Manhattan Gran Prix Half Marathon

Manhattan Gran Prix Half Marathon:

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First off it was freakin' cold! 21 degrees at 8:30am in the morning! I was out the door at 6:30am to catch the subway up to the park, to meet my teammates:


This is them in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. Look closely, notice anything missing? ME. I'm missing from this picture because I was still on the friggin' subway on my way up to the upper east side. The adventure didn't stop with the subway.

I got off the 4 train at 86th street and Lexington and started to make my way over. I wasn't late for the race by any stretch, but I was late for the pre-race pep talk and that really drives me nuts. I walk the few blocks to the park and I cross Fifth avenue and start to head down town. As I'm walking down Fifth, I can see the baggage trucks parked in front of the museum but for some reason, unknown to me, I decided to follow a sign posted inside the park that said "Baggage" with a big Arrow. So I followed it thinking somehow the shortest distance between two points was a detour into the park. It wasn't.

The path took me inside the park, past the starting line, a slew of port-o-potties and the back of the Met.

DENG! I look around for my teammates (see those smiling faces above) and I can not find them. I resign myself to the thought that I'm going to run this race by myself. Ugh! I strip down to full fledged winter race wear, put my food (Clif Bloks) in my pocket, put the ear-muffs on and stuff all my other gear in my bag. I'm putting my gear on the baggage truck when I run into Lauren and Margaret.

By now it's quarter past eight, and I got to empty my bladder before the race. I say hello to Lauren and Margaret, and it turns out they to need to visit the port-o-potties. The three of us head to the rear of the museum to get on line for the toilets.

The lines are long but they seem to be moving quickly. I could avoid the line all together and just go pee on the Met like many, many, many guys did, but I didn't. It's bad enough trying to use the port-o-potty when there's 50 people waiting outside the door, I can't imagine trying pee in public, let alone in front of a throng of people and on one the world's most famous museums.

I got in and out of the toilet, met up again with Lauren and Margaret. And the gun goes off. We're right next to the start, all we have to do is duck under the tape and jump in the race. The start is crowded. Even though the gun went off hundreds of us are walking. This always happens, though. It doesn't matter much because of the timing chip attached to my shoe.

The race consisted of two laps of the park and a little extra. I like to think I ran a smart race. I drank water at each station (it was so cold the water turned to ice in the cup, and the Gatorade turned to slush), ran up the hills technically well (short strides, low arms), ate at specific points, which brings me to this: NUTRITION

Rather than Gu's I chose for this race: Shot Bloks. My good friend, Doug C. out in Alaska told me these are like Jello Shots with out the booze. He was spot on, these things are tasty. Shot Bloks are, in my opinion, the most palatable of all the sports nutrition. I had my little bag in the pocket of my jacket while I ran and these things were frozen solid. I popped one of these of these things in my mouth about broke my jaw trying to chew it. Ultimately I ended up keeping one in my cheek and treating it like a lozenge.

So, after all the fan fare how did it go? Well, I had a really good day, here are the numbers:

Last Name

First Name

Sex/ Age

Bib

Team

City

State

Overall Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Finish Time

Net Time

Pace/ Mile

AG Time

AG Gender Place

AG %

PURVIS

JIM

M37

8480

LEUK

BROOKLYN

NY

2889

2055

779

2:08:48

2:04:58

9:32

2:02:43

2280

48.2 %

Ok, I'm still not breaking any land speed records, but the last half marathon I ran, I ran at a pace of 10:38 per mile. And you know what I looked good doing it which of course is the most important part: After the race I had to pick ice out of my beard and mustache, but other than that I was feeling pretty good.

-JP