Pushing My Buttons - Previewing NY13.1

I sometimes think of myself as a computer with buttons that you can push to get a predictable response. The better you know me the more you can push those buttons. For example, if I say, "Oh I better not have any pizza," you can very easily change my mind. Push the button by putting a pizza in front of me. That was easy.

Such is the case with the NY13.1 half-marathon. I heard about this a few months ago and took a look at the course.

what is this i don't even

Not that Flushing Meadows is a beautiful venue but if you're putting on a large half-marathon there, it's kind of.. small.. Anyway, add to it the fact that it's an hour away, it's a half-marathon, it conflicts with the NJ Ultra Festival and I thought I'd drop by, it's not the cheapest race in the world, and oh yeah it's a week before Umstead and - well - the odds of me signing up for it are remote at best.

That is, until somebody inadvertently pushed my button. I call this button the "Do it because friends are doing it button." Sure enough, there are three or four tri club people going. They didn't even have to invite me. Oh I'd like to join you guys! Umstead shmumstead - lets go run a half!!

So tomorrow morning I'm running the NY13.1 Half Marathon. It'll be fun. Actually - it's going to be a friggin' great time. Alex and Joe are coming along, and after the race we'll go to the Queens Hall of Science and spend half-a-day there, and then maybe we'll get a gyro at Fontana and perhaps maybe visit some family in Brooklyn if they're around. Definitely going to be an awesome day.

Oh, and Umstead? Check out this rationalization. If this doesn't make you roll your eyes, then I don't know what will:

"You see, this is actually a good fitness test and tune-up run. I'm going to run this race nice and hard, but without killing myself. And since Umstead is 8 12.5-mile loops, this 13.1 mile race will tell me how I should pace myself in the first lap or two. You see, I'll add a half-hour to this race's time. So if I run 2:05, I'll aim for 2:35 in the first lap of Umstead. If I run 2:15, I'll aim for 2:45. Where did I get the half-hour figure? I pulled it out of my ass! What about subsequent laps at Umstead? Glad you asked! I figure I want to slow down by about ten minutes per lap. So lap two will be 40 minutes slower than the half, lap 4 will be an hour slower, etc. Where did I get that ten-minute number? I pulled it out of my ass!"