Hamptons Half 2012: Thanks Everyone

This past Saturday was the Hamptons Half Marathon that I’d been bugging yall about all summer. For the third year in a row, I ran this race with and for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training. The first thing I want to do is thank all of those who donated to the cause. Thanks to you, my page alone contributed over $2,500 to Team in Training. Woohoo! The second thing I want to do is thank Team in Training coaches, mentors and cheering squads. (And Ross and Scott and Nick as well).

Now then. Last year’s experience, in two words, kinda sucked. Traffic getting out of New York sucked. We didn’t get out to Montauk until 11 or so the night before the race. The weather sucked — warm and really, really humid. Worst of all, my conditioning sucked. So I suffered during the race.

This year? Completely opposite. The drive from New York to the mansion in Bridgehampton at which we were staying was relatively painless. And, yes, we did stay in a mansion. I’m not going to go into details, but let’s just say that there was a switch ON the light switch that turned on ESPN. And a wine cellar. And between nine and ten bedrooms. So that was nice.

And while it rained on and off for much of the weekend, it didn’t rain at all during the race. Which was also nice.

The race itself? I didn’t know if I’d be able to PR as I wasn’t hitting the same paces in training as I had in the winter. I couldn’t tell if that’s because I was being lazy or because running in the summer just sucks monkey nads. Official time was 1:47:21. (My time for Brooklyn Half was 1:45:05). A bathroom break and the slow elevation for the first five miles or so conspired against me. I thought I might not recover enough to keep it under 1:50, but between Coaches Jim and Amy jumping in a running with me between miles 8 thru 11 and the insane TNT cheering section I was able to ramp speed back up. After mile 11, I cranked it back up full tilt. Strong finish and I was happy with the results. I finished first among my Ad Age coworkers (my secret goal) and, it turns out, 20th in my age group — it pays to get old.

Even better, Cara crushed her race, besting her Brooklyn Half time but a full 9 minutes, which is borderline insane.

And now that it’s over, we can sit on our asses and … oh, wait, we still have the Philadelphia Marathon in November. Damn.

Here are my mile splits:

1 8:06.7 1.00 8:07
2 8:40.4 1.00 8:40
3 7:45.3 1.00 7:45
4 8:07.7 1.00 8:08
5 8:13.2 1.00 8:13
6 8:29.4 1.00 8:29
7 8:21.3 1.00 8:21
8 8:05.3 1.00 8:05
9 8:11.2 1.00 8:11
10 8:12.0 1.00 8:12
11 8:08.6 1.00 8:09
12 7:56.2 1.00 7:56
13 7:51.8 1.00 7:52