Road to the Marathon
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| Cool t-shirts you get for running in NYRR races ;) |
Our 9 races in 2012 were:
Side Note: I am putting our times on here a little bit for bragging purposes - mainly to brag on Matt because he is super fast, and I wish I was more like him ;) But, I am also recording our times just for looking back purposes. Some day in the future, I will want to look back on the time when I was young and could run :)
Distance: 4 miles
Matt's Time/Pace: 31:32 total time, 7:53 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 31:28 total time, 7:52 pace
Carissa's Commentary: This was our first race, and I think we both ended it thinking how much fun we had. Racing really gives you a 'energy' boost that you don't get from your regular work-out run. AND, this is the only time you will see me faster than Matt because he was nursing an injury prior to this run.
Distance: 10K (6.2 miles)
Matt's Time/Pace: 50:02 total time, 8:04 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 51:31 total time, 8:18 pace
Carissa's Commentary: This race was brutal. It was mid-80s, no wind, blazing sun and a mostly road/tarmac course. So freakin' hot. I remember being super annoyed that my time was slow (I like to be under 8 minutes), but I mostly blamed the weather. Always good to have an excuse ;) Matt was also still nursing his injury for this race; you will see he starts getting super speedy later. However, this was both mine and Matt's farthest run ever (at this point).
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| Our sweaty selves after the race... At least we got a metal for this one :) |
Distance: 10K (6.2 miles)
Matt's Time/Pace: 46:48 total time, 7:32 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 48:18 total time, 7:47 pace
Carissa's Commentary: What did I tell you about Matt? He is a regular Speedy Gonzalez ;) I did better this race, too. The weather was outstanding that day, and the weather really helps a run. Over our racing/training, I did seem to settle into a race pace of about 7:45 - 7:50, which I was happy with :)
Distance: 5K (3.1 miles)
Matt's Time/Pace: 23:20 total time, 7:31 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 23:49 total time, 7:40 pace
Carissa's Commentary: These t-shirts were atrocious. A really obnoxious, bright green. Thankfully, we don't have to wear the t-shirts in the race. Mine is relegated to housework, and I'm pretty sure Matt gave his away. But, about the actual race... the Harlem course was surprisingly pretty and the end had this awesome, steep downhill that boosted your time :)
Distance: 10 miles
Matt's Time/Pace: 1:15:57 total time, 7:35 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 1:18:20 total time, 7:50 pace
Carissa's Commentary: I really don't remember much about this race. I just remember being really proud of myself at the end for running 10 miles and coming in under 8-minute average. This was our longest race thus far.
Distance: 4 miles
Matt's Time/Pace: 29:39 total time, 7:24 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 29:45 total time, 7:26 pace
Carissa's Commentary: These races were split into men and women. For this race, I was put in the fast group! (Background: For each race, they put you in groups and these groups signify your line up at the start. The fastest people line up first and it goes down from there. In a mixed race (men and women), I am usually in the 4th or so group. However, for women, I must be fairly fast as I was put in the first group.) This was good and bad. I think the first group included people like me who were averaging 7:40ish race pace and women who were running a 5-minute race pace. In the beginning of the race, I didn't even realize I was going faster than usual. I was just running with my group, and then I looked down at my watch and saw that I was running a 7-minute pace. I thought, "Holy crap! I need to slow down or I will burn out somewhere." I actually ended up hanging with the fast group for most of the race and had a really awesome personal time :) I was pretty proud of myself, but I am not sure I could have lasted with them much longer than the 4-mile distance of the race.
Distance: 1 mile
Matt's Time: 6:06
Carissa's Time: 6:53
Carissa's Commentary: This race is basically a sprint down 5th Ave to achieve your fastest mile. I remember thinking in the beginning, "Don't go all out at first or you will peter-out after a 1/2 mile." However, I kind of wish I would have pushed it a little harder and maybe gotten around a 6:30 - 6:40 mile. Matt also regrets his time on this race. He often says, "If I would have just looked at my watch..." Basically, if he had known he was 7 seconds away from achieving a sub-6-minute mile, he would have booked it at the finish. But, it was a fun race, nonetheless. Lots of people come out to participate in this race.
Distance: 13.1 miles
Matt's Time/Pace: 1:38:26 total time, 7:30 pace
Carissa's Time/Pace: 1:44:41 total time, 7:59 pace
Carissa's Commentary: This was our big race of 2012 - the farthest either of us had (and still have) ever run. We trained for it for about 12 weeks. I injured my hamstring about 2 weeks previous to the race and actually had to stop training, which accounts for my slower time (I had hoped to come in closer to my other racing times - around a 7:40 or so). But, not to take away from our accomplishment - this was a big race, a big achievement and we both had really good times/pace. We felt really good and proud after this race.
If you are keeping count, that is only 8 races. We were scheduled to be in a "Dash to the Finish Line" race in November that was 3.1 miles and would have ended at the Marathon Finish Line. However, due to Hurricane Sandy, that race was cancelled. We still got credit for the race so were able to fulfill our 9+1 program commitments.
We are both really excited for the marathon (again, this changes from "really excited" to "really nervous" to "really scared" back to " really excited"). Of course, we already have hotels/flights booked to come to NYC to run the NYC/ING Marathon as we will be living in LA at that time, but more on that later :)
We have goals in mind for ourselves for the marathon, but I will keep those to myself for now as they may change once we start training, which we will begin in July.
If you are a runner, you probably enjoyed this post. Otherwise, you might have gotten a little bored. But, thanks for reading :)
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