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.