My goal heading into Brooklyn was to break 1:40. Three days before race Saturday I caught a bug. This brought fever and a sore throat. I thought it would have subsided before race day but that wasn’t the case.

Both Anh and I love this race so our friends took care of our son for a few hours. We left Queens at 4:30am to make it to Coney Island. The plan was to park close to the finish so we wouldn’t have to take the train all the way back to the start. From where we parked in Sheepshead Bay it was close to the Belt Parkway back to Queens.

At the singing of the anthem I always get the race chills and excitement brewing. Even after a good 10 mins pre race warmup it was hard for me to get going during mile 1. Pace 7:49. I wasn’t too worried because I knew the webs would be shaken off soon enough. At about mile 3 I started feeling extra soreness from the back of my right knee. This wasn’t a good sign.

Sure enough I found myself walking for about 2 mins to shake this soreness off at mile 4. I used that opportunity at the aid station to take in salt and Gatorade. As I’ve done countless times before to abate this situation is to adjust my foam to lessen extending the kick.

However I still kept my pace conservative throughout the park as there is a main hill that wasn’t completed yet. The familiarity of the Brooklyn course sets itself up for a great run if paced correctly. This was my attempt at it. After exiting the park I immediately pushed the pace up to about 20 secs per mile. This wasn’t causing any issues with my knee and I kept a high cadence and low kick as best as I could.

The weather was great and the atmosphere is always terrific in Brooklyn. Ocean Parkway was now my turf for the next 5 miles. Nothing dramatic happened while pushing my way through towards Coney Island. The terrain is as flat as one could ask for so I kept relaxed and took in nutrition as I approached the aid stations. At mile 9 I took a strawberry powergel.

Upon approaching the last mile or so I pushed to have the quickest split of the day at 7:29. Didn’t break 1:40 but I’m very happy with my finish time of 1:41:42.

I am overly content with my resilience and performance on the day given the fact that I almost thought of the possibility of a DNF at mile 4 with the knee soreness.

For the next 2 weeks before Stockhlom Marathon I will rest up and do some easy recovery workouts for taper.

Thanks for having me. See you next time Brooklyn!