I have been trying to qualify for the New York Marathon for a long time. A really long time. Because I'm better at [relatively] short-distance races, even though it's tougher to qualify for than Boston, because New York allows you to qualify with a half-marathon time, it has always seemed tantalizingly possible for me to do. Rather than rehash the many times I have tried this, I will just offer the links to my posts about [most of] my attempts.
2011: Bridges Half Marathon: Needed a 1:30, ran 1:31:38.2014-16: Injuries and triathlons
2017: Houston Half: Needed a 1:32, ran 1:45 in HOT weather. Then ran a few more halfs but the closest I got was 1:36.
2018. Houston Half again. Didn't even do a race report. Needed a 1:32, ran 1:35:13.
2020: Focused on the Ironman
2021: Covid wiped out this year and I'm not even sure what happened
Which brings us to 2022. My plan for this year was to not even think about running fast and work on the ultra distances. But then I somehow lost 14 pounds at the end of 2021 and it seemed like I might finally have the speed to qualify for New York, especially since I turned 55 in January and now all I needed was a 1:36. How hard could that be? I honestly thought it wouldn't be too hard, despite the fact that I had only run that fast once since 2013...
So I signed up for the Wilmington Half Marathon on February 26. I executed a two-month training plan, which went exceptionally well. Would this finally be the day I would qualify for New York? On race morning, I was as confident as I ever had been that I could do it.
To run a 1:36 half marathon, you need to average 7:20 per mile. But courses and GPS watches can be inaccurate, so I decided to set myself up to run a 1:35:00 -- a pace of 7:15 per mile. Several friends were running in the race, but I expected Jake and Ben to be well ahead of me, and Joey, Chad, and Kaylen to be somewhere behind me. There was no pace team doing this pace, so my performance in the race would be a matter of me and GPS watch. The weather was nearly perfect, 50 degrees with a north wind. The course arced from Wrightsville Beach in the east to downtown Wilmington in the west, a bit south of the start. There was only one section of less than a mile where we would be heading north into the wind, and only a few gradual hills on the course. In short, conditions could hardly be better.
After jogging a few hundred yards as a "warm up" I found my way to the start line, where I saw Ben near the front and gave him a fist-bump and wished him luck. He was using the race as a tune up for his marathon next week but still would finish about 20 minutes ahead of my planned time.
The race started on time and soon we were headed out of Wrightsville Beach and across two bridges onto the mainland. I monitored my pace and forced myself to slow down a couple times. Even so I ran the first few miles faster than planned, 7:09, 7:08, 7:08. Still, that meant I had over 30 seconds in the bank, and I didn't feel at all like I was struggling. My watch clicked through Mile 4 at 7:12, which also would have been great except for the fact that there was no mile marker here. For the first three miles, my watch and the mile markers matched perfectly, adding to my confidence that I would be able to monitor my pace accurately. Now with no Mile 4 marker in sight, I was a bit confused.
Finally the marker showed up at about Mile 4.4. I could only hope that it was just this marker out of place and we wouldn't somehow have to run an extra four tenths of a mile. I was ahead of pace but not THAT far ahead of pace. Fortunately the Mile 5 marker once again matched my watch perfectly, and I ran that one in 7:08 so I now had at least 50 seconds in the bank.
I ran Mile 6 in 7:18, which caused me a little concern since it was a fair bit slower than the first 5 miles. But I was still feeling fine, and with 50 seconds in the bank, I could actually afford to run even as slow as 7:25s for the rest of the race.
Mile 7 proved to be the toughest of the race. It started on an uphill onramp, then turned straight into a 12-mph headwind. I reminded myself that this part of the course was probably the only place where we'd be running directly into the wind, and that I did have 50+ seconds to burn, so I just tried to put out the same effort as the other miles. Towards the end of the mile, we turned out of the wind and my watch clicked through the mile at a 7:28 pace. So now I had 40+ seconds in the bank and less than half the race to go. I could still do 7:25s for the rest of the race and hit my goal time, and there shouldn't be any more headwinds.
This section of the course did prove a bit annoying though, as we were on a full-on expressway with the traffic coming towards us. One lane was coned off for the runners but cars still raced by at 55+ MPH just a few feet away. It was also a little hilly because we occasionally crossed an overpass. Miles 8, 9, and 10 went by in 7:13, 7:13, and 7:27. My math was getting a bit fuzzy at this point but I was pretty sure I had at least 50 seconds in the bank. The Mile 10 marker was off by about a 10th of a mile, which set me to worrying again about the overall race distance possibly being off. If we had to run even an extra 10th of a mile, then my 50 seconds would quickly evaporate! But assuming the race distance was accurate, I should be able to cruise in at a 7:35 pace and still hit my goal.
Fortunately the Mile 11 marker again synced with my watch, and I ran that mile in 7:24, which meant I had at least 45 seconds in the bank and only 2.1 miles to go. I could run 7:40s and still make it!
I ran Mile 12 in 7:17. I was going to make it! My friend Ian had dropped out of the race with a niggling injury but had driven us to the start and now I saw him running ahead of me, carrying all our gear towards the finish area. Soon I caught up to him and jokingly told him he'd better hurry up. Actually the race course included a short out-and-back before the finish so he had plenty of time to see me finishing.
Ben was at the turnaround, having finished his race in 1:16. He ran along with me for a quarter mile (really a jog for him) and then let me go on solo to the finish line. Ian was a couple hundred yards from the finish and caught a great picture of me as I realized I was going to make it:
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| Yeehaw! |
I ran through the line with an official time of 1:35:15, securely under my goal! I did it! As it turned out, I was second in my age group as well. I could hardly believe I had finally made it! Soon I was on the podium getting my photo with the two other age group winners (out of 40 in our division), and then it was time to celebrate!
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| YESSS!!! |
The only caveat: I've officially qualified for New York, but I'm not necessarily going to get an entry to the race. There are a limited number of slots for the race, and they are allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. I know registration opens up on March 9, but so far there's not much information about how exactly it will occur and how they decide who gets the spots if it's a big free-for-all when registration opens up. But even if I'm not able to register this year, I won't let myself be disappointed. At this point, it's become much more about the quest to qualify for the race than actually DOING New York. And if I somehow can't register this year, I still feel like I've earned a spot, so I will just enter the lottery each year until I get in to the race.
One thing they can't take away from me, after over 10 years of trying, is that I QUALIFIED FOR THE NEW YORK MARATHON.
Now all I have to do is come up with a new goal. Fortunately, I have a few ideas....
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