If my calculations are correct, this past weekend I ran my 16th half marathon, the New York City Half, put on by New York Road Runners. This is different from the Manhattan Half, also put on by NYRR, which I was signed up to run back in January or February or whenever. But I skipped that one this year because I only run it if the temperature is below 20 degrees.
Anyway, the NYC Half is a great race, if you can get in. It’s a lottery system. I got in because I ran all of NYRR’s other major races last year. NYC Half does a loop in Central Park, then down through Times Square (which is cool) over to the West Side Highway and ends down in the Financial District. All the hard part — Cat Hill (totally overrated as a hill) and Harlem Hill (FUCK YOU HARLEM HILL) — is in the first four miles and it’s down hill and flat from there.
I didn’t race this. I’m carrying 10-14 pounds more than I typically do for my “racey” races. And that’s after losing about 10 pounds over the last month. And while I’d been running for a month, I hadn’t been training. So I decided I’d take this one as a training run. The amazing thing (to me) is that I did. I could have tried to go for under two hours. I could have actually done it. But I would have suffered for it. And then been unable to walk for three days.
So I finished in 2:05 and change, without stopping or needing to puke or crossing the finish line and falling over. And, as I did during the New York Marathon last year, I beat Tiki Barber. I hope that dude doesn’t get a complex.
KEN WHEATON 