Last weekend, Leo took part in the New York Half Marathon. We’ve been working together on her training for a couple of races now and I’ve asked her to share her thought of the race.

Hello reader,

I used to be just like you, sitting reading a blog that I’d found through goggling phrases like “people who can run even though they don’t really like running and it’s new and hard and they are lazy. London. ” But I’m not like that now. You see, I just completed the NYC Manhattan half marathon.

I got entry into the half marathon through a lottery that I hadn’t expected to win! New York Road Runners (NYRR), the organisation responsible for putting on the NYC marathon, organised the event. The race is really popular! The big draw of this half is the course. There are other races and half marathons in Manhattan, but this takes the (big) apple in terms of route.

You start with a lap of Central Park. You then leave the park and run through Times Square, down the West Side Highway (with views of the Statue of Liberty), all the way down to the very tip of the island, and finish up right in the centre of the Financial District.

I paid my $5 lottery entry fee and was very surprised six weeks later when I got an email informing me I was in. I immediately contacted Laura and got to work on a rather intimidating looking 8 week training plan, which had me running four times a week, and peaking at about 22 miles a week. Woah!

I decided to take a breath and just keep taking it one run at a time – I quickly realised that no matter how bad a run was – no mater how hard it felt, or how slow I felt, once it was done I could come back and tick off my run on the training plan in a big pink sharpie.

Somedays my runs truly were terrible – these were the days I questioned whether I should quit. Not just quit the half marathon, but quit running in general. But there were also some great runs. There was the pre-dawn run where I accidentally PR’d my 5k time.

There were the 6 snowy miles around a silent Central Park, and there was the 10 miles with friends up the Hudson River to a long forgotten little red lighthouse. Those miles had felt slow and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. Suddenly the sun came through the clouds, I saw the lighthouse up ahead, and I realised that this was exactly how I wanted to spend my Sunday.

Slowly I realised that simply by showing up to every run (minus three – shhh), my legs had got faster and my body had for stronger.

On race day I knew I had a good run in me, and I was determined to suck up all of the atmosphere of literally running through one of the best cities in the world. The amazing energy of the other runners made the whole thing feel like a massive party – there were bands, cheerleaders and even a spin-off kid’s race to watch as we ran across Manhattan.

When things got hard, around mile 10, I was surprisingly grateful for some of the awful training runs. It turns out that reminding myself of all those hard runs I had finished gave me the confidence to push through those final 3 miles. Before I knew it we were greeted by a sign proclaiming “400 left!”. I wasn’t sure 400 what exactly, but I was sure I could handle it. Soon, I saw the finish line. I even managed a little sprint / limp over it. And BOOM! A brand new shiny PR and a medal to match.

The race was massive, with 20,000 people taking part. It was brilliantly organised, the volunteers were unfathomably jolly, and the NYPD did a great job keeping everyone safe. The whole event was massive fun!

This race counts towards a series NYRR calls 9+1. If you run 9 races with them in a year, and volunteer at 1 event, you get guaranteed entry to the following year’s marathon! I chose to volunteer at a kid’s race in Washington Heights, which was just about the cutest thing I’ve ever done!

Thanks for reading
Leo
Official Manhattan Half Marathon Finisher

If you could use a little (or a lot of) help training for your next race, take a look at my coaching options and get in touch.