It was cold out there today. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, long pants, a headband and gloves, and I was still cold. I doubted whether I’d be able to break 2 hours, like I’d hoped. A mile into the race I was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. It felt like I was just running in place. As usual though, I eventually warmed up and felt pretty good.

I planned to take the first 5 miles real easy and I came through in 47:28. Not bad. I wanted to do the next 5 miles in 45 minutes. I came through in 45:41. Not bad. Finally, I wanted to really pick it up the last 5K (3.1 miles). I came through in 26:43, about 8:30 pace. Again, not bad. The last 3 miles seemed like it was all hills. Even the finish was on a hill! I finally saw the finish line, checked my watch and saw 1:59:13, and promptly took off like a crazy person.

Final tally: 1:59:52!

This is the first time I ran Brooklyn and I really liked it. We started on the boardwalk at Coney Island and ran along the beach for about 3 miles. Then, there was a long straight road stretch for about 5-6 miles and we finally finished with a few loops inside Prospect Park. They just need to flatten out some of those hills…

Half marathons this year:

• Jan 28: 2:21:30 (10:48 pace) Manhattan
• Mar 18: 1:59:52 (9:09 pace) Brooklyn

Scheduled:

• Jul 9: Bronx
• Aug 27: New York City
• Oct 1: Grete’s Gallop
• Oct 15: Staten Island

Read more race reports at Derek Rose’s blog.