Soleful Saturday-Rock N Roll Inaugural Brooklyn Half 2015 Race Re-Cap

To say I was overly excited about the Rock and roll Brooklyn Half would be an understatement!!!

When the buzz started, I was stalking RnR like crazy. They were suppose to make the date announcement last October and then it was pushed back to January and then even later.  The amount of tweet and FB post from me to Rock N Roll may have bordered on stalking…like for real it was bad!!!

When the email finally came out with the date October 10,2015, I was on it like white on rice.  As usual, they had an introductory price but to tell you the truth, I would have paid any $ to run in Brooklyn!

You see, I grew up in Brooklyn.

This was my ‘hood and when the initial course was set to run through my old ‘hood, I knew I had to be there!

The final course was not exactly in the ‘hood but it was close enough!

Tuesday/Wednesday:

This was the day that I started to panic. After all of my planning and excitment with the race, I didn’t read the fine print that said……NO ONE CAN PICK UP YOUR BIB…..Wait! What!!?? Who does that and only provides weekday pick up options!? Not only that…the fine print and only on the RnR Brooklyn website that they were offering race day pick up to the 1st 1000 participants who registers for it.  Wait! What? When was this notice sent out….RnR, you send me an email every freaking day about some -ish but you didn’t think it was necessary to send me an email letting me know additional pick up options.  Oh and on top of that, I had missed the registration day by 2 days….FU@#@!

Ok, so I start panicking.  I FB messaged Cynthia to see if maybe as a Rock N Blogger, she could pull some strings and at the same time, emailed RnR to see what options may be available.  To say my Wednesday was stressful would be an understatement.

Thankfully by that night, both Cynthia and I had gotten confirmation, that she would be able to pick up my bib as long as she had a copy of my ID and confirmation page.  Crisis avoided!!

THANK YOU CYNTHIA!!!! LIFE SAVER!!!

Let me tell you though..my mom was ready to be my road dawg on Thursday to drive up to Brooklyn on Thursday, if I needed her! #loveher

Friday:

The drive to Brooklyn was about 3.5 hours…..should be about 4 but I do have a heavy foot-lol!  After a long day at work, my son’s soccer practice (which was cut short due to rain) and back home for final packing,  my favorite road dogs and I were on the roam were off  and on the road by 8pm.

They actually lasted for most of the trip and only fell asleep in the last 45 minutes of the ride. They were great company for sure!

We got to Brooklyn by 1am and I was so glad to be back home.  My dad has totally renovated our childhood home and it now look like the cutest B&B right in the middle of the city! I love it!  He has even redone the upstairs, so that the top floor is its own efficiency.  It is perfect for a weekend visit!

After getting the kids tucked and getting my gear ready, it was time for bed to get a few hours of sleep.

The start of the race was 3 miles form my dad’s house. I considered running but then thought better. Thankfully, my dad had left me a taxi # to call. I had considered Uber but being in NYC, I thought about being kidnapped so Taxi it was.

My taxi driver was CRAZY…he was cursing out every driver on the road…I mean F- and MF-bombs all the way there. He even almost cursed out a cop when he realized he couldn’t take me exactly where I needed to be.  I was too happy to get out of that cab!

Cynthia, myself and another mother runner were set to meet up before the race for pictures and good luck wishes. This ended up being a bit harder than we knew because where we thought we would meet ended up being not so easy.

Cynthia and I were able to meet-thankfully since she had my bib.  We grabbed a quick pic once we met up for the bib hand-off.

We parted ways as she ran to find a bathroom.  By this time, we were getting closer and closer to the scheduled race time so we were both in a hurry.  I hustled back to the security line (yes security line-like at the airports!) so that I could get to my corral.

Oh in the security line, the NYPD tried to tell me that I couldn’t wear my water pack…SAY WHAT!!!  You expect me to run 13.1 miles with no water…nope not gonna happen!! Needless to say, I talked to a few of NYPD blues finest, batted my eyelashes (don’t hate!) and got cleared to go through water pack and all.

Ok now it was 6:55am and the race was scheduled to begin at 7! I was hustling to get to my Corral.

Found it!!!

ooooh-and I found the pacer I wanted!

Ok well it is 7am and the race hasn’t started….ok well perfect time for a few selfies 🙂

and crowd pics

Ok….time is ticking…..a few announcements about safety checks and waiting for NYPD to give the all clear.  Oh please take your time….SAFETY FIRST ALL DAY!!!

After a few more announcements, the race got going about 7:30am.  Many folks around me were bitching and moaning about this but for me safety is more important and it was only a 30 minute delay.  Outside of it being a little chilly, it was all good.

YES I AM!!!! LET’S GO!!!

A few shots before the start…..

As we waited for each Corral to start, there was a pretty hype DJ and VeeJay getting crowd pumped and counting down the start for each Corral.  Some folks thought it was corny but I thought it was kind of cool.

I am not actually sure what time Corral 13 got started…it was probably about 7:50 or so.

I was a little behind the 2:15 pacer but i could see the sign so I knew where she was and I kept her in my sights the entire race.

