Technology: Blessing and Curse

Yesterday I had my 1^st race of the year, which was also my 1^st race since last year’s NYC Marathon.  The course and the weather conditions made it primed for a PR, and after coming up just short of my goal in the half marathon last year in Lake Stevens, I was ready to attack.  I had done the work at NWCrossfit, the training assigned by Coach Kim of TN Multisports, and got my training runs in with different folks once 2012 kicked off.  A couple of aches and pains as the season started, but overall, things seemed to be going ok.

As luck would have it, this race was the NYC Half Marathon so there we were – trekking back to the east coast for a race.  It coincided with a big family gathering to celebrate my niece, so it was going to be a busy, but happy, few days in Beck land.  The course for the NYC Half changed slightly, but it wasn’t anything that I would consider material in terms of looking at previous years on the Garmin Connect website.  I like looking at the elevation profiles of courses I race so I can get a sense of how to plan a race if hills are involved.

As some of you may know, I wasn’t a “runner” when I lived in NYC so I was surprisingly unfamiliar with the nuances of Central Park, which was where the 1^st 10k of the race took place.  I was told it was hilly and it was going to be a bit tough.  So when I worked out the race plan with Kim, I figured that I should play it conservative in the 1^st half of the race and then “let it fly” in the 2^nd half of the race which was pretty much all downhill and flat.

It was a pretty hectic few days leading up to our trip to NYC plus our visits to the homeland always end up being fairly jammed packed.  This trip was no exception, and I knew I didn’t get the amount of sleep I had hoped for in the 2-3 days before the race.  Whatever.  Gotta only look forward, I guess.  

The wake-up call came in at 5:30am, had some breakfast and met a high school classmate so we could head to the start together.  We had a heck of a time getting a cab, to put it mildly, which meant no time to warm-up since I knew I would have to hit the always wonderful porta-potty line prior to the start of the race.  It was good to see TR and have some laughs.

TR and I were in different starting groups, so we split and I literally walked out of the bathroom at 7:27am with very little time to spare before the start!  OK, relax and have fun.  Remember your race plan, Jill.  About 9 minutes after the gun goes off, I text Marc and cross the start line. 

Miles 1-3: It was surprisingly uncrowded even with 15,000+ runners and I was easily able to create some space between myself and other runners.  The less weaving in and out, the better.  Yes, we had some rollers but after Victoria, they were pretty much non-events.  My new watch kept things at a steady pace and wasn’t jumping all over the place like my last watch was, so I was pleased.  It felt a bit humid, which was odd because the temperature was about 47 degrees.  I was taking in more water than I was expecting and I know I was properly hydrated in the days leading up to the race. Hmmm....

Goal pace for 1^st 3 miles: 8:20 per mile.

Actual times for 1^st 3 miles: 8:18, 8:30 and 8:25.  OK, better to be slightly conservative in the beginning.  Good start.

Miles 4-5: This is where the “hills” were going to be, one of which was Harlem Hill.  The person in NYC whom I have used to stretch me out pre-race told me that this hill looks like it is over and then “it isn’t”, so I knew not to get too excited when I first saw the top because it wasn’t.  These hills were the types of hills that I walk everyday to and from the bus, so when someone yelled “Great job! You got to the top!”, I chuckled.

Goal pace for miles 4-5: 8:30 per mile.

Actual times for miles 4-5: 8:19 (the one with Harlem Hill – grin) and 8:35.  Again, good….

Mile 6-6.5: Wrapping up Central Park and heading into midtown.  I looked at my watch at the 10K point and I was really pleased where things were at.  I thought that if I could get out of the park feeling good and with an average pace of 8:25, I would be in a good position for the 2^nd half.  Mission accomplished - almost exactly.

Goal pace for mile 6+: 8:20 per mile.

Actual time for mile 6+: 8:12.  Nice… feeling strong and ready to go.

Miles 6.5 – 8: I knew at least Cousin Claire and Marc were going to be out in this section of the course, and I was super pumped to see close friends, the Kaye family, out in full force cheering me on.  Claire and Marc were exactly where I expected them to be.  

But something strange was going on with my watch.  Yes, my new watch.  It had me running a 9:00 pace, which I thought was very odd and I started wondering if because I was running on 7^th Avenue in between lots of really, really, really tall buildings, if the watch wasn’t calculating distance properly.  Unfortunately I started to pick up my pace too and at this point, the race changed for me.  When I hit the mile 8 marker on the course, my watch was now in total sync with the course.  This means that part of my run wasn’t “recorded”.  In other words, I ran 1.5 miles in what the watch thought was 1.2 miles.

Goal pace for miles 6.5 – 8: 8:10 per mile

Actual pace for miles 6.5 – 8: ~7:30 per mile.  Uh-oh.

