This past weekend, Todd and I went up to Brooklyn, NY to visit our friends, Nick and Katelynn. On Saturday, Katelynn and I ran the Brooklyn Half Marathon. Katelynn ran cross country in high school and is recently getting back into running. This was her first half marathon and she did amazing. She cruised right through it and made it look easy! Her goal was to pace under a 10:00/mile pace and she did it by averaging 9:49/mile! Congrats Katelynn! Here we are at 5 something in the morning ready to leave for the half!
We were really lucky because Todd and Nick drove us to the start of the race. When we got there Katelynn and I went our separate ways into our corrals. I thought the race was very well organized because each corral had their own set of porta potties (yep, toilets are my main concern). The lines were still long but not as long as other porta potty lines I have seen at other races. Also, I liked how they were in the corrals. Because a couple of weeks ago when I ran Broad Street, the porta potties were placed away from the corrals which was a pain…and they didn’t have nearly as many porta potties as they should have. So anyway, I used the porta potty before the race which worked out great. I started a little behind my corral because of it but everything was a-okay.
I didn’t really specifically train for this race. I have been cross-training and doing some casual runs here and there. Some of my runs have been faster, some have been slower…but no “real” prescribed workout to speak of. Two weeks prior to this race, I ran the Broad Street 10-miler in Philly. I ran that for fun and was not going for a PR…rather I was helping my sister to get a PR (which she did by the way!).
Going into this race, I didn’t set any goal times. I knew that my previous PR was a 1:41:55, but I honestly didn’t even know what pace that was…now I know because I just looked it up…it was a 7:47/mile pace. So I didn’t really have a game plan…I guess I just decided to run by feel. The race winds through Prospect Park which has some hills throughout it…the hills weren’t absolutely terrible, but they were there and definitely caused me to slow my pace a bit. The good part was that there were some downhills thrown in there as well so it made it a little more bearable. Once we left the park, it was pretty much a straight shot right down to Coney Island.
Within the first 2 miles of the race, I saw Todd and Nick. As I was going through Prospect Park, I was having some doubts that I went out too fast. I probably should have started off slower, because the first half of the race was probably faster than the second…although, not by much. Once I made it to mile 10, I thought about how I would have been done if this was Broad Street. Then I pretty much tried to maintain my pace for the next 3 miles. I didn’t want to pick up the pace because I didn’t want to be dragging myself into the finish line, I wanted to finish strong. I held on to my pace and was able to do just that. I finished strong with a time of 1:36:18 (7:22/mile pace)…which was a 5 1/2 minute PR for me. I was really excited to break that 1:40 minute mark and to knock a bunch of time off of my PR. Next time, I’m shooting for that 1:35.
Afterwards, we ran into our friend, Jenna!
I really enjoyed the half marathon distance and the Brooklyn Half Marathon course. I loved the park the most and finishing along the boardwalk by the ocean. It was very well organized and I would definitely do it again.
We had such a fun weekend in Brooklyn with Nick and Katelynn…filled with good food and good times!! Can’t wait to do it again.
Congratulations to Katelynn for running her first half and to everyone else who raced this past weekend !
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Have a great day!