The race was really crowded….I don’t think it really cleared up until almost mile 8.  As the course had a few turn around points, it never felt like the race cleared up and I wasn’t surrounded by 20.000 people.

As I found a good space on the outside of the crowd, I felt pretty good. My pace was tight on target and my stride good.  I tend to stay on the outside while running in crowds. I am claustrophobic in some way in crowds. I need to be able to get away easily id -ish goes down!  The outsides of the pack tend to be a good place for me.

Annoying was that some walkers and those who stopped suddenly kept coming to my outside. I had about 5 almost collisions that would have been quite ugly and caused some injury to one of us.

Anyhoo-about mile 3, i heard someone call my name, i turned to see one of my DC Luna Chix-Stephanie. What a pleasant surprise that was.  I ran a bit with her and her boyfriend but quickly realized that they were at a much faster pace than me, so we said our good byes and went on our way sending good race wishes to each other.

Since the DJ was so pumping at the beginning of the race and somehow my battery on my ohone was already at 58%, I decided to start my run without music.  I was hoping for some music along the route to keep us moving and grooving.  Yeah…..that DID NOT HAPPEN, for a Rock N Roll Race and for a race held in NYC, I was very disappointed with the limited and lack luster bands that they had on the course.  The worst was an Acapella band with no microphone…..what are you singing…I can’t hear you!!!

Thankfully, I was able to tune into many conversations around me that actually kept me quite entertained…..more than I can say about the bands! Can you believe that I ended up running the entire race with NO MUSIC!!!! That is a first for me!

As I mentioned before there were a few turn arounds on the course with a few inclines (I wont call them hills…not after those real hills in Ragnar DC!!). The course was pretty well laid out with mile to mile markers. With most of the mile in the streets of Brooklyn (Eastern Parkway, Flatbush and Ocean Parkway), I have to say, the miles just ‘ran’ by. Before long, I was at mile 10 and heading into Prospect Park for the final 3 miles and finish.

Finally here is where the bands got hopping and hype….about damn time!!! I guess the last 3 miles with good bands was a nice way to finish!

Throughout the race I had a good rhythm and my pace stated pretty consistent:

Mile 1: 10:14

Mile 2: 10:18

Mile 3: 10:17

Mile 4: 10:10

Mile 5:  10:19

Mile 6: 10:23

Mile 7: 10:16

Mile 8:  10:21

Mile 9:  10:16

Mile 10: 10:20

Mile 11: 10:02

Mile 12: 10:45 (it got crowded again and I was dodging runners and spectators)

Mile 13: 9:42

.2:  1:34

Remember the 2:15 pacer, i was running with….well she did a pretty well ( I even complimented her at one point at how well she was doing-at the time, we were perfectly at a 10:18 pace) until about mile 6, her pace picked up significantly.  I had learned my lesson from Zooma Annapolis to trust my pace and recognize when the pacer was not meeting my needs.  I fell back but kept the pacer in my sights.

Last mile photo (new tradition from Ragnar)-I sent to my Ragnar Van #1 ladies 🙂

I am glad, I listened to myself, I fell back but kept a steady pace and guess what ya’ll……I finished at 2:15:06 (A PR for me!!!)…..and I was behind the pacer…..I wonder what her finish time was?!!?!  Well my watch said 2:15:06 for 13.2, so i guess my actual time was just under 2:15….oh yeah baby!!!

Funny story, remember when I talked about how i was rushing at the beginning of the race well in my rushing and my haste, I put the wrong tag on my shoe

Yeah this is not going to register my time…..lol!

Well hello there tracker….I probably should have put you on my shoe!

So I have no official time for my race…bummer but I did submit my time to RnR. I dont know if they will take it or not but at least I have it on my watch.

Either way….I PRd in Brooklyn and I couldn’t be happier!

My 2015 racing goal was to run a half in 2:15….mission accomplished!

The cell phone reception in Prospect Park was AWFUL!!! so I couldn’t reach Cynthia. Somehow, we ended up literally bumping into each other just at the time I was giving up.

Overall, I really enjoyed the race. Could there have been a few things that would have been different…sure (more bands please and thank you!) but for an inaugural race, I thought it was pretty good.

I missed the pre-sale for 2016 but I just might return next year:)

A cool feature, that RnR had was the ability to get your name on a record…totally cool!

The after party was nice with a good band and lots of space to spread out and relax.  If it wasn’t so chilly, I totally would have laid out but it was a bit too chilly for me so I took a few more pics and Cynthia and I went out separate ways.

The exit out of Prospect Park was about a 3 mile walk (at least it felt like that!). I found a cab driver who asked me how to get to where I needed to go. Wait! What?? Dude put the address in your damn phone and get me home!!!

Thankfully, I got home safely…..crazy NYC cabs!!

The kids were so happy to see me and asked me if I had won (because I had a medal)….so sweet! No babies I didn’t win but I tried my best and ran my best race.

The gave me hugs and kisses and told me how proud they were of me. Totally made me day!!!

Well there you have it…my Inaugural RnR Brooklyn Half Re-Cap.

Did you run RnR Brooklyn? Have you ever run an inaugural race?

Have a Fit-Tastic Day!!

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