Lost the Battle but Won the War: Race Report of the Battle of Brooklyn 10 miler

It wasn't me who lost the battle today, but the Americans in August of 1776. Today, I commemorated the brave soldiers of the Battle of Brooklyn, also known as the Battle of Long Island or even more interestingly to me, the Battle of Brooklyn Heights. Brooklyn Heights? Hold up...the same place where wealthy people take their doggies to eco-friendly day spas? Yup! Before the Revolutionary War Brooklyn Heights was elevated farmland and orchards, settled by the Dutch (Breukelen is a town in the Netherlands) who recognized its upmarket real estate potential even then.

All of this history is fairly interesting to me. I live in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, named after General Nathaneal Greene (that's how it's spelled) who was put in control, by Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces George Washington, of the Long Island armed forces. But he got sick before the British attacked Long Island and was unable to take part in the battle. The site of Fort Greene Park, the place where I take my dog to off-leash hours in the morning, was once a entrenchment that General Greene oversaw the construction of, presumably before he got ill.

When the British fleets landed on Staten Island in June 1776 George Washington did not know if they planned to attack Manhattan or Brooklyn, so he divided the army in half and placed them in both cities (Brooklyn was its own city until 1898). In August, 15,000 British troops arrived in Brooklyn in the hopes of finding the best artisanal mayo. Kidding! They did, however, find taverns. They also outnumbered the American troops and, in a maneuver that is too complicated to go into here (full disclosure, I don't know what happened), essentially attacked the Americans from behind. The Americans retreated to Brooklyn Heights where it was decided they would escape and head back to Manhattan to unify the forces. Fog had descended on the East River after several days of rain, and they were able to escape safely overnight undetected by the British Army.

Fittingly, it rained today! I got up at 6 a.m. to get ready for the race which started at 8:00. On my way to the park I met a nice guy who came from Manhattan to run in the race and wasn't sure where the starting area was. As we walked we talked about running and training for races. Small talk for runners.

You don't see these flags very often, and at first I thought to myself, why are they displaying old British flags at this thing?...USA!...USA! I actually had to look it up to see what it is. And much to my relief it's a rare American flag called The Grand Union Flag or The Continental Colors Flag. It was in use from 1775 to 1777, at which time the U.K. Union Flag you see on it was replaced with the stars. Yeehaw!

 Some people donned fancy, gold-trimmed cocked hats.

A small group of runners (under 600 people ran today) gathered at the start and after a short speech and a really nice Star Spangled Banner the horn went off.

The race started on a downhill on the west side of the park, so I took off pretty fast knowing that I could coast a bit. On the other side of the park we hit zoo hill no less than three times (the race was three loops around the park) where some jokers posing as British soldiers were stationed with giant water guns! It was one of the best things I've seen in a race, and it almost made the hill totally worth it.

The first loop went by really fast as I knew it would. The second loop was the most challenging for me. The third loop (and the third time running on zoo hill) was really hard. But I was able to kick it up a notch at the end and finish strong.

My Runkeeper app said that I ran 10.4 miles. I spoke with a woman after the race who said her gps also said she ran 10.4 miles. Accordingly, I ran an average 8:33 pace, but my official results were different.

Official results:

Your time of 1:28:53 gave you a 8:53 pace per mile. There were 115 finishers in the Female 30 to 39 age group and 535 finishers in the race. Your overall finish place was 262 and your age group finish place was 30.

One hundred and fifteen out of 535 runners were in my age group! Women in their 30s dominated this race!

I just read this out loud to see if my history lesson made sense (it's put together piece meal from a bunch of different sites- I'm obsessed with fact-checking), and as I was reading Oscar raised his head and let out a very deep sigh. I hope it was more interesting for you than it was for him.

USA! USA!

Race Report: Grete's Great Gallop (Half Marathon)

Hold on Meb Keflezighi, I'm gonna let you finnish, but Grete Waitz is the best NYC marathon runner of all time. 

