Oh how far you will go...

A marathon is my limit, but what can you honestly say is yours? Running is one of those things our bodies naturally excel in. It's one of our basic reactions to fear or trouble - fight or flight. A long distance race is nothing more than a flight from the fear of failing.  It's a strange dynamic I think, but it's one that I love. This weekend I finished my fourth marathon and I have to say this was my favorite so far and was one of those runs where I finished and thought, "this is why I do this." So what did I learn this year?

Run the race in thirds: the first third with your legs, the second with your mind and the third with your heart. 

With this in mind, this is a recap my run:

The first with my legs: 0-9miles
I started the run - of course - having to go to the bathroom. My biggest fear this race was having to stop and missing minutes towards my goal. So what happens mile 4 : I can't hold it. Do I just let it go? Fall into the categories of runners who pee on themselves? No. I can't bring myself to do it -- sacrifice your body is one thing, running 22 miles in your own pee -- quite another... So I stop at a port-a-potty with a short line. A girl is waiting, I ask her how long her friend will be and she informs me that she doesn't have to go. So glancing at my watch every 2 milliseconds, I'm pacing out of anxiety and distraction to prevent from peeing - then her friend comes out and her friend goes "well I'm here now, might as well".... Fuming staring at my watch contemplating publicly relieving myself I start to panic, my pace group is out of sight, 4:40 pace group draws near. I pace even more and two and a half minutes later she finally emerges... Sweet. 2.5 minutes I have to make up. So because this is the part of the race I use my legs, I do just that - I finish my business and sprint to catch up with the 4:25 pace group -- Mile 6 I'm back in the race.

The second leg with your head: 9-18
The middle miles are always the hardest, after 13 miles no one is really cheering you on and you start to notice the nuances of the natural group that forms around you running your pace. I had the church group behind me praying the rosary for 2 miles (one involving a hill); I had the man running in a suit, I had the woman presumably coughing up a hairball. I had to play this one smart otherwise this was going to drive me crazy. So I told myself: "run for 2 minutes hard and take 2 minutes to stride." If you know me I made up a song to the beat of my pace "push, push, push for two more minutes --" counting down until I was at 15 seconds, then I counted the seconds." Very distracted and currently oblivious of my surroundings (except for the hacking because I'll be damned if I get spit on) I pressed on saw mile 18 come and go and I'm in the home stretch.

The third leg with your heart: 18-26.2
Now, you get to mile 18 and you think GREAT I have under double digits to go. And then it registers ... uh I have 8 miles to go. Mile 22 I slow for water and in an unprecedented move I bring my leg up for a high knee stretch. The sheer pain that struck my body at that moment was enough for me to cry, but I had 4 miles left and I was NOT stopping and for sure wasn't going to go down for a leg cramp! So I kept going and pulled a move only saved for this last set - I picked a guy someone I knew would give me a challenge and it was a race to the finish.
Happily hearing my name as I sprinted (yes I did!!) across the finish - my amazing boyfriend was there waiting ready to hug me in probably my most sweaty state :)

So I've divulged some secrets here that worked for me - that day I ran my personal best clocking a 4:24. A marathon is my limit, but my goals are without boundaries.
So how far will YOU go? Everyone has their limits, but this question is one of will not of ability.

Duh.

Guess what, if you train for a marathon - chances are it will go well. Adding another addition to the letters to my younger self :

Dear Younger Self,
Running 26.2 miles is no joke. It's not something you can half @$$ do and it's certainly not something to just run on hope - you need a solid base, hard work and mileage.

Last year my marathon was terrible. Take a look at Long Time No Blog for a snap shot. I won't even tell you my time, but the little truck was on my heels. For anyone who doesn't know each marathon has a time limit - it's typically 6.5 hours, or you must complete the half in 3 hours or something to that extent. Otherwise a huge truck comes nipping at your heels picking up cones threatening to swoop you up and rob you of that finishing medal. Last year I almost fell victim. This year I trained. I bugged my co-workers, complained of sleeplessness - got a personal best and I'm excited to do it again! Ok, it wasn't all candy canes and Christmas - there was a point after the 13.1 miles where I rejoiced - WOOO HALF WAY DONE .... oh wait, I have 13 more miles to run. Two more plus hours. The miles between 13 and 19 are the hardest, coincidentally there were no bands, or cheer squads to be found. I had to rely on my counting, random observation and thoughts, good thing for my imagination.

Short post, but to the point. No worries, more stories to come this week for my dear readers.

How to practice safe cycling.

