First, a very grateful thank-you to all who have donated so generously and rendered me closer to my fundraising goal of $2,500 every day. I assure you, I have been holding up on my end of the bargain. This week of training began with the NYC Half Marathon Presented by Nike, a race for which I was massively unpepared, and for which my only goal was to finish, regardless of how slow I dragged my feet across the finish line. It was therefore a pleasant surprise when I started the race at a moderate pace, realized after a 6-mile loop (read: hill) through Central Park that, despite the resident humidity from an early morning thunderstorm, I actually felt GOOD, picked up the pace for the second half of the race and finished with negative splits. My sister jumped in just before Times Square (which housed the biggest crowds of the day and gave her a taste of spectatorship at the marathon, ergo getting her even more excited about the big day) and helped me keep a good pace for last 6 miles of the race. Not having paid much attention to my watch, I realized at about mile 9 that I had a pretty good shot at beating my half marathon PR of 2:11:54 (Banco Popular Chicago Half Marathon 9/9/07). Despite a bad experience with an old carbohydrate gel and the ensuant stomach cramps, I powered through the last 5k and crossed the finish line with a new PR of 2:06:40.

The solid finish also augmented my overall feeling about training and the marathon, and set me up to tackle one of the first truly challenging weeks of training. During training, I follow successive three week periods whose mileages compound upon one another. Essentially, the first week of a new period will be more challenging than the last period, the second similar to the first, and the third week a fallback week where the mileage reduces slightly. This serves as a recovery period before entering into the next phase of training, where the mileage is increased. This week started a new phase, and therefore required 35 miles after an easy 20 last week. After the half on Sunday, I had a day off on Monday (which was not off in its entirety, as 90 minutes of yoga took the place of running). Tuesday was a 3 mile recovery run, which turned into two back-to-back days of 7 mile runs and yoga. As I write this, my legs are finally revolting against my efforts with a bit of cramping and stiffness, and I'm attempting to replenish my salt supply and/or singlehandedly win the award for most amount of trail mix consumed in one sitting. I'll polish the week off with a 5 mile run on Saturday, and start the insanity over on Monday after a well-deserved day off on Sunday.

Apologies for the very long time lapse since my last update-- unfortunately there is no exciting excuse about some whirlwind adventure undertaken preventing me from posting. Rather, I have been doing a lot of relaxing (and running!) to make the most out of these last few weeks before law school commences August 18. Marathon training is now officially underway (with the "official" start marked 16 weeks before race day), although with the base training of early summer, recreational (and actually enjoyable) running on mild spring days, and several months of indoor training in the gym last winter, there is no clear point that marks the end of last marathon's training season and the start of this one. By that measure I suppose I have been training for three years now-- but I assure you wholeheartedly there has been a whole lot of leisure time in there to refute that logic altogether.

And leisure time, my friends, is never appreciated more than on the wickedly hot, humid days we have been served repeatedly in New York. I dearly wish it would be unusual to report that the weather forecast for this week includes 3 days of 90-degree weather, with the rest in the upper 80s, but rather it has been the norm for the past few weeks. Along with the humidity and resident poor air quality, training has been less than enjoyable and at times downright HARD. This is coming from a martyr of the 2007 Chicago Marathon (the first in history to be cancelled due to heat, and which I completed regardless). I'm crossing my fingers for the heat to break, all the while missing the cool breezes from Lake Michigan in which I trained in years past and 100% willing to trade in the hills of Central Park for a nice, flat run in Lincoln Park. I'll be spending this upcoming week in Martha's Vineyard, during which I have five runs scheduled including a 10k-- I'm truly hoping for some nice sea breezes and fresh air to cleanse my running palate.

In less than two weeks I'll be competing in (read: faking my way through) the New York City Half Marathon Presented by Nike. Having been since last October that I have run any distance over 8 miles, I'll be interested to see what happens. I've been known to undertake long races while massively undertrained, and certainly also known for suffering the consequences during the subsequent week of muscle cramps, spasms, pains, and a handful of other ailments. Which means in my hiatus from training following the half, I'll have plenty of time to post my results and update again while icing my quads. And calves. And hamstrings. And ankles. The list goes on.

Until then, thanks everyone for your continued good wishes and fundraising support!