Hi peeps.

Welcome to Monday. So much to tell you. Let’s see last we spoke it was Friday the 13th and I was headed to Dr. Williams for more knee work. That went well.

I told him my plan for the NYC Half and he actually encouraged me to run more than 4 if I could. Love him! I high-tailed it out of his office and downtown to the NYC Half Expo where I met up with Lisa.

I got my bib and bought some fuel and then headed home. I took duncan for a quick evening walk since I knew the forecast for Saturday was going to be rain.all.day.

Saturday I woke up and did some retouching to some headshots I took for a brokerage firm a few weeks ago. Then I spent a couple of hours doing laundry, cleaning and eventually I started to pack up all my gear that I would need for the NYC Half plus an overnight bag and drove to the boyfriend’s house. We had dinner over at my brother and sister-in-law’s house and stayed out a bit later than I would have wanted if I was in full focus training/running mode. But since I figured most of my race would be walking I wasn’t too worried. Plus I don’t normally sleep well the night before a race. Always nervous I’ll oversleep or forget something.

Alarm sounds 4:15am. Ouch! That’s early. But I managed to sleep walk my way to my gear and suit up and was out the door by 5am to go catch a train into to the city.

I hadn’t had breakfast yet so when I arrived at Penn Station I popped into Starbucks for a petite vanilla bean scone and some coffee.

The scone is only 120 calories. It’s one of my favorite treats. I’ll have to learn how to bake them someday. I know I know not smart to eat something new on race day. But it all worked out fine. I sipped my coffee as I walked the block from Penn Station to the subway (the F train) that I would take up to Central Park. There was a man from Argentina who was running the NYC Half for the first time so I gave him advice on what train to take. I also let him know the course 411.

• Rolling hills in Central Park from mile 1-6!

• Crazy awesome energy thru Times Square. from mile 6-8

• Wind along the West Side Highway miles 8-12.

• Prepare for your Garmin to have difficulty tracking properly through Times Square and also mile 12 goes into a tunnel. (side note: my Garmin ended up saying it was more than 13.5 miles)

• Fast and flat from mile 6 to the finish.

• Heaviest recovery food bag ever (thanks to a huge bottle of water and Gatorade, plus an apple, pretzels and maybe a brick or something)

Hopefully he did well. Then the train pulled in and low and behold I get on the same subway car that my running peeps from Brooklyn had taken in. 8 million people in NYC and almost 20,000 runners coming in for the race and I get on the same subway and subway car as the 3 people I was planning on meeting up with at our designated street corner. Love when that stuff happens. (side note: I also noticed a woman along the course that I had seen at 5:30am in NJ while waiting for the train into the city. Again, almost 20,000 runners and I spot her).

We rode the rest of the way together and then had to make our way through the security checkpoint where we bumped into Robin, yet another friend.

This was no joke. We are talking TSA experience. Put your loose items in a basket and walk through the metal detector gates. Oh, and before that I checked my gear bag easy peasy at the trucks lined up on 59th street.

• So YAY for easy gear check.

• Nay for security congestion (although I totally understand and appreciate that the runner’s safety was a priority.)

• Yay for weather which was much better than last year. It did get a bit windy from miles 8-12 but it was overcast and in the 40s. Nice!

By the time we got through security we had to move pretty fast to get in to the corrals before they closed them. We didn’t have time to find our exact corral so we just jumped into the one closest somewhere in the middle and wouldn’t ya know we bumped into 2 more friends, Jorge and Lisa’s friend who she says she ALWAYS bumps into. A serendipitous morning for sure.

And before you knew it we were off and running. I said goodbye to everyone and told them I’d see them at Au Bon Pain for our planned post-race breakfast. I ran the first 5k with no issue. I’ve run in Central Park plenty of times and also ran this race last year so I was very familiar with the course. As soon as I saw the 5k sign I slowed down and walked to assess. Of course right away the knee started hurting. Crap. Should I have walked the first 9 miles and run the last 4 like my original plan? I had multiple conversations with myself and eventually shut myself up and agreed it was going to be a long time until I crossed that finish and I better just deal. I walked most of mile 3-4 and then my knee felt better so I progressed to a shuffle and then I was back running.

Here’s the most amazing thing: other than that mile and a little issue during the last 800 meters of the race I RAN THE WHOLE WAY! I kid you not. I was not prepared to feel good enough to do so. And since song lyrics are my mantra these days I found a new one to describe this day. I was listening to a song by Nickleback called “What are You Waiting For”. There’s a line where he says “Everybody needs a leap of faith. When are you taking yours?” I took a leap of faith with this race knowing the outcome was a big question mark and it worked out for me. I’m really grateful for that. And yes, in true Sally fashion I cried a lot. I just get so emotional.

I got a kick out of these girls who dressed up in that “is it blue or is it white” dress that went viral. So funny.

They were airing the race on ABC and I got to see myself on TV while running toward the Freedom Tower.

So as I mentioned just as the 800 meters to go sign appeared my knee gave way. I hobbled those last 800 meters but I crossed the finish line and within a minute my knee was recovered again. Whew! I did it.

I walked around the corner and met up with Lisa, Jorge and Amy.

And then I made it back to Penn Station to get the train back to the boyfriend’s house.

later on in the day we took the dogs to the park for a 2 1/2 mile walk. And by the time the evening came to a close I had taken 40,000 steps!

This morning I’m feeling SORE everywhere. But my knee actually feels pretty good! My hamstrings and quads though are not happy. I foam rolled and iced yesterday and I took some ibuprofen today but I guess this is what I get for running so many miles under trained. I’m really surprised though how endurance-wise I felt fine. I never felt fatigued or out of breath. My body remembers how to do distance running. And now I need to recover smart. I’ve got another 1/2 in 2 weeks!

How was your weekend? Did you run? Did you spend any time outdoors? Are you ready for Spring?