Do Women Outnumber Men?

If you are talking about half marathons, apparently in many races the answer is yes. Yesterday's race is a case in point.  Women - 741; Men - 462!

To put this in historical context, for the first time in Boston Marathon history, Kathrine Switzer entered the race in 1967 when it was considered a men's only race.  Mid race, a race official noticed that a woman was running and he tried to physically remove her from the race. The effort was thwarted by her boyfriend who was running with her, and Kathrine successfully finished the marathon heralding a new era for women. Ever since, women's participation in endurance races has been on a growth path, with the half-marathon being a special favorite. Running USA's annual half marathon report for 2014 states -

For the first time in history, 61% of U.S. half-marathon finishers were females (approximately 1,196,000, a record), the highest proportion of any race distance.

Way to go, women!

We had a cold day very uncharacteristic of mid-October. Mercury reading  32 F (0 C) with winds in 10-15 mph taking the chill factor to 27 F (- 2.5 C).   However, the day was bright and sunny and seemed to take the bite out of the cold.  Due to the Halloween theme a lot of people showed up in various costumes from spider man and batman to tooth fairy and easter bunnies.  Historic Morristown is a very charming and beautiful town. The race was organized by Superhero Racing.  Overall, everything was managed pretty well by the organizers.  Tara joined me to cheer for me at the finish line.  We met up with our friend Prathap who was also running. We looked for my colleagues Kshitij and Yan who couldn't be found in the crowd. I left a voice message for Yan.

Left to right: Prathap, me and Tara

The race had a finish line about two miles away from the starting point. The organizers had arranged buses to transport finishers back to the starting area.  I gave a call to Morristown Running Company who were managing the arrangements to enquire if family members will be allowed on the bus, and more importantly, if they can get a ride from the start to the finish line.  They confirmed that family members can use the bus either way.  However, on race day morning the volunteers we saw on the site had no information about buses going from start to finish.  So I advised Tara to look for the buses after the race starts, and take the bus if they allow her. Otherwise, she can stay at the starting area where I will meet her after the race - after a long long wait for her.  Anyway, things didn't go well as we hoped with the bus. After the race started, Tara was told by a volunteer that buses were only for runners.  But instead of waiting at the start area, Tara surprised me by walking her way to the finish line using Apple maps on her phone!  Of course, as all this happened after the race started I wasn't sure where I would find her once I finish - whether at the finish area or at the start area. However, as she is very mature for a tenth grader I was confident that she would be fine.

Kshitij (R) with a fellow superman 

The mood among the runners was very upbeat and joyful despite the cold.  The orange color race t-shirt and the various costumes loosened up the environment unlike in some other races where  most people would seem to be having their minds focused on their own races,  In contrast the atmosphere was very jovial and a lot of chatter and laughter in the air lightened up everyone.  The race organizers had arranged pacers. I could see 2:00 hr pacers a bit ahead of us as Prathap and I waited for the start, and the 2:10 or 2:15 pacers behind us. I was wondering whatever happened to Kshitij and Yan and right about that time Kshitij showed up with a beaming smile! He also had news from Yan that she was still on the road.. oh, well..

The race started in two waves. The first 'wave' was for one elite runner, and the second wave for the rest of us lesser mortals a couple of minutes later.  I was considering two strategies for this race. One was repeating my Staten Island strategy of running easy for half the distance and then taking it up to a moderately hard level for the rest of the way. The other was to attempt to run about five seconds per mile faster and hopefully shave one minute off my Staten Island time of 1:57:54.  In order to do this, I should try running harder from the get go, because if I were to go easy for the first half I wasn't sure I could make up for it in the second half.  I wasn't too afraid to run a bit harder this time as I don't have another race coming up next week.  On the other hand, I thought if I ran too hard early I might run out of steam before the finish line.  Hence, I was split between these two options, but leaned a bit towards running harder, but hopefully below my lactate threshold and also hope I can hang on to that pace for almost two hours. I haven't run a threshold run in a while, and even when I did it was for less than an hour.  I finally decided to stop thinking and let myself loose a bit - in the sense run without holding back too much. That would mean I was going for saving about five seconds a mile.  While these thoughts were going through my mind we had already begun running. It was a bit too crowded when running around corners of streets one after another. I felt like I was running faster than my easy

