I stepped off the ferry ready to run a sub-2-hour half marathon for the first time in 4 long years! And maybe, if I am very lucky, beat my PR.
It was an ambitious goal. I needed to run 7 minutes faster than my last race, that’s 30 seconds faster per minute. Happily, for this race, a friend volunteered to pace me so I can focus solely on my running. I met up with Dan just before the start of the race.
“Now I know how much you love to talk,” said Dan with a smile, “but for next 2 hours let’s concentrate on our breathing instead of talking.”
I chuckled. I already had no plans to chit-chat, conserving my energy was a priority, I ran the Staten Island Half once before, I remember it being a deceptively hilly course especially the back-end.
We started the race running a conservative 9:00 pace, already 40 seconds faster than my last race. Almost immediately my heart rate began to rise, by Mile 2 it was already hovering around 170 bpm. I was already running near my maximum effort! That was not a good sign.