Today I ran in Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon named after the greatest NYC marathon runner of all time, Grete Waitz. She was a Norwegian long distance runner who won the NYC marathon nine times. And by all accounts she was an amazing human being with incredible sportsmanship and an advocate for women and sports. She was a very close friend of Fred Lebow (the founder of the NYC marathon) and can be seen in the documentary Run For Your Life, running her final NYC marathon in 1992 with him after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. It took them over 5 hours. In 2011 she lost her own battle with cancer. I know several people who have been touched by her legacy.

I wasn't sure how today would go. I knew I was going to finish the race, but I didn't know how I was going to feel. It was the longest distance I've run since finishing the race in Cape Town in April.

Waitz's husband and long-time partner opened up the ceremonies, someone sang the national anthem and we were off! I made myself hold back a bit during the first few miles, which I think was the right thing to do. What kinds of things do I think about during a long race? Holding back for one thing. Today I thought about how four years ago (November will be four years since I ran my first marathon, NYC 2008) I thought of myself as a solid ten-minute miler. The NYC marathon was not only my first marathon but it was also my first race ever. Even though I've been a runner since my middle school years I never hung out with serious runners before and I didn't have a real frame of reference for what ten-minute miles means. I thought that was pretty good, I guess. I still do! I guess I just hadn't experienced what it was like to feel competitive, both competitive with others and with oneself. Today I thought about this, and I thought about how it is somehow miraculous that now it's hard to run as slow as a ten minute mile. I looked down at my watch: 8:30s on the uphills and 8:00s on the downhills. I'm in better shape than I was in my 20s.

At some point my shoe became untied and I had to stop and tie it. It happened again. This time I double knotted it but it was too tight. I had to stop and retie it a third time. I don't know how much time I lost. After stopping for the third time, I looked down at my watch and saw a 12-something minute mile and cursed outloud. I looked up and saw one of my coworkers in the crowd. Oh shit, I thought. I hope he didn't see me say "Goddamnit. Fuck."

By mile 8 I had slowed down to about 9 minute miles, give or take. At mile 10 I hit a wall. I don't remember ever hitting a wall in a half before but my legs felt really heavy and I felt like I was running against air made of oatmeal. At this point, on an uphill (is Central Park made completely of hills?) when I was really feeling defeated, a cool breeze seemed to come out of nowhere and I swear I felt like it was Grete's spirit uplifting me, encouraging us all to keep going. These are the things I think about when I'm running a long distance, to keep me going. Thank you, Grete.

Earlier, around mile 8 I think, I ended up near a woman who was making really loud and dramatic sex noises on an uphill. I mean she was one "oh god" away from being Sally in the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally. I kind of laughed a little because I'm juvenile (between blowing snot rockets: I'm not saying I'm not responsible for doing weird things when I run). I bring this up because I could not get away from this woman. For the rest of the race, every time I thought that I'd lost her, there she was, still making Sally sex noises. Uphill, downhill, it didn't matter.

At mile 11 I realized that I was in real danger of not getting under 2 hours in this race. How is this possible, I thought. I was in a real panic. I kept looking at my watch and doing the math and really did not know how I had run this race so slowly. This is when I ran my hardest. My legs were tired and I felt disoriented but just like the Grateful Dead, I kept on truckin'. Because of this I felt pretty strong finishing even though I was probably running a full minute slower than my pace at the beginning.

Final time was...wait for it...1:59:57! Not my best half marathon time ever, but I got under two hours.

They passed out bagels and smoked salmon at the end of the race. 

Me and Shamala. Her husband, Paul, got 7th place overall! 

I enjoyed a veggie burger topped with a fried egg at Maggie Browns, with my friend Jon (who also ran today) and his girlfriend and kids. 

DOMSday

I got a little adventurous this past weekend and made up a new 11 mile (10.92 miles to be exact) loop to do in Brooklyn. I mapped out the course beforehand using runningmap. (I've used mapmyrun before, but I got really annoyed with its ads that block the view of the map and the extra sensitive pointer that draws a line when you're just trying to scroll down. One of these days my toolbox will include a fancy Garmin watch.)

