Staten Island Half Marathon Recap

The Staten Island Half Marathon Recap

I had been planning to run this race with my daughter for several weeks.  12 to be exact and it paid off.

The race day forecast had been calling for rain but the rain held off until right after I crossed the finish line.  I had hoped to do better than my Philly half time of 2:39 and I did!  My official time was 2:32 but I did stop for a potty station break so I am calling it 2:30.

I had visualized 2:30 as my goal and it was amazing to make it.  I felt great after the race and had a case of the runners giggles.  Anyone else get those?  I was so happy and excited and didn’t know what to do with all that happy.

My face in this picture with my daughter says it all.

Staten Island is the beginning of the NY Marathon and I could already feel the excitement from all the runners who where using this run as a training run.

There are several good hills on Staten Island so pace yourself.  I am so inspired by all of you 26.2 marathon runners. !

I started out miles 1-4 feeling really good, telling myself to settle into my pace, not go to fast and keep thinking happy thoughts.  I had read a great tweet on the way to the race that said

“Run Happy, Worry takes up too much Energy” that really made sense to me.

Miles 5- 6 were a long uphill that felt great.  I was super excited to feel my after burners kick in ( formerly known as my floppy glutes) and loving my handheld water bottle full of ice tea.

Pit stop…. Cost me a minute or two here……

Miles 7- long mile that I was distracted looking for my daughter Laura coming up the other side so I could say hi to her .  I finally saw her and wow she looked gorgeous and happy and so healthy.  I go so emotional and then it hit me.

Mile 8- I ate some of my energy bits and drank more tea and decided this was my last race.  Who was I kidding. Running these races at my age?  Look around you are the oldest person out here by 10 years, you look crazy and its probably been two hours already and you will be so embarrassed when you cross the line.  I hit the long hill head on.  I figured why not its my last race right? Why not ?

Mile 9 – Got to the top of that hill to the tunnel and there was amazing music playing and a water station.  I had two cups of water and 2 more energy bits said good bye to the 8 mile doom and gloomer and hit it. I decided to just go on and keep my head up.

Miles 10 -12 – These went great.  I felt amazing and I was actually happy that I never put my earphones in.  I saw a clock and realized that 2:30 was still possible so I tried to go a bit faster.

Mile 12- 13- Thru the industrial park which is beach front adjacent and the rain started a little bit, I started to worry about slipping because that would be my luck.  There was a little bit of an up hill and then a down hill into the stadium.

Mile 13, I knew I was almost there and I was excited, although I forgot to smile….

Then my daughter popped up from the sideline and crossed the finish line with me.

Amazing race indeed.

The physical therapy worked because I raced with out any knee pain at all.  Post race my shins hurt but I think that was from running on the pavement.

I am grateful and so excited to have had this experience.

Signed,

Your galfriday4hire