Christopher Wise commented on a previous post that I had caught the Murakami bug-writing and running, and he wondered if there was any spillover into photography.
I just discovered what it is: innocence is bliss.
Andrew Hetherington came over recently and we had ‘nutella forum’ meeting which was basically him tearing my portfolio apart and killing all my favourite pictures to help me get a new book together. During the process I dug out some older older stuff which he dismissed also, and that was only the tip of the iceberg, after more than ten years you have stuff in the “archives” that no one has seen, and you remember just how fearless you were in the beginning. You’d bring the polaroid, the 4×5, the Hassy, the Leica, and you’d somehow use them all on a shoot and you’d actually get more. Now if you do that, after all this “experience” you just get confused and feel like you are getting nothing.
So innocence is bliss. What you don’t know about the job encourages you to take risks with it, encourages you to accept whatever happens instead of trying to control it all, and lets you function with some freedom. Ten years later, it is not so easy to do that.
So this was the second half marathon for me officially, a week apart, and it was definitely more of a mental game. Last week, everyone was having a lot of fun or so it seemed, this weekend, for whatever reason, the course, the sun, the lack of foliage, it seemed harder. But then I had a goal also to best my previous time, which officially was 1:55:42 for Grete’s Gallop. I was thinking 1:52-1:54.
One of the reasons I signed up for this was the Staten Island Ferry ride, something you need to do every few years or so to remind yourself of New York in that classic way. And that is how it was as 5000 of us piled onto the ferry for the trip over. Since we were all guaranteed to be on time it was as mellow as you can get considering you have 5000 caffeinated bunnies penned up together waiting to escape. When the ferry was delayed some Bruce Banner type had a ‘roid-rage in the bathroom punching the helpless baby changing table, but other than that we were all excited to be there.
9:40am, 70 degrees, 65% humidity CAVU- Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. Line up, and we are off.
1 8:38
2 8:27
3 8:26
I had recalibrated the nikepod the week before so I was pretty sure it was close, and it was within a tenth of a mile, which was a relief. So what was my strategy? I knew that this course was flatter than the rolling hills of Central Park, so I thought possibly I could just run and hold at the same pace for the entire race. But it was clear that there was going to be a significant uphill in miles ten and eleven as we were now rolling downhill effortlessly. These out and back courses do play a little game with your mind, you are enjoying the pace now but know you will pay later.
4 8:34
5 8:44
6 8:32
The night before the race lying awake I did the math equation, or tried to at least, if a train leaves chicago etc, in this case, at what point would we start to see the lead runners double back on us, if they were running 5-somethings and I was running 8-somethings. Well, I’d go into detail about how that scrambled my brain for a while but my prediction was between 4 and 5 miles, and I was pretty close, I’d forgotten the offset at the beginning which was about three and half minutes, or nearly a half mile and there they were at mile 5.5, eating it up hill, looking dare I say, average? But they were still way ahead of us…
I should mention that we had some fan support out there on the course, the trip wound through a few neighbourhoods and there was a smattering of S-I’ers cheering us on. But there was also a long portion along the water by the navel station, a flat derelict area which I would have enjoyed photographing but not running.
I also posted my fastest 10km time of 52:28… according to the nikepod which is variable, so who knows?
7 8:52
8 9:00
9 8:39
The double back came between 6 and 7, and very long straight stretch where you got to see all the fastest runners heading back. Eventually, I would be one of those, looking back at the slower runners coming up behind me. There is a profound lesson there that I cannot elucidate! I think the times reflect a few too many miles this week on tired legs, and also a sense that there was a lot to go and I needed to conserve. This is the part about ignorance. When you don’t know so well how you will feel at mile 10 it is easier. But this just seemed like it was getting drawn out. I think the long straightaways do that. It just goes on and on and you are getting nowhere. The best part about this was that we did a divert into some national park which had trees and shade. The sun was giving me a headache.
At mile 8 you go under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge sort of, and looking up, way up, you realize that that is the bridge the NYC marathon begins on, and it really is kind of freaky, it is so high and so long, 2 miles, I think it must preclude anyone with a fear of heights. Serious business.
10 8:25
11 8:51
12 8:46
Back along the waterfront and I am doing the calculation overall. At mile ten the readout was saying something like 1:30:00 less the offset of three and half minutes for the start meant I was on track for between 1:50-1:54, a lot faster than last week. So I tried to kick a little along the flatlands of the industrial area, but that didn’t last long. Payback time for those early downhills came at 11 and 12, where we had one steep uphill and then a lot of rolling uphill along Richmond Terrace. But there were people out cheering us along, also clearly some early finishers getting in their additional miles I assume in marathon prep, hard to think about that at this point…
mile 13 8:22
Some numbskull always says, “its all downhill from here!” Which may have been true at that point between 12 and 13, however, you still have 1.1miles to go! So I am wheeling downhill and the 13 marker is at this curve, you get around the curve, and the finish looks a long way away! But it’s only .1, and I am doing the calculation, do I want this to be a personal best by a lot or a little? And you are trying to hold or race other runners just to keep yourself moving.
At the end I forgot to shut off the nikepod exactly, so I really didn’t know what the time was, it was saying 1:54:51, which I thought, I might have broken 1:54? I was just glad to be done.
It wasn’t until I got home and checked the race results that I saw 1:54:59-oh that precious second, it was still 1:54 in my mind! (we can have our fantasies can’t we?) And better than last week by :41. But lets call it a minute saved…so I was slower last week but felt faster, faster this week but felt slower. The difference was last week I went out a lot slower and saved more for the end, this week I just wanted to see if I could hold the line. More or less I did, pace was 8:46 avg.
Big lessons are don’t run the previous night for 5 miles, wear sunglasses, and pray for an interesting course. This may be the last official race report for a while, there is nothing on the calendar in the immediate future. I will just be out there Nov. 2 watching everyone go by on 4th ave, very conflicted, knowing I would be there if I could but got into this a little too late in the year, never mind that fact that getting in is difficult in itself. And knowing that 26.2 is a very very long way.
I enjoyed your recap of the race. I was there too and had a similar experience. Thanks for sharing.