I’d rather be dry, but at least I’m alive
Ariana Grande
Third annual running of the New Year’s Eve Marathon (background here). The name is uninspired, but I promise once someone joins me I’ll do a big rebranding.
There’s not much else to say: I started running this three years ago, and found the experience positive enough to keep on doing it on subsequent New Year’s Eves. No promises it’ll last forever, but below are some details and thoughts after this year’s run.
Stats:
Mileage – 26.2 miles
Pace – 8:29 min/mile
Total Time – 3:42:27
Elevation – 563 feet
1st Split – 8:34 min/mile
Last Split – 8:26 min/mile
The Course:
Talk about uninspired! Cross the Brooklyn Bridge, run thirteen miles up the West Side, turn around just before the George Washington Bridge, and retrace the path home. Really couldn’t be simpler.
Here is why I’ve done this same route three years running, in the words of a friend: “It’s boring, but it removes all decision making and thinking about distances or routes. You just run.” That’s about it. I could obviously explore some pretty cool places in a 26 mile run around the city, but I’d rather spend my time thinking about things other than the route.
The Race:
I was up before six for an eight o’clock start. That gave me enough time to use the bathroom and digest my coffee, peanut butter toast and big glass of water. I also like to shower and lay out all my clothes before heading out, so I did that as well.
It rained this year, which is generally my second least-favorite running weather (nothing’s worth than wind). The skies weren’t supposed to clear up until noon, and there was no way I was going to wait until then to run, since that meant finishing up as the sun went down. Plus, there’s something to be said for making things harder. It feels good to suffer a bit. It was also 45 degrees, which for me usually means shorts and a long-sleeve shirt. I was actually worried I’d sweat too much in my rain jacket, not freeze.
There’s really not too much to say about the run. I decided to go without podcasts or music for the first half, mostly because I was worried about the rain messing up my headphones, but also because one underlying purpose of the run is that it’s a great time to think. So I spent a lot of that first half thinking about my career, future goals, and a new project I’m working on in 2021.
The route typically stays on the Hudson River Greenway from the lower tip of Manhattan all the way to the GW, but this year construction above 100th pushed me up into Riverside Park and onto Riverside Drive. Kind of a bummer, since it added a handful of steep staircases, but also an opportunity to stumble onto a few cool things:
I reached the turnaround feeling really good, legs and lungs wise, but with soaking wet shoes and a sharp pain on the bottom of my foot from my wet sock and pinched skin. Picture running for a few hours on extremely pruny feet – it was something like that.
I snapped my halfway picture, stripped off my rain jacket – it was only drizzling at that point – and ate half of a protein bar. I also put on a Tim Ferriss podcast interview with Martine Rothblatt, the CEO of United Therapeutics.
The way back was uneventful. I was preoccupied with Dr. Rothblatt’s interview and the slow ticking down of the remaining miles. I stopped to pee by some deserted trees along the water, and by the time I was closing in on Hudson Yards my legs were feeling pretty stiff, but my lungs could have kept going forever in the cool weather. My heart rate was slightly above 130 bpm.
With six miles left to go, around the southern “horn” of Manhattan, I switched over to music in the hopes it would add a little juice to my stride, which it must have, since my last five miles were some of my fastest. I’m never sure whether that’s a sign of good or bad race management – what if I left too much in the tank?
In any event, this race was never about time. And at that point it wasn’t even about running – all I cared about was my post-race Shake Shack. I could taste the grease.
So I started up the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge with exactly one mile to go, which meant I’d finish right at the end of the other side. The bridge was looking magnificent:
But it got better! Because it turned out that I was not the only person finishing a race on that section of the bridge at 11:52am on December 31st. Max and Zac Prizant, names I learned after the fact, also happened to be finishing a slightly longer run – 3,000 miles from San Francisco to Brooklyn, which they’d begun back in May. And somehow fate dropped me directly at the finish line, the moment their run ended:
It was an awesome moment to witness. Talk about a challenge.
So that’s about it. I’d post a picture of my Shake Shack, but I ate it too fast.
Happy New Year!
Bonus – 2020 Running Reflection:
Thank you thank you if you’ve made it this far. I figured this would be a good place to reflect a bit on my running from the past year, so if you’re interested read on.
Here are some stats on where I ended up:
Somehow, even in a year that felt less focused on running than in the past, I ran significantly more than I did in 2018 and 2019. I’m not exactly sure how that happened, but I think it had something to with consistency, and slowly inching higher the distance of my average weekday runs, from four miles to five or six.
My 54-day streak definitely didn’t hurt either, where I logged 321 miles. That was something I had never done before, and it was valuable to see how much easier running became when there was no question about heading out each morning. Something to think about in the future. I’m still not sure whether there’s value in the average rest day (although periods of rest after really long runs and to recharge are critical for me).
I also had a much healthier mentality about running. I shortened runs on weekends to prioritize other things, or just because they didn’t sound appealing. While I wouldn’t recommend that during serious training, it makes a lot of sense as an approach to a lifelong hobby: I don’t want to burnout. That was my mindset in deciding not to run the Yeti 100 miler back in September, and I’m so grateful for that decision. This summer, while limiting in some ways, provided great opportunities to spend time with family and friends, and I would have regretted setting aside so many hours each weekend to go running alone. The 100 miler will come in the future, when I’m ready and actually want to do it.
One thing I’m looking forward to more of in 2021: running with Anne and with friends. I had some opportunities to run with a few people throughout the year, but I’m hoping that more people in the city and the reopening of races will make it happen more often.
The last thing I’ll say is that this sport rewards patience and a long-term mentality. I could barely walk when I finished my first marathon in 2016; now I could go running again the next morning. My heart rate is lower, my form is better, and my breathing is smoother. All because I’ve been slowly building, year after year, to a much higher base level of fitness than when I started.
New runners should keep that in mind whenever they’re frustrated. Progress can be slow.