So, yesterday I was doing another 4 miler… What a random distance right? Well, 4 milers are a very common distance in the Central Park racing scene, just cause we’re different like that (or because it’s a very convenient loop!)

I’m signed up for every single race in Central Park for the next few weeks, so my constant diet is speed on Tuesdays (800s or 400s with the Breakfast Club), then easy Wednesday (easy like 9:30 or 10, ok!) then easy Thursday and then I race. It’s quite limited what you can do when you’re racing every weekend because you gotta recover and then mini-taper, and I do super two-days tapers, even for a 4 miler! So, less quantity and more QUALITY for a few weeks #bestdiet

Plus, it seems like Juan and I are in a super crazy food roller coaster. Before the races, we clean our act super well, but the two days after the race we make up for it. Yesterday, after the 4 miler, we went straight to Shake Shack, then by  2 pm we had a whole bucket of Ben and Jerry’s, plus a bag of bark thins, plus milanesas for dinner. But we right back on the horse, don’t worry!  Anyway, the RACE! almost forgot!

the day before we volunteered handing out shirts for 5 hours at NYRR. 5 hours standing… my back was hurting!!! SO BAD. Is that a thing or is it because I am 40 now? WTF! I felt so old when I woke up Sunday morning to go to the race… eeeeek. oh well. nothing will mess up my race #noexcuses people!

so, we’ve figured out our race day game so tightly by now. We leave home 1 hour before the race start, we walk or jog to the start to warm up, leave our warmup clothes and head to the start corral 15 minutes before so we don’t freeze… but yesterday was in the 40s, SO NICE AND WARM!  man, we were happy puppies! Spring Puppies. We did see a puppy I liked after, that kind I like, whatever they are called, but it was tiny, soo tiny, I could have put it in a sandwich and nom nom!!!!!

So, waited for a while… like 30 minutes. I don’t know if it was the Spring in the Air or what (sounds so unbelievable right?? haha) but the race was bopping and people seems really happy. Or maybe it was my husband’s outfit making people smile…?

Btw that was my first year wedding anniversary gift, how cool a wife am I?? (he got me diamonds so he wins, fine!). I had done the 10K in 7:20 pace the week before, so… I assumed 7:15 was a safe bet for a pace, right? Who cares? Well, I wasn’t wearing a gps so it wouldn’t matter as I’d go by effort as I usually do. I just wanted to have a finish time expectation (right at 29 minutes?!?!) as usual. I did decide to bring my gps, which detaches from the bracelet and attaches to a clip, so I’d clip it in the back and not watch it during the race 😉 Smart!!!!

Race On! I get to the red corral (Juan goes ahead to blue) and find Ellen, who is going for 6:40, and Jon who said he’d do 7:20. Ok, I figured I’ll tuck behind Jon for a while. First mile has Cat Hill so I tried to go out easy and relaxed. Jon left me easily fast, so I figured I was going at 7:30s or whatever. oh well. EFFORT, not pace! SO I just trucked and tried my best to not get bored (I still do miss the music!).

Mile 1, because I looked at the race clock, seemed to be 7:05 so… ouch. Or, oh oh. Well, mile 2 is fast so I pushed the pedal a bit. By the 102 transverse I was passing a lot of people that went out too hard. Once you turn into the West side things get painful, so I tried my best to not despair or slow down. By the reservoir, I see Ellen up ahead… she seems WAY too relaxed, WTF? So I run up and ask her what’s going on, something about her leg and how she’s phoning it in. I told her to focus on my ass, fun conversation ensues, we start running together taking turns to push ourselves all the way to finish! So happy I found her, or I would not have pushed that hard. Or may I would have, I have no idea now! It is always SO much easier with race with someone else! I sprint like a maniac once we turn and… DONE!

I saw Juan right there, he’d done great and I was sure I was under 29.. but who knows. When I started the watch, I clipped it in the back and apparently I also stopped it. UGH. that’s 3 races in a row I can’t get this crap figured out!!!!!

We hung out with a few friends and team mates right by the race watching everyone finish and share race stories. There was a LOT of people (7,751 to be exact) and SUCH a lovely day. Hopefully from now on they’re all like this where I am not racing to get home in the warm shower. We stayed for the lottery (which, bummer, we didn’t win!) and then walked through the park, to make time before we get home, because Shake Shack opens at 11 😉 we’re disgusting and we know it. As you can see, I enjoyed the sun. Then the results came out by 10:20 am.

Uh, was I excited!

Stats Time:

Ah, life is so amazing sometimes!

Now, back to stressing about this weekend’s Women’s More Half. I’ll be in the Corral 1 pacing the 1:45 group. I am so nervous about this… I have to make sure I do even pacing through the race… interesting! I am used to racing by effort and not pace and to negative split halfs so I start slow and then drop the hammer. Even pacing seems SO weird and nonsense. But I am taking it as a long tempo, even effort, and taking each mile as a 7:58 goal. We’ll see. Wish me Luck!