I am a MARATHONER!

What an experience. I'll warn you up front that this will be a long post. I hope you'll take the time to read it, but you might want to get a snack first. I had to write it myself in multiple sittings. I've been working on it since Monday night.

So Sunday was the marathon. But first, let's start with Saturday. I drove down with one of the mentors, Jessica. We left at 12:15 or so and arrived at the Ocean Place Resort & Spa around 1:45. Went to the expo to check it out and met up with the team who had arrived moments before. The expo was very impressive, but sadly, I was too nervous to really take advantage of it. I picked up my number, my shirt, a pace band for my wrist (which I didn't end up wearing, partially because Ramon yelled at me about it) and looked around the expo a little. Made my way back to the lobby and just chilled with my teammates. My parents arrived (after getting lost), we finally checked into the hotel and made our way to the room. The hotel wouldn't let us check in until 3 pm exactly, and the line was rediculous. I watched a little tv in the room with my parents and then the TNT pasta dinner started at 6.

There were chapters from Southern and Northern NJ, NYC, and PA there, as well as a few other teammates. For example, I ran into Mimi, who was our Leukemia & Lymphoma coordinator when I did triathlons with Westchester County. She's fabulous, and she was really excited to see me, as I was when I saw her. The ballroom was filled with probably about 300 people - NYC was about half of it - and Helena, our coordinator, ran the show. It started with the video about what we were doing. TNT makes the sappiest videos. They always make me cry and I love them. Then Helena told us that as a group we raised over $350,000. That's what I love most about TNT - the impact that we can have. That's a massive sum of money.

After the pasta dinner, we met with our NYC team and had a mission moment. Helena asked us to share anything we wanted to about why we were here and what TNT meant to us. I volunteered to start and I talked about Scott. Danielle, our honored teammate, who was running the race, talked about being a survivor. A few others spoke, and Mary finally spoke. Her sister died 8 years ago from leukemia and when she started TNT, she had never run before joining TNT. And here she was, the night before the marathon. She thanked the coaches, her friends and her teammates. It was, as all mission moments are, very meaningful to me. Then Ramon had some words of wisdom for us, attempting to calm our nerves. We ended with the decoration of singlets with puffy paint and iron on letters. I had tested the process the night before with a GO ERIN! on the front of my singlet. I picked up a few more letters and decided to put FOR SCOTT on my back. It was time to go back to my room and get ready for the next day.

A few months ago, when it was time to recommit, I had told my parents that I would share a room with them. It had been a few years since I had done this ~ ever since a sleepless night before a triathlon where I was kept awake by my father's intolerable snoring. Between the snoring, my mother turning off the tv "because she thought I was asleep," and my own nerves, I think I finally fell asleep around 12:30 or 1 am. My alarm went off at 5:30.

Marathon Day

I got dressed and went downstairs to the lobby. My parents were going to sleep in and watch for me outside the hotel (Mile 17 and the finish line). Ramon had wanted us in the lobby by 6:30. The race started at 8:30 but we had to walk a really really really long way to get the buses in the morning. Why the buses couldn't just pick us up outside the host hotel, I have no idea. By the time we got to the start, it was around 7:30. As we were told, I got in line for the bathroom. And then got in line again. The lines weren't that long, compared to what I've waited in for NYRRC races. I went twice in a matter of 20 minutes. Then it was time to make our way over to the start. I started the race with Catherine and Meg. We started behind the 4:15 pack but ahead of the 4:30 pack. I was going to set the pace to run a 4:20 (10 minute miles) and either pick it up at the end or have some room to crash and burn.

I'm not even sure I heard a gun go off. They did play the National Anthem, which was a nice touch, but taking off my running hat and letting my hair fly around wasn't my idea of pre-race preparations. Shortly after that ended, people starting moving in front of me and the next thing I knew, I passed under the chip timer and was running my first marathon.

The first eight miles was a flat loop. The whole course was flat, with the exception of a single up and down (literally) at mile 10 - the 20 foot elevation change for the course. I set the pace, because I have a fairly good internal pace clock as to how fast we were running. I said I thought we were at a 10 minute pace and what do you know? We crossed mile one at 9:59.