It was a beautiful tour of Brooklyn. The course took me through the cobblestone streets of DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). This was followed by Brooklyn Heights with a breathtaking view of lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. I trotted along through Cobble Hill, crossed the Gowanus Canal (a Superfund site, not to be confused with "Super fun"),  passed through Park Slope and then ran south of Prospect Park toward Flatbush. Flatbush Ave. turned into Washington Ave, which took me home.

Eleven-ish miles isn't that long of a run compared to the 35 that I'm training for, but my legs are incredibly sore! This route turned out to be very hilly. There is one hill in DUMBO/Brooklyn Heights that is reminiscent of San Francisco (northern Californians can roll their eyes now).

I ran for a couple of miles yesterday, but it didn't loosen up my quads. Stairs are challenging, as is getting out of my office chair. The word for this is DOMS or delayed onset muscle soreness. This type of pain always takes me back to the days after the first practice of every soccer season, when I was a kid. I would be so sore from trying to prove myself on the field and it always made me feel tough and proud.

Here are some things I saw on my run:

The tip of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty (which appears small in this picture)

An old fashioned retractable wooden bridge, built in 1889, over the Gowanus

This bridge is the oldest of four of its kind in the country.

A market with outdoor speakers playing Caribbean music

Lively stores on Flatbush Ave.

'twixt the fennel-field

I have a new obsession with fennel, which I've consumed just about every day so far this month. I never bought it before this time and didn't even notice it in stores. But the crazy thing is that while reading about fennel just now in order to write a post about a delicious fennel salad I just made, I learned that "marathon" is the Greek word for "fennel". I kid you not. Here I thought I was going to write a post that didn't have anything to do with running, to freshen things up a bit, and low and behold, I'm eating a bowl full of marathon. Historians believe that the town of Marathon is named after the fennel fields that are found there. Marathon is also the site of a great battle (cue the battle drum and flute music) that famously led Pheidippides to run very far to Sparta in order to get help, followed by a 25 mile run to Athens to announce Greek victory over Persia (after running a total of about 175 miles during all this drama, it is said that poor Pheidippides collapsed and died). I also read in one place that he ran with a sprig of fennel in his hand, which probably looked really stupid.

From an 1879 Robert Browning poem (found on wikipedia):

So, when Persia was dust, all cried, "To Acropolis!
Run, Pheidippides, one race more! the meed is thy due!
Athens is saved, thank Pan, go shout!" He flung down his shield
Ran like fire once more: and the space 'twixt the fennel-field
And Athens was stubble again, a field which a fire runs through,
Till in he broke: "Rejoice, we conquer!" Like wine through clay,
Joy in his blood bursting his heart, - the bliss!


So obviously, fennel is amazing. It has a lot of vitamin C in it and it's supposed to be good for digestion. The entire plant is edible so nothing gets wasted, and it's not expensive (at least not at Mr. Coco's in Fort Green/Clinton Hill). 


Here is the yummy salad that I prepared after a run home from work. The proportions are up to the eater. I slice the fennel by quartering the bulb and then slicing it thinly.  Tonight I also threw in some chick peas that were already open (in a can) in my fridge.


Fennel and Gorgonzola Salad
Baby Arugula
Fennel Bulb sliced
Fennel Leaves chopped
Crumbled Gorgonzola 
Dried Cranberries 


Placed in a bowl.


Dressing
Olive Oil
Balsamic Vinegar 
A small squirt of Stone Ground Mustard
Sea salt (did you know that all salt is sea salt?)


Placed in a jar and shaken. 

Mix together and serve with a little black pepper. 

I've taken this salad to two potlucks this month, and both times I used the plastic container from the "Organic Girl" brand baby arugula", $3.99 to transport the salad, which made everything ridiculously easy.