Race Recap: Ghosts of Runner's Past
The Rock the River Half Marathon is a very challenging course even for the experienced runner. This quiet road race takes you up and down steep hills at every mile and would make a fun carnival rollercoaster if the Palisades Park Conservancy ever decided to add tracks. You’re surrounded by a canopy of oak and maple trees indigenous to downstate New York along the Hudson River, and the near sea-level areas are known to attract fishermen and picnic-goers.
I first ran this particular race back in 2016 when I recently became a personal trainer. It was my second half marathon, so I knew what to expect from the distance, but this course warned of steep hills whereas my first race was on flat ground down the shore. They changed the race from spring to fall because their timekeeping vendor had a conflict, but this worked out perfectly for me since I was running this far anyway in preparation for the NYC Marathon. I wanted to improve my time because I knew the course and was conditioned for the distance. I thought it would be a piece of cake.
This shows my pace vs. the elevation changes as I ran the Rock the River Half Marathon. As you can see, there were BIG hills on this course.
September 22, 2019 proved to be a very hot “extended summer” day instead of the cool first day of autumn I had anticipated. Sixty-four degrees is usually great for running, but not when the humidity is at 84%. NYRR races all had early start times, but because this was an independent charity race, the gun wasn’t due to go off until 9 a.m. bringing about more heat.
I ate a banana and Honey Stinger waffle before my Uber up to Ross Dock (the same location as the GWB Challenge race finish line), and I spent quite a bit of time warming up since I got there so early. I incorporated more dynamic stretching than before and joint mobilization so that my ankles would be free to move up and downhill. I also added more of my Original Strength Resets to ground me, since the hills had the potential to be slippery or steeper at points and cause someone to lose balance if they have a misstep. I chugged so much water as I kept sweating it out before it was time to walk over to the start line, which was close to the underbelly of the George Washington Bridge.
There are no corrals for smaller events like this, so I lined up close to the start and when the gun went off, I started to jog on the flat land as others sprinted ahead. My strategy was to go slow and steady for this first major hill since there were going to be plenty more on the way. I wasn’t sure if the sprinters knew just how challenging the course was about to be.
I chugged along up the steep bank like a rollercoaster approaching its summit, only instead of the clanking noises you might hear my controlled breathing through my slightly stuffy nose (humidity does that to me). The incline took up most of the first mile so I ate a Clif Blok right away and started to get into my rhythm of passing people.
There were a few acorns I had to watch out for as some of them were falling from the sky and others were already rolling around on the ground, but it wasn’t time for the leaves to turn colors yet; the trees were lush with green and provided a natural canopy overhead.
Each runner had plenty of space to move around and pass each other, and I found a few of my contenders to have different strategies on these hills. I took my time on the uphills, but allowed myself to freely speed up on the downhills. One guy kept the same even pace going up and down the hill, and sometimes we’d end up next to each other. It was hard to tell who had the more efficient strategy, especially since I was letting gravity take me rather than putting on the brakes if I got too uncomfortable with the speed.
Because the course is a there-and-back setup, fluid stations were on the top of each hill and managed by a few volunteers with their eager kids excited about the task of the in-motion cup handoff. As soon as the cup was in the runner's hand, the kids darted back to the table to get ready for the next runner. I now knew to squeeze the paper cup so that it wouldn't spill all over me like in the past races.
I reached the turnaround point and continued on my merry way, having made mental notes of where I should reserve my energy and when to pop in another Clif Blok. Some parts of the course were closer to the river, providing skyline views of the Bronx and Yonkers, while other areas had woods between the road and the water. I reached a giant hill after mile 9 and just before my usual "wall" at 10 miles.
Anyone who has ever run a far distance knows the “wall” experience; the physical exhaustion from keeping up a tempo pace for an extended period of time, the mind games that try to trick you into quitting because biologically-speaking, you have outrun the proverbial bear and no longer need that fight-or-flight response on full blast. And sometimes (I found out), if it’s ridiculously hot out, you start to hallucinate.
My “wall” this time on the course happened to come in the form of a ghost. As I cruised along on the incline with salt from my own sweat crystallizing on my brow, the way the bright sunlight’s rays danced around the trees created a mirage that nearly mirrored myself. For a fleeting minute, I saw my late brother to the left of me on his motorcycle, dressed in his mechanic-torn jeans, Oakley shades on his prominent nose, and leather biker vest with more patches from organizations than my Brownie Scouts vest as a child cookie saleswoman. His sun-worn skin and faded military tattoos peeked out from his t-shirt, long coarse unruly flames of red hair under a bandana and Duck Dynasty-worthy beard flowed through the breeze created by riding in the open air.
I felt my eyes bug out at the sight of him, and I swiveled my head around to see if anyone else was seeing what I was seeing, but there were no other runners in the vicinity at the time. I could hear the revving up of the Harley as he mocked me with his signature laugh and partial southern accent beckoning, “c’mon Cynth, hurry up!” before speeding off up the paved hill I was climbing. I blinked and he vanished, but in his place was a large monarch butterfly as if I was part of the world of Harry Potter and my brother transfigured into the orange flying insect before me. I couldn’t help but feel I was given some sort of sign, even if I was low on energy. I popped another Clif Blok for a hit of sugar.
After reaching the top of that hill, my legs sped up with seemingly less effort than before. I saw a few runners ahead of me, and a few far back behind me. I had no idea how I was doing, but when I saw the last steep decline hill to get me back to Ross Dock, I was determined to outpace myself the last time I ran down this road. I had a Disney playlist going for this race, and “Just Around the Riverbend” came on and I pictured myself running barefoot like Pocahontas along the Hudson. The finish line was within view at the bottom of the hill, and I wanted to pass the man ahead of me and get a good photo finish, so I switched gears and leaped over the finish in victory.
Told you I’d pass him! 🏃♀️🏃♀️🏃♀️
I asked a stranger to take a photo of me with my medal in front of a banner, then walked over to the snacks table for a water bottle and grabbed one of the few bagels left (the many 5k participants devoured them all and made a murder scene out of the peanut butter and jelly toppings). I got my bearings, and a woman about 20 years my senior with an Ironman pendant necklace came up to me and said that she kept me in her sight to know that she was pacing well. While we waited for the official times to be printed out and posted on the wall, we chatted about running and racing and I found out she has run almost all the major marathons and she competes in Ironman triathlons. Her finish time for this race was only about a minute or two more, so I was very impressed and hoped to be just like her in my 50s. I don’t have to become obese and handicapped like my grandmother; I can become more active than I am now!
The official results showed that Susan and I both won 2nd place in our age groups, so we stayed and waited to win our prizes, which were cute coffee mugs that were awarded to us by a cute MC.
Despite my efforts, I only improved this course by 45 seconds to clock in at 1:55:14. However, unlike the last time I ran this half marathon, I wasn’t dead for the rest of the day. I wanted to run this course again within the next few weeks for my marathon training because of the difficult hills and to run under a full fall foliage canopy. I knew that if I could master these hills, those dreaded bridges between the boroughs of New York would feel easy on Marathon Sunday.
My “mug” shot and the finish line at Rock the River.