I had warned Catherine that I wasn't going to talk as much when we were running. We both have the bad habit of chatting away aimlessly, which is fine when we're only running a few miles or when we're running slow. Since I ran the trails with Jen without talking much of the way and it was one of my best runs of the season, and my worst run was Brooklyn when Elena and I talked way too much in the first 9 miles, I was going to keep it quieter. Catherine also knew that to keep up with me, she probably couldn't talk as much. Her marathon PR was 4:56 and she was going for 4:30...even though the coaches told her the night before that it probably wouldn't happen. Better to go for it and crash and burn than never know if she could. So she and I would be in the together for the long run. Literally.

The first miles were through an old military base. You could see the water behind the buildings and it was beautiful. The day was beautiful - blue skies, blue water, not too warm (yet) and a breeze off the ocean. The perfect day for running a marathon. Mile 2 was 9:47 and we backed off on mile 3 to 10:10. Then it was back to our 9:59 pace for mile 4. Somewhere around mile 5 (I think) Meg had to pee and dropped back. We caught up with Danielle, our honored teammate around this time and ran with her for about the next 10 miles. Mile 5 was 9:48, mile 6 was 9:54 and mile 7 was 9:58. I was happy with what we were running. It was just under 10 minutes, the miles felt good and we had our little pack. On the approach to mile 8, we were back where we had started and it was our first sighting of the Vancouver team. What a wonderful sight. They jumped out in the road to cheer, take pictures, run with us for a bit, and just made me feel like a rock star. Ramon had been following us on his bike for the first 8 miles, ringing a cowbell and cheering like the madman that he is. Some of the people we were running with asked about him and wanted to adopt him as their coach as well. It felt so great to be supported by so many people as we were out there. Mile 8 was a slightly faster 9:49, mostly because of the cheering, so 9 was a little slower in 10:07. Back and forth this went, because mile 10 was 9:47. At this point, we were running along the sea wall. We went up and down the "hill" of the course and were now pounding our feet on some very unforgiving concrete.

This was when we started to see the signs. Literally. Ana Maria's fiance, Christopher (see my Coogan's 5K post for more about him), went out the night before and hung up signs for Ana Maria, Mary and the whole NYC TNT gang all over the course. The first one said something like "Run Ana Run" and there were more to come, one of which even had her face pasted onto a stick figure smiling. Christopher was on his bike as well, riding along, checking on us, seeing if we needed anything. I pleaded with him to get me some salt packets. The only thing I didn't pack. He said it would be no problem, rode back to check on Mary and caught me in the later miles (I think somewhere around 14-15) to hand off a bunch of little crystals wrapped in white and blue. What a lifesaver. Since my horrid experience at the Brooklyn Half with overhydrating, I'll take a salt packet in the later miles. Plus, as my friends and family know, I'm a salt freak, so I'm totally okay eating a packet.

Back to the race and the concrete by the sea wall. Mile 11 was 10:12 and mile 12 was 10:16, much of which we attributed to running on concrete. Catherine's knee was hurting her a little bit, Danielle felt good, and I did as well. We got off the concrete around mile 13 (10:15) at which point Coach Michael jumped in with us. Here's a funny aside about Michael. The reason I call him Coach Michael is because I know so many damn Michaels that they're hard to keep straight. I don't call any of the others Coach nearly as much, but I secretly think he likes it. Except when I make fun of him in team emails. It's all good. So anyway, Michael jumps in with us. We've held solid 10 minute mile overall pace (13 miles in 2:10) and this was Catherine's PR for a half marathon. Michael was definitely worried she was going out too fast. Actually, all the coaches were. But Catherine felt good and wanted to stick it out. At this point, I decided I didn't care as much about my time. I just wanted to finish this with someone that I trained with. I made a decision that no matter what happened, I'd be near Catherine at the finish. Mile 14 was a 10:04 and after that we started slowing down. Danielle pulled away, we wished her luck and we headed into the few miles before we'd cross by the finish line for the first time. We were slowing down (Mile 15 in 10:18 and mile 16 in 10:25) and I realized that my body wasn't going to hold onto 10 minute miles anymore. But ahead, I could see the hotel and hear the cheers, so I kept my head up and got ready to "look good" as I ran by. Ramon was with us again with the cowbell. He told us that at some point, the faster runner (Catherine and I knew he was talking about me) was going to have to pull away from the slower runner (Catherine) and run our own races. I had no intention of doing that. Ramon dropped back for a bit and then caught us again. He was laughing. He told Catherine and I that we have exactly the same running posture. Same stride, same foot movements, and we were running completely in-sync with each other. The Amazon Blondes.

