Well, soooo, did I tell you I am training for a marathon? Same thing happened last year, I start training for a marathon and I totally don’t admit it to myself until a couple of weeks before when I decide I need to book a hotel or whatever and everything is sold out. Well, so, yes, I am signed up for a marathon in two weeks (notice how I said “I am signed up” and not “I am doing a marathon”: denial until the last second!), that is the Mohawk Hudson Marathon, October 8th, in Albany. Easy to get to from the city. All I need. Cause I don’t care for traveling unless I am going to Italy or the Caribbean or a few other super fun exceptions.

Anyway, my plan was to race the 5th Avenue Mile two weeks ago, and then the Newport Half Marathon last weekend to see where I stood, fitness-wise. Then, my stomach decided to change all my plans and mess up my life for about 2 weeks. I couldn’t even drink water without stomach pain. Not only I couldn’t do a lot (though I managed to do my long runs, smart move Elizabeth -NOT!) but I lost about 8 pounds, which is a lot for me. I felt like I was stick and bones, and couldn’t run a few of my workouts for 3 weeks. I had to skip the 5th Avenue Mile, I was literally too weak to run. I did manage to work all day and have a great time!

The next weekend, I was signed up for the Newport Liberty Half. Turns out I messed up my dates and couldn’t run it. I thought the race was Saturday, and I was working at the Tune Up! I did a long run instead the day before. This is me working, with the orange cone and the coolest: Kathrine!

Anyways, given I had missed all the predictor races, all I had left was the Bronx 10 Mile this past weekend. Then, a heat wave rolls in and on race day, we had this, EARLY!
Ouch.

Given my stomach hates me, I wasn’t sure what to eat. So what did I eat? Nothing more than a spoon of honey. And a glass of water. Awful and dumb yes, but YOU go deal with the pain!

I got on the uptown train early, and found SO many people heading to the race. One of them, was my Italian friend Davide who was in town just for the weekend and I forced him to register. I am so sweet. Somehow we were able to find each other on the train, after not seeing each other since Milan last year! It’s a SMALL world!

We got to the start quickly, left our bags and did some warm up miles, though we were already warm (HA), plus pictures of course!

So, Jackie, Davide, Gordon and I went for a warm up. Felt hard. I wondered if I should risk it and have a gel. I had thrown a gel inside my bra. I was too scared. Didn’t.

Soon we were corralled in, found Martina, as we had planned to start together and we were off. She wanted 7:40 pace. I wanted to negative split, and didn’t care about pace. It was hot guys. Actually, let me rephrase that. It was hot, guys! Half a mile in, my mouth and throat were super dry. ALREADY? I could see Martina drenched in sweat. I wasn’t sweating at all. No good. For either of us.

I was grabbing water at every water station, I’d drink a cup or half a cup, and throw another one in my head. In a mile, at the next water station, I was already dry. Wild, weird and scary. Marti and I trucked along side by side trying to not freak out. I would have started a tad slower if I was on my own, not gonna lie. So I kept telling myself to just keep up with her.

Mile 1 was 7:45, Mile 2, 7:41, Mile 3 was 7:43, Mile 4 was 7:47 and Mile 5 was 7:44. As soon as we made the turn to start heading back, Martina got behind me and yelled at me to go. I said ok. It was about time for me to start pushing. I know it’s hard sometimes to keep up with me once I start kicking but this felt too early. I hadn’t picked up the pace yet but maybe she was fading. I decided to start to pick it up slowly.

The way back was hard, I am not gonna lie. I really needed more fuel but didn’t want to risk it. I also can’t stomach Gatorade so water and a spoonful of honey is all I had in me all day. I didn’t have enough energy for a kick but decide to just hold it and not mess it up.

Here are the last 4 miles:

It wasn’t the fast miles I had wanted but I held in there and got a bit faster mile by mile. I did my best and that is as good as it was going to get. The official results!

So, given the weather, not sure how great this is a predictor, but it is shooting 3:29 to 3:31 for the marathon. NOT a PR time… two weeks to go. Hear me stress…!