Thirst Trap: 2019 New York Mini 10K Race Recap

I was excited to run the Mini 10K again this year. First of all, it’s a 10K. I like 10Ks. I like them better than 5Ks and I think I like them better than 15Ks, although I have only ever run a 15K twice. My “regular” route is seven miles, so 6.2 feels not only doable, but short.

There’s a lot of cool history surrounding the Mini. It’s the world’s oldest all-female road race, created in 1972 by Kathrine Switzer and my close personal friend Nina Kuscsik, with the help of then NYRR president Fred Lebow. That inaugural race in 1972 had just 78 runners. Over the years, there have been some legendary competitors: both Grete Waitz and Tegla Loroupe have won it five times each. The fastest female marathoner in history, Paula Radcliffe, won in 2001. Deena Kastor won it in 2004, the last American winner for a decade until Molly Huddle claimed that honor for herself in 2014. Mary Keitany, a four-time winner of the NYC Marathon, won the Mini in 2015, 2017, and 2018.

This year’s Mini had 8886 runners. We’ve come a long way, baby.

Hard Reset: My Convenient Cold, Global Running Day, and Meeting Deena Kastor

I took a break! More from blogging than from running. But now I’m back. Hello!

I wasn’t planning on running the week after the hot ‘n hellish Brooklyn Half (which I can’t believe was only four weeks ago). Last year, I think I took two days off from running after the half. This year, this ol’ body needed more. I needed a reset.

Is This Hell?: 2019 Popular Brooklyn Half Race Recap

The 2019 Popular Brooklyn Half was my fourth race in four weeks. As I get to the end of this recap, you will see that this is a lot of races to run in four weeks, and perhaps too many races to run in four weeks.

This fourth race was a good learning experience. I was tired in ways I had never felt. It was by far the hardest race I’ve ever run, including both of my marathons (one of which, by the way, was one of the four races I ran in this four week period).

Caution to the Wind: 2019 Run for the Health of It 5K Race Recap

I would not normally suggest racing a 5K only 13 days after one has run a marathon, unless the 5K is very special, and this one was, so I did. I wrote a whole post about why the 5K was important to me so I won’t rehash the whole thing here, only to say that it takes place in my hometown of Northport, Long Island and I had wanted to run it for the past two years but didn’t get to until this year.

A Tale of Two Marathons: How I PR’d by 12 Minutes (with a BQ!)

Now that I have run two (2) whole marathons, I am a qualified marathon expert. Or at least, somewhat knowledgeable. Okay, I am still an idiot who doesn’t know anything. But now that I have run two marathons, I can at least compare them. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you how to run an Olympic qualifying marathon. Also, if you’re looking to run an Olympic qualifying marathon, you are very much on the wrong blog.

In this post, I’m going to take a close look at the two 26.2-mile races I’ve run in my very short life as a marathon runner: the 2018 TCS NYC Marathon and the 2019 Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon. I’m kind of a numbers nerd, and I thought this could be a fun way of comparing the two training cycles and races – examining what I did better, what I could still do better, and how luck and life circumstances played a role. Let’s have some fun! Or maybe it’ll just be me who has fun!

Run the ‘Run for the Health of It’ 5K on 5.11.19

Hello! This morning I ran for the first time since Sunday’s NJ Marathon: 4.72 miles at an eeeasy pace. I’m back, baby! I’ve been feeling eager to get back into it since Wednesday but wanted to give myself a solid five days off.

Monday was the only day I was too sore to run – I spent most of the day limping and avoiding stairs. By Tuesday the limp was gone. I’ve had a bit of a tight left hamstring, but not much else to complain about. I’m kind of shocked at how good I feel.

Now that I’m done with the NJ Marathon, I’m putting my focus on my next race: the Run for the Health of It 5K in Northport, NY (my hometown!) on Saturday, May 11th. Northport is a lovely, quaint, nautical village on the north shore of Long Island. It is also where I spent much of my childhood. I lived there again from December 2016 to May 2018 to help take care of my mom at the end of her life.

A Matter of Trust: 2019 Novo Nordisk New Jersey Marathon Race Recap

Girl, where do you think you’re going?
Where do you think you’re going, girl?

-Lady Gaga, “Joanne”

This is just two slow half marathons, I told myself. It’s just a long tempo run was another mind trick. Only ten miles left? Easy. Anything to convince myself that this wasn’t one of the hardest things I had ever fought for in my life. But a little voice inside me kept returning to one word: Trust. Saying it calmed me and kept me focused. I repeated it every so often, whispering it to myself on the exhales. Trust. Trust. Trust.