Bronx Half-Marathon 2:44:57

Meaghan and me


Me in lots of pain from my side stitch.
I forget how much weight I've gained until I see these photos.

Somewhere in Wonderland. I mean the Bronx.

To make it brief I will copy from my Dailymile page:
I got a little stitch somewhere before mile 5. It went away but came back with a vengeance at mile 7. Deep breaths, water and walking wouldn't make it go away. I'm looking forward to the next Half-M. still aiming to beat my PR of 2:35.

In case you aren't familiar, a stitch is a pain in the side (usually the right) that happens sometimes while running. I'm going to guess I was dehydrated and try not to think about that race anymore. Except that I will start off slower (I really did feel good for the first 4 miles...), drink lots of water everyday, even more a few days before a long run, and if I feel that terrible again I can do the run/walk technique I learned from a team member. Run 3 minutes, walk one minute cycles.

12 miles and little bit more

This is the map of Saturday's 12 mile run with TNT. Park Ave was closed off for an event called Summer Streets. Saturdays in August, Park Ave is closing car traffic for runners, walkers, cyclists, skaters. I like the word run-walker.

Practice started at 8am on 52nd street. Somehow the fear of being left far behind down Park Ave motivated me to come early. To run long distance at 8am I need wake up at 5am for breakfast...and then usually fall back to sleep a little longer. Still, with my nocturnal nature I will probably have 2 to 4 hours sleep.

I'm pretty sure my Rome Marathon was run 2 1/2 or 3 hours sleep. Mostly it was nerves. Terrified of sleeping in caused me to barely sleep at all. But the marathon turned out ok.

This 12 mile run turned out well too. By starting with the group, I realized that I'm not as slow as I thought. Although miles 9-11 were a struggle. I had a stitch for about half a mile then got a foot cramp, then another stitch. The cramp stared me more than the stitches. With very large breaths those will soon go away. With the cramp, I focused on the fact that my bag was still at 52nd street. I had to finish for my bag. Around 12, I was feeling pretty good again. Maybe not good enough to run an extra mile but still not bad. Oh yes, and I didn't have to use the bathroom. That is very important because it will add time to my race.