This post probably should have gone up two weeks ago, rather than today, but I’ve fallen a bit behind.
I love the Newport Liberty Half Marathon. Not really because it’s a particularly amazing race, in fact, large chunks of the the course are on roads and paths that aren’t in the best of conditions. But the race is in my home of Jersey City and parts of the course are along my daily running routes in Liberty State Park and the Jersey City Waterfront. I can walk or run to the start from my house. And I get to enjoy some of my favorite views of Manhattan during the race.
An unfortunate part of the race is it being in mid-September means it can still be hot and humid, as was the case this year. The temperature was warm and the humidity was high.
Being in mid-September also means it’s three weeks before the Chicago Marathon. Last year, I made the mistake of going out hard and PRing and then not respecting my body’s need to recover in the week following. That week was, of course, my peak week for training. This messed me up going into Chicago last year and I felt like I was flirting a little too closely to injury.
This year, with me running Chicago again, I didn’t want to make the same mistake. Additionally, my IT band on my right leg has been bothering me a bit recently. The pain I’m having is fairly common for me late in a training cycle, but I’ve been bad about dealing with it. Typically, as long as I’m on top of it, it’s a non-issue.
So this year, Danielle and I decided to run the race together and take it nice and easy. Between the heat, legs not being in ideal shape, and a marathon coming up, there was nothing to gain by pushing it.
I had 21 miles on the calendar for the day, but because of my IT band, I wanted to ease it up on my body for the weekend and decided to scrap most of my pre-race miles. We ran just over a mile to the start of the race and left it at that.
We met up with friends Dori and Theodora before the race and chatted a bit. When walked over to the start, we saw Mayor Fulop getting ready to run. Danielle and I lined up between the 8:00/mile and 9:00/mile signs and waited for the start.
Once we got going, we did a pretty decent job of keeping ourselves held back and under control. Things were crowded, but runnable. We clocked in at around an 8:40 for our first mile, right where we had wanted to be.
Approaching the second mile, things started spreading out a bit and we grabbed water. Our second mile was around an 8:20.
We continued through Newport and towards Paulus Hook while keeping steady and having fun. Eventually, by mile four and a half, we were passing Liberty Science Center and entering into Liberty State Park. Here, Danielle started to leave me behind a bit. The path narrows for much of the park so it was hard to me to weave through other runners to catch up with her.
Just after getting into to the park, I saw our friend Allison—one of our dedicated cat feeders when we travel—sneak onto the path and start running next to Danielle. Allison wasn’t running the race and was hoping to just do a training run in the park. Bad idea. After minute or so, I was able to catch up and join the conversation before the race turned right down Freedom Way and Allison continued straight.
Danielle and I were running together again as we followed the path along Freedom Way to the south side of the park and around by the Statue of Liberty and the seventh mile marker.
Our splits were reasonably steady in the 8:10-8:25 range, but it was hot and steamy out. A major yuck situation.
Most of the park was fairly uneventful as we did a couple loops through the middle of the before heading along the marina and past the 10th mile marker. By mile 10.5, as we were exiting the park, I lost Danielle behind me. I tried to slow down to let her catch up, but I didn’t know where she was. A quarter mile up, I turned back to look for her as we came around a turn and she threw her arm up to let me know where she was. She was back far enough that it didn’t seem like she’d catch up, so I decided to run my own race for the last couple of miles.
My twelfth and thirteenth miles, along the waterfront, clocked in at 7:40 and 6:40. I didn’t feel like I was running that fast at all, I mostly just felt good. I passed a bunch of other runners, but it wasn’t something I was thinking about.
As I neared the finish, I didn’t kick for it. I just kept the quick pace from mile 13 all the way in.
I downed a few cups of water and then waited for Danielle to cross so we could go grab our shirts and bagels before heading off to brunch.
All-in-all, it was another fun Newport Half. Last year was a PR race, this year was a more leisurely fun race. I’ll take ‘em both.