What a whirlwind couple of days it’s been.
Yesterday was amazing. I got to announce to the world that I am a finalist in the Run For The Rabbit competition!
The press conference was a blast and I already love Coach Cane and the other five finalists.
I’ll be writing about my Hamptons Marathon training on the blog here, of course, as well as on the Run For The Rabbit blog. Ready for social media overload? Here’s all the good stuff that’s online promoting the campaign:
- My announcement!
- The RFTR home page.
- My page, where you can read all about my running history and my decision to raise money for the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation.
- Lots o’ videos. Check out the intro video that describes the campaign, plus my personal video. I was really sick when we were filming so my voice is a bit…manly?
- My Facebook fan page. Like it. Love it. I’d be honored.
OK, I promised this post would include a recap of this morning’s race in Central Park.
Let me preface this recap by saying that yesterday was a beautiful New York City day. It wasn’t warm, but there was some sunshine and some flowers.
Today, however… Not so nice!
I woke up and it was pouring rain. I never questioned not running the race. I signed up, I paid the fee and I picked up the T-shirt.
If you want to wear the T-shirt, you have to run the race!
I did my ab workout, ate my granola bar and thought about Coach Cane’s race advice as I got ready to run.
I told him yesterday that I tend to go out fast at races and burn out by the end. I rarely make a strong “final push” because I’m so beat by the time the Finish Line is in sight.
His advice for today’s race was to start slow then attempt to get negative splits for the duration of the race.
Confession: Until about a month ago I had no idea what a negative split was. So if you don’t either, you’re not stupid. You just haven’t been told. From what I’ve gathered, a negative split is when you run one mile faster than the mile before.
I also think that wearing leg warmers also warrants a better performance, so I did that today, too.
The race started on the east side of Central Park, which meant the easiest way for me to get there was to simply run there. I ran 1.8 miles and although I was soaked by the time I reached the start, I was also sufficiently warmed up. My body felt good.
I’m not sure what my exact mile splits were, but I am pretty sure my last mile was the fastest, which means I got at least one negative split! Unless I’m misunderstanding the term, which is entirely possible…
Mile three is always the toughest for me during 4-mile races in Central Park. The rolling hills on the west side are usually pretty killer on my quads. I tried to maintain my pace on them today but definitely felt myself fall back a bit, though I attempted to pick it back up as the finish grew closer.
I wasn’t planning to PR today, but I’m happy to report that I did! I beat my Gridiron Classic time by four seconds!
A 7:47 pace in the pouring rain? Uh, yeah, I’ll definitely take it.
There’s not much to be said about this race except that it was a wet one. I was paranoid the entire time because I brought my iPhone and was terrified it was going to get wet. I carried it in a Ziplock bag and never took it out during the race.
That also meant I set the iPod to Shuffle mode. So naturally the random playlist went from Rihanna’s “S&M” into the “Glee” cast’s version of “Oh Holy Night.” That really got me pumped…
I’m glad I kept my spirits up today. A lot of people weren’t happy about the rain, but I figured I may as well embrace it and be glad the run was only a 4-miler, not a half marathon! Yeah, it was cold. Yeah, my feet were soaked. Yeah, the puddles were ankle deep.
But it was fun! And the rain made me want to run faster to get the race over with.
After the run, I managed to run into Ashley and Theodora, and the three of us headed to the JackRabbit Running Show.
She needs to work on her jazz hands.
We were definitely “those girls” walking around the show soaking wet. I liked wandering around and checking out the exhibitors, but eventually I was shaking because I was so cold and hopped in a cab to get home and into a hot shower.
The shower was amazing.
The post-shower delivery was pretty great, too.
Thanks, Mom and Dad!
Included in the Easter Basket/shoe box: a light strip to hang next to my bed (so I can read at night — and I already installed it myself!), some Starburst, a peanut butter egg and a $50 spa gift certificate. Massage? Heck yes.
Also, more flowers to add to my collection!
Congratulations to all the other runners today, at the NYRR race and all over. (Hopefully if you ran somewhere else you had better weather!)
Happy weekend!
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Thanks a lot for making the effort to describe the terminlogy to the beginners!
Congrats on the great race! Especially in the rain.
Congrats on a hardcore race in the rain and a new PR! The rain makes you move! I am really excited to hear what Coach Cane has to say during your marathon training. It’s so exciting!
ALI!!
First of all, congratulations on being selected for JackRabbit! I’m so excited for you, and thought that I’d watch the video of the six runners. Imagine my shock and subsequent insanely happy reaction to see that one of the other six runners, Margaret, is an old friend from Teach For America! She and I were both in the 2007 corps in NYC, and I don’t know how much you’ll get to see the other five runners, but she’s fantastic and great!
