Some races are better than others!

I took a year off from blogging for so many reasons. I struggled with training and injury. I didn't want to write about it. I went on a trip of a lifetime cross county and wasn't near a computer for almost 2 months! This was amazing. But now I am back! I am training for Ironman Mount Tremblant 70.3 in June and Ironman Mount Tremblant in August! This is going to be an exciting year of training and competing. Since 2014 started, I have been running and competing better than ever. Most races I entered, I PRed. I was on a roll. 2015 I struggled to train and didn't compete well at 70.3 Syracuse but I was prepared for that possibility due to the course and my injuries. We knew that this excellence wasn't going to last forever - you just can't keep getting faster and faster all of the time. I knew it was going to be tough to handle when I finally did have a completely off race. Well, it happened. We signed up for this race a week ago when the weather wasn't cooperating for a marathon Joe had planned to run. I went into the NYCruns Central Park Half Marathon with my 1st solid week of training since December. I knew this wasn't going to be a PR but a nice tempo run for 13.1 miles. We had done some walking but not a lot the day before the race. We ate food that we knew wouldn't bother us. We also were staying in a hotel that every time we were in the room for over an hour, we both felt horrible. My head would hurt. It was so hot that we had to turn on the air conditioner. It was so dry that it felt like I was hungover in the morning. I was taking actions to deal with this by drinking a ton of water but it didn't help. I didn't sleep for 2 nights due to the room, the sirens outside, and the bed that would hold onto heat. Sunday comes along and my legs are not there. I figured it would fix itself as I warmed up. We started up a hill and got to mile 1 - nice effort, it was my warm-up, figured it was about a 10:20 to 10:30 pace based on my effort.... It was 11 min..... What!!!! I had to calm myself down. The people around me were excessively loud and chatty. There were dogs everywhere without a leash - I am afraid of dogs - they were running and barking and growling and all I heard was these really loud people running and dogs. I had to calm down again. Mile 2: I thought was a little better...10:42. This continued the entire race. The people around me were testing my patience too with repeated facetime requests that were not answered, a few that were, and then try those who didn't answer were tried again, over and over again. I tried harder and would get a 10:32 mile. People weren't listening to the volunteers when they told us where to go and were stopping mid stride so I had to cut around them since I knew the course as I had looked at the map prior to the race and was listening to the volunteers. This was reminiscent of the 2011 runner Kelly except that this was my happy race pace and now it was a bust of a day. The best mile I ran was a 10:20. I mentally went from repeating to myself that this had become a long, easy training run to me freaking out that my training wasn't anywhere close to where I thought I was during an Ironman training season. I just needed to see Joe to make sure he was ok and I was doing the math to have an idea of where I should be passed by him. He went by and was fine. That helped a little mentally. The weather was perfect just enjoy the weather I would say to myself. It was a tough, rolling hill course that I should have enjoyed. Sometimes things can't always add up to perfection. This was the slowest half marathon I have done since 2013. That was tough for me. It is still difficult for me - maybe this is what will give me more focus on the training and the goal of a sub 15 hour Ironman. It was one day. I keep reminding myself we knew this was going to happen at some point and today was the day. Better today than Aug 21 during Ironman. After I was done, I sat on a curb and just waited for Joe to run by. I was trying to control my anxiety by texting my "Ironman Training Stress Partner" - Joe said I needed someone who could help me during my mental breakdowns in Ironman training. Joe went by and I felt excited for him at this point. I knew he was at least on pace to run a 2:58 marathon which would qualify him for the 2017 Boston Marathon. 5 more miles to go! Joe rounded the corner so much faster than I anticipated. I looked at the clock and saw a 2:54 and was just in awe of my husband. A day that had a goal of running a 3:04 marathon and he PRed by over a minute. 2:55:43! Just wow. This was everything we had wanted from the day and it happened. How can one be upset by the weekend when one of you has a huge day? I am reflective on the training but super excited for my husband.