First Half-Marathon!

Sunday, May 6th, 2007. It was a chilly and windy Sunday morning on Long Island. The family and I got up real early (5:00 AM) and got ready to leave the house as soon as possible. We had a 40-minute drive to get to Eisenhower Park before the surrounding roads were closed. We managed to get there in plenty of time.

Once we got there, we waited a while, then had quite a walk to the starting line of the 2007 Long Island Marathon. This was to be my first-ever half-marathon run, and boy, was I excited.

Christine, my wife, and Faith, my daughter, walked over to the start with me in the cold morning air. The support they gave me really helped through my training and on the day of the run itself.

As the start time grew close, I pared down to my running shorts and shirt, losing the sweat pants and sweat jacket that were, up to that point, keeping me warm. It was a cold few minutes before the gun went off, but I managed to survive.

Prior to the race, I had set 2 goals for myself. One, 1:55:00, which I would be disappointed if I did not meet and the other, 1:50:00, which I would be thrilled if I could achieve.

When the gun went off, and the 5000 or so runners all began to make their way to/past the starting line, my adrenaline was at overload. Mainly due to the crowd, I managed to keep myself from burning out on the first mile, but even still, 8:22 for the first mile was not bad. I then settled in to a fair pace for the next few miles, passing Christine and Faith at about 2.5 miles and waving to them, knowing the next time I'd see them was about 11 miles later.

Miles 3-5 were somewhat uneventful, though my pace slowed a bit. At about mile 5, an old friend caught up to me from behind. I didn't know he was running, though I knew he had done the full a year ago. We ran together for the next 3 miles or so, despite the fact that he had a deep thigh bruise sustained only a few nights earlier. One stretch between 6 and 8 was both uphill and against the wind, which was brutal that day. It was on that stretch that I had my only 9-minute-plus mile for the run. At 8 miles, Matt (my friend) bowed out, saying that he could no longer continue. I was sad, but kept going, knowing I had set a pretty good pace for myself.

By the time I had hit the 10 mile mark, I pretty much knew that my 1:55 goal was a given and my 1:50 goal was definitely within reach. At about mile 11, something odd happened. This overwhelming feeling of euphoria came over me all at once. But, instead of feeling "happy" I actually started to CRY! I actually had to compose myself by remembering that I still had over 2 miles to go! It was an amazing feeling that popped up a few more times during the rest of the run.

I passed Christine and Faith at about the 13-mile mark and waved as I went by, again fighting back some tears. 0.1 miles to go and I still had enough to push out a sprint to the finish. My "clock" time was 1:50:23 but my "chip" time was....1:49:33! I had done it! I had come in under my aggressive goal time! It was an 8:22 mile pace overall! I finished #672 out of 3289 finishers, which was just about in the top 20% of finishers!

What an amazing experience! It was a feeling of accomplishment that I'm not sure even hitting my goal weight with Weight Watchers could match.

Will I ever do a full marathon? Someday, I'm pretty certain that I will. For now, though, a half-marathon is accomplishment enough for me!

And to think...just over 18 months ago, I was morbidly obese at almost 300 lbs and could barely jog the length of a football field without passing out! If I can do it, so can ANYONE!

Here are my split times for my entire race:

Mile 1: 8:22
Mile 2: 7:46 (16:08)
Mile 3: 7:42 (23:51)
Mile 4: 8:10 (32:01)
Mile 5: 8:17 (40:19)
Mile 6: 8:31 (48:50)
Mile 7: 8:25 (57:16)
Mile 8: 9:04 (1:06:21)
Mile 9: 8:22 (1:14:43)
Mile 10: 8:30 (1:23:30)
Mile 11: 8:26 (1:31:40)
Mile 12: 8:15 (1:39:55)
Mile 13: 8:47 (1:48:43)
13.1: 0:50 (1:49:33)