I had a plan.   I had a very good plan.   I never followed it.   Ok, I did follow it in the beginning. More to the point the closer I got to the Moore/Fitness Half Marathon, the plan fell to the wayside.    I would like to say that it was due to lack of time.   I can’t even say it was lack of dedication.   Ok partly.   I think mostly it was because the plan changed even if I didn’t fully admit to it.   That being said, I DO NOT RECOMMEND not running AT ALL two weeks prior to a Half Marathon.   Really.   Just don’t do it.   Really.   I am paying the price for it today and I paid the price for it yesterday.

Here is the crux of the situation though.   I’ve been dealing, ok not dealing but avoiding dealing with my feet, since Philly.   With my upcoming schedule, I realized that it was time to get my head out of the sand and deal with it.   If you were here yesterday, you read that I finally went to the Podiatrist and what the problems were.  So maybe it was good that I took a little bit of a break..   All will be good as the Cortisone shot is already helping, I will do the stretches, and follow the plan.   The doctor knows the plan does not including my stopping my running anytime soon.   Back to the Race.

Besides not doing any type of training 2 weeks prior to the race, I made some other mistakes.   First, I didn’t hydrate enough the days leading up to it.   I normally will just drink extra water leading up to an event to avoid feeling dehydrated.   I’m not sure if there is actually any physical benefit, but I know there is a mental one from me.   Then there is the fact that I didn’t bank my sleep during the week either.   I try to go to bed earlier leading up to the race too.   This way if I don’t get a good night sleep the night before at least I’m not as bad.   I went to bed 12:20 the night before and had my alarm set for 4:45.   Not smart.   I was tired.

When I came up with my goals for the year, I thought it would be cool to run a sub 2 half on my 46th Birthday.   The closer I got though, the more I knew it was not happening for this race.    I then embraced that this would be my fun Birthday Run.   I have to say as far as day went, it was fun.   I think I spent more time worrying about my outfit than the actual run.   Ok, I know I did, but look how cute my outfit came out…..

You know it’s all about the outfit and the accessories.  Don’t you like my crown?

Ok, probably not, but I will say that this outfit did help me during the race.   Really!

The Clown Car as we like to refer to it was leaving town for NYC at 5:45.    As early as it is, we are all still smiling.  Due to caffeine, I didn’t realize how much my lack of sleep would effect me.   It did.   Still we had a good ride into the city and were all smiles at the starting line.

We met the cutest elderly woman at the starting line while she was walking to her corral.    She was adorable.   I just wish we had thought to take a picture with her.  Although, I did find one of her crossing the finish line and getting her medal!   Go Granny Go!!    I hope that I have her spunk when I’m her age.   She was talking about the bus ride and people thinking she must be crazy.   I thought she was awesome!

Right, amazing!   Did I forget to mention her crutches?

And, yes, she is wearing rocking legging, long sleeved shirt, and some type of purple skirt dare I say tutu.

I hope that I’m still moving like this with this type of attitude at her age!

We line up in our Corrals.   The excitement of waitig for the race to start never gets old for me either.   Off we go.    Two of the ladies were planning to run together.   My cohort was going to push it and I was just going to take it easy.    I end up staying for the first lap of Central Park with the two.   I will admit though that I did think they were planning to take it easier than they did, but it was good.   We chatted when we could.   Did double takes when we saw someone running with what appeared to be nothing under her tutu.   (We ran past her).   We just had a good time.   After we hit mile 6 or so though, I told them to go without me.   I knew that I probably could push it to stay with them and part of me wanted to.  Luckily my brain won out this time.

Lap two was not as good as lap one.  I realized that I dropped my Salted Carmel Caffeine Gu.   I walked when I felt I needed to.   I ran when I thought it was time to push a little.   I will say that my Princess Birthday sash and tutu helped me run a better race.    Really.   No lies.   It helped because there were times that I was going to start walking and someone would run by, tap me and say something like,

“Happy Birthday Princess”

“You’ve got this Princess”

“You can do this Princess.”

“You got this hill Princess”

Some of them I even trailed for a bit as Dawn will tell you that is what I like to do sometimes.  I’m like a shadow.   These women motivated me.   These women may not realize it, but they really did help me get to the finish line in a better time than I would have if I was alone on the course.   Standing out in a crowd of more than 7,000 other runners isn’t a bad thing.

My Official Finish Time is 2:20:23.

I’ll take it.

I know that this is a great time.   I will admit that it is my worst time and I was slightly disappointing.  Off by almost 15 minutes.   When I said this to Dawn, she told me to shut hell up.   She as often is right.   This may not have been the race that I envisioned when I set my 2015 goals, but it was still a great race.   There will be other races where I can chase the elusive 2:00:00, but there will only be one Birthday Run!

So cheers!