Hustlin' Through Harlem!

Wow, what can I say..this morning I headed to Harlem thinking that my body couldn't possibly ache more than it did at that moment. Everything ached from my hip joints down and all I could think of was an ice bath! :) My sis scouted out the scene and thought she saw a local Ethiopian runner who might give me a run for my money. I had originally thought I could just run sorta easy enough to win but I soon realized about 1/2 a mile into the race I was going to have to hurt if I wanted to win. I hit the first mile way too slow, most likely due to the big hill at the half mile mark, haha. 5:50 (eek) About 100 meters before the mile mark I passed Muliye (the Ethiopian) and she latched onto my heels. I continued to push the pace hard to try and drop her. She stuck around until about the 2 mile mark and from then on I was hustlin' as fast as I could to get to the finish. My miles dropped significantly with the second one being 5:29 and the third 5:13, woo hoo! That makes me happy that I was able to run the race getting faster and faster. At the awards ceremony they said I broke the old course record by 30 seconds, so that was a nice bonus after missing the one at the Bronx Half last weekend :) I loved the course and it went by really fast. NYRR put on another great race and I really like Harlem; it's a cool area of the city. Van Cortlandt XC 4 miler next weekend is my next and last race while I'm here in NY and I cannot wait to get out and do a XC race. This will be my first in a while and my first at Van Cortlandt since I last raced USA XC Nationals there in 2006.



My ice bath felt soooo good after the race...30 pounds of ice and cold water..does a body good :) I'll try to get another one in before the weekend and then another after Van Cortlandt, and I should be good until I get home. I'm looking forward to getting up early tomorrow and hitting the soft surfaces in Central Park for my 10 mile run and strides. The cement and asphalt has really taken a toll on my legs, especially the 14 miler the other day in the warm weather, all on hard surfaces.




My foot has been feeling so great lately. It's not 100% healed but it's a complete turnaround than a few months ago. I'm just so happy it has improved so much and it really makes me love my runs so much more. The biggest thing I think has been staying off my feet more (not teaching everyday, and not much at all obviously all summer), wearing my Birkenstock sandals and also getting back into my training gradually. It gets old not being able to wear whatever shoes I want but being able to run without sharp stabbing pain is priceless :) Now I can only hope it continues to get better and not any worse!

15 more full days until I see my boys....:(:(

Quote for today: "The unfortunate aspect about living life without your own goals is that you may very well reach a point in your life where you will wonder, ‘what would have happened if I had only done'…" -Catherine Pulsifer