OTIS Robinson went to New York to see Beyonce in concert last weekend, but he was the one 'on song' after taking up a last minute opportunity to run the second annual New York Half Marathon and coming away with a personal best time.

Although his one hour 20 minutes will remain an unofficial "best" for the Swan's Running Club president as he had been given another runner's number, it was a two-minute improvement on his May 24 effort.

He was one of three Bermuda athletes who finished the race.

Robinson had gone to New York with no intention of racing but completed the race wearing an old T-shirt, shorts and what he calls "basically walking shoes." Not content with mixing it up with the elite women in the first few miles before having to drop back to a more sustainable pace, Robinson later went to the Ritz Carlton hotel where he met winner and long distance legend Haile Gebrselassie along with a number of the other elite men.

It was a rewarding trip for Robinson, who was in the city for a Beyonce concert the evening before and found himself being offered a chance to join the 10,000 race field the next morning.

He'd trained hard the day before and was in two minds over whether to break from his schedule to take part. But the lure of being in a race with the world's acknowledged greatest long distance runner, Ethiopia's Gebrselassie proved too much.

In the early miles Robinson used his turn of speed to catch the elite women and ran alongside them for the first two-and-a-half miles, slipping back by 5K, which he reached in 18:03.

"I did a 5:16 first mile although it was probably a 4:39 effort as I was weaving my way through to reach them," he said. Any hope that he might catch the elite men so he could mix it and have some fun in the first mile or two was dashed because of the tearaway speed they took off at. Gebreselassie ran the second fastest US half marathon to win the 13.1-mile race in 59:24.

As he slowed down Robinson thought about calling it a day.

"I had a stomach ache, no watch or hat and was wearing an old T-shirt and basically walking shoes. I didn't have any good gear. I slowed to see if I could spot Ricky Sousa or Geoff Blee," he said.

Bermuda's Blee and Sousa had registered to run, but unbeknown to Robinson both had given the race a miss.

"I walked for two-and-a-half minutes and there was no sign of them, so I started running again." He clocked 38 minutes at 10K, but was again feeling stomach pain and walked again briefly. At 55 minutes into the race he found his motivation and pushed through to clock his unofficial 1:20.

If he had not stopped and if he had been wearing his normal running gear, Robinson suspects he might have been capable of a 1:15 or 1:16 time.

Afterwards he made his way to the Ritz Carlton hotel where he found a 300-strong entourage surrounding Gebresalassie, but still managed to briefly greet the running legend.

"He is such a nice fellow, and the Ethiopians were saying 'Where's the party' afterwards," said Robinson, who had run the race after only three hours sleep the night before.

He is now gearing up to take part in an upcoming New York City 5K and the Fifth Avenue Mile.

The Swan's runner was not the only Bermudian taking part in last Sunday's half marathon. Samantha Stephens, 37, ran 1:55:24 to finish 436th in her age category, while Roger Thompson, 41, clocked 2:07:08 and was 574th in his category.