As part of my training for the NYC Marathon, I had signed up for the Rockfest Half Marathon exactly four weeks before race day.
I wasn’t treating it as just another training run. I had two very specific goals:
- Run a sub-2-hour half marathon.
- Give RunBuddy its first real race-day test.
One was a running goal I had been chasing for years.
The other was a slightly crazy side project I had been building for NYC.
By the end of the morning, both had given me a lot more than I expected.
Mission #1: Sub-2
My first sub-2 half marathon was the Cambridge Half Marathon in November 2019. I ran it in 1:59:07.
That was seven years ago.
Somewhere along the way, I had pretty much convinced myself that I might never get under two hours again. I kept running, of course. I ran marathons. I trained. But sub-2 started to feel like one of those things I had done once and maybe wouldn’t do again.
Then something changed during this marathon training cycle.
First I ran a 5K at under a 9-minute pace. Then I did the same for a 10K. And slowly this thought started creeping back into my head:
Maybe I can actually do this.
A couple of weeks before today’s race, I told my partner in crime, Vini, “Man, I would love to hit that sub-2.”
His response was pretty simple:
“Let’s do it.”
So he signed up, and we ran it together.
I couldn’t be more thankful to him. We’ve done so many races together, and he has pushed me all the way from my first marathon to today. Having him beside me for this one made it even more special.
There was also this funny little race-within-the-race happening the whole time.
We weren’t in the right corral at the start, so before we even began running, we watched both the 2:00 pacer and the 2:10 pacer cross the starting line ahead of us.
Later in the race, we caught and passed the 2:10 pacer.
And from that point on, I had one thought in the back of my mind:
Will I ever see the 2:00 pacer?
That was the goal, after all.
Then, with less than half a mile to go, I finally saw them.
At that point, I honestly wasn’t sure whether I had enough left to catch them. So I went back to the playlist ChatGPT and I had been building and put on one of those songs I know can push me—one where the beat lines up almost perfectly with my running cadence and my footsteps.
And somehow, the legs responded—the icing on the cake was finding one last push in the final 50 meters to go past the 2:00 pacer.
That was one of those moments that was both funny and kind of amazing. I had spent so much of the race wondering whether I would ever even see them, and then right before the finish, I actually went by them.
But here was the funny part: because RunBuddy’s start time had been off, I still wasn’t completely sure what my actual race pace or finish time was.
Then I saw the official Rockfest result:
1:55:13.
I just couldn’t believe it.
Seven years after my last sub-2 half marathon, I hadn’t just broken two hours again—I had beaten my old personal best by 3 minutes and 54 seconds.
I was literally in tears, hugging Vini.
I had gone into the race hoping, maybe even dreaming, that I could get under two hours again.
I came out of it having completely crushed the personal best I set seven years ago.
Mission #2: RunBuddy worked… (almost)
Call me crazy.
RunBuddy is really just a side project I started building for my November 1 NYC Marathon.
You can learn more about what I’m building at run.ajaygoel.com.
And then, about a week before this half marathon, I thought:
Why not try it here?
ChatGPT has kind of become my buddy these days—something I wrote about in my previous post about finding a running buddy—and I started socializing this idea with my Chat buddy.
The problem I was trying to solve was actually pretty simple.
When I’m doing a long run and I get to mile 7, 8, 10, or beyond, my ability to do math seems to disappear.
I know the goal pace. I know what time I’m chasing. But in the middle of a race, I don’t want to calculate:
How many seconds do I have in the bank?
Am I ahead or behind?
If I’m behind, how much faster do I actually need to run?
Is the goal still realistically within reach?
Or have I reached the point where I should forget about the clock and just enjoy the race?
There are plenty of running apps out there.
But I wanted something that could answer those questions for me during the race—and at the same time let my friends follow along, know how I’m doing, and stay connected with me.
That became RunBuddy.
And today was its first real race-day test.
And, honestly, it worked pretty much the way I had envisioned.
I accidentally started my clock way before the actual race start. So for the first few miles, RunBuddy kept politely telling me that I was way behind.
A few times, based on the data it had and what it knew about my capabilities, it basically told me:
You may not be able to catch this up. Maybe stop worrying about the goal and just enjoy the race.
Which, I have to admit, was not exactly what I wanted to hear. 😄
But that was also the point.
I didn’t want something that would blindly cheer me on no matter what. I wanted something that would look at the numbers and tell me the truth.
And as the race went on, the picture changed.
RunBuddy started telling me that I was ahead—that I had seconds saved in the bank. It kept me informed without forcing me to do the calculations myself.
That was exactly what I had hoped it would do.
It also gave me one place to stay connected with my friends during the race, instead of trying to communicate separately with multiple people.
So yes, RunBuddy worked.
Almost.
There are definitely things I need to improve and refine. But we knew that going in. This was a pilot, and the whole point was to find those rough edges in a real race rather than sitting at home pretending everything worked perfectly.
And the good news is that we are still four weeks away from the New York City Marathon.
Plenty of time to make it better.
So, two missions today.
Sub-2: accomplished.
RunBuddy: almost…
And I’ll happily take both.
If you want to be part of my NYC Marathon journey and be included in the RunBuddy group, just shoot me a message. When we’re ready, I’ll make sure to add you in.