Well, I
can officially check “run a 5 miler on 3 hours of sleep” off my bucket list. Oh
wait, that was never on my bucket list. And yet that’s exactly what I did two
Sundays ago. It was probably one of the most jam-packed weekends I’ve ever had.
I’m exhausted just thinking about it.
As I
mentioned, I’ve been working at NY Running Co. quite a lot, in addition to my
real job. Hi, let me just voluntarily and semi-unnecessarily work 60 hour
weeks. Because why not?
So two
Fridays ago, I was once again closing at the store. I got home around 10:30,
made my dinner and crawled into bed because at 8 a.m. on a Saturday morning my
alarm was going off and I was headed to Carl Schurz Park to do some volunteer
mulching of the Mayor’s lawn with November Project!
3 hours of manual labor is
no joke people! I had been feeling guilty about not waking up earlier to get a run
in before volunteering, but by the end, I felt pretty confident that I had
earned my brunch!
It was a beautifulllll day out, and once we were done turning
over the ground and spreading the mulch, we headed to Supply House for some
brunchin’!
I
ordered the Huevos Rancheros and LOOK AT IT! So delicious. Like. Ridiculously
good. Plus a Bloody Mary, obviously. The tribe is all about hydration.
Your
first brunch cocktail is included in the price of your entrée, too! Some of the
brunch cocktails not included sounded so delicious that I was almost persuaded
to spend the extra money- I mean, a Ruby Red Mimosa? It’s like they created
this morning beverage for me- Grapefruit, champagne and St. Germaine!
After
brunch it was off to work the 4 p.m. – closing shift at the store.
As soon
as we closed, I changed into my Great Gatsby costume and it was off to the most
epic Halloween party I’ve ever seen! Laura took me and when we got to the building,
I casually found out that Justin Timberlake lives in the penthouse. They had
ordered 16000 balloons to fill the first floor of the apartment, which was so.
gorgeous. They had a full-service open bar and a PHOTO BOOTH!
I was in heaven. People had great
costumes. And did I mention they ordered beef, chicken and cheese arepas? This
was my first time eating an arepa (ok, first, second, and third time eating
arepas…since I ate one of each…) but it certainly will not be the last. They
were incredible. We were having such a great time at the party that oops, I
finally crawled into bed after 4 a.m.
I think
it’s more accurate to call what I did that night “napping” instead of “sleeping”
because my alarm went off at 7 a.m. (yeah, hi, that’s three hours MAX) and I
laced up my sneakers and ran to packet pick-up for the Poland Spring Marathon
Kick- Off 5 Miler in Central Park. Yeah, I ran to the race.
Clearly,
I had no intentions of this being a particularly enjoyable or successful run-
after all, I was functioning on 3 hours of sleep and had tequila, arepas and
pumpkin pie shots still sloshing around my stomach. But as I normally do, I got
competitive towards the end, pushed myself a little harder than I had planned,
and ended up finishing with a time of 38:41 for a pace of 7:45 mile/min. Not
bad, not bad.
I
crossed the finish line, grabbed an apple and a water bottle and started my run
to NY Running Co. for shoe training 9 – 11. Thankfully, there was coffee there.
Which I drank a LOT of. And Mary brought peanut butter, which I smothered my
apple in. For a while, I was riding a caffeine and race high, learning about
shoes, learning about insoles, lovin’ life.
Next up
was Marathon Volunteer Training in the park at 12:15. I also ran to that. But
as soon as I got in that tent, I was crashing. I stuck around for the station
manager portion of training, but there was no way I was lasting until 3:30.
I ran
home from training too. Why? Because it’s faster than walking. And faster meant
I would be in my bed faster.
I ate
lunch and somehow managed some cleaning and preparing for the week ahead before
collapsing into bed for some America’s Next Top Model marathonning.
Now that
my recap is done, can we rewind to the fact that on three hours of hung over
sleep I raced a 7:45 pace and placed 15th in my age group out of
207? I might just need to step up my speed work, tempo work and hill work game
and take this running stuff a little more seriously!
