ING New York City Marathon 2007

I started of course with the normal self doubt. Can I do this? Do I need cab fare? I felt my left knee sore and I didn't think the anti inflammatories were enough. I woke up at 5 am to be shuttled to the start at Wadsworth Station in Staten Island. We met so many runners on the bus and the topic was the poor young runner who died the day before in the Olympic trials. Not a good topic for me since I am in health care of course I was overly worried about hyponatremia and other issues.

We finally get to the start and it is a huge area with breakfast of coffee and bagels. They were extremely organized with many porto toilets and areas to sit. We were corralled by color group and for some bizzarre reason they put me with the top 9000 women! This gave me an advantage of not being as crowded as other bib colors. At the expo I boldly picked up a 4:15 pace bib even though I knew I was injured and should not be setting a time goal for myself. But what the heck, as I told my friend Avi, if this is going to be the last race I do for a while, I'm going to blow it out!

The cannon went off as the men whizzed by the general public runners, what a sight to see! My pace group starts off fine, we weave in and out of several runners and my knee feels sore but ok, just the chronic runner's pain. There are helicopters hovering over us and it is amazing, we get to Brooklyn and people are lined down the streets. Mentally I thought if I could get to mile 8 without feeling my severe left knee pain I would be fine. The 10k mark came by and I felt that my pace group was going slower than the estimated 4:15. I past my group up and felt comfortable, I was not short of breath and just felt fine most of the time. I picked out a few people in the crowd and tried to pace with people. But my usual manner is to just focus on breathing and strides that running becomes hypnotic for me. I got to the 20k and I notice a group of British girls I started the 4:15 with. I thought I had passed them up! They told me they wanted to do faster than a 4:15 so I joined them. Donna and Vanessa were their names, we motivated each other for the rest of the marathon. I lost my new found friends along the 40k mark they sped off ahead of me. I hope they did well I met so many motivating runners on this trip.

The only pain I felt with my IT band was at mile 25 and by that point everything hurts for me so one more was not going to stop me. Around 35k I set a new goal of 4:00 hr marathon and I did fall short of that but I am proud to say with alot of people's help and prayers I was not only able to complete this marathon but also do a PR of 4:07:18!!! Unbelievable. I'm super happy!

Here are my official splits.
Location Time Pace/mile
5 Kilometers 0:30:18 9:45
10 Kilometers 0:59:19 9:32
15 Kilometers 1:28:03 9:26
20 Kilometers 1:56:51 9:24
Half-Marathon 2:03:17 9:24
25 Kilometers 2:27:29 9:29
30 Kilometers 2:56:23 9:27
35 Kilometers 3:24:18 9:23
40 Kilometers 3:54:07 9:25
Finish 4:07:18

Injured....

I'm injured, not running and scared I can't run the NYC marathon. I will be going to the doctor this week and have an MRI to see what is wrong with my knee that is preventing me from running. Please anyone reading pray that my knee gets better.

Tornado's Cross Country Relay

Today I ran a four person team 2 mile leg relay. It was off of Allen Parkway better known as "hill training". The mixed team I was on was not competive, but I usually try to do the best I can either way. My last race I ran 8:15 min/mile this race I ran an 8:30 mn/mile. Kinda dissapointing, but I my current focus is distance not speed. I am still in training for the NYC marathon and had no business running this race, but I will do anything I can for the BC Road runners theyve been good friends to me for a couple of years!! Here is a couple of pics from the day.

No new running news

Sorry all! I have no new race pics or anything, I am in training for the NYC marathon and have not done any 5, 10 or any such K lately. My training is coming along nicely will be up to 15 miles this weekend so hope all is well with my runner friends!

YO NYC!!!

I can't believe it!!! But this girl is going to NYC to run the ING NYC Marathon!!! Woooohooo!!!woooo!! Ok..so I'm a little excited getting in on the first attempt, unfortunately neither of my girlfriends got an entrance. My sister gleefully agreed to accompany me as long as we went to a broadway show!! I guess I can try to swing that? Train, train, train.

NYC?!?!!

OMG, last night I was going through my weekly emails and received an email from Houston FIT saying that June 1st was the deadline for the NYC marathon. OMG!! I got on the phone called my two girlfriends that said they wanted to run this one with me and we only had one hour to sign up for it. We all pulled out our credit cards for the entrance fee and WOOOHOOO!! I am in the NYC Lottery!! Now "hail mary full of grace....." Well they say you have a 50% chance to get in?? Here is a pic of myself with runner friends at the BCRR banquet on 5/30. That is Lana, me, Sarah, and Lara. Just got back from long run..peace out headed for pool.

Astro's Race for the Pennant

Today I ran the Race for the Pennant 5k. I improved my time from last year however still short of my personal goal of 25:00 mn. I finished 15th in age category at 26:02. I ran last year in 28:59; so I should be proud of almost taking 3 minutes off of my time, but I will continue to work on speed. My pace for this race was 8:24 min/mile which is what I have been racing this season. Pics soon to come. Shout out to BCRR which did awesome as usual!!