2023 NYC Half Marathon

This cold, windy and clear day in the city set the backdrop for my first half marathon race, and it was fun, cold, challenging, exciting, and ultimately successful.

Race Selection and Entry

I always wanted to run the NYC Marathon and even though about 50,000 people run it every year, it is difficult to get in. The general ways to get in are to enter the lottery and be selected, run a certain qualification time, or run for a charity (involves raising money). I have entered the lottery a couple times but was never selected, I don’t feel like raising money for a charity, so I always had the time qualification in mind. However, the time only guarantees entry if you run it in a New York Road Runners (NYRR) race, otherwise you can enter but have to deal with a first come first server online registration experience complete with website crashes and all kinds of frustration.

The NYC Half Marathon is a NYRR event so a time here would automatically qualify me for the full (but not this years, the 2024 race). I planned a training block from January 2023 to May 2023 for Long Island Marathon to improve my time for entry into the Boston Marathon (Boston qualification time works on a fastest first, some years even if you qualify by a minute or two, they might run out of slots and you cannot race). Early in this block I got an email about being selected for the NYC Half Marathon which I had almost forgotten I had entered. But it worked out training wise and everything so I decided to go for it.

Training and Race Week

This race fell about 8 weeks out from the Long Island Marathon and only required a slight modification to my training plan – I swapped two weeks so my longest run of the training block would fall the week after the race, not the week of the race. I took a couple days slower and lighter the week of the race and an extra day off after the race. Leading up to the race I was averaging about 5 runs/week and 2 bike rides/week with weekly running mileage of about 50miles. I didn’t do any specific half marathon workouts, but figured the marathon plan I was following could get me through a half. And I was feeling pretty good fitness wise having run some low 1:30’s half marathons during my longer training runs of 15-20 miles.

That is until the week of the race, we had just had our first really nice day, and I was ready for spring and warm weather. So when the weather report came in for a cold and windy 30F race day I was a little bummed. Then I read more about the course and how it is a bit hilly and probably not the best for PRs. And I started second guessing myself and my training and goals of hitting sub 1:23. I figured if I ran 1:25 I’d still be pretty happy, but really didn’t know what to expect, it being my first stand alone half marathon. So I decided to aim for mile splits between 6:10 and 6:30 and see how it felt (between 1:20 and 1:25 finish time).

Looking at the course route it seemed pretty cool and unique. The start was just outside Prospect Park in Brooklyn, we head into the park for a couple hills and then exit the park and follow a gradual downhill along Flatbush Ave to the Manhattan Bridge. After crossing over the bridge, you hit the halfway point and travel along FDR drive up to 42nd street where you run through Times Square on the way to finish with a half loop of Central Park.

The week of the race I also decided to get a hotel near the start, just logistics wise it worked out better – having to be in the city for race pickup the day before the race and to the start corral at around 6am. But not having looked at the number pickup times closely I arrived with only 5mins to spare and got stuck with a large shirt rather than a medium, on the plus side it was empty, not crowded at all. And the morning of the race my alarm didn’t go off – I know because I was already awake (nerves? excitement?) and watched it not go off.

Race Day

Race morning was as predicted weather wise – about 30F with a biting wind that put windchill around 20F. I got to the start just fine, checked my bag without too much hassle and made my way through the security checkpoint to the corral, I got there about 6:10am and had just over an hour until the race start. I sat on the curb curled up and tried to stay warm. I was in thrift store sweats that I would throwaway in the donation bin before the start but I was still shivering and cold. Some unlucky people were in tank tops and shorts waiting around and I really felt bad for them. The corral was pretty crowded, and when I decided to stand up and move up near the pacers I managed to get close enough to see the 1:20 pacer and figured starting about 10 meters back from him would be good (half because I couldn’t move forward anymore because of all the people and half because it seemed like a good place to be). After the start I didn’t see any of the pacers.

The race started and my first mile was the slowest – the narrower roads in Prospect Park combined with the mass of people and slower runners ahead all added to a leisurely 6:38 mile split. I heard after the race that NYPD and FDNY runners started before the first age groupers – they really shouldn’t have, numerous times I had to almost come to a stop so I could slow down and move around some groups of slower runners. And this was with me running near the edge of the road, not near the center at all.

At the first mile marker I peeked at my watch and tried to stay calm, after all I had another 12 miles to make up for it, and I always tell myself I go out too fast. That didn’t stop me from stretching my legs because I finally had some room and I ran mile 2 in 5:42 almost a minute faster than the first one. The next few miles brought us out of the park and to the Manhattan Bridge. I felt great, relaxed and the pace was pretty easy. It was a bit downhill, overall these miles were very comfortable for me, and it was still early so the sun was still rising and warming up, kind of like my running was warming me up. Getting over the bridge was windy and cold and exposed (much fewer people to hide behind) and started the worst part of the race for me.

Next we made our way up FDR drive right along the water. After the halfway point I was still feeling pretty good and my pace was decent too. But somehow around mile 7 I was calculating I only had 4 miles left (when I actually had 6 miles to go). I stuck with this in my head for about a mile feeling not great but like I could hold on for another 4 miles. Then I realized nope, I actually have over 5 miles left. That realization, the slight uphill of FDR drive, the lack of any kind of crowds, and the wind were starting to get to me and these miles were a real slog.

As we turned onto 42nd street I started to feel some relief because there was only about a 5k left. But the pace was really getting to me, and Manhattan is not flat, especially coming from the water to times square. The crowds cheering helped a bit, and I tried to take in some of the scenery of Times Square and all, but mostly was trying to ignore suffering I was putting my legs through. After what felt like another half of the race (but was only 2 miles) we finally made our way into Central Park. Here I knew there was just over a mile left and tried to go faster, but could not, so I just held on as best I could.

When I finally saw the finish line I was filled with relief and gave a last kick with what I had left trying to get under the clock time of 1:23, and made it with a couple seconds to spare. Seeing as how it took me about a minute from the start of the race to actually cross the starting line, I ended up with an official time of 1:21:57. I am pretty happy with it, having met my goal even in the cold. Post race was a long mostly empty walk through aid stations and things that would surely be very crowded later on as the next 24,000 runners made their way through, but for me it was sparse. I picked up my bag without any wait and was on my way.