And so were a LOT of other Front Runners. We had 120 people show up to the start!!! (I remember when I did it three years ago, there were maybe 30-40 people.) We also had about 15 FRNY volunteers to hand out Gatorade along the course, and Steve and Jim were on bikes directing us. It was quite an impressive production and I think everyone really enjoyed the run, especially the FRs who are doing the marathon in three weeks.
I, however, had kind of a sucky run. You may remember from my last post that I got kicked really hard in the knee at the MightyMan Triathlon a couple of weeks ago. Well, that kind of messed up my running for two weeks. I had run exactly three times in the two weeks between MightyMan and the Blue Line Run. The first time, three days later on a Wednesday fun run, I was only able to run about a mile and half before my knee got in so much pain that I couldn't even bend it without it hurting. I then took off the next week and made an appointment with Jordan Metzl for the following Tuesday. Dr. Metzl looked at the x-ray and said I was fine, that it was probably just a bruise on my knee, and that I should not change my plans to run the marathon. So the next day, Wednesday, I went back to the fun run. At mile three, my knee felt fine, so I decided to do the six mile loop. But it hit me at mile five, and I pretty much had to walk the last mile. I was pissed. Dane and Ryan passed me and I was mean to them. Michael O asked me afterwards how my run was and I pretty much snapped at him. I was just so upset that after all this time (about a YEAR) of dealing with my butt issue, I finally start to get back to the point where I'm running consistently, and I friggin f-ck up my knee. UGH. I was, however, slightly reassured by the fact that I was able to run longer than I had the previous Wednesday, and took it as a sign that I would improve, hopefully before the marathon.
So on Sunday, for the Blue Line Run, my hope was just to finish. I had run the first 10 miles at about an 8-minute pace, with Marty and Paul, and I felt pretty good. Then, turning onto First Avenue from the 59th Street Bridge, I had a pretty abrupt and devastating downward crash. My knee locked up and my energy level came spiraling down. I stopped to stretch my legs at 60th Street. By this time, most of the people in the 8-minute mile pack had passed me, so I ended up slowing down drastically. I told myself I would probably just run across 90th Street and cut off the top of Manhattan and the Bronx (saving 5 miles). I spent the next mile and a half jogging and sometimes walking, stopping another time or two to stretch. When 90th Street came, I started feeling fine again, so I decided to run to 125th Street. The stretch down 5th Avenue from 125th to 90th Streets is, I think, one of the harder parts in the Marathon, and an area where I don't run very often; so I wanted to get at least that part of the course in.
I spent the next mile and a half with more jogging/walking/stretching until I fiiiinnnally got to 125th Street. As I contemplated turning left onto 125th Street to cut the run short, the Willis Avenue Bridge stared me in the face, taunting me, enticing me to cross into the Bronx. Against my better judgment, I decided to cross the bridge, intending to finish the entire twenty mile run. But as soon as I crossed, I started to really feel like I was falling apart. My knee was hurting, I was tired, my butt was aching, and I was getting chaffed from my shorts. But I pushed on, taking more frequent walk breaks and stretching my legs. I felt miserable. I finally decided that I would run to 90th Street and just take a taxi to the finish. That last mile, from 110th to 90th, I felt would never end. It seemed like I was practically walking it. Rob and some others were manning the water stop at 100th Street, and when I saw them, I felt so embarrassed for being so beat up after only 17 miles, and lagging so far behind people who I should have been running with. I knew I wouldn't be able to finish the 20 miles, so I mustered all the energy I had to basically crawl down to 90th Street, where I promptly jumped into a taxi to take me to Tavern on the Green.
It was a humiliating, completely disappointing run. And in that taxi ride, as I tried to come to terms with the run, I wondered if I should admit defeat and withdraw from this year's NYC Marathon. But at the same time, I was somewhat encouraged. This was my first real run after two weeks of very little running, and I did manage to do 17 miles. My knee felt fine for the first 10 miles, which is such a huge difference from just a week ago, when I couldn't even run two miles without pain. And I'm guessing that part of the reason I ran out of steam during the run was because I had one or two too many beers the night before at Coach Rachel's housewarming party. (Damn you, Rachel!)
Post Blue Line Run (Photo by Ted Paszek)
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Sunday after the Blue Line Run, I went over to Mike Terry's house to help him cook dinner for some of the runners who were coming over. We decided to make soul food because it is sooooul delicious. :-)
We made "fried" chicken, mac and cheese, sweet potatoes and collard greens. The fried chicken was actually oven baked, but it was nice and crispy because we made a crust of crushed seasoned cornflakes. I bought whole chickens which we had to butcher ourselves. I've butchered hundreds of chickens before, but I've never been really good at it. And I always end up leaving the oysters hanging on the carcass, which is the best part. Mikey was cringing at how much meat I was wasting. But I don't really mind since I usually freeze the carcass for soup at a later date, and a little extra meat on the bones makes the soup taste good.
Mikey made the mac and cheese, which was delicious. I need to get the recipe from him. The collard greens and the sweet potatoes were pretty simple, though. I found some smoked ham pieces at Western Beef that I was able to add to the greens, and I put in a touch of brown sugar and vinegar. For the sweet potatoes, I cut them up into little medallions, mixed them with the juice and zest of an orange, some salt pepper and more brown sugar, and baked. I love the freshness that orange zest provides. Yumm.
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After Sunday's disastrous run, I was able to cheer myself up by registering for next year's Boston Marathon. Registration opened at 9am on Monday. After several attempts to get through the BAA's servers, I was able to register around 10:30. Unfortunately, the race filled up at 5:03 Monday evening, so a lot of people who were planning to register didn't get in. I'm kind of bummed about this, since part of the reason last year's Boston was so much fun was that there was a big group of Front Runners there (16 of us running, with lots more cheering). I'm definitely going to miss being part of a big group this year. To the Front Runners who qualified for Boston but weren't able to register, you guys are a huge inspiration to me, and I'm going to run the best race I can run in your honor.
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