She's Baaaack!

Hi, again.  Yes, I admit freely that it’s been a while.  4 months to be exact.  I’ll be honest, generally I love writing my blogs, as it makes some of you laugh, and helps some of you to realize that you have the power to do absolutely anything you want to do. But back in September, I got a small case of writer’s block and decided to skip a week.  Then I skipped another.  Etc.  You get the idea.

I’ll be honest, you didn’t miss much.  In fact, for those who are new to my blog, let me sum up last year for you in one paragraph.  It started with my getting pneumonia, then I hurt my Achilles Tendon and had my foot in a cast/boot for 6 weeks which knocked me out of the New York City Half Marathon, the Brooklyn Half Marathon and the New Jersey Marathon.  I learned that my health coach was an unethical dirtbag who would do anything for his own personal gain, thus ending that relationship.  And then I ended my season by training diligently for 4 months for the New York Marathon – which got cancelled.

Now, I did run that marathon.  I wasn’t trying to be political, and get into a whole argument about whether Mayor Bloomberg did the right or wrong thing.  I had just trained for over 4 months, logging over 550 training miles to prepare for a marathon that got knocked off the schedule when Hurricane Sandy blew in and beat the crap out of New York.  Also, my training partner, Karen, had raised over $4,000 for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, on the promise to all of her donors that she would run.  So, the day after the marathon was canceled (or the day before it was supposed to occur), Karen and I decided we’d go do a run in Central Park on “Marathon Day”.

Karen and me at mile 19

Karen wanted to run a half marathon, I wanted to do the full, so we compromised at 18 miles which was going to be 3 loops of Central Park (read: 3 loops of the Harlem Hills which are famous for knocking out a person’s quads and will to live at the same time).  We arrived at the park pretty early, and there were already over 10,000 other runners there, doing the same thing we set out to do.  We just wanted to run.  We talked about which direction to go in and then realized that everyone was going counter clockwise, so we could either join ‘em or get beat up trying to beat ‘em.  About 20 minutes into the run, we both knew that we were going to do the whole thing.  I tried to mention it to Karen, but she said, “Shh, I’m just telling myself that I’m only doing one loop.”  I liked her strategy, so I also lied to myself, loop after loop.  Just one more loop.  OK, just one more.

Random New Yorkers helping out runners

Remember, we were running this with no support staff, no water stations, no EMTs.  But we quickly realized we had one thing: New Yorkers.  Random strangers stood along the course, cheering people on and handing out water, pretzels, gummy bears.  They even held out trash bags for us so we wouldn’t litter.  At about mile 18 I took a Jolly Rancher from a woman who was handing them out, and I said to her, “Thanks for doing this for us.”  She looked me straight in the eye and said, “Thank you for running.  I needed this.”  I never saw that woman again, and I have no idea what she meant by that.  I don’t know if she lost her home in the hurricane, was a marathon spectating fanatic and just wanted to watch a race, or anything in between.  But she reminded me of one thing: New Yorkers are truly amazing.

Because all the thousands of runners were running different distances and started at different times and at different places, everyone’s “finish line” was different.  Karen carried a GPS, and once we got to about mile 25 and realized we were on a flat part, we just kept running back and forth between two hills.  No more elevation for us.  Finally, Karen shouted “26.2!”, and we both stopped dead.  I threw my arms up in the air, and another random stranger – a runner this time – patted me on the back and yelled, “Great Job!” without breaking stride.  He still had to finish his run – whatever length it was – so I yelled out, “Thanks, you got this!” to his back, and he replied with a thumbs up as he jogged away.  For a marathon that never happened, it was awesome.

Now it’s January of 2013, and I’m back.  My running/triathlon year from hell is in the books, and I get to start fresh.  Right now I’m training for the New York City Half Marathon, which would be a lot of fun if the temperature ever breaks the 20s again (or hell, even reaches the 20s).    I’m setting up my race schedule now, which already includes the Aquaphor New York City Triathlon in July, and the New York City Marathon in November.  I am looking forward to what I expect to be a great training and racing year, and I hope you’ll all come along on the ride with me, even if just virtually as you read my blogs.  I promise to make you laugh, and I hope that I help you realize that you can do absolutely anything you set your mind to!