I'm Back

Today was my first run (to completion) in two weeks. Long stories but basically work has been hell and I haven't had time to do anything (even sleep) plus my knee still had that tweaky sort of pain.

Today's weather was great for a run. I even thought it was kind of cool out when I stepped out of the apartment. We met at Riverside which is NOT my favorite place to run. Those runs are so boring because you end up going down the West Side Highway. The bikers are mean, the scenery stinks, half of the water fountains don't work and the sun is constantly beating down on you. So I was very very happy when I found out that we were going to take advantage of Summer Streets...Michael Bloomberg's idea to close down Park Avenue for 7 miles on Saturday mornings to traffic so that New Yorkers can enjoy the open street.

So while we started out on the West End Highway we got to cross over to run on traffic-free Park Avenue. Fun!!!

I was feeling pretty excited for my run too since I've been absent for 2 weeks. It was also a down week so I didn't have to be afraid that I was pushing myself too hard. The advanced group was only doing 10 miles. This consisted of running from Riverside at 72nd along the path down to W Houston, crossing over to Lafayette, running up to 72nd and crossing back through Central Park.

I decided to run with the 9:30 pace group but sort of hang back towards the end and do a 9:40 or so. We took off and I was feeling a little tired, but I figured that it was because I had been off for awhile. After the first mile I settled into the pace and felt good. I was running with Kelly though and she kept saying "We're going too fast." Neither of us could tell though, because we didn't know what mile we were on. She had her GPS with her and it said we were doing an 8:40, but she thought it might not be accurate because it doesn't always work in the shade. I told her I would check my watch at 23rd street which was supposed to be the turnaround for people running 6 today (so it was 3 miles). When we got there I looked and my watch and saw it was 23:00. Now, I am pretty awful at calculating splits, but I knew that this meant we were under an 8:00 pace...which I think is just WRONG because the mentor was supposed to be keeping us at 9:30. So we caught up to them and told her and she was like "Oh yeah, I know we're going a little fast." She didn't seem too concerned. (BTW, we were doing a 7:40). At this pace Kelly and I knew we would be wiped out by 10 miles. I also thought that this was bad because a lot of these runners are beginners and don't quite know how they should be pacing, what feels wrong, etc.

When we got to the crossover we had passed the 9:00 pace group (who left a few minutes before us). Their mentor was like "Uh, you guys are going fast, because we're going fast (8:50) and you shouldn't have passed us." Our mentor was like "Oh yeah, we know."

WHAT?!

So we did our best to stay way behind her. She did slow down, but we were wiped out by the time she was doing the real pace. I couldn't even enjoy Park Avenue being closed down because I was just ready to drop. In fact, when we got to 60th street I said goodbye to Kelly, telling her that I had to walk. I just didn't want my knee to flair up or anything. It was feeling okay at this point but I was just feeling like I could curl up on the sidewalk and take a nap.

The advanced coach passed me and asked me how I was doing and I told him what happened. I continued running from 68th street to the end. When I ran into the beginner's coach I told her what happened too. I really don't mean to be an a-hole or get anyone in trouble, but I feel like that really screwed up my run...and I've trained for 3 marathons! I can only imagine how the beginners felt. She said that this has happened twice before (with that mentor being off pace) but never as much as she was at the beginning of our run. So she's going to talk to her.

I walked home and took a looooooong nap.

Tonight I am meeting the team to watch the Cyclones game (minor league baseball) which should be fun, and eat a hotdog and drink a well-deserved beer!