One of the things new to me was actually taking part in competitive running. Prior to moving to NYC from residency, I have been a long time runner. I picked up running sometime in college as I was actually a a bit overweight and decided to run to lose some weight. In fact, it worked too well and lost well over 20 pounds of fat over a year. While I never was a competitive runner, I loved just hitting the road whether in heat or cold and getting that runner's high! While I did time myself, I was not nearly obsessive about taking record of data such as miles, heart rate, pace, etc. I probably was a 10 min/mile runner back in the day. Coming to NYC, I got to see the NYC marathon in person and felt all the energy during the race and before. Seeing people from all over the country to partake in perhaps one of the world's most famous marathon was inspiring. Seeing runners with their NYC marathon shirts made me want to do it too!
I set about to see how I could join for next year come to find out you can only really get in 1 of 3 ways: 1. Charity 2. Qualifying (not me!) 3. Lottery.
I crossed out the first two and decided to try the lottery. What I realized was that the my chances of winning the lotto was better. I quickly found out I did not get in the lottery...quite bummed. I then found a fourth way to get in for 2011 open to new yorkers (really anyone who was willing to fulfill these requirements). Called the 9 and 1 rule, if one is a member of NYRR, you do 9 roads races and 1 volunteer race...your in for the following year.
Never really a competitive runner, I signed up for my first road race in January of 2010. What I quickly realized was with over 3000+ runners you can't help but to push yourself faster! So 9 races later including 5 half marathons, I am in for the 2011 NYC Marathon!
Perhaps most importantly I improved my running pace dramatically over my first year of actually racing. Where I was content to be a 10 min/miler, as you can see from my average 5k-10k, my average pace is low 8s. This is my biggest excitement for the year of 2010 to knock off that much time in my first year of real running.
My goal for the year of 2011 aside for the 2011 marathon is to race at a mid-7 min/mile.
I also hope to get my half-marathon time to be consistently below 2 hours, I think I was only able to achieve that for one of the five halfs I did this year. I am looking forward to a great 2011 NYRR year, of course I will be running a lot for this year as well as focus on my triathlon training.
Race Name, Date | Gender/ Age | City, State | Distance (miles) | Net Time | Pace/ Mile | Overall Place | Gender Place | Age Place | Age- Graded % | |||
Bronx Half Marathon August 15, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 13.1 | 2:37:11 | 11:59 | 4711 | 2818 | 606 | 37.6 % | |||
Queens Half Marathon July 24, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 13.1 | 2:12:54 | 10:08 | 2040 | 1440 | 325 | 44.5 % | |||
Brooklyn Half Marathon May 22, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 13.1 | 1:58:04 | 9:00 | 3348 | 2226 | 531 | 50.1 % | |||
Scotland Run April 3, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 6.2 | 50:59 | 8:13 | 2338 | 1862 | 417 | 52.9 % | |||
Colon Cancer 4M Challenge March 28, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 4.0 | 32:09 | 8:02 | 483 | 380 | 74 | 52.6 % | |||
NYC Half-Marathon March 21, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 13.1 | 2:04:29 | 09:31 | 6945 | 4103 | 846 | 47.57 | |||
NYRR Al Gordon Snowflake February 28, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 4.0 | 31:09 | 7:47 | 808 | 681 | 164 | 54.3 % | |||
Run for Haiti February 20, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 4.0 | 32:11 | 8:02 | 1763 | 1370 | 281 | 52.6 % | |||
NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon January 24, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 13.1 | 2:00:21 | 9:11 | 3402 | 2425 | 451 | 49.2 % | |||
NYRR Fred Lebow Classic January 9, 2010 | M31 | New York, NY | 5.0 | 40:01 | 8:00 | 914 | 759 | 168 | 53.5 % |