Newport Liberty Half Marathon - 9/28/08

This morning was the Newport Half Marathon in Jersey City. I was looking forward to running a half marathon again since the last one I did was way back in January (the Manhattan Half in Central Park). Since I was looking for a local race to run that was outside of Central Park and relatively easy to get to, this race seemed like a good choice. It was mainly flat (some minor hills) and had nice views of the Statue of Liberty and lower Manhattan (the parts of it that I could see through the fog). It was also nice to see a number of Flyers at the race. I traveled in with LL (the Laminator) and BH (trakmaniak), and then saw TD, CM, and JAM in the pre-race area.

I had pretty good expectations for the race due to the lack of hills, but I wanted to be reasonable given the fact that this was my first half marathon in about 8 months. I was originally hoping for a time that was under 1:45 (due to the flatness of the course), however, I adjusted my time 4 or 5 miles into the race. This was a tougher race than I expected and I realized that I probably wasn't going to get my original goal for the day, but I still had the chance to run a good/smart race.

My total time for the day was a gun time of 1:46:45. This race did not have a "net" time, although we did wear a chip (since there was no starting line, everyone's first mile time was a bit off since you didn't know when to start your watch). All they needed was a banner that said "Start".

While there were very few hills, there were other factors that made the race a bit tougher than I expected. It was about 68 degrees at the start of the race and it was very muggy (about 90-100% humidity). I am not a great hot weather/humidity runner. While the overcast sky helped to keep the sun out, it was still very humid outside. It started to lightly rain during the second half of the race (which I was happy about), but this did not relieve the humidity that much at all. Probably the toughest part of the race was the frequent change in surfaces. The race started on a smooth asphalt road, but quickly changed to a very rough and uneven road surface (like when they dig up a street to re-pave it). You had to slow down a bit to prevent twisting your ankle, knee, etc. Then there were several miles on a concrete road surface resembling downtown Manhattan on the west side trail. The concrete surface was slick when it got wet, so you had to be careful about slipping. Besides being apprehensive running on the different surfaces, I was a little worried about what these hard surfaces would do to my legs. I guess we'll see in a couple of days.

I was happy to see that even in a race with less than ideal conditions, I was able to run a good/solid time. I realized that even though I have been running well the past several months, those times were mainly in shorter races and that I shouldn't expect my first half marathon in a long time to be a PR or close to it. When I saw that my mile times in the beginning were not getting down around 8 minutes or below, I knew that my goal time would be tough to achieve. My pacing was not what I would have liked. I went out too fast for the first two miles - I need to take a more conservartive approach in the beginning, even if I am feeling good. My mile times tended to go up and down throughout the day, and my beginning miles went up for five miles in a row before taking a dip. The Queens Half from last year was my best pacing effort so far, and I need to work on getting back to that. I was glad that I was able to adjust my expectations mid race and did not go out and try to make up time. Let's leave that for another day, with more favorable conditions. In the past, it would have been tough for me to say that.

Today was about getting a half marathon under my belt, and seeing what needs work. I was satisfied with the results. While it was a tough race, I felt relatively good and was not hurting at all or out of breath. While I will be running Grete's Great Gallop next week, I will be doing it as part of a 20 mile run, so I will have another half marathon chance at Staten Island in a few weeks.

Mile Splits:

Mile 1 - about 7:35 (there was no start line marked so I didn't know when to start my watch)
Mile 2 - 7:34
Mile 3 - 7:56
Mile 4 - 8:07
Mile 5 - 8:09
Mile 6 - 8:18
Mile 7 - 8:25
Mile 8 - 8:08
Mile 9 - 8:06
Mile 10 - 8:29
Mile 11 - 8:20
Mile 12 - 8:33
Last 1.1 miles - 8:52 (8:04 mile pace)

Total Gun Time (there was no net time) - 1:46:45; Overall pace - 8:08