Mile 17. I saw my parents first, waving and snapping pictures. After the race, they said I looked pretty good there. I heard the screams of the Vancouver team as well as other random people shouting out "Go Erin!" since it was plastered on the front of my shirt. I tell you, it's really mean to make people run by the finish. No one was actually finishing yet - as one of the runners commented "all the good runners were in Boston" so we were getting all the attention, but seeing the finish and knowing that you've still got 9 miles to go...well, that just sucks.

Having been energized by seeing my friends, mile 17 took 10:27. Past the finish line, we had to do an out and back down this really long road that went on f-o-r-e-v-e-r. Tamieka and Lisa were past the finish line (turns out Katrina saw me here too - I missed her the first time but saw her on the way back). Seeing Tamieka and Lisa was great. I ran over, gave them high fives and was so happy that my friends actually came out to see me run. I'm sure it's boring being a spectator. You wait for hours to watch me run by, and then wait for more hours for me to run by again. But you are so grateful to every person who shouts your name, smiles at you, claps or just stands there. It's someone watching you accomplish something amazing.

At mile 17, Des and Shannon jumped in to run with Catherine and I. I love them. Des ran with Catherine and Shannon ran with me because I was not enjoying these miles. I was walking through the water stops - I was actually looking forward to the water stops so I could walk for a little bit. At one point, I set a goal of starting to walk again at the traffic light. Shannon remarked to me later that she was surprised I picked the traffic light because she thought it was kind of far away. Little did she know, that's exactly why I picked it! Catherine and Des were a little ahead of Shannon and I, and I'd catch them, fall back, and catch them again all the way out. Mile 18 was an 11:31 and involved some water stop walking. I picked it back up to 11:00 at mile 19 and mile 20 was 11:14. Somewhere around mile 19 I started seeing people I knew running in the other direction. First was Jessica, one of my mentees. She's a second year student at NYU med, so we comiserate about school together. She was shooting for Boston, and based on how she looked, she was going to get it. (She did - she ran 3:27!) Next was Mimi, who also looked great. Mimi ended up placing 3rd in her age group - she'd get mad if I said what age group she's in though! Shortly after that was Ana Maria. Shannon went to run with Ana at that point - Ana was shooting to break 4 hours and Shannon was going to pace her in. Then a few minutes later came another one of my mentees, Avi. All of them were running and looked strong. Of course, they all had to see me when I was WALKING. Pissed me off to no end. But hey, I was doing a marathon. And it's not like I walked for more than a short distance - I was still doing 11 minute miles. But it seemed like every time I saw a teammate, I felt like I looked like a lazy bum.

Mile 21 was 11:06. And then it was time for the turn around. I never thought we'd see it. Basically because as I looked down this long road, I could see flashing lights at the end of it. I assumed, as did everyone else running, that you get to the flashing lights and you turn around and go home. So let me tell you how pissed I was when we got there and some guy was telling us to turn left. "Look at the real estate!" they said. Don't they know that I could give two sh*ts about houses at this point? All I wanted to see was the finish line. I guess the houses in the neighborhood were really big. So we turn the corner, thinking the turn around would be right there. And it's not. We head down a street and then some trouble hits.

Catherine slows down to a complete stop. She's crying...no wait, she's trying to cry. She can't cry, because she can't breathe. Other than having the same exact running style, being the same height and having the same size foot, we also both have asthma. I pulled my inhaler out of my GU sack and immediately gave it to her. "Breathe," I said. Now mind you, we are now stopped dead in the middle of the street and people are going around us. After a little coaxing, Catherine takes a puff of the inhaler. And breathes again. Disaster averted. I was just glad I was with her. Des was amazed at my level headedness and my quick reaction to the situation. Only because I know exactly what that's like. Had I not been there, Des wouldn't have known what to do. I'm just glad I was there. After the race, Catherine would lament on how she slowed me down because she stopped running. To me, that's not important. This was my first marathon and I was going to finish with Catherine. So mile 22 took us 12:52 ~ which, given the situation, wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. I coaxed her to keep running, she was breathing again. Where was the god-damn turn around?

