Preppy Runner – Theodora Blanchfield

You guys, that whole turning 30 thing? J/K.

I turned 18 today on the 18th. Or…I ran my 18th half-marathon. I’ll spare you and just link to my recaps page rather than each recap.

I actually signed up for Brooklyn when I was in Puerto Rico, sitting with a cocktail in hand with a little Twitter FOMO as I saw everyone else I know registering. I’d heard before that people loved this race, and I didn’t want to miss out this year.

Since the race was in Brooklyn, so was the packet pickup, at the Old Tobacco Warehouse.

NYRR is awful for making us have to see all these terrible views to get our bibs.

They had a little “pre-race party” going on, but I was flying solo and had dinner plans to get back for, so I took a few pics and headed back for said dinner.

They had this alert system sign up. I saw this at the Chicago Marathon, but have never seen it in NYC before, but it makes sense, given the events in Boston last month. Thankfully, the few times I saw the alerts on the course, they were at green.

HERE’S WHERE THINGS STARTED GOING WRONG. I grabbed pizza with Ashley and Bo. My stomach issues have been so much better lately, and I’ve been able to eat a bit more dairy, so I didn’t think much about ordering pizza instead of my regular pasta, even though I don’t usually have pizza or dairy before a race.

It was delicious, but it was filling. After the pizza and a few glasses of wine, I was in bed by 10 for my early wake-up call.

Not all of us wanted to wake up early.

Good morning, Brooklyn.

I was in the first wave (yes, this race was so large – 30,000 runners – that it had waves). The corrals allegedly closed at 6:30 and I figured the subway schedule that early might be messed up, so I took a cab and got near the start around 6:25. I ran into Beth and a few other runners who were in the second wave and thought I might start with them. I was standing there until Steph said hi. We don’t see nearly enough of each other, and we run around the same pace, so I decided to jump into the corrals with her and start off with her.

She’s running Vermont next weekend, so she wanted to go relatively conservatively. I didn’t really train for this race, so I wanted to do the same. We started out at a 9:10 pace, and held anywhere between an 8:40 pace to a 9:20 pace…until mile 8. I’d felt kinda gassy the entire time and had that feeling of a bubble in my stomach, and I’d taken a few short walking breaks in hope of the feeling passing.

Until mile 8, I was loosely targeting a sub-2 race. Considering how hard I worked to originally break sub-2, it’s crazy to me that this is now something that is basically in reach so long as I’m having an okay day.

But I was not having an okay day. I stopped at a bathroom at mile 8.2. I looked at my watch then, and I was around 1:15. If I kept around the 9:00 pace I’d been keeping, I could still do sub-2. But with that stop and walking, that mile ended up being a smooth 13:24. The next two miles were back on track at 8:59 and 9:10, but another bathroom stop at mile 12 and an 11:39 and 11:47 last two miles as I ran/walked my upset stomach in got me across the finish line in 2:09.

As for the course, I wasn’t crazy about it. The first few miles on the streets of Brooklyn were kind of cool, but then we went into Prospect Park and its hills. The stretch from the park to Coney Island seemed interminable, although that probably had to do with my upset stomach, but reaching Coney Island was an awesome end to the race.

As I saw the ocean to my left at the finish, I considered moving to Florida or California or somewhere where every race could end at the ocean.

Shaya and I look super-hot, no?

I love this picture.

Afterwards, I met some friends at Okeanos for brunch. We’d decided to head away from Coney Island for brunch to avoid the crowds a bit, and given my still-somewhat upset stomach, I’m glad we did. I got this French toast, and it was delish.

What have you learned from not-so-good races? Today, I learned to accept that I was still happy to have finished this race, despite my stomach issues. I did start beating myself up that I’d stopped for the bathroom and run a slower-than-usual race, but I’m going to choose to move forward and just accept that although Pizza Envy is a very real thing, I just need to avoid it if I want a decent run. Also, what’s your fave pre-race dinner?