pace, but I could see the 2:00 hour pacers ahead of me. I wondered if they were going too fast, or I was running too slow despite my feeling that I was running faster than usual.  I decided to continue at that pace for at least a mile to allow the body to warm up and then reposition myself relative to the 2:00 hr pacers.  After a mile or mile and half I started feeling warmed up and the body wasn't feeling like I was moving too fast.  I started feeling stuck behind a large group of folks who were following the 2 hour pacers. At some point just before the two mile mark, taking advantage of some extra space outside the paved road I passed the crowd and the 2 hr pacers. Once past the pacers, there was no congestion and there was a lot of space around the few people in that area. Right at the two mile mark the course took a sharp right turn and things took a bad turn for my ankle. The road was cut and uneven at that location and my left foot got caught in one of the uneven patches pushing my ankle outward. That hurt. It was the same ankle as I have been tending to for a while now. I watched it for a few minutes to see how it was doing. The pain seemed to reduce a bit, and I so I decided continue running.

You'll never catch me like this anywhere else!

All along the course, there were a lot of families and children cheering the runners.  Young kids looked very excited to see their superheros running in the neighborhood.  The course took us through some very nice views of Morristown and neighborhood. The scenery varied from downtown Morristown to residential areas and finally a very beautiful few miles in the Loantaka Brooks Reservation.  I kept chugging along at a harder than usual intensity.  After the residential areas which had some ups and downs, and of course a lot of residents who were cheering the runners, the course took us along the railroad tracks. I
wasn't sure where exactly we joined the tracks, but the course took us across Convent station and eventually left the tracks on its way to the very nice Giralda Farms area.  After Giralda Farms we entered Loantaka reservation which was quite a change of scenery.  The change from a suburban view to the thick wooded surroundings was very striking. Fall colors had already arrived and the course was paved with colorful tree leaves. The course here  looked like bike trails.  Miles 11 and 12 were in the reservation winding through the woods. I was feeling the miles by this time, and wondered if my decision to run a bit hard from the get go was a good idea. I was feeling fatigued, and felt like I was struggling.  Right around that area, I thought I didn't see the marker for mile 11 so I wasn't sure if I was running mile 12 or still on mile 11. I came across a fellow runner and asked if we passed mile marker 11. He seemed to think he saw it.  I had no reason to suspect he didn't, and that means two more miles to go and I kept at it.

I was only occasionally paying attention to my running form and breathing, for some reason. I was feeling tired, perhaps due to the hard running or perhaps I was running and breathing sloppy. Since I was still able to talk to a fellow runner, or crack a joke to some volunteers who were guiding us in the right direction through the winding course in Loantaka, I presumed I must be doing alright. Oh, by the way, to add some fun to the race, the organizers had arranged for 'zombies' to hide in the woods. Some of them tried to throw a scare as unsuspecting runners passed by.  There were several zombies, both male and female, hiding in the woods. I kept looking for them and whenever I spotted one, I made a shotgun with my hands and fired a shot at them making a loud pop with my mouth. That was fun.

Eventually, the course left the zombies and Loantaka Reservation. We could now hear the public address system at the finish area.  It was still probably one more mile to the finish line.. the longest mile of the race.  I kept at it.  There were people at street corners cheering the runners, instead of zombies trying to scare.   As we entered the finish area there were lots of people - families and friends, cheering their loved ones who are coming to the finish line. I started wondering if Tara made it to the finish area or she was still at the start area. I knew that I must've made good time . So instead of pushing still harder toward the finish line, I decided to look for Tara behind the ropes where families stood on either side.  Finally, I heard her voice call out 'Dad!! Dad!!' just moments before I crossed the finish line.

Yan after finishing her  first half marathon

I tried to catch my breath as Tara ran towards me.  We walked back and picked up the finisher's medal.  That was three half marathons in three weeks (Yay!) My legs were feeling stiff, but not as bad as last week. A banana, a bagel and a bottle of water later I did some stretches as I waited for my friends.   Soon, Prathap joined us, with all the excitement of finishing his first half marathon. Tara and I were so happy to share that moment with him.  We missed Kshitij at the finish line, and were not sure of the whereabouts of Yan.  Since my phone died along the way I had no way to contact either of them from the finish area, nor did I know if either of them had called.  After waiting for a while, the three of us took the bus back to the start area where we had parked our cars.  The bus was full of superheros and other characters who were happy after finishing a good half marathon. Later in the afternoon I learned that both Kshitij and Yan successfully finished the race. On the right is a happy picture of Yan after her finish,

I did good on time - 1:55:33 which was 2 minutes and 21 seconds faster than last week in Staten Island. Pace was 8:49 per mile as against 9:00 last week.  That is definitely faster than I wanted to run. No wonder I was feeling more exhausted than I was prepared for!  I should really consider running easy and relaxed next time.

If I can run, u can run.