Turn right. Maybe it's right here. Nope. Keep going down this road. Turn right again. There it is! I'm sure all day the guy manning that turn around was told how much he was loved and probably got a few marriage proposals out of the day. I was so happy to see him because I knew it meant we were heading home. It was past the turn around that we passed mile 22. Four miles to go. Just gotta get back to the hotel.

Somewhere around that mile marker (I think ~ things get really fuzzy in these last miles) was a high energy food station. It had chocolate, defizzed soda, pretzels, and all these other foods in little cups that we could take. I grabbed some cola, which tasted so good, and then I heard a girl yell "Gummy Bears!"

I don't remember which one of Dianna's RBF friends told me to get gummy bears, but since I read all your posts, I knew someone had told me to get gummy bears. I grabbed the gummy bear cup and put some in my mouth. How good they tasted. What a great idea! Once I got sick of holding the cup, I put them into my GU bag to take them with me. I had only one GU left - I had used 4 to this point, so there was plenty of room for these little colorful, wonderful bears.

So here we were, Catherine, Des and I, running down the street. Des was wonderful. She would run ahead, get us Gatorade and water, carry it for us, tell us stories, and I think at one point, she was singing. As I said above, my brain was really fuzzy in these last miles. Mile 23 was 11:19. Somewhere after that, one of our other coaches, Brad, picked us up. I wanted this over. So bad. As you looked down the street, you could see buildings that looked like our hotel. I learned the day before when I was driving down this street, that you think you see the hotel, but it's not. Brad ran with us for a while, though I can't remember much of the time. Mile 24 was 10:49. We weren't walking anymore. We were just running, trying to get to the end as quickly as possible. I was using the mantra that Elena had used during the Brooklyn Half. I can do anything for 30 minutes. I can do anything for 20 minutes. I can do anything. From my watch, and the times we were running, I figured out that we'd be finishing around 4:35 or so. I'm a dork. I do mental math when I run.

Anyway, Brad was the first in the line of coaches. They handed us off to each other down the finish miles. His wife, Christine, was next. She's fabulous. They met at TNT back when they were participants and now they're coaches and absolutely adorable together. So we were around mile 25 at this point. That took 11:06. Christine just kept telling us how great we were and how great we looked. She dropped back to get some others and we kept going. Between mile 25 and 26, we saw Michael. Two coaches down, two coaches to go. Michael saw us, jumped in, and told us there were only 4 tenths of a mile to go. I looked at my watch and it said 7:29. I looked at him and said there was more than 4 tenths of a mile to go. It was closer to a half a mile. And we actually had an argument about this. He said it wasn't important and I said it was, because if I started to pick up the pace too soon, I wouldn't look good in the finish. So what did he do? Picked up the pace. "C'mon tri-geek," he teased. I know I was swearing, though I can't remember about what. I didn't want to leave Catherine behind, but she knows I've got a kick at the finish. Even if I wanted to supress this, I don't think I could. A handmade sign noting mile 26 was on the side of the road and my watch said that mile was 10:34. After the sign was a little curve to see the finish line and when I made this curve, I heard a deafening roar. The Vancouver team was there at the start of the straightaway to the finish and were screaming my name. I wanted to cry. It was amazing. These were people I trained with. People who knew me. People who took a weekend to drive down to NJ - some even renting cars because not everyone in NYC has a car. And they were screaming for me. These were people who all believed in a cause as much as I did and were excited to see me finish. Katrina was on the other side of the road with her sign "GO ERIN" and a running stick figure - with a purple jersey on. And all I had to do was run another .2 miles. Michael left me and I heard the cow bell. There was Ramon, one of the most amazing coaches I've ever had, now running alongside of me. About 4 people were ahead of me and I was starting to think about what I should do. Should I burst past them or should I slow down so I get a better finish picture of myself alone? Ramon was cheering and telling me I looked great. I told him Catherine was behind me. Go get Catherine. I knew I could finish and finish strong. I wanted Catherine there with me. Ramon dropped back to get her and Helena saw me and started screaming, running with me with a Team in Training sign. I couldn't believe I was about to finish a marathon. I saw Tamieka and Lisa again, and then my parents and then, in a burst of speed to catch the people ahead of me, the finish line.

