Staten Island: My Second Half

View across the Hudson as the runners waited

The Staten Island Half Marathon was an entirely different experience from Central Park.  Beautiful scenery across the Hudson river of Downtown Manhattan, gorgeous view of the Verrazano Bridge, and an excellent segment on the boardwalk.

I had a busy Saturday.  I had to work on something all day, and then had volunteer work at the observatory during the night.  I left the observatory a few minutes early in the night and got home around quarter past eleven. Staten Island doesn't have a lot of parking spots. So my first task was to make a list of parking lots and garages in the area.  I also quickly checked NYRR's website for any last minute announcements. There was indeed one - that the race will start 15 minutes late at 8:45 in the morning, and an extra ferry has been arranged at 7:45 AM from Manhattan to St. George Terminal Staten Island for the runners. That is the last ferry to take if you are coming from Manhattan.  My worry wasn't the ferry. It was car parking.  Last year there were about 10000 participants. When I did a quick search of the number of parking spots in the area, that came to about 2100. That right there was my worry.  Even if I assume that about half the people come from New York, that still leaves about 3000 people potentially left without parking spots!  I figured that driving all the way to Manhattan, finding parking there, and then taking the ferry to Staten Island is a bit too much to do and decided that I will drive straight to Staten Island and look for parking. If I am able to find parking then I will run. If not, I will return home. That was the plan.  And so I went to bed at around 12:30 to catch some shut eye and wake up at 5 o'clock or so for a start at 6.

Beautiful view of Verrazano bridge along the course

Long story short, I got one of the last few parking spots in St. George Courthouse which was about 10-15 minutes walk from the Ballpark where I needed to pick up my bib.  NYPD officers had blocked all traffic in and around the area. So the walk was easy.  Once I picked up my number and t-shirt, I did what every other person did - joined a long line for the urinal!  Thirty minutes later I was at the start.  Since there was a 5K race at 8:30 I had a 'front row' view of the race start. This was a smaller race of about 1500 runners, as against about 8600 for the half marathon.  Since I was right in front, I got to see the young fellow who sang 'God bless America..." in such a lovely voice.

After the 5K start I went off looking for my corral.  Due to the large number of runners and the relatively narrow street at certain points the race started in multiple waves. I think I was in the third wave, or it could be the second.  There were pacers like last time. The 1 hour 50 minutes pacer was at the front of my corral. That time is a bit fast for me according to my calculations. However, since this course is flat I thought I might make it and toyed with the idea of keeping up with the pacer.  Finally, I decided to stick with my own plan, which is to run at my own pace and see where that takes me. I planned to run at a moderate pace most of the race as I didn't want to get too exhausted at the end. I figured I will run at a moderate and comfortable effort at least for half the distance and then switch to moderately hard to hard for most of the remaining distance if not all of it. I didn't want to push too much as I haven't really done a tempo run after I hurt the ankle more than a month ago. So my hardest during the long part of the course after the first half would be at a level of effort which will allow me to talk, but it would be hard to do so - which is the definition I use for the range moderately hard to hard.   Oh, and by the way, this time I am armed with a hi-tech gadget - a running watch and heart rate monitor. I had only run one short run with it, but decided to take it along anyway. I also set heart rate zone alerts on the watch to alert me when I fall below zone 2, or go above zone 3 based on my maximum heart rate (Max HR). There was an element of guess in this calculation as the gadget was using a calculated rate for Max HR as I hadn't measured the actual rate for me.


The weather was gorgeous -  54 deg F and a light breeze. Bright and sunny.  Since this is mostly a flat course, and as the NYC Marathon was only three weeks away, I expected to see some serious running.  And I wasn't disappointed. As the start horn went off people took off.  I decided to take it easy for the first 10-15 minutes and then take it to a comfortable pace half the distance. As they say, the pace at which I can recite the national pledge.  If I am able to sing the national anthem, then I need to speed up :-)
The view all along was so nice and the fresh breeze so energizing that I didn't realize as I passed one mile after another.

The first few miles were along Bay Street going southward.  There were many local residents cheering the runners. At certain locations there were musicians playing instruments which made the environment very lively.  At some point I overheard someone say that he was going to walk up the hill, which was a cue that there was a minor challenge coming up. I changed my gears and got ready for it.  Tackle the hill before it tackles you, right? 

It didn't turn out to be a big challenge and I got back into my usual breathing rhythm pretty quickly. Moreover, there was a downhill just after the top of the hill which helped relax a lot as I didn't want to exert myself so early in the run. Somewhere around that section the course went in an underpass and the runners were having fun shouting and clapping making echos. Not to be left behind, I also displayed my prowess and gave a couple of coos which echoed very nicely from the ceiling above. 

NYPD officers were standing guard all along the way to make sure even pedestrians do not cross the street while the race was on. I'm pretty sure this must've inconvenienced some residents, but all the people I saw on the sides seemed to welcome and cheer the runners.   I grabbed a cup of Gatorade from a fluid station around mile 4 or so and took a bathroom break as I saw a few that didn't have any wait. That was probably after mile 6 or so. The busy street was behind us by now.  There were no ups and downs at all. This part was flat for as long as I could see. Although I couldn't see the sea, I could sense that it was close on my left,   I was also taking swigs at my bottle every now and then, and had already taken an energy gel by that time - just to make sure I don't run out of carbs. Running after a night of short sleep used to worry me before, but the last two experiences seem to show that energy is more important.  Around this time,  the course turned eastward towards seashore and the boardwalk. Things were going as per plan and I turned up the dial a bit. 

