Marathon Monday

This week was weird. It was sort of productive, yet not. And also slightly painful. Not my favorite. I saved my long run to do on Monday since we were still on break from school. Within the first quarter mile I could tell that something was wrong with my foot. I was also just feeling a little sick. Not a good combination. I stopped to try to fix my foot, and it seemed OK so I went on. I decided very quickly that I would have a distance only goal that day, I wouldn't care about my pace. I was also worried about not being able to make it the full eight miles I had planned because of my foot so I did a lot of loops to stay close to my house. Thankfully, I did all eight miles, even if it was a little slower than usual.

After the eight miles I was really regretting things. My foot was not good and got progressively worse over the next couple days. I was in a little bit of a panic. I decided to take it easy the rest of the week. I did notice that my foot and walking was way better when wearing shoes. I took the rest of the week off from training until Friday.

Friday while I was in New York City, I decided that the weather wasn't looking so great for the weekend so I decided to do my last six miler in Central Park that morning. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but at the same time I so wanted to do it. I knew I would regret it if I didn't. I was worried about the unfamiliar territory, big city, usual running problems, my foot, etc. It turned out to be a super easy thing to do logistically. I was happy for that. I was not happy about how surprisingly hilly the route was. It was still really cool, despite the hills, to run through the park. I started at the south end running clockwise on the Outer Park Drive Loop up the east side's rolling hills, past the reservoir and then up Harlem Hill. I had read about how steep Harlem Hill was, and it was, but after the reviews I was expecting much worse. I also thought the endless rolling hills of the east side and one or two of the bigger hills on the west side seemed worse. Still, I can't believe how hilly Central Park is. I just thought a park in the middle of the biggest city would be flat. Wrong. The second half of my run was down the west side. I looked at all the museums and also got another nice view of the reservoir. Toward the end I was ready to be done. I was pretty excited about finishing with a decent pace, especially with all the hills and the reviews I read warning people to expect a slower time than their typical pace. So my two runs this week total 14.22 miles. Not as many as I had hoped, but still OK considering I was a little hurt and traveling.

GREAT NEWS! This is the LAST Monday before my race!!!! I have been counting down until the Disney World Half Marathon on Saturday, but I have hardly mentioned that I am also doing the Disney 10k on Friday. So this weekend I will do 19.3 miles in two days. I hope to live. ONLY 4 days!!!!!!