healthy laps

Yesterday was a gorgeous day for a run through New York City! The race started promptly at 7:35am, so I set my alarm for 4:45am to have time to wake up, eat, digest, get dressed and make my way up to Central Park for the NYC Half Marathon (you can see my training here!).

Once I finally got out of bed, I made myself a cup of tea and an Ezekial english muffin with a small spread peanut butter and 1/2 sliced banana.

This pre-race breakfast has been my perfect fuel for every one of my half marathons and marathons!  It has the perfect amount of carbs, proteins and just a little bit of healthy fats from the PB.  Normally, I would drizzle a bit of honey on top for some sugar, but I forgot to bring it!

Check out how dark it is out at 5am.  (I took this picture on my brother’s kitchen window sill.)

After some eating and relaxing time, I was all ready to head out. (note to my photographer: photos from this angle are not good!)

When we got to Central Park, it was unbelievable how many people were there!  Apparently, there were about 12,000 runnners.

We met Sarah, and headed over to the corals to line up.

I lined up in the 4th coral, but there were bib numbers up to 14,000!  So many people.

After about 10 minutes of waiting around, the runners were finally off!  But, I didn’t cross the start for 4 minutes.

The first few miles were tough because of the amount of people, but after that I got into a groove.  It was gorgeous running through Central Park on such a nice day.  Although, that park is hilly!  I saw Brant at Mile 4.

After running up and down hills throughout the Park, my brother met me at mile 5.5 to keep me on pace for the remainder of the race – what an awesome brother!

We ran through the park for a few more miles, and exited onto 7th Ave at Mile 8, then ran down 7th through Times Square – it was amazing to run through Times Square!!  I wish I had my camera with me for you to see the views.  At least my spectators got some shots of us running through.

That’s my brother next to me, keeping me going strong!

After we got through Times Square and onto the West Side Highway around Mile 10, my legs wanted to slow down so badly, but he kept pushing me!  He stayed a few steps ahead of me and made sure I wasn’t getting too far behind.  I tried so hard to push myself and keep up for those last 3.1 miles.  They were definitely the hardest 3 miles I have ever run!  Once I hit Mile 12, I really pushed to the finish, which my last mile being a 7:50 pace!

I crossed the finish line in 1:50:35!!!  My fastest half marathon time yet!  I set a personal best for the day, and pushed myself harder than I ever thought I could.  I was all smiles when I finished.

But, exhausted as well. 

I immediately went back to shower so that I could eat this amazing breakfast (very unhealthy for healthylaps!  but, a delicious post race meal – I deserved it, right?!).

Buttermilk Pancakes with Caramelized Bananas

It was an awesome day, running through such am amazing city!  I would do this race again in a second.

Filed under: Running Laps | Tagged: NYC half marathon, Running Laps |