This morning was the Brooklyn Half Marathon starting at 7 a.m. in Prospect Park. After 2 laps and 7 miles, we exit the park and head straight for Coney Island, with a beautiful finish on the Boardwalk. I had a tough race, mentally. I've been out with a sinus infection for almost 2 weeks, so I'm feeling a little off. I went out and set a pace of around 5:52 for the first 8 miles, which I was pleased with. My mind started to think about how tired I was and how far I had to go and how impossible it was to catch the guys in front of me and how close the guys behind me were getting. Mile 9 slipped to 6:02 and I mentally gave up. Mile 10 was 6:20 and Mile 11 was 6:17. In that stretch, I gave back 5 places and almost a full minute on the clock.
By now, it was looking grim, but I decided to try and hang with the 5th guy to pass me, and I battled with getting my head back in the game. I was able to run the 12th mile in 5:59. My competitor would not let me quit,and actually yelled at me to not drop off the pace. He pulled me along with him to a 5:43 Mile 13. I eventually finished in 1:18:05 and 24th place out of 7,014 finishers and 5th in my age group. That finishing time gave me an average of 5:57 per mile.
While my time is respectable, and actually my fastest by 6 minutes on this course, I was stung by how I gave up. If I am going to fade in a race, it's because I went out too hard, not because I counted myself out. I still can't wrap my head around it, but I know I need to figure it out. I can still celebrate my performance! And you know the name of my competitor who pulled me along: Gabriel!!
Mile Splits:
1 Mile - 5:42
2 Mile - 5:51
3 Mile - 5:53
4 Mile - 5:56
5 Mile - 5:58
6 Mile - 5:54
7 Mile - 5:58
8 Mile - 5:57
9 Mile - 6:02
10 Mile - 6:20
11 Mile - 6:17
12 Mile - 5:59
13 Mile - 5:43
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