Love and running

 

Somewhere along the way of this very long hot summer, I lost my love of running. It shouldn't surprise me considering the loss of my husband and the physical and emotional affects of that but I was scared it was gone for good. Plowing through 20+ miles while randomly bursting into tears sucked but it sucked with my tribe by my side and I made it through.

I was worried about running New York - Not gonna lie. I ran/survived all long runs but never did 22. I did some of my weekly runs but nowhere near what i did for my first marathon. My teammates were setting big goals and I was just hoping I could even finish.

About a week before the race my coach Amy (yes THAT Amy Begley - former olympian and MY friend!!) announced to the team she was dropping out of the elites and running the race with me. I've never been so humbled and there will never be enough words to thank her for that gift that I didn't even know I needed.

It's been impossible sum up that race and this is what I've come up with

Never once during my running tour of NYC did I ever question anything. None of the usual 'Why do people do this shit' or 'this is stupid' or 'are we there yet'. NYC marathon is the answer to that question. THAT RACE is why people do this shit.

I think my first comment to Amy was "we are 1 mile in to Brooklyn and I want to live here". 26.2 miles and 5 hours 44 minutes and 32 seconds later I fell in love with it again.

To be honest,  It could have been the fact that I had an elite athlete with me catering to my every need - making up my Nuun bottles and feeding me gluten free pretzels and calming me down when I almost got killed by kids running into the course or when I saw someone have to go in an ambulance. Amy could have finished in under 3 hours but she chose to be by my side for almost twice as long as it would have taken her. Incredible huh?

It's been a hard week emotionally and physically but I ran all my runs and loved them all - including a 5k where I cried the ENTIRE way - now THAT should be an olympic sport lol.