Somewhere around this time, my watch had started beeping  alarms that I was going above the limit I had set. I checked how I was feeling, and didn't find anything unusual or uncomfortable. Anyhow, I eased things a bit, but after a few minutes at that level, it didn't seem like the right intensity. So I went back up the notch again. In a few minutes the watch started complaining again. I checked the screen and it was showing 167. As I was feeling perfectly fine, I decided to ignore its complaints.  The run on the boardwalk was very very nice. I focused on my cadence and form and tried to maintain a good clip for what seemed to be two or three miles on the boardwalk, but I am not  sure as I didn't see any mile signs.

It seemed like everyone was enjoying that segment. There was a young girl who worried me a little bit that I might trip on her. She used to be behind me and occasionally she would speed up a bit and slowly move up past me, slowly, very slowly, and then drift in front of me a bit too close for comfort. I was afraid that I would trip on her. So I would move away from her, and then after a little while she would again slowly sneak up on me from behind and again drift in front of me. This went on and on for a long time. The only other thing that was going on was the constant screaming of my watch as it tried to persuade me to ease things down to the level I had set. At some point when I checked the heart rate was 171 or so, but as I was able to talk at that level I didn't want to dial things down.  I wasn't sure if I could turn off the alarm in one or two swipes, or if it really required me to go through the settings menu. Either way, as I didn't want to waste any time trying to turn off the alarm I decided to ignore it.  It kept screaming at me nevertheless like a nagging child. It did help a bit at times, as I occasionally approached another runner trying to pass him or her, the watch alarm would go off with perfect timing which worked like a signal and they cleared out of my way.

A short while after we got off the boardwalk there was a long climb up which was somewhat challenging. Interestingly, I didn't see too many people walking up that hill. It seemed like almost no one was willing to sit down and bargain with that one. It was the hardest part of the run and it was really nice to see people battling it out and conquering that challenge running rather than walking. I'm sure everyone knew that there is no shame in walking, and it is often wise to walk than run, but then why walk when you can run?

Somewhere around that point, we got back on to Bay Street where the race started.  From here it was mostly downhill. By now, my legs were kind of beginning to feel the miles they covered.  However, I kept a good pace wherever I could get a bit of 'gravity assist.'  Since this part of the road was also often uneven I was watching my steps. I didn't want to get injured and throw all the hard work away.  I did see two or three people who were unable to complete - two were limping as they suffered some sort of injury and  pulled out within the first few miles. The third one was a lady who seemed to have had cramps or something two or three miles before the finish line,  and a NYPD officer and a NYRR volunteer were helping her out.  The officer was calling for ambulance, and he shouted at the runners asking if anyone had water. One of the runners from behind shouted back that he had. That was truly nice. He was willing to give up his water and possibly not beat his personal best or whatever he was targeting. Instead, he clearly showed that compassion to a fellow runner is more important than his own personal goals in the race. At those final stages of the race when so much of his preparation running up to the race and the effort in running the race up till that point were all boiling down to the next 10 or 20 minutes that lay ahead of him, he remembered that at the end of the day this is just a run. He set a great example and sent a reminder to everyone that who we are and what we do for one another defines us more strongly than anything else.

The last half mile or so seemed unending. It was narrow and winding and at every turn I thought I would see the finish line, but it never seemed to come. My legs were feeling a bit stiff, but I didn't really notice it - strangely, though, I can remember it now looking back.  Finally, the ballpark entrance showed up after another turn and the soft turf of the ground gave a much different feel to the feet. Eventually, the turf gave way to a dirt patch before the finish line, which was the home plate of the ballpark.

I wasn't exhausted as much as stiff on the legs.  They were feeling tight in places I never felt tightness before.  I dragged my legs picking up some Gatorade, a bagel and an apple, and came down on the turf. A thousand other finishers tending to their feet and legs, or just crashing on their back. I finished my drink, ate half the bagel, and started my attempts to get my legs back in working order by doing some inner thigh and outer thigh stretches. It is more appropriate to say that I tried to do those stretches rather than I did, because the legs felt so stiff.  I think I had a taste of what it might feel like after a full marathon. I do think, though, that a lot of the stiffness and soreness I have from this run has to do with the fact that I have not run flat courses. So a different set of muscles must have been activated this time - muscles that I've not been using.

For the quantitatively minded, this is what the numbers show. I was surprised that my finish time of 1:57:54  was so close to the one last Sunday which was 1:58:16. In terms of pace, this run was exactly 9 minutes per mile whereas the previous one was 9:02 per mile!  I had another minor surprise from this run.  NYRR showed split pace for various distances. It seems like I ran almost the entire race at a consistent pace of around 28 minutes per 5 K.  First 5 K was run in 28:18, second 5 K exactly at the same pace in 28:18 down to the seconds! (I can guarantee that I don't have that much precision and control over my pace.) The third 5 K was 30 seconds faster at 27:48 and the next 5 K at 28:05 seconds. I find this interesting. Perhaps, my focus on a certain level of perceived rate of exertion combined with the mostly flat course resulted in a fairly constant pace. I don't think it can be true, as the feeling of exertion can vary based on fatigue during the run, but I can't think of any other explanation.

That's all for tonight. I am taking rest and recovering before the next half marathon this Sunday. I have some ways to go.

Enjoy your day.

If I can run, you can run