 76 degrees out with 80% humidity...by 9am it was 82 degrees!)

The heat and humidity, combined with my stupid corral assignment, combined with the fact that I only got 2 hours of sleep the night before made me think that I just might have to shelve my hopes for another 1:53. I was all agitated in my corral before the race too. People kept stepping on the back of my feet and their hair kept sticking to my shoulder (a huge pet peeve of mine).

Despite all of this, I did try to dodge and weave as much as possible. I was actually quite pleased with my first split: a 9:35. I was thinking for sure that I would be stuck doing 10 min miles from the way it was so crowded. But after I passed a bunch of people in the first mile I got very backlogged. It was kind of like when you turn the treadmill on too slow and you end up stepping all over the front of it. It was pretty frustrating. I decided that I might as well stop for water, because it WAS so hot, and it was obvious that I wasn't going to be able to race this one.

Hmmm. Seems there weren't enough volunteers. The tables were littered with EMPTY cups. So it seemed that we had to stand on line while we waited for a volunteer to fill up a cup for each of us, one at a time. We were stopped for so long that my Garmin actually STOPPED because it detected no movement. Not ideal, but I guess at least they had water. That mile was a 10:05.

I tried the whole dodging and weaving thing again, and though it was frustrating, I got back up to a 9:35 on the third mile.

Harlem Hill seemed to weed some people out, and the crowd thinned momentarily. Maybe it was because as we were running up the back side of the hill some guy on the sidelines yelled "That's it! The last big hill!" I was horrified. The worst hill was coming up. Runners around me seemed happy with this so I said "That's not true at all, there's a HUGE hill coming up!" (Gina later was like "Good for you. I hate it when people lie like that." :) That mile? 8:53. Whoo-hoo! Getting my game back!

Same story at the next waterstop. Seriously?

My fifth mile I looked down and noticed something strange...my watch was calculating the miles before I would get to the mile markers. In fact, by the time I got to mile 5, my Garmin said 5.19. Now, I know, I know, there is a bit of an accuracy problem sometimes with these things, BUT every other race I've run in the park is dead on. I was wondering if maybe all of the weaving I was doing was adding on miles. Mile 5: 9:22.

I was getting thirsty and very tired of being in the park. Thank goodness some man shouted "Water just around the corner!" Where? Where? LIAR! (The next water stop was actually OUT of the park, around mile 7. I thought this was a nasty thing for that man to do. :)

Mile 6: 9:08. I was actually feeling a lot better. Besides the whole water thing.

By the time I hit the bottom of the park I felt very very tired. The heat was getting to me and I just couldn't bear to think about the rest of the race which I knew would not be shady at all (running through Times Square and on the West Side Highway. Yuck.) I saw Bill and said "It's HOT." (This was my way of saying to him "I am just going to finish this race now. I am not worrying about time anymore." Luckily, Bill has come to so many of my races that I think he totally understood.) Bill pointed to the exit from the park and told me water was just around the corner. He was NOT lying ;)

Mile 7? 9:04.

This was really when I sort of gave up on the whole thing. I was just too exhausted. It was the heat, not the run. So I sort of started to enjoy myself, smiling and waving at the TNT cheerers. I looked forward to WALKING the water stops. Mile 8: 9:11.

I must admit, it was totally surreal running through Times Square. If it hadn't been so hot I would have been having an awesome time. There were what seemed like millions of fans cheering as you ran through this whole canyon of neon, lights and moving pictures. And there were a ton of bands! It was very cool.
I felt like a sucker, because this is when I decided that I needed a walking break. I also decided I needed a GU (even though my stomach was like "No! Please! No GU!") and it was the worst tasting GU ever, even though it was my favorite, vanilla. Mile 9? 9:43.

When I headed onto the West Side Highway, I was walking and some lady on the course yelled at me. "NO WALKING! PLEASE START RUNNING!" (There were other people walking by me too.) Seriously? Some lady jogging next to me was like "Easy for her to say!"

I started running again, but had to stop when my stomach was starting to turn again. Oh yes, the line of garbage trucks on the WSH, baking in the sun. Gross. As I was walking I ran into a teammate, Charles.
He didn't look so good and he asked if we could stick together until the end. He said he REALLY needed to run with someone. I figured there was no way I was going to finish this fast anyways, and I KNOW I have felt that way before and it STINKS when you feel that way, so I said okay.

We basically walked about 80% of the rest of the way. He kept saying that I could go ahead, but I think he really wanted me to run with him, so I did. I was actually feeling pretty good after about a half mile of walking, and felt like I could pretty much run the rest of the way in, but I thought it would be pretty crappy to leave him to finish the race himself when I said I would stay with him.

So my last mile times were kind of a joke, when I compared them to my first few miles. 11:13, 11:50, 11:39, 12:10. But it was okay. I think Charles appreciated it (he gave me a big sweaty hug at the end) and I just kept thinking how I would have LOVED to have someone with me in the last few miles of my first marathon (or even Marine Corps).

So I finished with a 2:26. CORRECTION: I just checked that out again. 2:26 was my gun time, 2:16 was my official time. Whew! I thought so! Otherwise my Garmin was way off! Definitely my worst half marathon ever, but I gladly accepted my medal. This was a race that I felt was an accomplishment just to finish. :)