I DID IT.

well, WE did it, I suppose.

on Saturday, October 8th, Lu and I ran a Rock ‘n Roll Half Marathon in Brooklyn. we started at the Brooklyn Museum and ended up in Prospect Park. it was a well-organized race (I love the Rock ‘n Roll series – I ran one of their halfs in Chicago in 2012), plenty of course support, and a pretty enjoyable running route.

this was the training program I used.

following my foot injury two weeks before the race, we didn’t run much. we ran a total of 4 times in two weeks, about half the running that our training program called for. I was listening to my body and frankly, thought I might not be able to run the race.

the Tuesday before the race, I decided to go on a run. I hadn’t run in almost a week and I wanted to test out my foot. I hesitantly laced up my sneakers, KT-taped, and headed out the door. after a few steps, I felt confident and broke off into a swift pace.

NO FOOT PAIN! 

I was so excited and ran for the next two days (Wednesday & Thursday), getting a total of 15 miles under my belt before race day.

come race day, we woke up at 5:30am, got dressed (we set out everything the night before), poured our coffees in to-go cups, and I packed bananas and almond butter packets for the road, which we had in the Uber on the way over to Brooklyn.

the sunrise was so inspiring right before the race.

despite my brief running hiatus and foot injury, everything went better than expected! we ran the entire way, except at mile 7, when Lu was cramping because he needed to use the restroom. since I would never leave him behind, I waited, used the restroom myself, and then we broke back off into stride.

miles 11-13.1 were pretty bad.

it literally felt like an hour of running, when it was only about 20 minutes. we were struggling. Lu was cramping. there was no bump in our step, we were pretty much letting our arms pump us through our strides. it was pretty brutal. I was probably running at a 10:30 or 10:45 pace at that point.

alas, we never stopped and made it to the finish line, triumphantly.

we ran the race in 2:19.

I’m pretty confident if we hadn’t had to stop for the potty, we could’ve made it closer to 2:00. my goal was to get under 2:30, since my first half marathon I ran in 2:45 (I stopped a lot in that one, it was my first race, ever.)

anyway, it wasn’t about our time – we’re not competitive runners. the race was about setting a goal TOGETHER and accomplishing it, TOGETHER. it’s a pretty empowering feeling and I really loved the aspect of training with Lu – we did almost every single run together. while he was usually a few paces ahead of me during the half marathon, we were both there for each other and it was a great feeling.

afterwards, we took the Subway into Manhattan and had brunch at The Butcher’s Daughter, one of my favorite spots in the city for healthy grub. after that, we headed back home to Jersey City, plopped down on the couch and the truth marathon began: NETFLIX.

we’ve been really into Love on Netflix lately, has anyone seen it?

anyway, we didn’t leave the couch the whole day, pretty much. like, literally. it was the most perfect, overcast day for lazy chilling…. well, not lazy, because we ran 13.1 miles that morning, right?