Just One More Hurdle Before Entry into the 2012 NYC Half

Getting into the New York City Half Marathon is not an easy feat. You either have to have an incredible stroke of luck to get in via lotto (if I did the math correctly, only about 12% of applicants got in from the tri-state area...ouch), be super speedy and qualify, fund raise at least $1,000 for charity - or complete 4 out of 5 NYRR's boroughs half marathon.

I opted to go the 4/5 route since qualifying is really not in the cards for me anytime in the near foreseeable future, and the financial commitments for the charity route are a bit intimidating to me.  Besides, how challenging could running 4 half marathons be when I was planning on training for a full marathon anyways?

Well the first race in Brooklyn didn't go so hot, when I unexpectedly got a bit sick on the course.  The second race in Queens wasn't a blast either when I was fighting the tail end of a nasty cold in 80+ degree weather...and later discovered I was battling iron-deficiency as well.  And the third race in the Bronx didn't even happen thanks to a brush with some tropical weather.

Here's hoping tomorrow's race goes much better!  While weather.com is calling for highs of 84, the actual hourly doesn't look too scary for the am at least.

weaher.com's forecast

My legs are feeling pretty cooked from piling on the miles in the past few weeks, but I'm hoping I can still manage to pull out a marathon pace - or at least close to marathon pace - workout for this run.

And at least I do have one factor on my side...

Fresh pair of my beloved Asics 2160s

New shoes!  These suckers only have about 30 miles on them from this week's workouts, so they should be nice and fresh for tomorrow.

This race will also be NYRR race #8 for me - so after this, I just have to run 1 more and I'm IN for the 2012 New York Marathon as well...

Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, that does involve running the 2011 New York Marathon.  But sshhh, we don't need to talk about that right now.