Miles 9-10: I was on the West Side Highway and my stomach started to feel not so great.  I knew the watch was working properly again, but unfortunately I had slowed down from what my goal pace was.  I was in such disbelief that I was so dumb about not listening to my body and being a slave to the technology (especially after I managed the 1^st half so well), and it was costing me my real goal time that was totally achievable.  Mentally, I was pretty down at this stage plus the headwind didn’t help. 

Goal pace for miles 9 – 10: 8:10 (mile 9) and 8:00 (mile 10).

Actual pace for miles 9 – 10:  8:17 (mile 9) and 8:24 (mile 10).  “Jill, you’re a schmuck” was a constant refrain in my head at this stage. 

Miles 11 – 12: At this stage, the math calculations started in the head about getting in under 1 hour and 50 minutes.  OK, if you can keep around 8:15, this is doable but darn – it is going to be close.  I remembered my experience at Lake Stevens about letting up a bit to recover after a bad hill, and that is what cost me my goal in that race.  The conversation with myself then shifted to me repeatedly saying “Jill, don’t you ****ing quit! You will never forgive yourself. We will NOT be repeating Lake Stevens.”  I saw Marc at around 11.5 and that cheered me up, although I suspected that he knew I was hurting big-time. 

Goal pace for miles 11 – 12: 8:00

Actual pace for miles 11 – 12: 8:16 (mile 11) and 8:12 (mile 12).  We passed by the WTC site and I thought about my friend, Vinnie, who perished on that horrible day 10+ years ago, and quickly cycled through my experience on that day, and again implored myself to not give up regardless of how crappy I felt.

Miles 13+: I was in pain and then I thought that if I could still beat my PR of 1:50:10 and really get in under 1:50 (an additional 11 seconds) feeling as awful as I did, I would be so grateful.  The last time I was *THIS* miserable in a half marathon was when Andria and Michael paced me to my 1st sub-2:00 half at the Seattle Half Marathon in November, 2009.  Heading into mile 13 was just a matter of not leaving anything on the course and giving everything I had.  Of course, we went into an underpass and my watch didn’t track again (!) so I had no idea what was going on and how much I had left in that last mile plus.  Conversation vacillates between “Seriously?” and “Come on! Finish this now, Beck!”

I get out of the underpass and the sign says 800m left (1/2 mile) and of course we had a slight uphill which made me think back to that evil little dip under Aurora in the Seattle ½. Heh.  My watch was at 1:45+ at this point.  I am going so hard, pumping my arms and just trying to will my way to this finish line.  Again, “Don’t you give up!  Stay with this!” I get to the 200m sign and the watch goes to 1:49.  “Come on, Jill!”  I cross the finish line and I was pretty sure I got in because by the time I hit my watch to stop, it said 1:49:56 and I err on the side of hitting the watch after the finish.  I guessed my time was 1:49:51, but the official results were nowhere to be found.  But I was exhausted and cautiously optimistic that I came in under 1:50.

Goal pace for miles 13+: 7:50

Actual pace for miles 13+: 7:20.  This takes into account the “lost 3/10^th of a mile in the underpass.  Wow.  I don’t even know if I have ever run that fast in a 5K and I did that in the last mile of a half marathon.  Actually I just checked my 5K PR.  I haven’t.  Uh, wow.  I guess that’s why that 7:30 pace in the middle of the race really hurt.

Sure enough – say hello to a new PR: 1:49:51 – official chip time.

Some excellent lessons learned here, most notably:

• The fact that I didn’t let up when the times got tough was the difference between getting the PR and not. Lake Stevens taught me a good lesson last year.  Don't ever give up.  And the fact that I pushed through pain like this in November, 2009 was a good mental note as I had to fight through those last 3+ miles.
• The plan I had was good and it worked really well in the 1st half.  Unfortunately I didn't make adjustments quick enough when things went awry.  Need to do better on this because I know this will only help me in future races of all distances.
• Technology can help you be smart in training and racing, but ultimately you need to go with “feel” if things do not look right with the technology.  As soon as I knew the watch wasn’t “right” with the distance and pace calculation, I should have run that section based on how I felt and not try to force the pace to appear on the watch.  What a dumb move, but hopefully one I will not make again.

Post-race was great.  I received a nice text from TR after she finished.  I saw my friend, Mike, and we walked over to Marc, who, as usual, was ready with my sweatshirt and sweatpants.  Then we had a really fun lunch with the Behar crew (my sister’s family) and the Kaye family (who were out on the course really early to cheer me on) at OTTO.  Pizza and gelato is a great post-race meal. Played with the niece and the nephew, napped and then went to dinner with another friend.

I slept really well last night.

And yes, I was and still am very grateful for that PR given how bad I felt for the 2nd half of the race.  :-)