Central Park Half Marathon, Jude Law and some more miles...

Hey there, ether-webs, Penny here. I just got done watching the Talented Mr. Ripley with the Talented And Handsome Jude Law. Sometimes I wish the Hey Runner Girl meme had been about him. They are so funny, but I just don't get the draw with Ryan Gosling. Did I miss a sparkle in his eye? Does he have some kind of crazy 12-pack set of abs that I don't know about? Is that even physiologically possible?

Anyway, moving on. Last week I ran the NYC Runs Central Park half marathon.  Originally I signed up for this race thinking I would run it as a marathon tempo. Then weather forecasted rain, snow and 25mph winds on an already very hilly course through Central Park. Seeing as I still have a bit of PTSD (read, I'm a massive wimp) from Vegas, AND I didn't want to have trashed legs for a week, I decided to run it as an easy long run.

The weeks runs, thus, went per normal: (Feb 17-23, 2013)
Sunday: 10 miles easy
Monday: rest
Tuesday: 8 miles easy
Wednesday: 8 miles, with 8x600s at 6:22 pace (9.4mph) with 400m jog recoveries
Thursday: rest
Friday: tempo: 2 miles easy, 2miles @ 7:19, 2 miles @ 7:13, 1 mile @ 7:08, 1 mile easy.
Saturday: 9 miles easy
Total: 42 miles

Well, low and behold, the weather (as I should have known, if I paid any attention to Murphy) was perfect running weather. Overcast, cool in the 40s, barely any wind! Ah well, it was really nice doing a race with zero expectations other than to have fun running with a speedy friend of mine.  Overall a  1:44-ish for a average pace of 7:53 min/mile (with a bathroom break - first time in a race ever!) All miles felt pleasantly aerobic with a bit of effort going up those Harlem hills.

Twinsies in Lulu blue! Unplanned matchy awesomeness.

The course takes you on one big loop of the park (with Harlem hills), then a second loop, crossing at the 102nd st traverse, then a third loop of the lower end of the park. Marathoners did FIVE laps of the second loop. Holy monotony!

The hubs made a surprise visit down to see us finish the race. Dragged along the camera and took pics without me even asking. True love!

NYC Runs did a great job on the race, with the only exception of packet-pick up. You could pick up the packet at a running shop on the East side, which had a really long line on the Friday night and they went so. slow. handing. crap. out. However, they did apologize for this at the race, and the good news is that all was forgiven when this arrived in the mail from the Hot Chocolate 10K I ran in December:

Bad news is that I cant center a damn photo.