I had my worries going into the race. I wasn't sure about my level of fitness to begin with. I wanted to improve my 3:07 time from last year, but didn't think it would be easy or even possible. I also had some nagging foot pain. I knew I would be fine on the run, but I worried about aggravating it.
On Saturday, I broke one of my the-day-before-the-race rules and took a nap in the afternoon, which resulted in me not being able to sleep that night. The dinner also threw my dinner schedule off and me and my girlfriend ended up having waffles for dinner at 11PM. Not a good idea! My stomach was not happy going into the run the next morning.
Stomach issues aside, Sunday was a perfect day for distance running. It was cool (56F at the start); not humid; a tad windy at times, but not too bad. 7AM start was a bit early, but not having slept the night before, I had no problem getting to there on time. Also, the CEO of NYRR Mary Wittenberg was there to see us go, so how can you complain after that.
I went to the back of the pack, because I was planning to start slow (~11min/mile). Still, I ended up starting at about 10:30 pace. Harlem Hill at mile 1 didn't feel too bad, but it took me a while to warm up and get into the race mentally. Thankfully my regular running partner joined me on the course around mile 4, which definitely revived me. We ran a lap together.
While I was doing fine mentally, I was having problems physically. My stomach was very unhappy. I was forcing down the Gatorade, water and gels to avoid bonking. My foot was hurting and my right calf was pretty tight. I struggled like this until mile 9, still keeping at 10:00-10:30 pace, but when my friend went home at mile 9, I decided to take a 5 minute pit-stop.
I don't know if it was the clearing of the lactic acid, that last gel kicking in or the rush that comes from losing 5 minutes, but I was a different runner after the break. My pace dropped to sub 10:00 and stayed there. My foot was fine, my leg was fine and most importantly I was cheerful. Could have been the sunshine too.
My biggest worry in the second half was running out of energy before the finish. Those hills are no joke when you are climbing them for the third time, but things generally went well. There were a lot of walkers on Harlem Hill when I was climbing it for the third time and I gotta admit, it was fun passing people.
Coming up mile 17 I started to pick up the pace. Everyone was pushing towards the finish and I was determined not to be passed in the final mile. I didn't! I passed through the finish line in 3:08:43. 1 minute slower than my PB, but still pretty good if you take that 5 minute break into account.
All in all the Tune-Up was a great confidence booster. I was able to run the whole thing at a decent pace without taking walk breaks except for water stops (something I plan to do at the marathon anyway). The hills weren't a big problem. My "1 gel every 3 miles" fueling strategy worked pretty nicely for the third week in a row and my legs and feet came out of the adventure fine. Now, I am thinking about trying for a sub-2 hour finish at Grete's Great Gallop in three weeks.
I wish I could post pictures from the event, but brightroom managed to get me in the background in every frame! I mean I ran 18 whole miles, how can you miss it!
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