How Not to Race

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! 

(But first, let me take a selfie on my walk over to Gracie Mansion...)

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! 

(The women in charge MAY have complimented my technique multiple times. I mean, I'm just saying...)

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’!

(Such a beautiful morning to give back to the community!)

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 mean, maybe I'm a little bit of a camera whore) 

 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.

(Such a fabulous night- THANK YOU LAURA!)

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.

(Hi, Central Park.)

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.

(This is what we call a forced smile...)

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.

(Never underestimate the power of caffeine and peanut butter)

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 15^th 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! 

(See the girl behind me? She's smiling because she probably slept more than three hours the night before. Also, she probably wasn't emitting alcohol from her pores. But guess what? I'm in front of her ;)