I am a marathoner.

I put the medal on and turned to find Catherine finishing. I stopped my watch at this point - exactly 4:35.00. So my final chip time was 4:34.22. I beat my cousin Julie's Boston time and I was damn close to 4:30. I was happy. I couldn't have gone any faster. I saw Catherine and I hugged her and started crying. We had done it, and we had done it together.

My parents and friends found me just on the side of the finish chute. I hugged them and smiled and then I turned to find out that two more of my friends were there. Scott and Leigh. I was so, so happy to see them. I hugged them and thanked them for coming. I showed Scott the back of my shirt where I had ironed on the letters For Scott. I was happy and amazed and proud. Leigh thought I was crazy to run a marathon, as did Scott. I was just glad to have everyone there. I have amazing friends and family. I have fabulous teammates. I am so thankful for everyone who took the time to make the day special - from the volunteers pouring water to the small children that held their hands out for a high five as the runners ran by. I love my TEAM.

Thank you, Team in Training, for giving me another amazing experience I can put in my memory book. I will cherish these memories forever.

I was asked numerous times over the last few days what was harder ~ my half-Ironman triathlons or running a marathon. Now, while I know it's comparing apples and oranges, I feel I can say without question that the marathon is harder. Because when you get sick of doing something in triathlon, you switch to doing something else (swim to bike, bike to run). And when you start your run, you know you're already 2/3rds of the way done, so it doesn't seem so bad. But now I know I can do it. I've run 26.2 miles. I am a marathoner and I am damn proud to be one.

Thanks for reading. I'll get pictures up soon!

The Day Before...

It's Saturday morning. Tomorrow, at this time, I should be somewhere around mile 9. OMG.

The team bus leaves at noon. Jessica, one of the mentors, is coming with me in my car, and we're leaving around noon as well. Since I have to be back on Monday for radiology, I can't stay the extra night that some of the teammates are. I do plan on celebrating as much as I can tomorrow after the race - I just need to drive home at the end of the night. Since I haven't touched alcohol since Christophe's Red Party, I don't plan on getting drunk. Listen to me - I'm already planning the after the marathon.

I know I overpacked. Better to be overprepared than underprepared, right? The weather is supposed to be picture perfect tomorrow, but that didn't stop me from packing tights, long sleeves, sweatshirts, jackets. Even though I plan on running in my purple TNT singlet and my tri shorts. Since I know my tri shorts don't chafe, I figure they're the safest bet.

Defintely starting to freak out. Maybe not even starting - I'm just plan freaking out. Had a dream about the marathon last night. I slept well - was in bed by 9:30, asleep by 10, woke up initially at 6:20 but managed to at some point fall back asleep. Finally got up at 8:30. Got my morning breakfast at Zesty's, showered, straightened my hair, finished packing and now I'm just hanging out til Jessica gets here. Guess I can tidy up a little.

I really can't believe tomorrow's the marathon. I've been training for this since December ~ something I've been scared of for a long time. Yet tomorrow, sometime around 12:30-1 pm if all goes right, I'll have my finisher's medal around my neck.

GO TEAM!

Last Nike Run Before the BIG DAY

Before I even tell you about my last few days, let me send a shout out to Tamieka, who told her friend Dianna, a blogging legend the the running community it seems, about my blog. I got comments! And that was really awesome. Thanks to all of you who read my blog, skimmed my blog, or just told me to kick some ass and take names. I appreciate the support, and trust me, I'll be writing about my experience.

It's so weird to taper. On Saturday, we ran for 6 miles. Tuesday for 4 and today for 3. When I got to Niketown tonight, Ramon looked at me like I was insane and asked what I was doing there. Ana Maria and I had decided to meet up there and run because 1-we would run and 2-free food after running - we're partial to the pineapples. Tonight was an added bonus. Turns out they gave out the new Nike running socks on Tuesday but I managed to scam a pair for myself tonight. Worked out well, since I had actually forgotten to change into my running socks before rushing out the door. I have to say, I recommend them. Nice socks. These aren't the typical Nike cotton socks - these are actually designed wicking, supporting, breathing socks. Too bad they just can't run for me.

