Not sure how this happened so fast, but we are officially in taper town! I have less than three weeks between now and a 26.2 mile tour of the 5 boroughs of NYC… and only ONE double digit run left between now and then, which is wild to me.
I am gonna start with a side note this week – way back in week 8 of training, I mentioned that I was having massive blister issues when going out on long runs. I want to report, that thanks to a suggestion made by my friend Katie, the issue has been completely resolved – all I had to do was change socks for my long runs. Now, I love my tall compression socks, but this blister issue was getting worse each week. So when Katie suggested that I try a pair of injinji toe socks, I was skeptical. But I ordered a pair and used them for my next long run… and every long run since. It was like magic, and my blister issues are a problem of the past now. I still use my procompressions for bike rides and shorter runs, but I have to accept the blister prevention trade off, and say that injinji will be my go-to for longer miles.
I started the week with a rest day on Monday, that included getting a massage at the yoga studio. I had planned to go to a yoga class after, but the instructor that I like was no longer listed as teaching, so I opted to go home and have dinner with Den instead.
I got up bright dark and early Tuesday morning – the sunrise is officially after 7 am now, which means that the dawn is just barely breaking as I finish my morning miles now. It was a little chilly, but I was still happy in shorts as I set out for a 4-mile run. I wound up cutting it a little short, and finishing at 3.7 miles, due to an urgent bathroom need – it wasn’t time efficient to head back out and get in the last .3 miles after, as it would have made me late for work. So I’ll probably tack a little extra distance onto another run this week.
Most of the day Tuesday I wound up taking advantage of my standing desk at work, because my hip flexor felt awful anytime I tried to sit. I was frustrated by this, because I had felt fine before that mornings miles, despite a little soreness in the middle of the long run on Saturday. That night Sophie and I headed to the gym and focused on leg exercises, especially ones with a single leg option. Better late than never with some single leg strength work, right? Don’t worry, I won’t pull this crap on marathon week.
I originally planned to run again Wednesday morning, but because of the hip pain I figured I would take an extra rest day and move Wednesday’s planned miles to Thursday, since my long run wasn’t until Sunday anyway. I set an alarm for 4:45 am on Thursday morning, so that Dennis could bike with me for 6/8 miles before heading to work – but then woke up at 5:30, very surprised that my alarm had not gone off! Upon checking my phone I learned that I accidentally set a 5:45 alarm. Whoops.
So I headed out and was able to get in 5.75 miles that morning. I figured it was better than nothing, and I am in taper town at this point, so missing a few miles isn’t going to have that big of an impact. Honestly, if anything it will probably give my hip the break it needs. It was a very dark morning run, and it was even chilly enough that I kept my zip up on for the whole run for the first time this season… I did ditch my gloves and headband after the first mile though.
My last weekday run was on Friday evening, when my friend Ryan asked if I had time to get in a few miles together. I had worked late and picked up my bib for the Suffolk county half on the way home, so we were planning to head out for a few miles around 8 pm – but I just could not. By the time I got home I felt overwhelmed with my to-do list, and felt run down. I felt bad, but I bailed, but Ryan was gracious about it, and we re-scheduled for the following week.
Saturday was spent cleaning and prepping the house, as my brother was planning to move in with us, and then headed into Brooklyn to check out a tattoo convention with Kasey and Tommy. After the show the three of us headed to Tom’s apartment, and loaded up his stuff into cars and moved it to the house. It was a busy day, and by the time we got home and got everything into the house, I knew that I had not eaten enough throughout the busy day, and tried to cram in some extra calories before bed.
My alarm clock felt too early Sunday morning when it rang out, but I rolled out of bed and got ready for the race. Mike had offered to drive, and picked me up so we could head to the start line. Runners were being instructed to park about a mile from the start, and then there were busses to shuttle us to the start. We got there about 15 minutes before the race was set to go off, and were able to hop in line for the porter potties and made a quick bathroom start before joining the crowd at the start. I lost a gel to the porter potty, when it flew out of my pocket – it was one of those times I was glad that I always carry an extra.
