Bronx half race report

Last year the Bronx half was a tale of two halves - first one smoking fast (including the fastest 10k I'd run to that date) - it was unexpectedly warm and the miles just ticked by. At one point I remember running next to two women who were talking as though walking through a supermarket at a sub-7:30 pace, just before they dropped me. And the second one a painful, slow, stumbling up and back on the grand concourse. This year I vowed to do better. The link to last year's race - a blazing 1:46.50 is here:

(photo at left, me in white, other dude elated over his finish, well in)
http://joshbrianrunning.blogspot.com/2009/02/bittersweet-second-12-in-three-weeks.html

This year the pre-race plan was to run at whatever pace I needed to keep my heart rate between 155 - 165 bpm. Accordingly, I ran out for the first 6 miles below 165.

My splits were:
Mile 1 - 9:11 (including the wait for the start - 8:30 or 8:45?)
Mile 2 - 7:56
Mile 3 - 8:13
Mile 4 - 8:24
Mile 5 - 8:26
Mile 6 - 8:40
Mile 7 - 8:46
Mile 8 - 8:22
Mile 9 - 8:10
Mile 10 - 8:12
Mile 11 - 8:40
Mile 12 - 8:13
Mile 13 - 8:31

Finished at 1:52:08 08:34/mile
so all in not a bad performance - certainly something to take as a good starting spot, especially relative to what I'd done in Brooklyn (no training) and Queens (pictured above, oh the heat!).



The real joy of this race was how strong I completed the second half - miles 7.5 through 11 on the Grand Concourse were like night and day from last year - notice that those are some of the fastest miles that I ran today - and were the slowest last year. There's something to be said about knowing the course and knowing when to push and when to sit back. I think that's one of the true joys of running frequently in Central Park, which is certainly a difficult place to run if you don't know it well.

All in I'm proud that I could hold the faster second half at average 175 bpm (although I don't know if I had much after the race, but I was racing it and timed my pace perfectly).

It's a relatively long time (2.5 months) until the marathon, but still it will come very quickly. Thus it looks like this won't be the year to break my 2009 time - oh well, if I can run more races and runs like I did today (start out slow, keep a relatively low heart rate, finish strong and control my pace/heart rate) I'll be happy. After all it's really about relative effort and I'm starting to learn to manage the relative effort to match the first and second halves of the race.

and that's why I like to throw a couple of races into the mix in the run up to the marathon. First I'm a much better half marathon runner than marathoner. And second if you don't go relatively 'all' out once in a while it's hard to get in the mental state necessary to bring it home on Marathon Day. there's a level of pushing and of running in the crowd that's important.f