1 post tagged “coney island”
Saturday was one of the best days of my life. Nine buses picked us up at Central Park in pitch-dark at 5:45 a.m. that morning, and took us to Coney Island for the Brooklyn Half-Marathon | Video. It was the third in the series of the year-long NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix series through each of New York City's five boroughs, and this was an unbelievable course that went from paradise to pain. It also was an act of great fortune that we snuck this in before the nor'easter hit these parts. We did have to run most of the race against the wind on the leading edge of that nor'easter, but I can't even describe how tranquil and idyllic it was to be wandering along the Atlantic Ocean at 7:15 a.m. with seagulls, then laying on my back on the sand for a half-hour medidating and visualizing a great race that was about to start a half-hour later. It was just awesome.
Distance: 13.1 miles
Time: 2:19.03 (10:36 pace)
Reaction: Not bad, considering I would have been closer to two hours if not for about 10-11 minutes lost due to Holy Porta-Porty Potty Grail Quest from Miles 6-8. I had a big pasta dinner Friday night to carbo-load and made the mistake of eating two orders rather than one when it was delivered to our MLB offices. I was hungry! And I knew I would lose 5-6 pounds the next day, so I didn't think it was a problem. Plus I had my usual traditional PB&J sandwich at midnight. I am going to have to ask my colleagues to please keep me from pasta-binging in the future...lol.
The only other problem was a cramp in my left calf at Mile 11, while we were in Prospect Park for the top portion of the course. That was brutal, and here I am at this point in life undersanding what professional athletes go through with cramping. It's a sting that won't go away...I bailed off to the side and tried to massage it out. Those guys are lucky because they have trainers who rush out onto the field and work out the cramp. When it's just you while runners are flying past you, all you can do is try to rub it out, see if you can run through it. I then ran through the pain, resumed the course, and was stunned to see that at Mile 12 there was nothing but uphill pavement to the finish line. I sprinted at that point but had to walk about 20 yards, then run again...next time I'm going to be around 2 hours!
Highlight: "Hey Baby" being played over the loudspeakers at the start for thousands of runners. It's the Bruce Channel 1961 song you know from the Dirty Dancing soundtrack. Perfect boardwalk music. We ran the first two miles on wood planks, and I saw one woman wipe out in front of me; she bounced up and was just embarrassed I'm sure, but she stayed in front of me. It was treacherous...bouncy boards. I was glad when we got to Ocean Parkway, which was about 8 miles straight up Brooklyn to Prospect Park for the hilly and kind of gruelling finish.
I really wanted to sprint from Mile 12 through the finish. There was no way the hill was letting me do that. I talked to others who live in the area and they said they weren't even aware that the route would be like this. Now I know. Everything I do is a learning experience. This is my fifth month of being a distance runner, and friends here know how it all began and have been with me every step of the way. On Dec. 1, I broke a box of Kools in half and decided to live what I want to be a very long life for my three awesome boys. I decided to rediscover the athlete inside me. I am presently in the best shape at age 47 that I have been in since I was in college, when I would ride a bike around counties and feel I was generally immortal. Today, I am focusing on my core and gradually running farther and faster, all building toward November's 2007 ING New York City Marathon for which I am registered.
I also have learned how to reward myself. After the Brooklyn Half, I got on the F train and headed back to Manhattan, stopped at world-famous Alice's Teacup next door to where I live on Upper West Side, and got a slice of chocolate cake with buttermilk icing and tea, and took an hour-long bath. I passed out sometime around 10 that night, unable to meet friends for an invitation to a pub crawl through the UWS area. Not too crazy about drinking anything these days anyway. I just want to train and be a marathoner and be better than ever at what I do with Major League Baseball Advanced Media. I love my life more than ever and believe I am going to show a lot of people everywhere that it is possible to go from a smoker to a marathoner within the same calendar year.
Just don't eat a double-order of pasta and PB&J sandwich the night before a Half-Marathon.
Race Name, Date |
Finisher Name |
Gender/ Age |
City, State |
Team | Distance (miles) |
Gun Time |
Net Time |
Pace/ Mile |
Overall Place |
Gender Place |
Age Place |
Age- Graded % |
| NYRR Brooklyn Half-Marathon April 14, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
13.1 | 2:19:03 | 10:36 | 4121 | 2588 | 258 | 46.9 % | ||
| Scotland Run 10K April 1, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
6.2 | 1:01:17 | 9:53 | 4316 | 2721 | 271 | 48.9 % | ||
| Colon Cancer Challenge 15K March 11, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
9.3 | 1:36:15 | 10:20 | 2025 | 1235 | 135 | 47.4 % | ||
| Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamroc... March 4, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
3.1 | 30:17 | 9:46 | 1901 | 1244 | 128 | 47.5 % | ||
| NYRR Gridiron Classic February 4, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
4.0 | 43:05 | 10:46 | 3837 | 2267 | 244 | |||
| NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon January 21, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
13.1 | 2:34:22 | 2:30:03 | 11:27 | 4108 | 2649 | 328 | 43.5 % | |
| NYRR Fred Lebow Classic January 7, 2007 |
Newman, Mark | M47 | New York, NY |
5.0 | 57:03 | 54:01 | 10:48 | 3636 | 2177 | 255 | 44.0 % |
