This was my fifthhalf marathon, so Im comfortable with working up to that distance.
But this time, pretty much everything was thrown for a loop.
But that doesn’t stop me from thinking it.
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I usually know what to expect, but this time, anything could happen.
My time was not going to be my best, and that was kind of hard to swallow.
Regardless, I still got myself up the morning of the race and mentally prepared myself to run.
This time was slightly different, thanks to an unexpected injury.
I had just finished up another race when my foot startedacting funny.
Wearing heels at work gave me this bizarre pain in the bottom of my foot.
Of course I didnt go get it checked out like I should have.
While every training plan is different, I have always done one 10-mile run before race day.
I ended up only running 6.2 miles, which left me feeling really unprepared.
I ran the day I landed, and then spent the next two days sitting on a bike.
Initially, I thought to myself,An e-bike is totally fine because Ill barely have to pedal.
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Also, I was in California.
Meaning, my sleep schedule was thrown out of whack.
You could definitely say I was tired.
I stuck with my tried and true pasta with red sauce the night before.
This time, I skipped my glass of wine because I was afraid it wouldnt do myjet lagany favors.
The night before race day, I didnt even log a full six hours of sleep.
But I woke up feeling semirested despite it all.
Credit prerace jitters and endorphins.
This time, I shrugged my shoulders and decided to mix it up.
I wore a sports bra that I had worn before, but never for 13.1 miles.
I pulled on the capri-length leggings, and they fit great.
And a tank top is hard to mess up.
Plus, the sneakers were so bright, Ialmostforgot I was going to run 13 miles in them.
I normally eat abanana and toastwith peanut butter the morning of a race.
Except all my recent traveling left my pantry pretty bare, so I didn’t have what I needed.
So I settled on…a cacao almond smoothie.
It seemed like a good choiceplenty of calories, some fiber, and some protein.
I also sliced myself a few thick pieces of homemade banana bread to swap out for my normal banana.
Almost the same, right?
Skipping coffee was abig mistake.
I pretty much regretted it the entire time I was running the race.
(More on that later.)
Then another 100 meters down the road, the same thing happened.
Once that was fixed, I pumped up the tunes and got on my merry way.
I hit mile two, and my legs felt like concrete.
I’ve never felt so tuckered out so early on in a race.
Luckily, by mile three, we could see into Prospect Park and there were spectators all over.
Those signs and cheers and high fives were just what I needed to re-energize myself.
Once I hit mile eight, I had to stop to use the bathroom.
), but after eating something new that morning, I was anticipating it.
Postbathroom break, I finally felt lighter and not so crampy.
And at that point, I only had five miles to go!
The cramps came back with a vengeance right when I saw the 800-meters-to-go sign.
I couldnt believe it; I was SO close.
Got to look good for those cameras!
There’s no reason to push yourself.It helped, but only to a certain extent.
Was I nervous the night before the race?
Did I worry I was going to hurt myself because I didn’t feel properly trained?
I would finish, and that’s a huge accomplishment in itself.
Looking back, I’ve realized that it’s totally OK that myrace prepwasn’t on point.
And in the future, maybe I’ll let myself off the hook a little bit.
Sometimes you could’t train like you wanted to.
Injuries set you back.
You run out of peanut butter and forget to buy groceries (whoops).
