If Yogi Berra once said “It ain’t over til it’s over”, would I be accused of plagiarism if I stated “It ain’t started til it’s started”? I swear this stuff only happens to me – even on a slow day I seem to have drama in my life at every turn….
First the running. Felt terrible yesterday after doing a couple of errands – head leaking all over the place, nose on fire from blowing it every 30 seconds, tired, sore, etc. Had all the gear in the truck to get in 6-7 miles on the trail but finally just cried uncle and came home and took a nap. Skipped XC practice altogether because I wouldn’t have been much good to anyone and I didn’t want to get any of the kids sick. Slept ok last night, felt a little better today. Still no hop in my step, but at least the congestion was down a little bit. Managed to go to the pool this morning for 45 easy minutes, felt better after breaking a sweat.
After the light workout I figured since I felt ok and still had 48 hours to recover even more (and since the girls had already mentally packed their bags and were on their way to NYC) I might as well pull the trigger and enter the race and grab a hotel. Found a hotel that only wanted one of the children as collateral so before pressing the “make non-refundable reservation” button I logged on to the New York Road Runners web site to enter the race. Was surprised (horrified) to see in big bold letters “Race full, closed to additional entrants”. Bummer, had hoped to run that one. I let loose a couple of words I learned in the Navy that my mother might not have approved of, then immediately launched an email to NYRR from my knees asking (begging) if there was any way to sneak in one more runner. God bless Janet who immediately responded with “come to the desk tomorrow and I’ll get you in.” I don’t view this saga as over until I am holding a race number, but I went back and booked the room at “Arm and a Leg Suites” in Chelsea so I might still get hosed but the girls are gonna get their NYC weekend no matter what….
Like last year’s race, this one will be fun because not only is it a great event that brings together a bunch of the middle-distance guys I usually only get to see during the track season, but also because I have no idea what to expect. The pool is great for a lot of things, but judging your conditioning level is not one of them. If we were running the Aqua-5th Ave Mile I would be ready to roll – unless the weather is much worse than forecast, however, I expect this one to be run on land and that means I will be out of my recent element. My lack of land mileage (maybe 4-5 runs) and land intervals (twice) was not part of my 6 week plan – the nagging achilles kind of forced my hand so it is what it is. Either way I think it’ll be a great event as usual, assuming I am in the field at all. If not I guess I will be jealously cheering on the fellows from the sidewalk, holding bags from the Gap and The American Girl Doll Store. A double whammy….