Anyway, I was super excited (and embarrassingly teary after watching the video — seriously, I’m still sniffling) to see that. Hope you’ve had a great weekend!!
Awesome job Ali!!! Negative splits is definitely getting faster each mile OR if you negative spilt a marathon it means you ran faster in your second half then you did in your first. I don’t understand how people do that! I negative spilt the National half but I’ve never had luck negative splitting a marathon!!! Wish I did!
You are so speedy!!!! Congrats on such a great race. I would never have gone in this weather. And if I did, I would have headed right home after. You are so awesome!
Congrats! Amazing that you kept such a positive attitude and rocked out despite the rain. I would have cried. I have been meaning to thank you for introducing me to ericasara designs when you bought your earrings at her trunk show and linked her site up to yours. I am obsessed with her site and am in the process of deciding which necklace to get as my graduation present/yay I am 90 weeks into my experimental chemo infusions for my CD! LOVE.HER.STUFF. Thanks!!
Congrats! Loved your tweets prior to the race — they definitely motivated me to look at the rain with a positive attitude as well. 🙂
All the flowers you photographed have such pretty colors!
Awesome that you got up and ran in this cold, dreary, raw weather! I would take that time too in the pouring ran! It looks like your training/total experience with Jack Rabbit is going to be blast!
Congratulations on the new PR!! I love that you had a positive attitude despite the rain. If you’re going to be out there, you might as well make the most of it, right?? Sounds like you’ve already quite the weekend!
I watched the video on the Run for the Rabbit website. You should be so proud of yourself. I wish you nothing but the best of luck with your training! 🙂
Congrats on the PR! I PRd today too…despite the conditions! But I can’t say I didn’t have fun in it! A guy running alongside me was actually puddle jumping! (He was a little too excited about the weather!) And CONGRATULATIONS Ms. Jack Rabbit Rockstar! You’re awesome! SO proud of you! Hope we can get together soon one of these days!
Yay! Congratulations on your PR!
Way to go! Great time in the race 🙂 I am vacationing in TX right now so I ran in some 90 degree heat. Woo hoo! Congrats on the Jack Rabbit finalist. That’s soooo amazing!
Awesome job with the race; what a killer pace! (Yay, rhymes) – Also, a late congrats on being chosen as a finalist!
BTW, I got quite a giggle out of trying to imagine running to Oh Holy Night, plus the juxtaposition of S&M and Oh Holy Night is funny on its own. 😉
I am SOO jealous that you ran – I had to go home for Easter and when I signed up for the race 2 months ago I totally didn’t realize that the race was Easter weekend 🙁
One thing that I always get mixed advice on is negative splits. I ran in college for a little bit and also have spent time coaching high schoolers. I was always taught since the time I was in middle school up to the collegiate level that negative splits meant you didn’t give it your all. When you think about it, if you’re running 5 miles and run the first 2.5 slower than the last, then did you have energy to run even faster in the end? This is how my coaches would phrase the idea of negative splits to me; in high school we’d have to run extra laps if we raced negative splits because we clearly had the energy at the end to run faster and post better times. I also had crazy coaches so who knows!!
Long time reader, never a commenter but I thought I’d chime in here.
Some of my running friends and I were talking about this. Negative splits in a shorter race if you are well trained for them (think 5k and below..which still is long for some but distance is all relative once you are talking marathons) might not be the best plan as Christina said as they are short and you are basically going all out the whole time and pacing isn’t as much of a concern. When you are running longer or even learning to run longer going out too fast will most likely cause you to be exhausted and slow down considerably at the end. So starting out slower and ending faster is thought to make you overall go faster. The best practice is to try to run even throughout and negative splits are great to aim for but very difficult to actually achieve. I’ve always thought of negative splits as running the second half faster than the first not just one mile faster than the one before it but really that’s basically the same concept.
Sorry this is so long! Congrats on the pr and the run the rabbit competition. Good luck with everything to come!
So helpful! Thank you both!
Awesome job on the PR!! especially given the weather! (also, when I checked for my results just now, nyrr told me conditions were “light rain”…..ok…..sureeeeee…..) PR, expo trip, and installing a light on a rainy gross day?! ROCKSTAR!!!! (aka – way to be super rainy day productive!)
Congratulations to YOU!
And I noticed the “light rain” thing, too, and laughed. I wonder what NYRR’s definition of “downpour” would be!
Congratulations on setting a new PR! Your time was AMAZING!
Such a sweet Easter present from your parents. It’s always nice to get something like that when you can’t be with family for the holidays 🙂
Everything about Run for The Rabbit sounds awesome – I can’t wait to hear more about it and how your training progresses! Awesome job with the 4 miler this morning, especially in the rain! Go Ali!
congrats on your great race and being chosen as a finalist, that’s wonderful!
I look forward to reading more to hear how the contest goes! 🙂