Jersey City Half Marathon

September 27, 2009

The Newport Liberty Half Marathon has a beautiful course, which will sound surprising to many given that the race takes place in Jersey City. What makes it so special is that about seven miles of the race traverse paths through Liberty State Park, with views of the Manhattan skyline, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.

Unfortunately, the 16th running of the race took place in a drenching rain that created massive puddles and mud, while gloomy skies obscured what should have been awe-inspiring views.

No matter, it was a wonderful way to spend a rainy Sunday morning.

My friend Gregg had lured me to this race. He'd run the Fox Cities Marathon in my hometown of Appleton, Wisconsin a year earlier. So it was only fair that I run a race in his adopted hometown.

I was eager to run the race. It was a great opportunity to spend some time with Gregg. It also seemed like a good training run for the Hartford Marathon on Oct 10.

I met Gregg at his spacious apartment in Jersey City about an hour before the start of the race. We planned to jog about a mile to the start line along with a friend of his who was also running the race. The friend arrived about half an hour later than expected, so we drove part of the way and jogged the rest. Gregg and I made it to the start line a few minutes before the start.

The upshot of all this was that I didn't have time to go to the bathroom and I hadn't had enough to drink before the race. In the end, that didn't seem to affect my performance, but it did make me a bit anxious at the start.

The race started at 8:30, near the Newport Pavonia rail stop near the Hudson River. The temperature was around 55 degree and there was a light rain falling. The forecast had called for a 100% chance of rain, so it seemed likely that we would be running in the rain throughout the race.

The first mile was slow because of the large number of runners. It didn't bother me too much because I wasn't planning on going all-out on this run. I wanted to keep my pace at around 7:30 per mile. I finished the first mile in a little over 8:00 minutes, so I figured I could get back on pace slowly over the next several miles.

The first few miles are run through the streets of Jersey City, an area that I knew reasonably well since I worked for several years at Harborside near the Exchange Place train PATH stop. I felt strong at the start, and the rain wasn't really much of an issue as we ran through the city.

The weather conditions started to play more of a role when we entered Liberty State Park about three miles into the race. We encountered large puddles, which most people attempted to avoid in this early part of the race. The problem was that sometimes going off the path was worse since the grass was muddy. Another factor in the park was the wind, since there were no buildings to block the gusts. As we wound our way through the park - with the rain and wind picking up at times - there was much less incentive to sidestep the puddles since we were already soaked.

At the half-way point of the marathon I was exactly on my 7:30/mile pace. I wasn't sure I would be able to sustain that speed, but I also knew that I wouldn't run out of gas. I had been eating gel shots and drinking plenty of water. My feet bothered me a bit as they squished around in my soaked shoes, but overall I was doing well.

I slowed a bit in the second half of the race, taking slightly longer walk breaks through the aid stations, but I didn't have any miles of more than 8:00 minutes. As I entered the final 5K of the race, I wasn't concerned about my time; I just wanted to finish strong.

Around mile 13 I saw Gregg on the sidelines - he had finished ahead of me in 1:32:33 - and he was prodding me to pass the guy in front of me. I managed to do exactly that, and crossed the finish line in 1:39:20, a 7:35/mile pace. It was good for 216th out of 1579 finishers. I was 30th of 135 in my age group. See full results here.

My finishing time ended up being just 25 seconds slower than my half marathon personal record. I had only one half marathon previously - in 2007, I did the half marathon at the Fox Cities races in Appleton. Before the Jersey City race, I hadn't checked to see what my finishing time had been at the previous half marathon. Had I known I was so close to a PR, I might have had enough in me to make up those 25 seconds. But I was still pleased with my performance, especially considering the weather conditions.

After the race, we jogged about a mile back to Gregg's apartment. We enjoyed a breakfast of pancakes, orange juice and coffee along with Gregg's wife and her family. Then I headed back to Cranford to spend the rest of Sunday with Patty and the boys. All-in-all, it was a great day.