The week was off to a good start, with a Monday night yoga class with Emily and Sophie. We headed to Vanessa’s late class, move and meditate. She kicked our butt with an intense series of core movements and lunges, and I was blissed out by the time I reached savasana. I got home with enough time to eat dinner before promptly passing out.
Tuesday morning was a struggle. Kasey got out the door before me as usual, and before I even got out the door texted me that she had wiped out.... and then promptly proceeded to not answer my texts. But the “find my friends” app told me she was still moving closer to me, so I headed out the door to find her, and she was just up the block from my house.
We continued on with our run, which I was very overdressed for. I slowly began to melt, but at least we chatted about the impending holiday as we got through our miles. I kept telling myself the run would get better, and pushing myself forward. I just couldn’t seem to catch my breath though, and then I remembered the air quality warning that my phone had sent me.
Kasey finished her miles, and as I moved forward from her house it started to rain a VERY cold rain. And you know who didn’t have a hat? Me. At this point I was just really over this run. It sucked, I was sore, I couldn’t breathe, and my apartment was miles away. So I did something I don’t often do - I ran to my parents house, and I stopped. I was supposed to be doing a track workout anyway, and with how I was feeling the paces I wanted to hit weren’t going to happen, and it still sucked after two miles, so I called the run, and hung out with my dad for a bit before hitching a ride back to my apartment. I told myself that I would head to the gym after work, and get the track workout in then.
So I made plans with Sophie to head to the gym when we were both done with work. I got on the treadmill, and committed to getting my speed work done. It was hot in the gym, and I quickly became a sweaty mess, but I stuck to my paces for the most part. The plan was for a 1 mile warmup, then 1 mile at a 7:43 pace (1:30 jog), 2x800 @ 7:29 (2:00 jog) then one more mile at a 7:43 pace before a cooldown. I managed to hold the pace for both miles, and the first 800m repeat, but had to back off of the pace a little for the second 800m repeat to avoid puking on the treadmill. I got a total of 5.6 miles in, and Sophie hit her goal too- 5 continuous miles so that she would feel ready for the turkey trot we were running later that week.
I had good intentions of going to yoga on Wednesday night, but while Emily, Kasey and I were on our way to pickup the turkey trot bibs we got a call from the studio letting us know they were cancelling the class that night. So instead we just took it easy and had a girls night in at the apartment, and Sophie joined us as well.
Finally Thursday rolled around, and it was time for the third annual running of the Garden City Turkey Trot! It was the third year for Ryan, Hallie, and me, the second year for Kasey, and Sophie’s first year joining us! It was COLD on thanksgiving morning, like less than 20 degrees. So we layered up, and sat in the car for as long as possible leading up to the race- we may have had to run to the start line to avoid getting run over by the front runners.
When we did get to the start line, we began our race almost immediately. Kasey and her siblings quickly pulled ahead of Sophie and I, who stuck to a pace around a 10 min/mi. For me, holiday races are usually about spending time with your people rather than finish times. About a mile into the race I had to fanagle removing a layer while running, because I was overdressed, as usual.
Sophie and I ran along together and just before mile 2 I got a text from Kasey asking where we were- she had ran ahead of her brother and sister and was bored of running alone. We were running through the first water station, and told her as much, but by the time she got it we were passed it, and spent the rest of the race trying to spot each other- Kasey finished less than a minute after Sophie and I, so I’m pretty sure she was right behind us as we tried to find each other.
Hallie and Ryan came in a few minutes later, racing each other to the finish line in full force. We stopped to take a few quick photos together, then quickly headed for the warm car, happy to get out of the cold weather.
My next run was on Saturday night, on a treadmill. I managed to put this run off all day. When I woke up I started working on some Christmas gifts, and told myself that I would go out to run at 9. At 8:45 I called dad to see if he felt like biking, but he was in the process of hanging Christmas lights alone, as my brothers were still asleep. I had a pretty free schedule all day, so I agreed to help him hang lights, and we did that until Sophie and I headed to yoga at 12:30.
By the time we finished yoga I was hungry, and headed back to the apartment to grab lunch. I then continued to procrastinate, and made 4:00 the new time that I needed to get my butt to the gym. I was successful this time around, and my plan for the treadmill was a threshold run- 2 mile warmup, 2 miles at 8:54, 1 miles at 8:06, 1 mile cooldown.
I’ve been listening to Harry Potter and the deathly hallows during easy treadmill miles lately, and tuned in as I got the warmup done. When I switched to the harder paces, I flipped to a fast paced playlist on Spotify, and got moving. It was a little rough at times, more mentally than physically, but I got through the three times miles at the prescribed paces, and then trotted through my cooldown, happy with myself for getting to the gym and putting in work.
The last run of the week? Sunday Runday.
Dad agreed to ride along, and Mike needed to get an 11 mile run in, so the three of us made plans to head to jones beach. I needed to run 18 miles, so Dad and I headed to the beach about an hour before Mike, so we could get the first 6 miles done. I managed to keep them at a sub-10 pace, so that I would have a little buffet when I inevitably slowed down at the end of the run. We headed west first, returning to the new area we had run the weekend before, then back to the parking lot to find Mike. A quick Gu stop, and we were headed out on the path towards tobay beach.
The miles slipped away, as they always do with Mike and Dad, as Dad encouraged us to keep moving. The weather was perfect, with not too sunny skies and a nice breeze (did I manage to get a sunburn? I don’t want to talk about it.). When we got to tobay it was time for a quick bathroom stop, and another round of Gu. As we headed back towards the boardwalk I marveled over the sky, which was a beautiful blue with picturesque clouds.
When we finally made it back to the boardwalk we only had two more miles to go, and as Mike started to feel fatigued I encouraged him to take one more Gu. I felt better than I had in a long time running this distance, and was coming up on 18 miles feeling strong. We started the final decent to the car, hit our mileage, and then discovered that the underpass we needed to go through to get to the car was entirely flooded. So, we wound up with a nice long walking cool down, as we took the long way to get to the other underpass.
I had been nervous going into the 18 mile run, but finished it feeling strong and optimistic about the marathon that my future holds.