13.1 NYC PR

 What a fun race today in Queens!  Lots of excitement running around flushing meadows (for those who don't know NY, this is the park made famous for the world's fair in the 60's with the giant globe and funky spaceship buildings from Men in Black.  The race started at the US Open Tennis stadium, just acros for Citi Field (where the Met's play).   We were really worried about the weather, but it turned out perfect, starting around 40 and by race end in the 50's.

The good news is I PR'd by about 30 seconds, and beat my time from a few weeks ago by several minutes.  The bad news is, I was aiming for under 2:00, and missed it by 5 minutes.  We had about a 2 hour drive down, and I woke up really tight in my hamstrings and also my IT closer to the hip felt really wierd.  I did all I could to keep stretching, but even at the gun, I knew it was gonna be tough to PR.  I kept a reasonable 9 minute/mile or so average until midway, and the pain in my hams and hips just got crazy intense from being so tight.  It was so bad I even contemplated calling it a day so as not risk training time for the HIM in 45 days, but alas, I felt mentally I would do myself more damage quitting, so I just gritted through it.  I have to admit as I came to the last 3 miles and my watch was reading 1:35 or so I was pretty bummed, knowing there was no way I was gonna get under 2:0) given the way I was running.  But I was still able to kick it up i the last mile, especially with the crazy NY crowds and music and excitement, and do my best to sprint in.

Afterward, I have to say I feel worse than probably any race since this one last year.  Not sure why that is, but I am not gonna let it affect me mentally.  I'm going to chalk it up to not stretching right.

So here is my Garmin from this year with a 2:05 time:

connect.garmin.com/activity/76735191

And here is my garmin from 1 year ago at the same race.. a good 25 minutes slower.. I guess thats improvement :)   

connect.garmin.com/activity/29974257

Great job! Way to hang in there. Try not to beat yourself up too much, you did great. I really know how you feel. I have been plagued with IT band pain for almost 4 months now. I did a half mary in February with severe IT band pain starting at mile 2. It sucks and it hurts. I know you will do awesome in Orlando in 6 weeks, I will be tracking you for the race.

 Thanks so much.. I forgot to mention, I also ran it without music, since we can't in the triathlons.. I was afraid I'd be bored to tears.. my legs didn't quite let that happen :)

Hell yes that's a lot of improvement, especially given the pain you were running through. Congratulations on a great race and good luck on the HIM. The park sounds really fun to run around. You should be proud of yourself for finishing with a PR even though you had great excuses to quit.

Jan

 Great job Andrew!!!  Way to tough it out...it is amazing what we can do now...

congrats!  i'm really impressed, going from an av pace of 11:21 to a 9:28 in the same race year-over-year is more than "i guess that's improvement"  that is kicking ass!.  comparing this race vs. your last PR doesn't really have as big of a significance because they were probably on different courses/elevation profiles etc.  way to go, you are going to do great in FL.

Congratulations Andrew!  Way to crush your time!

Now, it's time to invest in a little recovery time before kicking things up for the HIM.  I'm a big fan of the foam roller for IT band issues.  My chiropractor in Syracuse does active release therapy and graston, which really helped me last year during HIM training.

Good luck in Orlando.

Cassie