This past Sunday, March 18th 2018, I ran the United Airlines NYC Half Marathon. The last double-digit race that I ran was the 2016 Marine Corps Marathon, so it’s been some time since my legs have felt the way that they do right now. In all honesty, I was kind of dreading it at first.

I entered the lottery to run this race back in the Fall and had almost completely forgotten about it. When it came down to when they were going to draw the lottery, my initial intentions were to revoke my entry last minute. However, fate had a different plan and I didn’t take my name out of the drawing. Ultimately, my name was chosen.

When I first signed up for this race, I knew that I was in need of getting back out there and running again. Marine Corps Marathon ended up being a huge disappoint for me and I was devastated, as any marathon runner would be, after the months of long, hard training that I had put it. Often times, I wonder why I even put myself through it, but after every race, I remember why. It’s because these races humble you.

My experience at the NYC Half was pretty incredible, which I’m very relieved to say. I began “officially” training in mid-December which gave me about three months until the race. Like all my other races, I [loosely] used the Hal Higdon Intermediate 1 training program, because it always fits my schedule the best.

In terms of my longest distance run, I had only gotten up to 10 miles, which was just 2 miles shy of what I should have really done. And what ended up happening was that I crammed miles into the last few weeks I had left, then just let my body do the work once it was officially race time. I ended up paying for it at the end.

I hadn’t done any formal hill training, speed work, or strength training at all. I didn’t a gym membership either, which is a first for me. As one would suspect, this essentially ended up being my downfall.

I had hoped for a PR (personal record), but I knew in my head (and my heart) that this was not going to happen. As they say, you reap what you sow and I knew that I hadn’t sewn much during my training.

The course was 100% brand new from previous years, which I was a little upset about, but I ended up absolutely loving it. It started near Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, went over the Manhattan bridge, through Lower Manhattan, up into Midtown, through Times Square, and finishing right in Central Park. The weather was below freezing at a temperature of 28 degrees fahrenheit. Luckily, the sun was shining throughout, with zero precipitation.

Typically, I loathe running in the cold. In the Winter time, I get extremely lazy, have no motivation for running or working out in general, and basically hibernate until Spring. But I knew that I needed to break this cycle, which is why I chose this race in the first place.

I finished in a time of 1:50:33, which is an average of 8:26 per mile. Overall, I was quite satisfied with my time, especially with having the most minimalistic training. The New York City views were beautiful and I had both my boyfriend and sister cheering for me at mile 8, right in the heart of Times Square.

Though my legs are definitely on the sore side, it was completely worth it. It restored my runner’s high and left me wanting more — A feeling that I had really missed.

I would recommend this race without hesitation.