Week two began with a family affair – my younger brother, Kevin, graduated from the Police Academy and officially became a member of the NYPD. It was a busy morning in the city, and then my family headed back to Long Island to celebrate, so it was a rest day well spent.
Over the weekend I had gone to Runners Edge to get a new pair of running shoes, and they sold me a pair of Brooks Levitate 2. I had completed my run with Mike on Sunday wearing them, and wasn’t sure that I liked them. I had a week to decide if I wanted to exchange them, so I was excited to run in them this week.
So the week started on Tuesday, with an early morning run with Kasey. We agreed to an early start time, and upon stepping out my front door and feeling the weather, which was sitting cool in the 40s, I ran back inside to grab a pair of gloves and an ear warmer. Perhaps overkill, but it is still early in the season, so chilly mornings tend to catch me by surprise. By the time I had located these accessories, I was 10 minutes behind schedule, and when I reached Kasey she was nearly at the apartment.
Kasey pulled off her headphones as she approached me, and told me that she was beginning to be concerned that she had taken a wrong turn when she hadn’t found me that far into the run. To my surprise, she didn’t snap the headphones back on, as is standard, but instead began asking about wedding plans (she is, naturally, one of my bridesmaids), and that conversation turned into talk of the family affairs, and we actually wound up carrying on conversation throughout our entire run. Something that is a rare occurrence but was very welcome.
The sun wasn’t quite up when Kasey finished her run. I was at about three miles at that point, and had another 4 to get through before I could call my run complete. It was a really good run all in all, and although I was cold at the start, I settled in, warmed up, and was glad that I got out of my warm bed to put in work.
Plus, Kasey admitted something to me that day – she had ACTUALLY enjoyed our run.
On Wednesday I headed out for a quality run – this weeks foal was for four 1200 m repeats, at a 7:29 pace. Dad agreed to meet me at the track so I would have some company, and again is was a cold fall morning. I woke up to find out that Dennis had turned on the AC, despite the outdoor temperature being in the 40s, so it was even colder than it needed to be in our bedroom. The cold made me entirely not want to get out of bed, but I did, pulling on layers of running gear to an excessive degree.
I wasn’t sure of the shortest route to the track via side roads, so I went out to the main road that the school is on, and ran down that to get to the track. The one creepy part? Running an old grave yard that is NOT well lit when it is dark out. No thank you.
When I got to the track it was still dark, and I couldn’t see dad walking laps. I ran to where he chains up his bike, and saw that it was locked in place, so I dumped some of my layers and took off my light up vest. It was dark, but that was overkill on a track that was blocked off from traffic. I did keep on my hand lights though, and just as I was about to begin my laps saw dad approaching – he was dressed in all black, which was why I hadn’t been able to spot him earlier.
The run to the track had been about a mile and a half, so I deemed that an adequate warmup and got right to work. For some reason, the song “American Girl” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was stuck on repeat in my head as I looped around the track. The 7:29 pace was a challenge for me, but I pushed to keep as close to it as I could. The first repeat rang in at 7:34. Not too shabby, a little slow, but I was happy with it. One recovery lap, then right into the second repeat. I counted down as I finished each 100 track segment. An extra push in the last 100m, and the second repeat was complete in 7:32 – still a little slow. The sun was starting to come up now, and I made a put stop to use my inhaler before continuing on to the third repeat.
Third set. Holding the pace was getting harder. I focused on pushing on the straights, and just getting through the curved areas of the track. 7:35 pace. Not bad, still moving, still pushing. Only one more repeat to go, and then I just had to finish an easy cool-down run to get home. I finished my recovery, and took off at the start of the fourth repeat. The pace was taxing, and despite giving it my all, the last repeat was my slowest – 7:44 pace.
It was time to leave the track after that, so dad hopped on his bike and ride with me as I ran back to the apartment. I was proud of myself for getting out there and doing track work, even if I hadn’t perfectly hit the numbers. I still showed up, and that counts for something.
Thursday morning I managed to get moving before Dad arrived at my apartment on his bike, and shortly after we found Kasey as well. I was surprised to see that for a second time this week Kasey pulled off her headphones, and started chatting with me as we ran – she started wearing contacts this week, so maybe the process of putting them in before running is waking her up enough that she can tolerate me that early in the morning. Just a theory.
I wasn’t planning on getting too many miles in that morning, as I had plans to run with Mike after work. Once Kasey had finished her run I ran a little more around my parent’s house, instead of running back to the apartment like I normally do – as we were running Dad’s bike brake started acting up, and he didn’t want to risk going out on main roads. So, we finished the run at my parents house, and he gave me a ride home. I had stuff that I needed to pickup from their house for the wedding anyway, so this plan worked out.
That run after work? Yeah, it didn’t happen. By the end of a busy work day, I was feeling overwhelmed and had about a million wedding things on my to do list, so I had to be a jerk and bail on Mike so that I could focus on getting a few things done. I reminded myself that in less than two weeks the wedding would be a thing of the past, and I would no longer have to be a flaky jerk.
By the time the weekend rolled around I was less than a week away from the wedding, and that to do list felt like it was getting longer rather than shorter. My to do list felt like it was 10 miles long on Saturday, and that wasn’t including the run that I needed to squeeze in. I managed to get some last minute supply shopping done in the morning, and agreed to meet Kasey around noon to get some miles in. The air was on the cooler side, but the humidity was back and kicking.
The Merrick bicycles Tri Team had gotten new gear, and my Half-zip had finally come in, so I of course suited up with that for my run. I was excited to get to wear it for the first time! I also wore my new sneakers, which after giving them several chances throughout the week, I was not in love with. This run was their last chance, and if they didn’t wow me, they were being returned and I was coming home with the newest ghost model instead (spoiler alert - the sneakers got exchanged, and I went back to the “ghost” line that brookd makes).
The run with Kasey wound up being riddled with walk breaks, because we both kept winding up short of breath – the air was not our friend today. We slowed the pace and kept it casual, once again chatting through the miles. Once Kasey had finished her miles I ran towards my parents house to see if my mom was home, so we could establish a plan of what we needed to get done in terms of wedding stuff that day. After the pit stop, I made my way back to the apartment, getting in a total of 6 miles. The shoes were still feeling very ‘meh,’ so I made the decision that they would need to be exchanged. Womp womp. I was glad that I was able to sneak a short run in, despite the fact that it was a little bit overwhelming to find the time.
I closed out the week with a 5k with Jennie – the McVey 5k! Jennie and I have known each other for as long as I remember, and we attended elementary school together at McVey before my family moved in the late 90s, so when we discovered this race, we knew it was something we wanted to complete together.
Jennie had been on top of things and signed up for the race in advance, but I somehow never got around to registering. Lucky for me there was on-site registration, and they even still had my shirt size available. After we registered we pinned on our numbers and hung out in the school gym, since it was a bit chilly out, and the start line was right in front of the school anyway.
Originally I had figured that I would race this event, but as soon as the start horn went off, I realized that I really wanted to complete this event WITH Jennie, it was my last race before the wedding, and it was something special for the two of us - so off we went, and we stuck together the whole way. The course even took us past Jennie’s parents house, and her Dad came out to cheer us on. When the finish line was in sight Jennie surged, and I had to chase her down as she flew through the finisher’s chute.
We hung out at the school for a little bit upon finishing the race before moving on to the rest of the days activities - which mainly consisted of assembling wedding centerpieces for me! But as always, I was glad that I found time for a run.