LindsayLoves
Well-Known Member
Brooklyn Half Recap - First Garmin Free Race
In the four days prior to this race I had some bad stuff going on with my right leg, tightness in the glute and hip which resulted in knee pain. The cause? Sitting in a terrible chair for a two days training course for work which apparently knocked my body right out of alignment. I knew I owed to it myself to at least attempt running this race and I promised my husband I would slow down or stop if the pain was too bad. I made the call yesterday to run Garmin free. Just run what I was feeling. I had already hit my A goal for the Half earlier this year so I was just going to enjoy my run through Brooklyn.
Getting up at 3:45 to get to Brooklyn at 6am was not pretty but with baggage closing at 6:20 I didn't have much of an option (subways aren't real frequent at the time of the morning). The race started at 7am so there was a pretty long wait post bag check but luckily there were plenty of port-o-potties in all the corrals. This race has exploded in size to over 25,000 runners making it the largest half in the country. After feeling pretty good the first 2 miles I figured I would just stay with the pack and hope that I could hold onto whatever pace I was running. At that point I could feel my knee, in the sense it didn't feel normal, but it was no where bad enough to stop so I focused on enjoying the race. So I enjoyed the race and my knee never felt funky. I ran hard and thought I would have to slow down in the second half but the exact opposite happened, I picked it up. At around mile 11 I saw the clock time and not knowing exactly when I crossed the start line I kind of realized if I held on I might PR. So I did just that and held on with all I had. Ended up crossing the finish line at 1:52, but I still had no idea what my time was.
Turns out running Garmin free let me get out of my head and run based on what my body wanted to run which was a PR - 1:45:48. I am so incredibly shocked with that time. Never did I think I would run that fast this spring. Huge lesson learned about trusting your body and so much more.
Sidenote- my leg tightness has worked itself out
In the four days prior to this race I had some bad stuff going on with my right leg, tightness in the glute and hip which resulted in knee pain. The cause? Sitting in a terrible chair for a two days training course for work which apparently knocked my body right out of alignment. I knew I owed to it myself to at least attempt running this race and I promised my husband I would slow down or stop if the pain was too bad. I made the call yesterday to run Garmin free. Just run what I was feeling. I had already hit my A goal for the Half earlier this year so I was just going to enjoy my run through Brooklyn.
Getting up at 3:45 to get to Brooklyn at 6am was not pretty but with baggage closing at 6:20 I didn't have much of an option (subways aren't real frequent at the time of the morning). The race started at 7am so there was a pretty long wait post bag check but luckily there were plenty of port-o-potties in all the corrals. This race has exploded in size to over 25,000 runners making it the largest half in the country. After feeling pretty good the first 2 miles I figured I would just stay with the pack and hope that I could hold onto whatever pace I was running. At that point I could feel my knee, in the sense it didn't feel normal, but it was no where bad enough to stop so I focused on enjoying the race. So I enjoyed the race and my knee never felt funky. I ran hard and thought I would have to slow down in the second half but the exact opposite happened, I picked it up. At around mile 11 I saw the clock time and not knowing exactly when I crossed the start line I kind of realized if I held on I might PR. So I did just that and held on with all I had. Ended up crossing the finish line at 1:52, but I still had no idea what my time was.
Turns out running Garmin free let me get out of my head and run based on what my body wanted to run which was a PR - 1:45:48. I am so incredibly shocked with that time. Never did I think I would run that fast this spring. Huge lesson learned about trusting your body and so much more.
Sidenote- my leg tightness has worked itself out
Thought about going for the half but I don't think I'm ready for that distance yet.
