Live, Run, Grow

This past weekend I ran the New York 13.1 – my second half marathon and my first NON-Disney race!  I know myself well enough to know that to keep up with running I need to keep a race on my calendar every few months, so awhile back I found this half marathon and decided it would be a good “spring” race to keep me training after the WDW Marathon.

Since it was a local race I decided to e-mail my friend Alex to see if she wanted to do it with me.  Alex and I have been friends since 1st grade and for as long as I can remember she has always been my “running” friend – I’d call her house in high school and her mom would tell me she was out running…so I’d call back 20 minutes later (because really, who runs more than 20 minutes?!?) and her mom would say, “she’s still out running!”  Alex always seemed to be out running, and to be honest I never really got it.  Why would someone just go out and voluntarily run??

Well, now that I “voluntarily” run, I thought it may be fun for Alex and I to “voluntarily” run together!  (Well not so much “together” since Alex is much faster than I am, but you know…in the same race at least…)

I met Alex and her husband Randy in the parking lot bright an early Saturday morning (which was a bit rough since I had worked late the night before).  We didn’t have to worry about bag check since Randy was going to carry our bags for us (thanks Randy!), so we headed right over to the starting area to stretch a bit and took a pre-race picture:

At around 9am we lined up, listened to a not-so-great rendition of the Nation Anthem and we were off!  (Not quite the fanfare and firework starts of a Disney race, but I was just glad to get started!)  So, leading up to this race I had been working A LOT and running…well, NOT A LOT.  My only long run since the marathon in January was a 9-mile run two weeks ago and since then I had only done one 3-mile run.  My body was exhausted from how much I had been working and my only goal for this race was to finish.

The race was through Flushing Meadows Corona Park, home of the US Open and the 1939 and 1964 World’s Fairs – yes Disney fans, this is where “It’s a Small World”, “The Carousel of Progress” and the audio-animatronics of “Mr. Lincoln” all made their debut!

The half marathon course was a bit confusing looking at the map, but this proved not to be a problem since I was not leading the race at any point and was able to just follow all the people in front of me.  I only stopped to take one picture (which clearly people do a lot less of at non-Disney races):

The Unisphere at Flushing Meadows Park

The course was pretty flat and although I was not too concerned with my time I was happy with the pace I was keeping whenever I did check.  I have to say I was honestly shocked when I crossed the finish line at 2:06 – 13 minutes faster than my Disney Wine & Dine Half Marathon time!  Granted I was not stopping to take pictures with characters on this run, but I still was not expecting to beat my previous time by that much coming off such a busy stretch at work and not having trained properly.

I got my medal and met Alex and Randy at the finish area – Alex had also PR’d finishing in 1:54!

Half Marathon #2 is done!  Time to start looking for my next race!