New York City has a Greenway that stretches alongside the Henry Hudson Highway, there is also one alongside the East River. Our city encourages people to use "green" transportation to travel throughout the city. Now, the greenway is also home to many skaters, runners and walkers - yes, cyclist you must share. During my run today I reached a turn around point at the first leg and I turned my head to look and a cyclist ran me over! Toe, throbbing I had to tell this wanna be Lance Armstrong that unless he was in the middle of the Tour de France, he should slow down. He yelled something back at me, but I was timing this run so I just kept going on my merry way. Here are a few points:

1. If you are operating a car, bicycle, roller skates, roller blades or skate board - you are no longer a pedestrian and must yield to walkers and runners.
2. Just like any sport, there are several rules of etiquette to follow, when passing on the left - announce it. 
3. You know those bike bells? Buy one.

I hope in some strange way of the universe the man that ran me over with his bike finds this post and takes the appropriate actions to practice safe cycling. Oh and my toe is just fine, finished my 18 miler with an extra half mile for good luck.

A little R&R

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Day one of my cabin fever - I've been sick all week and now I'm ready to leave. Remember that body realization I had this week in Dear Body, what's wrong with thee? well turns out the flu like symptoms were a virus. Going back to the origins of those viral symptoms, I forgot to record my run in with the crazy drug head on Sunday night before church. Yes, a crack head - stalked me at the 125th subway, slobbering, pigeon-toed and disgusting looking, yelling at me to leave the station. Needless to say, once I got away unscathed I thought of all the things I shoulda coulda done. Like kick her!! Everyone knows people who are high lack in the reflex department... Anyhoo since she touched me when she pushed me and tried to grab my purse, I blame this virus and my sentence to the bed on her. Thanks, and no thanks.

While I'm resting, I'm also thinking - worrying is more like it, because I'm worried this week being sick has set back my training plan. I'm concerned I won't be ready for May 1st (marathon). Luckily, I have a great friend and forever running partner that reassured me that in fact it takes your body three weeks to become out of shape. So this one week and subsequent week of rebuilding should not put me off track. Before talking to my friend, I tried writing, tweeting and searching running forums for an answer from someone else who's been in my position, but nothing on record. So I'm marking this as high priority anyone in training, this will not set you back (fingers crossed, will report back in two months). It also a bit ambitious to think that within 16 weeks training for a spring race, with most of the training at the tail end of flu season that you will be healthy through that whole time.

And if you aren't training for anything, except that extra special stressful work week, good hydration and nutrition can of course keep you on track - unless you run into a crazy in the subway and then you're out of luck.

Write to you soon my dear readers!

The Crystal Ball

What happens when people become painfully predictable? Like the finance idiot your best friend decides to give a chance to and turns out to be comparable to the gum you scraped off the bottom of your shoe. Or when you vow to wake up early to workout and end up sleeping in and still making it to the gym at 1:00PM because there was a Hallmark movie you just had to see? Oh, wait that last one isn't people, that's me.

Is being predictable bad or good? It doesn't seem to matter because you're going to do what you want anyway regardless of the red flags you see flying in your face. For example, if you know me longer than a week, you can predict that on Wednesday I will be grumpy before finishing two cups of coffee, every other day I'm approachable after  I finish one cup. But I guarantee you, even with this valuable insight someone will approach me Wednesday morning at 9:00 with some outlandish question. It's probably not that bad, but with a lack of caffeine ... not pretty.

Situations are predictable as well: like my good friend who is an account executive and the Time Warner scam. My friend lets Time Warner into her room to fix the cable and leaves him to make dinner in the next room. What do you think happened? Why would this be in my predictable post? You guessed it later that evening she realizes she is sans her ipod touch and officially a victim of petty theft in New York. Pretty predictable.

But I like people and situations that are predictable. I love nothing more than a controlled environment, I'm also someone who HATES change and short notice. I dated a guy once who was very "let it be, what will be will be, let's just go with the flow" ... needless to say we didn't work out because my need to outline and file things in my little world couldn't fit his fleeting and indecisiveness in the relationship folder.

Or my most recent version of the predictable predicament, my boyfriend announces that he might have a location change in his job. OH NO ... there goes my perfectly filed folder, so I made him have a discussion on vague pretenses and a lot of ifs, what ifs, and what happens when. All to satisfy my need to make sure I don't get caught off guard. It's a small way to convince my nervous nellie brain that at least I have a plan A, B and C.

Before you go condoning me as a control freak, hear me out. I love surprises like chocolate, flowers, nice gestures, happy coincidences. However, I also know a little too much heart ache and survival tactics for my age. I can't plan everything, but for right now, I'm in a bounce back and luckily, the imbalance in my life is taking a break so I can get my footing just right. Speaking of footing, I'm starting to train and build a base for the marathon in the Spring. It's funny, when you no longer have college schedules to predict your next move, you rely on other milestones ... like marathon number three (AKA NJ MARATHON YOU ARE GOING DOWN PT. 2).

Write to you soon! Happy Holidays!