So I'm trying not to get too nervous. I was hit with a wave of nervousness today in class. Catherine and I have been emailing each other about our nerves. A bunch of the Vancouver team will be coming down to watch and cheer, which will be a great support network. My parents will be there, Tamieka said she'd come and bring Danielle along, my neighbor Katrina and Brad's girlfriend Meredith are coming, and maybe a few more. I'll take any support I can get. So if you're in the neighborhood and want to enjoy a BEAUTIFUL day (current forecast 64 degrees, party sunny, 62% humidity, 10% chance of rain, winds at 8 mph) make your way down to Long Branch, NJ and cheer all of us on! Check out the website at www.njmarathon.org.

And I have two friends running Boston this year - Debbie and Sandy. They're both TNTers who qualified at NJ last year. Yeah, I won't be qualifying. But hopefully I'll be close to my goal time.

So what's my goal time, you ask? The first time I must beat is my cousin's Boston time from last year. It's 4:43:18 - a 10:49 pace. Yeah, I know, Boston is hilly and last year was 85 degrees. Doesn't matter. I still have to beat it. The second goal time is 4:30, which I should beat. My more aggressive time is 4:15 and closer to 4 hours. That may require the stars and the moon aligning with everything perfect, but it's there to shoot for, right? The tough part is there's pacers for 4 hours and 4:30 but no one for me, who's right in the middle. Might as well go out slower and then if I feel good, go faster, right? We'll see how it all goes.

I'm sure the nerves will kick in big time tomorrow. Oh my god, I'm going to run a marathon!!

It's a Race!

Tonight's practice was a race. Ramon didn't tell us this beforehand, he merely ran in and said "you have 8 minutes to warm up before the race." Didn't tell us distance, pace, or anything. Just said go race. So I ran a 6 minute warm up with some teammates, stretched, and ran. 47:17 later, it was over. the total distance was about 5.5 miles or so, which means I was running around 9 minute miles. That makes me happy. Plus, tonight was a beautiful night. 68 degrees (I ran in shorts for the first time this season), clear skies, and with daylight savings, the sun was setting. Beautiful.

As I was leaving practice tonight with some of my teammates, Ramon called out to me "Good night Erin, glad to see you smiling again!" I'm glad to be smiling. Tomorrow's Send Off and then the race day is almost here!

The Last Three Weeks

I haven't written in a while for a myriad of reasons. So let me start by recapping everything that has happened in the last three weeks.

Match Day - March 17th - I'll be going to Stony Brook University Hospital, out on Long Island. It was my second choice, and I'm now as happy as I can be about that. It stung big time that I didn't get Brown, but over the last few weeks, as you'll read below, I have gotten through the emotions.

Brooklyn Half Marathon - March 19th - The night before, Cindy had a group of us "Upper East Siders" over to her apartment for some carbo-loading. It was a great team bonding thing for the small group of us, though most of the usual suspects were there - Cindy, Kristina, Christophe, Laura, Maggie. Then came the half. I drove my car to Prospect Park with some of the aforementioned peeps, we cabbed it to Coney Island and got ready for the race. My old teammate, Elena, called my cell and we met up at the start. At this time, my goal was to break 2 hours. I'd have to run a 9:04 or somewhere in that vicinity, but I thought it could be do able. Off we went - Mile 1 - 9:00. I thought there was no way that was right. We backed off a little and Mile 2 was 9:57. I didn't think we backed off that much. I personally think the Mile 1 mark was a little off. Mile 3 was 9:28 and that was a better pace. We were off the boardwalk and onto the street now, and Mile 4 ticked by in 9:05, Mile 5 in 9:13, Mile 6 in 9:24, Mile 7 in 9:27. So I wasn't anywhere near that 9:04, but I was still holding a pretty good clip. Elena and I were chatting up a storm, catching up on life and telling stories. In retrospect, I think that was what did me in, as Mile 8 was 9:38, Mile 9 was 9:41. Passing mile 9, heading into Prospect Park, I said to Elena that I felt great! And as soon as those words left my mouth, I was hit with the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. If I didn't know better, I would have thought my appendix just exploded. Excruciating pain in my intestines, with full out cramping, stabbing pains. And we still had the hills to go. During that mile, I took a detour to the bathroom (nothing came out - that really pissed me off) and because of that, Mile 10 was 11:22. We were running up the hills in Prospect Park now. Miles 11 and 12 were both 10:00. As we turned the corner to head up the hill to the finish, Ramon was there. He was telling us to "freaking run" and I just shook my head at him. I had never felt so crappy during a run. Mile 13 was over in 10:31 and the last .1 mile in less than a minute. Overall finish time ~ 2:07.42. My legs held up fine, my breathing was fine, but my abdomen was still screaming in pain. My Half Marathon PR by 9 minutes, but I hated every second of those last 3-4 miles.

