1:59 GGG half marathon...

I ran one of my favorite half marathons.. GGG half in central park. The weather was near perfect. I woke up early, quickly checked the race details saying that it starts at 7:30. Soon I headed to the park with a slow run at around 7:15am. Everything was going according to plan till I realized that I forgot the racing chip home and had to run back home and get back to the park. Since I was getting late, I was running fast and reached the startline 15min late. The whole area was deserted. But I crossed the starting chipmats and started racing hoping to capture tailend of runners within mile or two. I figured with chip timing, no real damage done.

I never caught up with any tailend runners but did bump into a lot of runners with bibs on running in opposite direction. It took me a while to realize that the race hasn't started yet and 7:30 was time to start picking up bibs and not start of the race. Race was to start at 9am. I had little choice but to finish the central park loop adding total 8mi to half marathon distance (including run from home to park).

I did finish the half marathon. So today was another 20miler! The "warm up" 8mi was at 11mpm. I managed to run the half barely faster than 2hrs so about 9mpm. It felt good to finish the race with last 2miles at close to 8mpm. It was certainly good boost to confidence since I will most likely run the NYC marathon with negative split.

On barefoot front, 4 20milers in three weekends are probably not very smart and the feet are more sore than last few runs. But it is also possible than my feet are not adapted to colder weather. 45degrees is not really freezing but feet took some time to warmup and hurt during first half an hour. Somehow the abrasion seems more damaging in colder weather. Also I managed to get a real splinter just half a mile from finishline. Since I really wanted to break 2hrs, I didn't really stop for long except for a quick inspection. The splinter didn't really bother me but when I got home, I took it out and it hurt a bit. I will just take it easy tomorrow and perhaps skip running altogether just to be safe. I already have 41mi done this week so I am on schedule even if I don't run tomorrow.

While on topic, it's interesting that I got two splinters in 4long runs and both came into 20th milei. Something to think about as only one more 20miler left before tapering.

BF in NY for 665mi.