ING New York City Marathon

The morning came earlier than I thought, the temperature was colder, the wind was more biting, the wait was longer at the start villages, the wait in the corrals was longer, the crowds were thicker, for longer, and the footing and race strategy was tricker than I thought...but, it is finished! I completed the marathon in 4:22:27. A PR by nearly 20 minutes, mind you. I encountered a lot of unexpected things throughout the race, but all in all I am glad I ran it, and I crossed the finish line with a smile on my face. Many, many weeks and many miles of training later, I have earned some time off. Stay tuned...

A Day to Relax

Today is the day to just chill and relax. All of the work has been put in and it's all about resting up for the big day today. So far my pre-race routine is going just as planned (which is saying A LOT when you are the mother of a 1 year old). 

I ate a delicious pasta dinner last night,  I got 10 hours of sleep last night (10!), I went for another jaunt down to the finish line this morning for a few photo opps with the hubby and kiddo (and for an extra adrenaline boost), I had an awesome brunch prepared by my parents and sister, swung my Trader Joe's for some post-race libations, and now will spend the rest of the day relaxing. What more could I ask for? Sure a million dollars would be nice, but I will surely take a fantastic race day. Bring it on, NYC! 

To the Finish

I ran an easy 3 miler this evening, to the marathon finish line and back; the road runners have been setting up all week in preparation for the event and have almost all of the finish line set-up. The area was a sea of runners, international and American alike. I had a bit of trouble visualizing my finish as we ran by the banner due to dodging all of the tourists and other runners, but I was happy to be in their company just the same. Two. More. Days. 

EXPO Time

I can't believe it is finally here...it's time to go to the expo and pick up my race packet! We had planned on jogging down there for an easy 3.5 mile run, but it is cold and raining in NYC today, so we were forced to take the subway. The upside is that this rain was originally forecast for Sunday, but the system came through quicker than anticipated. Whew...

All of these months of training have come down to these next few days. I am really excited about the expo. It's real. It's happening. I'm ready.

More Rest...

lots of rest...

Rest

3 Miles Easy

Clearly, I will be slashing my mileage this week in preparation for the race Sunday. Today I ran an easy 3 miles with my son (and half of that with the hubs too) over on the Hudson River. I felt the long run from Saturday in my legs more than I think I should have, but I also remember what a beating last week was in terms of life happenings in general. I feel good though!

Happy

HALLOWEEN!

Pink Legs

is what I had today, and what I saw today while out on my (last) long run. Why? The running gods were gracious enough to grant me identical race day weather this morning so I could try out my final selection on gear and gauge how I will feel race morning (40's and breezy). I essentially have zero tolerance for chilly weather when it comes to running...I don running tights when it dips below 50. Pitiful, I know. But I was thankful for the dress rehearsal. 

Conveniently  my husband has run the NYC marathon 3 times, so he knows what the weather is like and reassured me that this morning's run was a really good comparison (I was cold of course!). But I think the gear I've chosen will be perfect. I was amused though that all of the other runners I passed this morning (that weren't wearing tights) had pink legs too. Oh, I'm so hard core...

Anyway. The run was 'eh'. I was mentally tapped from a long two weeks, just couldn't stay focused. But physically, the run felt easy. This is a good thing. I relaxed my pace and ended up running 12 miles at a 9:32 pace. I ran down to Canal St. on the Hudson River Greenway, my typical out and back, but on the way back I cut over on 59th St. to enter the park at Columbus Circle. The last .2 miles of the marathon. Of course it was nearly noon, on a Saturday, at the tourist end of Central Park, and they were shooting a movie...so I was criss-crossing around a barrage of obstacles, all of which were impeding my ability to visualize running through the finish line, but it was still cool to be on the route and see what has been set up thus far. 

Only one long run left. THE long run. I know the work has been done at this point. I have been training since July and nothing I do in the next week is going to improve my fitness at this point. I'm most excited to share this experience my my husband. He has been invaluable throughout my training, and now that the training is complete I'm ready for just a few easy maintenance runs next week, and then the big day. 

Ditto

Today (and last night) were a carbon copy of yesterday...so was my running. Nada. Work is killing me. Thank goodness 99% of my training is complete, but still...