Sunday, August 14, 2011

18 miles and feeling fine

I just realized I didn't write last week. It was not the best week thus far this training season. We were scheduled for a short 6-8 mile run (which is supposed to feel like a break after the hot and sticky 16 miler the week before). I love Summer Streets, and was very much looking forward to that course again. Park Avenue is gorgeous, and really fun to run down: by all the amazing buildings, then through midtown and by Grand Central, then down to Union Square (past my future office!!!). However, I was feeling horrible. My body was fighting me the whole way, and I pulled out at 5 miles. I didn't take part in all the Summer Streets fun with the rest of the group (darn, I missed the free samples) and went home and slept instead. Turns out I was sick all day Sunday, so my body was trying to tell me something.

Fast forward to yesterday. I woke up at 4:15am, and my first thought was "By noon this will all be over." I schlepped up to the park and met the group for a 6:15am run start. We set off around the lower loop, then out the 72nd street transverse to the west side. From there, we went uptown, past my old 'hood, to Fairway for our awesome aid stop (and tried to use the bathroom, but Fairway isn't open at 7:45 on a Saturday morning, apparently). After refueling with peanut m&ms (yum), we set off north towards the GWB, past the little red lighthouse, and up some pretty massive hills to Dyckman Street. After some photo-ops, we turned around and headed back downtown. I was feeling great by the time we hit the turnaround, and I was pleasantly surprised. I guess I listened well enough to my body a week ago. Around mile 12, my legs were getting heavy, but our return to the aid stop helped. We had a runner visiting from Atlanta, and she was so cute the whole time. As we kept going, she motivated us by reminding the group that we were "so close to snacks!"

Everybody seemed to be doing really well, keeping each other entertained for the long haul. We did have a couple of unfortunate sightings of dead rats along the Hudson Greenway, all of which were completely disgusting. Michael C has promised to make us a medal after the run, and I'm pretty sure the medal may feature a rat. Great, right?

Timekeeper Nick kept saying we were going to get done by 11:15, and we came in pretty close to that. I was very happy to see the boat basin and then the stairs up to 72nd street, even though it hurt to climb them. We walked (we were tired) across to CPW and ran into the park and down to 59th street to finish. A few of us waited to cheer the rest of the group in, others left immediately to go home and sit down. When I got back to BK, I did my favorite Mala Yoga podcast to stretch out and then took an epic nap. All in all, it was a pretty fantastic run (minus the dead rats). Awesome company, awesome aid stop, great weather. Hard to believe there are only 10 weeks to go until the MCM!

Monday, August 01, 2011

Catching up

So I realized I didn't write about my 15-almost 16-mile run two weeks ago. Here goes: it was hot. I wanted to stop after the first loop of Prospect Park, but I didn't. I made myself run 4 1/2 loops (by myself, on a Wednesday morning, before going out of town for the weekend). I had the company of a lot of podcasts to get me through it. I went to Maine the following weekend for a gorgeous (though hot and sticky) wedding, only to get an email on Friday evening saying that the mileage would be cut from 16 to 4 due to the extreme heat. (It was supposed to be over 100 degrees in the city, and my group was planning to meet at 5am to start). Needless to say, I was pretty annoyed that I'd pushed through 15ish miles in disgusting heat and humidity, but I was also glad I got it out of the way and could enjoy the wedding. I also lounged around like a slug all weekend without too much guilt, and ate a lot of delicious food.

Fast forward to this past weekend. Those of us who had done the 16 miles already (and there were quite a few, surprisingly) planned to run 6-8 miles in Central Park. The other marathoners were doing 16 and the half marathoners were doing 12. When I got to the park at 6:30 on Saturday morning, there was a huge group at Engineers' Gate, all surrounding Bill and George, who were decked out in tuxes for our "Red Carpet Aid Stop". Florida Dave said he thought they were gearing up to get married. Pretty hilarious. At one point, they both changed into running shorts and it kind of looked like they weren't wearing pants. The aid stop was great as usual, and we were able to visit multiple times, which made it even better. I was ok with running 6 miles, but the group pushed me to run another two, so I did the full 8. Then I came home and took an awesome 3 hour nap. Pretty much the best day ever.