NYC Marathon

About two weeks ago, my husband ran the ING NYC Marathon in 4:47. It was his first marathon and I'm so proud of him. 4:47 is pretty good considering his lack of training. Due to my husband's hectic work schedule, he didn't have the time to properly train. He ran a 16, 18 and 20 miler with a few six mile runs in between but that was basically it for him. I knew my husband would finish because he's determined and never gives up. However, what I didn't know was that he would finish in under 5 hours! Most people train to do the marathon in under 5 hours. He just winged it. I'm glad he finally experienced the full 26.2 miles and what better city to do it in than your hometown.

This was my first time spectating the ING NYC Marathon. I was fortunate enough to have received a finish line pass so I quickly made my way into the city before noon to catch the elites finish. I was pulling for Meb and although he did not win, I still became teary eyed when I saw him run past me with his USA singlet and cross the finish line. He's an inspiration.

I also witnessed Shalane Flanagan make her marathon debut and finish 2nd amongst the female elites. When I saw running in towards the finish, I got goosebumps all over. She did amazing. I screamed and yelled so loud when she walked past with the American flag draped around her. I think her smile says it all.

After the elites finished, I briskly walked across central park to make my way to First Avenue. I was meeting up wtih friends at the 16 mile marker. We thought we'd catch my husband but unfortunately didn't. I was afraid that we missed him, so we hopped on the subway and ended up on 116th and Fifth Avenue where we finally saw him! It was between mile 21 and 22 I believe and he was walking with a cup of water. As soon as he heard us call his name, he quickly threw down the water and started running again. After he passed, we made our way over to the west side to meet up with him on Central Park West. When we found him, he looked like he had been through hell. He was in pain but was happy he finished the 26.2 miles.

As for my NYC Marathon experience, it was fun but exhausting at 8 months pregnant. I wore my running sneakers because I knew I would be running/walking/waddling around the city all day long. I was so caught up in my marathon map and trying to find my husband that I forgot about my baby. By the end of the day, my braxton hicks contractions were more frequent and stronger and my legs were aching. It's a good thing I didn't go into labor while spectating! Watching the elites finish and the runners at mile 16 made me want to run another marathon right then and there. I was so envious of all the runners and it brought back all the wonderful marathon memories I earned a year before. However, seeing the runners at miles 21-22 reminded me of the pain and exhaustion that comes with the marathon. I don't know if I'll ever run another marathon again. Of course, a giant part of me wants to take on the challenge and set a pr. I loved the feeling of finishing and would like to feel that again. But another part of me doesn't know if I'll have to strength (and time) to train for another one since I'll have another little person to take care of in a month or so. Working full time and training for a marathon is one thing but add on taking care of a child and it's a whole other ball game. I will just have to wait and see what my marathon future holds.

Side Note: My husband ran for the charity Malaria No More. He and his team raised over $130k for a great cause. I couldn't be more proud!

Some Things New

Some new things have been going on in my life that have kept me from the blog world. I am fully recovered from my knee injury and back to running again only this time, I’m not running alone. I’m running with a little babe in my tum at seven months pregnant now. Preparing for baby has kept both my husband and I very busy.

We found out we were pregnant back in April and if you can recall, I was having a debilitating knee pain that caused me to lay off running for a bit. I believe it was tendonitis which was a result of the marathon I ran back in October 2009. By the time I found out I was pregnant, I was easing my way back into running with 2-3 mile runs at a slower pace. This ended up working out perfect for me because as a first time pregnant runner, I wanted to take running through pregnancy cautiously. Well, a couple of weeks ago I logged in 6 miles at 6 months pregnant! It felt amazing. I have managed to run all throughout my pregnancy. I have been fortunate to have an easy pregnancy. Running through pregnancy has been an incredible experience thus far. I’m impressed by how much my body can handle with a little person growing inside of it. It continues to amaze me each day.

More details on my pregnancy runs to come soon so stay tuned……

Cherry Blossom

As you know, I spectated the Cherry Blossom 10 miler a couple of weeks ago in DC. I spent the entire weekend with Dorothy and her adorable family. The morning of the race, we woke up before the sun and made our way into DC. I remember thinking to myself "Oh how I do not miss these 5am wake up calls". We arrived at the race with more than enough time. Unlike myself, Dorothy is prompt for her races. I'm always rushing before a race because I'm usually late. I think it's a nerves thing. Anyways, we met up with a bunch of other friends and took some pre-race photos. At this point, I was jealous I wasn't running. At least I had Dorothy's mother (Miss Lesley) to be my spectator buddy. After the gun went off, Miss Lesley and I walked to Starbucks, had a wonderful girl chat and then headed back to the finish in time to catch the elites. After the elites came in, we waited for Dor. I had totally forgotten about Lam. I was all caught up in conversations with Miss Lesley and other spectators. All of a sudden, Miss Lesley shouts "Hey isn't that your friend Lam?". Once I saw the bandana I knew and with that I excitedly shouted "Go Lam! Go Lam!". He was making great time. Unfortunately I did not have my camera ready. Not too long after Lam, Dor ran by. We shouted and I snapped away. She was looking good and doing great. Then came her husband and Amy and Sarah, who were ALL smiles. It was their first 10 miler and they looked like they were enjoying it. After the race, we went out to brunch to celebrate Dor's 28th birthday. Overall, it was a fantastic day- the sun was shining, everyone finished their 10 milers and I was able to have my morning mimosa :-)

Bad Blogger

Yeah I know I haven't been on here in a while but life got in the way of blogging. March was a crazy month for me and it was not because of March Madness. Aside for laying off the running for a bit, my husband and I spent two wonderful weeks traveling through Argentina. I promise to write a re-cap of the trip and post some amazing pictures soon. I have been running three miles at a time but only twice a week. I'm hoping to increase the runs to three days a week now that the weather is nice.

