yes, running has definitely brought out the writer in me. It’s not particularly surprising, I’m way more accountable when I’m blogging.
The calendar says November so of course I’m just carrying a light jacket as I walk between meetings. In fact it was even a tad humid. I knew I wanted to run today and took advantage of it still being nearly 70F and ducked out of the office on time. On Tuesday I was pleasantly surprised to realize that the NYRR Run Center was going to remain open all week even with the focus on the marathon pavilion and the marathon expo. So I changed, stashed my stuff and headed into the park at Columbus Circle.
I knew what I was supposed to run today, but I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. Why? Because Tuesday’s run was a mess. It started OK but I felt out of breath before Cat Hill (I run counter clockwise) and struggled up it in a way I hadn’t even Sunday. At the top I paused to catch my breath and never got it back, I couldn’t stop coughing and eventually gave up and walked back to NYRR after a few false starts. It was a perfectly cool fall day and my old friend exercise induced asthma said hi. It didn’t catch me completely off guard as I wondered if it would flare, but it never did for my chilly spring outdoor runs. If it happens again I’ll have it checked out, but in the mean time I’m hoping it was just change of season like my allergies sometimes do.
My legs and lungs were ready to go – my watch was not so today’s run ended up in three stints (one was a bathroom break) until my Tom Tom decided to find a signal. What did that mean? Way too much math to figure out how far I needed to run on the final segment to hit four miles. And because I couldn’t see the watch in the dark I was doing some city streets to get to 2.7. Luckily all of the lights cooperated. I had to look at my spreadsheet to see if it was a good time since I don’t have a good feel for four miles, but it was a good one. More importantly, it felt great aside from watch fiddling. For whatever reason, my Thursday runs have consistently been better than Tuesdays.
That was a nice home stretch to the park portion of the run. You can’t actually run through the finish, but it’s nice to approach it from the back. One day! Not really – I don’t have any interest in the marathon distance, but the way I view the marathon has definitely changed since I started running. I am rarely in the city for marathon Sunday and that’s true again this year, but I’m definitely more excited by it than I used to be. The rare mornings I am here have involved grumbles at the cowbells waking me and frustration at trying to navigate the Upper East Side. This year I really enjoyed the marathon excitement.
Look forward to enjoying it in person in the future. Here’s to sorting out cool weather running in the mean time
A friend from my running club is headed over to do the marathon and also a woman whose blog I started following recently is gearing up for it. I bet you’ll enjoy watching it next year.
I got back to the city around 4:30 and saw some of the Achilles runners still on the course at mile 16-17. So inspiring.
Was pure magic too to watch Shalane Flanagan win and of course the final stretch on the course I run all the damn time. It’s exciting. Hope your friends had fun and the race they wanted
They seem to have done so! My running club friend had battled illness and injury and then her grandfather passed away a week ago, and I’ve seen some beautiful emotional photos and apparently she smiled the whole way round. Thank you New York for keeping her going!
Glad to hear it went well.
(If you ever have folks coming who may need something, feel free to connect us)
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