Category Archives: NYRR

Grete’s Great Gallop Recap

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I finished my 10th half marathon! Today I ran Grete’s Great Gallop in Central Park and man was it brutal.

DSC00343I brilliantly threw my race strategy of 3-3-3 out of the door when I started running – first 1/3 as warm-up, second 2/3 at race pace, and last 1/3 as cool down – yeah right, who needs a strategy? I went out way too fast for the first half and I was paying for it by mile 8. My 10K split was only 8 seconds slower than my 10K race PR. I was actually thinking at that time I could PR today. There’s something wrong with that especially when I don’t remember the last time I did any sort of speed work.

Thank goodness for my friend, Julio found me around mile 8 and we ran into Amanda around the same time as well. Julio was out for his easy 10 in the park and fortunately didn’t mind pushing me for the last 5. He got me through Harlem Hill, all the rolling hills on the west side of the park, and waited for me through each water station. When we saw Josh cheering around mile 12, he was next to me shouting that I better use that as a boost. With 200 meters to go until the finish, I had everyone shouting at me – Julio to the right, Josh to the left, and Coach Brian and our teammate, Carol. With their cheers, I found whatever energy was left and “sprinted” into the finish. The last 0.25 miles were at 7:47 pace.

DSC00361I finished the race in 1:59:40, barely sub-2 hours but happy to even be able to get that time given the lack of training. This was also a course PR from earlier this winter. Today’s race is a reminder of how awesome my teammates are and the great friendships we’ve formed along the way. While running is an individual sport, it’s the team that gives me the motivation and drive to continue.

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Happy Sunday! Hope everyone rocked their races this weekend!

Keep calm and run on…

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keep-calm-and-run“Keep calm and run on” was all I could think about during the NYRR TCS NYC Marathon Tune-Up yesterday morning. I have been petrified of this run all week and after last week’s hip pain, I was worried how I would fare yesterday. Three full loops of Central Park, means 18 miles of rolling hills, Harlem Hill and Cat Hill 3 times each. When you haven’t done any speed work or hill training in not sure how long and very inconsistent long runs, I had full expectation that either I was not going to finish or it was going to be incredibly painful.

To add on top of all of this, I worked on Saturday and was on my feet most of the day. After work, we took a quick trip to Stamford (more on that at a later date) and by the time we got home last night, I was beat. My body hurt and all I wanted to do was fall asleep over pizza carb-loading. Fortunately, I was able to go to sleep fairly early and woke up feeling well-rested.

IMG_3623Despite some parking troubles yesterday morning, I remained calm and reminded myself that I was doing this run, not for time, but rather just to finish. I started the run with my teammates Maria and Tovy but had to separate from them when I peeled off to use the porto-potties after mile 1. I never use bathrooms during run – its precious minutes off my time – but there wasn’t enough time beforehand to take care of business. After the stop, I put on my headphones (P.S. As a coach/runner, I don’t always encourage running with headphones. I believe there is a time and place.) and kept repeating the mantra, “Keep calm and run on.” Aside from the miles where I walked through the water stations, I maintained fairly even splits. When I saw Coach Ali right before mile 6, I was glowing.

IMG_3627I felt a little more tired as the run went on as one would expect, but loops 2 and 3 all felt strong. In the last loop, I was really enjoying myself and thanked almost every volunteer along the way. My fastest two miles were the last two – 17 and 18 and I even “sprinted” the last 0.25 miles into the finish at an average pace of 7:53. My average pace for the whole run including the bathroom stop was 10:14 per mile which is much slower than I have run my other long runs and over a minute slower than when I ran this same course last year. However, I don’t care. I was incredibly proud of myself for keeping calm and continuing to put one foot in front of the other.

Yesterday’s run was a reminder of how much fun running can be, even if it is 18 miles of hills. And more importantly I enjoyed the company of my amazing team afterwards.

Running is like riding a bike, you’ll never forget how to do it and your body can do amazing things.

Tell me about your fun weekend running activity.