This weekend I will be heading down to Washington DC to visit my best friend and college roommate Dorothy. Not only will I be cheering for her on Sunday while she races the Cherry Blossom 10 miler, I will also be there to celebrate her birthday. What could be better than a PR on your birthday?? I know she will get it done and I will be there to take a million and one pictures to capture the moment. I will also, hopefully, get to meet Lam in person and cheer him on as well. I have been following his blog for almost a year now so I think it's about time I meet him in person. I'm looking forward to being a spectator/photographer at the Cherry Blossom race. I have never been to DC in April so this should be fun. I promise I will blog about my spectator experience when I return. If you are running the Cherry Blossom race, let me know and I will give you a shout out from the race sidelines...I may even take some pictures of you! Good luck to all you runners. May the PR force be with you this weekend.

Cheers,

Mishi

MIA

Yeah yeah yeah I know, I have been MIA from blogworld. Ugh my life has been crazy busy these past couple of weeks and unfortunately, it's not due to running :-( I decided to take two weeks off from running because my knee tightness just does not want to go away. I'm frustrated, angry and upset. The orthopedic surgeon said my cyst will go away on its own. I decided that maybe two weeks worth of rest will help it heal properly. I'm still not sure what is causing the pain.

Here is exactly what happens: I start running at a slow comfortable pace. Whether I stay at this pace or increase it, I begin to get a funny feeling in my knee at around the 20 minute mark. I try to adjust my stride and posture which seems to help for five minutes or so but the feeling still remains. Then the funny feeling turns into a tightening feeling. The feeling is on the outside of my knee just below my knee cap. It occurs where my collateral ligaments meet my fibula. If I try to run through the tightness, it just gets worse. Then the knee sometimes locks and eventually it becomes too painful to run. When I stop and walk, the pain disappears but not entirely. My knee feels bruised afterwards, especially when walking down stairs. It also becomes a bit stiff after sitting for a while.

I have iced it and stretched it. I endured a good two months worth of PT. My IT band feels pretty loose now. I have custom orthodics due to my flat feet. If anyone has any suggestions as to how to make this go away, PLEASE HELP!!! In the meantime, I will stay off it and try to get my running mojo back soon. Oh how I long for the day when I can run six miles pain free.

One of those weekends

It was one of those weekends where I didn't exercise and I ate crap all weekend long. Well I only ate crap on Sunday and maybe today:-) After five days straight of exercise, my body needed the break on Saturday. I'ts tough when you work out hard, as well as work full time, to rest and recover. My body was screaming for it on Friday but I pushed myself to take a brutal spin class. I love this instructor. She is AMAZING and her class really kicks my a**. My legs feel like sacks of bricks afterwards. So I gave myself off on Saturday and then Sunday and then Monday :-(

We had a super bowl party so even though Saturday was a rest day, I spent the entire day (and night) on my feet cleaning all three floors of our house. I broke a sweat a couple of times. I was hoping I would wake up to snow and was disappointed when I saw nothing outside my window. It was probably better it did not snow as I would have had guests treking in all sorts of snow, sand, salt, etc. into my clean house on Sunday. The party was a blast and filled with all kinds of yummy-but-so-bad-for-you treats. We had wings, chips, dip, chicken cutlet-roasted red peppers- mozzerella hero, pasta with meatballs and sausage, cookies, cake (picture is of the triple layer football cake I baked) and more. Oh and the wine and beer kept flowing. I was beyond exhausted (and tipsy) by the time the last guests left at midnight. Side note: one of our guests brought over buffalo chicken dip. Has anyone ever tried this? It was incredible. I had never had it before and couldn't get enough of it.

Needless to say, I did not get much done today in terms of exercise or healthy eating. I'm still recovering and right now, Chinese food sounds like the perfect dinner haha. Looks like I will have to wait until tomorrow to get back to my good old healthy self. I'll hit the gym during lunch and have a salad for lunch.

As for running, I recently received an email from NYRR about about a Run for Haiti on February 20th in Central Park. It's a 4 mile run/walk at 9:00am and all entry fees benefit the relief effort in Haiti. As long as my calendar is free, I think I will run it. Maybe I can get the hubs to run it as well. If you are interested, check it out at NYRR. It's for a great cause and you'll get 4 miles under your belt.

"Life is a zero-sum equation"

"Every minute I save will get used on something else..." written by Barbara Kingsolver in her book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. (if you have not read it, read it. It's one of my favorite books)

This statement could not be more true. I remind myself of this when my head starts going over the "things-to-do" checklist for the day. As a result, I rush less through life. I live more. If I save a couple of minutes rushing through one thing, I will spend those minutes I worked so hard to save on something else. Unfortunately, we live in a country where everything is extremely rushed. We barely take the time to smell the roses or take care of ourselves. When I find myself putting off a run because I'm rushing to clean the bathroom or fold a load of laundry before I hit the road, I tell myself that it's a zero-sum equation. When I get back from my run, I can do all of those things and if I do not get to them all, tomorrow is another day.

On a side note, my dinner with the gals tonight was cancelled. One of my friends fell ill and we have rescheduled for next Wednesday. I will have to wait another week to see my ladies but I know it will be worth it.

Went to the orthopedic surgeon who said my knee looks great. Everything is intact and there are no tears in the ligaments. He advised me to continue with physical therapy. The cyst is small and should disappear on its own. I ran for two miles today and started to feel something funny in the knee. I stopped immediately and stretched out the ITB. One day it feels great and the next day it seems like its back again (maybe I'm just paranoid). At least I know it is getting better as I can run farther and longer.