It's FRIIIIIDAAAAY!!!

Happy Friday, also the eve of my 13th half marathon!  Tomorrow I'll be out and about at the crack of dawn to run my 3rd Brooklyn Half.   NYRR does a great job with this race, even though it's a pain to get to and I have to be up at 4am.  I also have PR'd every time I have ran it, although I'm not expecting much tomorrow.

Anyway....

Thing's I'm loving right now!

Trampolines!
I went to Skyzone for one of their Skyfit classes.  I have to say, I was expecting it to be easy, but it was pretty hard! The instructor even incorporated weights into the mix.  Definitely an awesome way to spend a birthday or a fun day date with the gals.

And if you can do this...even better!

Crossfit231
I'm back at it with a vengeance! A new box opened up at the end of my street, which means walking distance which also meant that I left Cobalt which I was loving, but was just not getting to. These guys are great, it's a bit of an older crowd which I really like.  Not that I am old, but it's nice to workout with people who are more my age (30's), also helps on the social angle.


8 pounds
Gone and NEVER coming back!  Now I just need to lose about 10 more.  I'm about 40 days off of wheat, life changing! Have I had trace amounts yes, but nothing obvious like a hunk of bread or a box of Cheeze-its.

What are you loving right now?

NYCM Phone Dump

I'm not really a taking pics while running type of gal, but I did manage to get a few before and after race shots.  Warning, I look OLD.  Like woa wrinkles, but really, I was just dehydrated...

I was also lucky enough to have my boyfriend and best gal there with me! They got a GREAT shot of me feeling awesome at mile 19.  I'm still amazed that I felt as strong as I did!

Verrazano Bridge, I ran the bottom which was fine by me, it was windy!

Mile 19!

My Toms SAVED my feet after!

Day after glow (selfie fo life!)

NYCM

I'm coming out of blogger retirement (or self imposed timeout) to jot down my marathon thoughts :)

Sooo NYCM was in a word AMAZING.  I didn't PR (that was done in Chicago last year) but I had a course PR which I'll take!  It was a cold (but then got warm, then cold again), windy day - but no excuses, I ran the race I was supposed to run.  I felt happy, strong and confident the entire time.  Nothing major happened, I ran, I high fived, I contemplated life.  When it was all said and done I finished in 4:50:33, not my 4:3x:xx that I was hoping for, but I can always do that next time.  Best part was having my boy and forever friend out on the course cheering me on.  That was the icing to an already top 10 day.  Oh, the roses at the end of the race didn't hurt either!

One thing I will say - and this is for everyone....always be happy with your effort.  You ran a marathon.  Never feel like you have to make an excuse for your time (I tripped and ended up in medic, I took an extra long dump) we will see in your splits that it didn't happen.  Be proud of what you ran.  The majority of people in this world were on the couch.  Not us, we were out running our asses off. So be a good sport and don't make up a story.  #tacky

So what's next?  I'm signed up for the brewery 10 miler, maybe the NYRR Manhattan half, I'm in the lottery for the NYC half and lots of crossfit.  I need to focus on some other things to keep running as awesome as it is.  No burnout for this gal!

Happy Is....

Happy Wednesday! I'm officially 4 days away from 26.2 and I'm handling it all pretty well.  Surprisingly I'm not freaking out about my food, the fact that I'm bloated and have gained maybe 3 pounds or the fact that I haven't decided on my outfit yet.  Nope, none of that is affecting me.  I'm still blissfully happy about my weekend.

I had one of those amazing weekends where everything just went right.  My last long run of 8 miles was fast and perfect, the boy caught 2 HUGE tuna on his trip out to the canyon, I ran the Tunnels to Towers and had an amazing experience. Saw some college friends...the list goes on and on...

Dinner!

Running partner and I met up at the park and ran 7 of the 8 together, it was so great to get out there for our last run before the marathon.  She has seen me at my best and worst I'm so grateful to have her as my running buddy!  We cranked out a 9:30 pace which felt comfortable.  I'm still unsure of my pace plan, but I know 9:30 for 26.2 isn't happening!

Sunday I got up bright and early and met up with some friends to drive into Brooklyn for the Tunnel to Towers Run.  Without getting too into the deets, I have never really been interested in running this race, mainly because I have a hard time with anything 9/11.  I prefer to quietly reflect on that day and my experience (I worked close to the towers and saw the first plane hit, ran from burning buildings, ect...) and I knew from others that this race is a really emotional tribute to not only Steven Siller but all the lives lost, but when a friend had an extra bib I jumped on it and I'm so glad I did!

Battery Tunnel

I really feel like I saw humanity at it's best...30,000 people coming together, simply amazing.  I wouldn't really consider this a race, there are just too many people, no corrals, runners and walkers mixed in together, but that's part of the beauty of it, everyone together as one.  I witnessed wounded warriors running on prosthetic limbs for the first time, men and women running in full gear and grown men crying tears of happiness, an old man running (no matter how slow he was running!) with a sign on his back asking us to bear with him as he wanted his first 5k to be in honor of the fallen....no words!

Mike running in uniform...so awesome!!

I'm so glad I got out of my own way and decided to run.  It was hard, especially the sea of blue holding banners of fallen FDNY as we exited the tunnel, but it was also really uplifting.  Quite the paradox!

The after part was fun, TONS of food from local restaurants - pulled pork, burgers, ribs, pizza, soup and that's only half of it. We didn't stay for the after party, but I did get a pic with Rudy Guillani which was really awesome, for those who don't know Rudy was the Mayor of NYC and really carried us through 9/11.  I would definitely run this again!!