Fast forward to next week's long run. I ran with Catherine and Jen and our little group again, and held up pretty well for the first 12 miles. We were off to run the last loop, giving us 18 miles. I got about 2 miles in and just couldn't do it. This was more mental than anything. I had just had an absolutely horrible week - I moped in my apartment, got yelled at by more people than I care to count about various things, went to look to buy a place on Long Island and was laughed at by a realtor, and was finally honest with myself that I was upset about where I was going. I had spent the prior week trying to act happy about it, but I had to admit to myself that I wasn't. You tend to be honest with yourself when you're lost in your thoughts out on a long run. So after running about 14 miles, I did something I do not do often when it comes to the Team. I quit. I walked across the park, upset at myself, upset at the world, waiting for the tears to come to pull me out of the funk that I was in. When I got closer to the East Side, I was almost trampled by a runaway horse coming down the path. I declared that the end of my bad week. I couldn't take anymore. The tears finally came when I talked to one of our coaches, Christine. And more so when Shannon and Ana Maria came back. I swore to put this behind me, but I think I needed the moment to say I wasn't okay.

Tuesday's run I was sweeper, so I just hung at the back of the pack. Catherine was with me to keep me company. It's great, cause she's my height, my build and she has a really cool job. We had told our stories of how we got to our careers on the long run that Saturday. You really get to know people when you run with them for hours at a time. I can't remember the last time I sat down with some of my friends for four hours and just talked. But that's what we do when we run.

Trail Run - April 2nd - So this past Saturday, we were off to the trails in NJ. IN THE POURING RAIN. Actually, it poured on the way down, rained for the first three miles, cleared up for the next 14, and poured again for the last 3. I ran with Jen. We ran next to each other in our mentor vests, quiet in our own thoughts. I decided I was going to run without talking - I think all the oxygen I used to talk would be better spent going to my muscles. Ramon had set up water stops at mile 4, 5.7, and 8. When you got to 8, you ran for 20 minutes past it and turned around and came back. We were doing pretty solid 10-10:30 minute miles. We hit mile 8 in 1 hour and 22 minutes. Ran out for 20 minutes and 48 seconds (10 mile total - 1:43) and turned back around. Stopped at mile 12 for pretzels and a water refill and kept running. It was a nice trail with a canal on one side and a river on the other. Because of the rain, there was some overflow, and we did have to run through a waterfall-overflow-stream at one part. The water was ICE COLD. When we hit mile 16, I said to Jen "only 10 miles to go!" I wanted to see how that would sound. Sounded okay, but the last 4 miles went on for-e-ver. At one point, speedy Laura and Maggie caught up to us. They had ran well past the turnaround point and ended up running between 24 and 26 miles for the day! Laura managed to sputter out "Where's the f*cking bridge?" which was exactly what I was thinking. The bridge we had taken over the river would bring us back to the parking lot and signal the end of the run. But because of the rain and the fog, we couldn't see it for the longest time. I felt okay running, but every time I checked my watch, only a few minutes had gone by. I was hopeful that more time had passed. Finally, there it was. The Bridge! We were done, and I had just run 20 miles! The return trip took 1:51 for a total of 3:34.

Ramon grabbed me at the end of the run and asked how I was doing. He had noticed my mood and my running over the last few weeks and wanted to know if I was better. I explained everything, told him about the Match and how it had affected my running. I also told him that it was over and I was on the upswing. He smiled. He's such a good coach.

2 weeks from yesterday is the NJ Marathon ~ 13 days! OMG!