When we got to the start the national anthem had already been sung, and I dropped my throwaway layer into a pile of sweatshirts as we joined the masses. There were 10k, half marathon and marathoners all lumped together in the start area. After a moment the start was signaled, and we shuffled towards the start with the crowd. Unfortunately, there were no corrals at the start, so there was a TON of congestion at the start line, as people of all paces were lumped in together. After about a half mile the crowds finally eased, and Mike and I were able to settle into a comfortable pace.
The first water stop was just before the second mile, and it was kind of chaotic. It was a loop through the start line again, and the volunteers seemed overwhelmed by the number of runners streaming through, trying to grab water. The first cup I got was empty, but the second had a little water in it at least. The next aid station was between miles 4 and 5, and it was full of volunteers from the lightening warriors tri team – this one was fully ready for us to run through, and we were easily able to grab some water. From there we headed towards the main attraction of the race – the bridge! I was struggling to find a good pace, with the air more humid than is typical of the fall since it was getting ready to rain. The uphill as we headed up the bridge for the first time did not help this. But eventually we got to the top, and started the downhill, where we opened up the pace a little bit. There was a bit of flat ground between the bridges, and an aid station between the two bridges. Before we knew it there was an uphill pitch again, and we were crossing a second, smaller bridge. This one had exposed grating for us to run over, which felt a bit tricky. We had to slow down, nervous that we were going to trip.
As soon as we got off the bridge we reached the turn around point of the race, right around mile 9, and had to go right back onto the bridge. Just as we got off the open grating and onto the road again, we heard what honestly sounded like a car crash. Mike whipped around and saw that someone had taken a bad spill on the other side of the bridge, and the runners around him were rushing to help. We kept running, as we saw that there were paramedics stationed a little up the road, and let them know what happened as we ran by, and they rushed to go help. Hopefully he was ok, as it sounded like a bad fall.
Once we were off the second bridge, we could see the aid station between the two bridges in the distance. I needed to stop and use the bathroom, something I generally try to avoid during races, but there was no way to avoid it. I told Mike to go on without me, but he insisted that he would wait just past the aid station, and there he was when I emerged 5 minutes later. I grabbed some water, and we continued on our way. While we climbed the bridge for the last time, I felt good in the steady pace we had found, but Mike was itching to zoom through the last bridge and rip the band aid off, so he picked up the pace and headed up the incline without me. Eventually I caught up with him, as we very happily got to head downhill. From the height we were at we could see another aid station in the distance, and Mike joked that it was a mile away – I was surprised when it was ACTUALLY a mile away though.
It had been overcast for the whole race, with humid air weighing down on us, and when we got to that aid station, we both down two cups of water and two cups of Gatorade. The red Gatorade was nice and cold, which felt like a gift. It gave me the power up I needed to push through the last few miles.
Once we were off the highway and back in town, we had just over a mile to go before the finish line. The final mile was in remembrance of fallen soldiers and had photos of them in remembrance. This is something that makes me cry 100% of the time when races do this.
After we passed the 13th mile marker, we saw the big blue arch that we assumed was the finish line, and I grabbed Mike’s hand so we could run over the finish together – we turned and ran through the arch, both expecting the finish – and learned that it was just the entrance to the finishers chute, despite both of our garmin’s claiming that we were already at 13.2 miles. So, we ran through the finisher’s chute hand in hand, and crossed the finish line together.
We were handed our medals (which I somehow managed to loose in the following hours… maybe it will eventually show up at my house), and then lead to a tent at the end of the finisher’s chute, where we were given a reusable insulated water bottle full of water, a full sized sweat wicking towel, and post-race snacks including watermelon, hot soup and bagels.
Mike and I found a place to sit while we ate for a minute, and then wandered through the post-race village, and he redeemed both of our coupons for a free beer at the finish. Then we found the bus that would shuttle us back to the parking lot, so we could head home.
For some reason this was a hard race for me. I am not sure what it was, but I felt so defeated when we were done, and was exhausted all day after. It was just one of those runs. I am hoping that I just went in a little under fueled, or the humidity caught me by surprise, and its not indicative of how I will feel at NYC – I hope NYC feels as good as my 20 miler did!