Rudy!!!

So with that, I'm going to try not to stress and enjoy my last few days of taper before I kill Chicago!!!

Will Run For Pancakes

Yesterday was the Gary Mintz Memorial Pancake run. Pancakes and running? Yes please.

I was pretty gung-ho to run until I actually had to get up. I wanted to bail but I was really going to keep my buddy Sully motivated. He's at the point in his running where 5k's keep him going from week to week so I wanted to give him some support and I figured the free pancakes at the end would be incentive enough to get out of bed.

The plan was to run with Sully, which was good because I was sore from back squats and my 7 miler on Sat and he's super slow (sorry Sul.) Just as we were about to go to the start he was like no way, run on your own, this is too much pressure...I totally get it. So I headed to the start did a quick warmup and we were off.

There is literally nothing exciting about this course, it's flat and in a rather non-descript neighborhood. I had no watch and there was only one clock at mile 1 so I really had no idea what my pace was and I was ok with it. I ran by feel and although I knew my HR rate was up, I wasn't killing myself. I ended up with a very tiny 5k PR 27:21 which was cool (back in '06 when I ran it last I finished in 34:44, holy shit I was slow, lol).

The funny part is we ended up bailing on the pancakes....we decided to Glenn's instead, there is literally no better place to talk about running then Glenn's. Hapi (the owner and my good friend) is a marathoner, most of the Massapequa Park Runners Club were there plus a few assorted other local runners. Glenn's is always a good time, so if you are ever in Babylon after a race, keep your number on and go there for breakfast.

The rest of the day was pretty blah. I saw the boy's sister at the race so I was a little in my head, but I got over it...eventually, lol!

Another PR!

I'll take any PR, even little 10 second ones, but it's the bigger ones that really get me going!

Sunday I ran the Evelyn Knapp Memorial Run which is one of my all time favorites. I ran this last year as well, so I knew the course pretty well and I had a little plan in my head. It's hilly cross country course with 2 killer hills: suicide and cardiac, but also a few forgiving flats and downhills. They switched things up so the 2 hills were basically back to back, which both sucked and was ok, after cardiac I knew it would be easy peasy so I could bust out my faster pace, but those 2 in a row are hard on the legs and lungs!

First mile I tried to run conservatively, I'm really working on negative splits and not burning out. Even though this was only a 5k, I didn't want to go balls to the wall then walk the end. My first mile was I think a 9 minute pace, 2nd mile closer to 11 because of the hills, mile three was in the 8's - I was flying and feeling really good. Overall, I think my strategy worked. I ended up with just over a 1 minute PR and the cool thing is that I felt like I could have maintained that 8ish pace for a few more miles. I'm still amazed that I'm speedy after all that marathon training!

Run for the Warriors PR!

I love the Warrior Run, ran it last year and it easily became my favorite race.

This year was no different. The spirit on the course as well as the start is really amazing. Tons of vets run as well as active duty guys. This was a race that I for sure wish I was taking pics, there was a group of Navy guys all in formation, a few guys "bear crawling" at least the first mile with heavy pacs on. Good stuff.

I had no real strategy, I wanted to run it out and see how I would do. Yesterday was probably the hardest WOD I have done, so today I am crazy sore, plus I'm 7 days post marathon.

I was a total positive split, but only off by by 30 seconds from fastest mile to slowest mile, so not too bad. I kept in the low 9's, one mile in the 8's. I was crazy tight and my achilles got all wonky (always happens with new sneaks).

I had a feeling a PR was possible, but I couldn't remember what my time was last year, which i think was a good thing because I might have blown it had I known. Mile 6 was hard, but I just kept pushing and used the whole warrior mantra - if our service guys and gals can do their thing, I can do this.

Final time 57:29! Hootie hoo! A PR by 15 seconds, still counts!! Last year was also a PR on this course, I think it's a good luck 10k for me.

Aside from the great race, bands, opening ceremony, I spent some time with one of my old friends who I haven't seen in ages which was so fun, plus I hung with the who's who of the LI running scene (umm, or just regular runners that I'm friends with). My parents also came out to cheer me on, after the marathon they are getting the hang of being my own personal cheer squad!

Another great race in the books. Love it!

Fall Racing

I'm pretty much done shelling out money on 5k's - unless I have some sort of attachment to it, I'd rather not. That being said, I decided to look over at the Long Island Running calendar and see what's happening that I might be interested in. Surprisingly, there are quite a few cool races coming up and some fun training runs put on by the Sayville Running Company. I figured now is a good time to put some fall goals out there, especially since the marathon is next week and I'm a slacker, so a goal will keep me going.

Ok, so this is what I'm thinking:

Nov 13: Run For the Warriors. Still have to decided on the distance, depends on how I feel after the marathon.

Nov 20: Evelyn Knapp 5k Run to Remember. This is on my favorite hilly course and is in honor of my friends sister.

Nov 25: SJB Turkey Trot - still waiting on info for this, last year I placed first in my AG (really small race)!

I love fall running, it's always fun to get out there and race with friends and acquaintances from the LI running scene. It will also be interesting to see how I do, I ran all of these races last year so I can see how marathon training affected my speed.

So my foot is feeling pretty good. Did a quick speed workout on the mill yesterday before work then Crossfit at night. Hoping I feel OK after my weekend longish run. Crossing fingers!