Heyheyfriends!!!!!!! Okay, coffee overdose is winding down, finally, two days later… I had way too much coffee Sunday morning… I never have coffee. That was a problem.

So, let me back up a bit. You remember how my hamstring was messy for 6 weeks? Doctor told me to let is rest, with OH THE HORROR, no speedwork for two more weeks, and try speed last week? Well, last Tuesday I did speed and it was FINE. FINE FINE FINE. I waited all day Tuesday and no pain, I woke up in the middle of the night (to pee obviously) and I just dreaded putting my feet down, nothing. Wesdnesday, nothing… I AM CURED< HALLELUJAH!!!!!!! YEY! So, the speedwork Tuesday, was 4x400s, 1xmile, and 4x400s. So when Coach John said to to a mile, I told myself that if I did it under 7, I’d race the Fifth Avenue Mile on Sunday…. so I tried my best, and even thought my heart almost jumps out of my chest, I got a mile out in 6:50. KA-CHING. ticket to the mile. I was almost dying but I figured this: if I do the mile Sunday,  on the road. It’ll give me a good idea where I stood for the Half. Maybe not the target half I had (Newport Liberty on Sept 20th, this weekend) but for Staten Island Half in October 11. 1 month to go.

I figured I’d do the Mile around 6:40. That would put me over 1:40 for the half, so I didn’t think there was much point to train an extra month for Staten Island. But if I could tuck under that, we’d see… we’ll see, we’ll see. Something I’ve been saying WAY TOO many times lately.

bib pick up, with a fellow Media Mile Runner, Dave

Saturday night we fell asleep early, like 7 pm, Juan had a bronchitis and had ALSO done 19 miles. He’s a beast like that, but by 6 pm he was a mess and I was bored, so sleepy time earlier than usual. I woke up at 7 (he was still passed out, so many drugs to counteract his messy chest!) and I felt like those days that you never wake up… so I had a LOT of coffee. Like a lot. We left. I jogged to the start. He walked to the Dashing Whippets cheering station. I jogged a bit up and down, and the extra coffee overdose was giving me palpitations. I was a bit scared but I know coffee acts up on me. We both like to be in control… And I get to hyper. I wanted to race up as soon as I can, I felt like my chest was gonna blow up. I lined up and I was so scared I was going to go out too fast… I had splits written down in my hand for 6:35, to see if I could hit that. But I was really scared to go out too hard with the coffee, and with that hammie -it had felt ok on  Tuesday but it was messy a week before… I was sure I didn’t want to go at 100%. We’ll see (see?)

So, I got going, I was looking forward to hit the first quarter in 1:35, and I was happy to see I was a few seconds under. I knew I wasn’t going too hard. Second lap, I was still a few seconds under, OKAY, even thought that is almost the whole uphill section. The next one is downhill and I was looking forward to seeing Juan and all the Whippets so I totally missed the clock, oooops.

There they are! Juan: thanks for being the most dedicated photographer, even with your awful bronchitis ❤

Across the streets were my friends from Harlem Run yelling too, they’re the funnest bunch in all earth.

Soon…. I was close. I always love that a few 100 yards away you see the clock and those blocks take forever. I came right at 6:24 and I was so happy!!! Also, I noticed I wasn’t breathing hard and loud as (most of you know) I do on the last bit of race, and had ZERO coughing at the end. I bet my scared brain stopped me from going too fast to protect my legs. I have a feeling I could have gone a bit faster. Even a day later, not even a little chest tightness which I usually get after a hard effort. CRAP. Juan told me: I’ve seen you race, you were NOT racing… oh well. You know, sometimes when you have been injured, it takes a while to feel secure again… #goodenough

I think I did fine pacing, maybe I could have run the first quarter one or two seconds slower but given I had no idea I’d do under 6:25, I think I did as well as I could with the information I had.

Stats Time:

Quite happy with this! Sooo, this means I could probably do the half in under 1:40. that is not even close to the 1:36 I had planned for this weekend but oh well. Better than nothing I guess. Back to training people!!!!!!!!!!!!

With Daniela and Tessa

So, after the race, I met up with some team mates, walked back to 65th where the rest of them were to cheer the other heats on. We saw EVERYONE racing. Seriously, I think every person I know was there.

Minus my family in Argentina of course. But everyone else: there!

Soon enough, I head back to the start. I was running the Media Mile at 11:45 and now that my coffee was settling at least I didn’t feel like I was gonna blow it out of the gates, but who knew my legs… I just hoped, again, I wasn’t messing myself up. The heat was small and I knew pretty much everyone there! There was a LOT of pictures taken! These next four ones are from the NYRR Gallery.

Photo Credit: NYRR

Photo Credit: NYRR. that’s my ponytail on the right!!!! you know I suck at selfies. how do people do those??

Photo Credit: NYRR. Another one, see how small it was? I am in there in the middle somewhere

Photo Credit: NYRR. again forced to the front, just like in Team Championships, no one wanted to go up! where’s my headband?!?!?! I caught up with Chris Lobtsom at the start, he looked like had it. I put him and Dave to work together, they came in 1-2 a few seconds apart, which is pretty awesome

Someone took this cause I DON’T DO (GOOD) SELFIES.

The rest of all the official pictures are here.

Soon, we get moving. And OMG MY LEGS ARE LEAD. HA. OUCH.

Still, guess what? I went out too fast!!!!!!!!! hahahahaha!!!! my first quarter was like 1:24!!! Hahahahhaha, I laughed at myself SO hard. Then I thought, could I possibly run this faster than the first one? And I laughed MUCH MUCH HARDER this time. Then I told myself to stop being an idiot and not laugh anymore and just sign to myself or something.

AGAIN, there’s my gorgeous husband and my team. And I really considered quitting there. I was soooo tired and in pain this time around. OUCHIE OUCHIE OUCH

I again missed the 3/4 mile clock… ugh, but I knew I wasn’t “faster”… I finished in about 6:40 or 6:42, I need to look it up. And proceeded to do this right away:

MEB!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Media Tent was bopping. I hung out a bit with two superstars (Peter and Jen, in case they EVER read this), Meb, Asteria, Carrie Tollefson, you know, the usual cool people, grabbed a drink and, just waited for the Pros to run about an hour later. All the pictures of those races are here in case you missed it. That was fun and very exciting. Plus I got to catch up with my girl Shannon, who came in 2nd, post race!

Shannon and Linda, two superstars in my book!

And that’s the mile.

The coolest-shortest-straightest-painful-funnest race of the year. Great weather to race and spectate, and the chance to see everyone you know in a few hours. Pretty much like the marathon but more painful, I’d say.

Now, back to seeing how much I can salvage all of this year’s training in 4 weeks… fingers crossed.