Running This Town

I have officially registered for the Hartford Marathon. Not sure why I kept forgetting to sit down and actually do that, but it is done now. Course has also changed this year to put the hills all in the first 5 miles, instead of having some in the last 5, awesome.

Last weekend I was up in CT and run 8 miles on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. As much as I love running in the city it was enjoyable to run alone along wooded streets again. The plan is to push that up to 17 this weekend, probably on Saturday because my sister will be in town Sunday morning. Most of my running has still been all in Brooklyn, any suggestions on where the long run should take me?

I took a few weeks off from doing much running because my illiotibial bands were really bothering me. Then I started running indoors, back on the treadmill, and that seemed to be much better than running on pavement, and I also made sure to stretch more, and then this week I started running along the dirt path in Fort Greene Park. It’s great except for the kid I saw masturbating behind a tree early in the morning the other day.

Today I went around 4 times, which I think is probably somewhere around 3.2 miles—I’m calculating that based on my usual pace of between 10:30 and 10:45 per mile. It was really hot this morning but somehow didn’t seem that bad. I guess I just gave myself over to the heat.

Since I started running in February I’ve lost around 7 pounds. I’ve also started eating better: not as many sweets and carbs, not as much drinking. I’m feeling better than I have in years, both physically and mentally. One definitely has influence over the other.

Last Saturday, I was floating around my parent’s pool reading a book, enjoying the long weekend. My mom says to me “Hey are you doing the Hartford Marathon this year? I just started my more serious training for the half, the race is in 14 weeks.”

Oh no. I thought I still had plenty of time before I needed to start being more serious about a training program. October is a lot closer than I thought. I still plan to run the race this year and try for a decent time. I think with some smart but intense training I can run at a pace that I can be proud of after I am done; I have been running regularly still, just not an organized training schedule.  Last year having people congratulate me for running a marathon when I was not happy at all with the results (ran injured) was not pleasant - I need to return to Hartford and run a better race.

So in the future you should see me start posting on here again as I train. I will probably post my plan for weekend long runs a few days before in case anyone wants to join me for any parts of them.