Brooklyn
21 May 2011
2:19:13.48 Finish
I PRed this race by about 10 minutes under my last half marathon finish and for that, I am happy with my performance. However, it wasn’t easy. The morning dawned foggy and damp and didn’t improve much as the sun came up–it just got hot. We had 97% humidity at the start with no wind!
The first six or so miles were inside Prospect Park–two loops–before the course veered off to a long straightaway down Ocean Parkway. The park was shady and comfortable; Ocean Parkway, not so much. Luckily, we were able to run down the more-shaded left side of the street. That helped, but it was pretty brutal.
Major cramping at mile 9 forced me to walk a couple of times and stop all together to stretch at mile 10. It was also really crowded until I hit the boardwalk. Walking in the ocean afterward made it all worth it!
Loooooong bathroom lines pre-race.
This is a look at Ocean Parkway from the Q Train at mile 12. Thanks to Chicken Underwear for letting me use it. You can check out his blog post over at http://whatyourdonotknowbecauseyouarenotme.blogspot.com/2011/05/no-i-ran-whole-marathon-6-days-ago.html. He and the rest of the PPTC did a lot of good cheering!
