about vinod kurup

I did something yesterday that I haven’t done before. I took a ride on the subway from one end all the way to the other end. I took the D train from 205th street in the Bronx to Coney Island/Stillwell Avenue in Brooklyn, passing through Manhattan on the way. Left at 6:04 AM and arrived at 7:46 AM, just in time to make it to the start of the Brooklyn Half Marathon. It was a beautiful day to run.

I’ve only been running for a few weeks since taking a “long” time off, so I was happy with my 2:00:50 finish.

It was cold out there today. I was wearing a long sleeve shirt, long pants, a headband and gloves, and I was still cold. I doubted whether I’d be able to break 2 hours, like I’d hoped. A mile into the race I was sure I wouldn’t be able to do it. It felt like I was just running in place. As usual though, I eventually warmed up and felt pretty good.

I planned to take the first 5 miles real easy and I came through in 47:28. Not bad. I wanted to do the next 5 miles in 45 minutes. I came through in 45:41. Not bad. Finally, I wanted to really pick it up the last 5K (3.1 miles). I came through in 26:43, about 8:30 pace. Again, not bad. The last 3 miles seemed like it was all hills. Even the finish was on a hill! I finally saw the finish line, checked my watch and saw 1:59:13, and promptly took off like a crazy person.

Final tally: 1:59:52!

This is the first time I ran Brooklyn and I really liked it. We started on the boardwalk at Coney Island and ran along the beach for about 3 miles. Then, there was a long straight road stretch for about 5-6 miles and we finally finished with a few loops inside Prospect Park. They just need to flatten out some of those hills…

Half marathons this year:

• Jan 28: 2:21:30 (10:48 pace) Manhattan
• Mar 18: 1:59:52 (9:09 pace) Brooklyn

Scheduled:

• Jul 9: Bronx
• Aug 27: New York City
• Oct 1: Grete’s Gallop
• Oct 15: Staten Island

Read more race reports at Derek Rose’s blog.

I ran the NYRR Hot Chocolate 15K (9.3 miles) this morning. It was cold, but then again, it’s the middle of December, so whaddya expect? I’ve only run twice since the marathon, so I took it nice and easy. I planned to run about 10 minute miles, but I felt good around mile 5, so I sped up. I finished in 1:25:22 (9:10 per mile).

Oh yeah… and the Hot Chocolate was awesome!

Fred Lebow Classic

I’ve run about 10 miles in the past 2 months, so I wasn’t expecting anything great on Sunday. My conservative goal was 50 minutes. I didn’t set any other goals.

I got to the start a little late and didn’t have time to find the baggage area, so I strapped on my backpack and ran with it. This made it feel even more like a training run, rather than a race.

We started on the big downhill in Central Park. Most of the NYRR races start near there, which means you can never really take advantage of the downhill because there’s too much traffic at the start.

I got to the first mile marker at 11 minutes. I guess that it was really about 9:30, estimating my time to the start line at about 1:30 or so). I hit mile 2 at 20 minutes and mile 3 at 29. I had a few bursts of energy, but they faded quickly. On the whole, I just felt average. Around mile 3.5, I had a spot where I felt exhausted, almost wanted to shut it down. Every race has one of these moments. I tried to really be aware of it on Sunday, knowing that the feeling during the marathon will be 100 times stronger. Anyway, I fought through it and picked it up a bit to the finish. No sprint or anything - didn’t want to hurt myself on the first race of the year

I ran 2 more half-marathons in the past couple weeks. I ran Greta’s Great Gallop on October 3rd in Central Park and then ran the Staten Island Half Marathon today.

I’m pretty happy about these 2 races. The weather was perfect and I was able to avoid hitting the wall. I improved my half-marathon time about 30 minutes since May. I’m just guessing here, but I probably won’t be able to keep this up. The other good news is that this was my ninth NYRR race of the calendar year, so I automatically qualify for next year’s NY Marathon (2005).

I ran the Fitness Magazine 4 mile race in Central Park last weekend. The remnants of Hurricane Ivan were flooding the streets, so I was certain that the race would be cancelled (or that I would chicken out). Neither happened as the sky cleared 10 minutes before the race started.

I didn’t warm up as much as I would’ve liked, but the first 2 miles went suprisingly well (7:11, 7:16). The hills on mile 3 killed me (7:51), but I was able to pick it up at the end (7:29). I actually thought that I looked pretty good at the finish until I saw the pic posted at the NYRR website:

My Finish Time was 29:47. Here are some more pics from the race.

I ran 5 more races this summer in my quest to automatically qualify for next year’s New York Marathon. The Fifth Avenue Mile was a breakthrough run for me. I easily outdid my pre-race goal of breaking 7 minutes and came within 40 seconds of my best time ever (5:07 fifteen years ago). This makes me think that I might be able to break 4 hours in the marathon next year if I train properly.

I ran the Queens Half-Marathon on Saturday in 2:11:25. That’s about 10 minute miles for 13.1 hot humid miles. It was especially fun because my parents were here visiting from Wisconsin and I think this is the first time they saw me run. It’s amazing how much of a boost that gave me.