This weekend the Husband and I went to NYC to cheer our friend Emily on in the Brooklyn Half Marathon. It was her first. I ran and then cheered her in (she was in Wave 2 so I had a 45 minute head start.)
Emily’s first half reminded me of my first half (which was surprisingly successful) and my first marathon. I wrote a post in Jamie’s “First Marathon” series a while back. It was a fun walk through memory lane. Why? Well, next July it will have been 20 years ago. I found some hilarious photos to go with. Clearly no smart phones then! Head over and read it and, please, don’t shake your head. There was much less information, fewer marathoners to ask and certainly no running blogs. I kicked it super old school.
My first half marathon was a lot smoother. I had been told by an old coach whom I ran into at a 10K that if I could run 2/3 the distance well that I could run the race. I could run 8 miles any day, so I signed up for the 1994 Jersey Shore Half which used to be put on by the Shore AC. I got to the line and milled around. Someone asked me my goal. I said “break two hours.” My 15K time was under 1:10 but that extra few miles seemed insurmountable. The course was a flat out and back on a nice, fall day. I was head to toe in cotton – even my socks. That was how things were in 1994!
The gun went off and I followed a few chatty runners. If my running friends are reading this, they are thinking “are you sure that was not you?” It wasn’t. I was scared silent. The first 6.5 miles flew by and I was pacing with some runners going about 7:30/mile. I listened and followed. At the turn around, I felt pretty good and tried to keep up the pace. It was pretty spread out and I had no music or anything. The Sony “Diskman” that I ran with at the time was huge and battery powered. I enjoyed the scenery and remember kicking in the last mile. I crossed at 1:37.30 which is just under 7:30/mile pace. I was ecstatic. That was until I stopped abruptly and cooled off. Then I was happy and hobbling. I remember thinking as I crossed the line – “what person could (or would ever want to) do that twice?” I know the answer now and so do you.
In case you are wondering, the Brooklyn Half and Emily’s first half marathon went great! I was in Wave 1 which had a 7:00 AM start. It started pretty far from where we stayed so I cabbed down with my friends Marie, Andrea and Jen. We left at 4:55 AM. Ouch. We arrived super early, took pics and headed to the corrals. I passed the time chatting with friends Rachel and Tim and met a nice man named Ed. It took a while to start and when I did, I quickly found Jen, Andrea and Carly. Jen and Andrea took off with the 1:35 pacer. Carly and I were more conservative and caught up with each other during the first 6 miles. Miles 4 – 6 are the hilliest and hardest. We then pretty much ran together the rest of the way down Ocean Parkway. The weather forecast was for hot, humid and rainy. It turned out to be mild and cloudy. It started drizzling in Mile 12 which felt nice to us. I had a good, strong run. I find the Ocean Parkway part a bit boring so I tried pick ups between stoplights to amuse myself. It worked. I finished in 1:37.54. 21 years later and I only lost a few seconds! Not bad!! We went to get our bags, take pics and chat. Oh, and we got soaked by pouring rain, but it let up pretty quickly.
Emily was in Wave 2 which was supposed to start at 7:45 but started around 8. Luckily, there was a live results website to check where she was. The Husband and friends saw her at Mile 6 and headed for the subway. Unfortunately, they had subway trouble and had to drive over. I walked over to the boardwalk to cheer her in. One other tough thing was there was almost no phone reception. I lost Emily via the tracker. She did a great pace and negative splits and shouted to me as she went by. I got a photo of her retreat. The smile and enthusiasm in her voice told me she’d be back! She looked amazing! I went into the finisher area and found her. It was so much fun to hear about her experience as a first timer. She felt really strong and only “struggled” a bit in the last 2 miles. I say this in quotes because she just kept speeding up! We had some trials and tribulations finding the husbands and Em’s family but it all worked out. We went back for some much needed brunch and celebration. The Husband and I were both so excited that we came to share Emily’s first half marathon.
What was your first half marathon (or any race) experience? Please tell me about it in the comments.
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