TEST #2

Today was the day we were to do mile repeats again. And we were to do them faster than last time. Off we went - I was running with Mina and one of my mentees, Tara. I'm decent at pacing myself and having a good idea of my time, but I didn't expect what happened today.

Our first mile was very crowded. There were alot of people on the lower loop and we had to expend some extra energy to avoid them. I was also paying attention to the markings on the ground for the first half mile to see if I was on pace. When I went by the 800 meter mark, I was at around 3:32. Holy cow, I thought - I'm going to be closer to 7 minutes than I thought! Better still, when I passed Brad the first time it was exactly 7 minutes. I figure with the little extra I had to expend missing people, I was at a sub-7. And I did try to run a sub-7, but I wasn't successful. The next two were 7:03 and 7:08. But within a reasonable time of each other. And a minute faster than TEST #1.

I'm damn proud.

Stronger than Yesterday!

First, let's start with a little recap of the week.

Monday - 62 degrees outside. My legs were so sore from running last weekend that I couldn't bring myself to run on my off day. But I did walk around outside for a bit.
Tuesday - Temperature drops 40 degrees. It rained, iced, and then snowed. What a wonderful horrible turn of events. Practice was supposed to be mile repeats (TEST #2) but because of the ice, we just went for a 30 minute jaunt in the snowy, icy Central Park.
Wednesday - TNT Bowling. Plus a little jaunt to the Big East Tournament, courtesy of my cousin Christie. Vancouver beat NJ, but I had the high score (121).
Thursday - The Red Party, hosted by Christophe and Jen. Free red shots that I was convinced didn't have alcohol in them. Plus $3 vodka and cranberry. In retrospect, I think the shots had alcohol in them. I spent some quality time sleeping/passed out while hugging the toilet in the Red Sky Lounge before Kristina brought me home. (Thank you Kristina!)
Friday - Did not move from my bed.
Saturday - Bag watched. I arrived with a book, 3 magazines and a blanket, much to the humor of many on the team. I was still dehyrated from Thursday and had no desire to run. Turns out, I wasn't the worst of it from Thursday night ~ Christophe's brother fell down the stairs. At least when I left, I was able to walk down the stairs.
Sunday (Today) - Before I knew I was bag watching yesterday, I had signed up for the 4 mile Colon Cancer Awareness run. So I figured I'd run the 4 miler, run 2 loops of the Park (6 miles x 2 = 12 miles), and run around the reservoir (1.7 miles). And you know what? I did!

Because I was running on my own, I decided to hook up my brother's old mp3 player that he had given me. Saturday night, I downloaded as many songs as I could. Which, due to the age of this mp3 player, was 7 songs. About 30 minutes of music. The songs were all from my old running tapes, so I knew I'd run well to them, even if I had to listen to them over and over again. The songs were:
Barenaked Ladies - If I had a Million Dollars
Barenaked Ladies - Brian Wilson
Charlie Daniels Band - Devil Went Down to Georgia
Britney Spears - Stonger than Yesterday
Britney Spears - Overprotected
Yankee Grey - All Things Considered
Eminem - Lose Yourself
So I headed into the Park at 7:30 and ran about 2 miles before the race started. Then I was off for the 4 miler. As much as I swore to myself up and down that I was going to take it easy, it was a race and maybe I got a little carried away. The first mile was 9:10, the second was 8:39, third mile 8:37 and last mile was 7:47. Whoops. I walked for a bit, at which point my old tri teammate Elena caught me. It was great to see her again! So we chatted and caught up. I also saw one of my marathon teammates Caren, introduced her to Elena, and we all shared some TNT memories. I really didn't want to do the next 12 miles, but I had to so I said good-bye, put on my mp3 player and was off. Luckily, there was a men's half marathon after the 4 miler, so there were still water stations throughout the park. That was key to this run going well, since I don't carry water. At one point, I bought a water from one of the vendors and drank about half of it so I could have a Gu. Plus, I think I'm still a little dehydrated from Thursday, even though I drank water all day yesterday. I ran and ran and ran and then, it was over. And I felt pretty good about it. My legs definitely hurt, and they will continue to, because I'm about to take my post-run nap in front of the tv. But I finished thinking that I could have kept going. With only 8 miles to run after that, I'm starting to think I may actually be able to do this marathon thing!