i might be wrong

Training is everything. I ran the Manhattan Half Marathon Grand Prix in 2:30. Not my slowest time, but still pretty slow for me. My legs are sore, sore, sore. Muscle memory is a bitch. Make that, lack of muscle memory is a bitch. I usually feel great at 10 miles in, but today I could hardly lift the legs. I went slow and walked at some points, including the entire mile between 11 and 12, which is a first for me. I didn't mean to. It just happened. I was hungry and dizzy and cold. Silly me didn't eat anything before heading over to Central Park (the usual paranoia about being late for a race) and I was looking forward to the free bagel at the end of the race, but alas, there were none. Apparently they ran out early because a lot of the early runners took 3 at a time.

I ran with my friend Clarence the first 3 miles before telling him to go ahead. I didn't want to slow him down. He ended up finishing in 2:05! Much faster than he thought he'd finish. He said he went on a crash 3 week training course and that was the key. Training.

I walked a lot in this race. I have never walked this much in a race, not even the marathon when I was tired and cold. That day I was able to tell myself to ignore the sore legs and keep going. I think stopping so much today made it worse. My muscles ended up getting cold and the lactic acid built up and that made my legs unwilling to pick up. Today I stopped at landmarks ("just make it Tavern on the Green" and "I'll stop at the Boathouse before Cat Hill", I told myself), water stations, before big hills (I walked up the Great Hill on the second loop) and mile markers. Pretty much any place I felt like stopping. I didn't see the need to really kill myself on this since I hadn't trained and it would be hard enough to get to the end.

This is not at all surprising. I had a bad race because I didn't train. Despite all of this, I am happy I finished my first race of the year. I can only get better from here, right?