RUN: 6 Miles (and Potential Catastrophe)

I was a bad runner this week. In fact, the ONLY training I did this past week was to run 4 miles on the dreadmill on Monday. Aside from that, you wanna know what I did? I ate heavy, decadent food, TONS of Christmas sweets, and drank a lot of wine (and LOADS of champagne at Firm Holiday Party).  It's amazing that I even decided to do my long run this weekend, but I knew that if I didn't, I probably would never run again (yeah - I have that weird kind of mentality).  So after checking our the forecast and determining that Saturday would be a better day to tackle 6 miles than Sunday, I had a plan.  Wake up, eat bagel, allow bagel to digest, and head to Central Park.  Instead, I woke up late, ate a bagel and then some, and laid in Roomie's bed for a long time before finally deciding that I needed to GO. 

I fully anticipated a very painful run, and on a scale from 1 to 10, it was around a 7.  Because I had to do 6 miles, that meant I had to essentially run the perimeter of the Park, which also meant I had to tackle the so-called "Harlem Hills" (aka the bit of the Park above 102nd St.).  They were straight up miserable.  They are so twisty and turny and SO annoying uphill for so long that you honestly think the hill will never end.  Suffice to say, I stopped to walk.  A LOT.  And then around mile 4, I realized that my iPHONE WAS MISSING.  Stupidly, I moved my iPhone from its secure zippered pocket to my very unsecure front pocket, and sure enough, it fell out, and I didn't notice b/c Girl Talk was blasting in my ears, and I was cursing the hills.  Once I realized it was gone, I immediately turned back around and ran, stopping every single runner/cyclist/rollerblader/walker whether they had seen a phone.  "Nope."  I was starting to get all kinds of panicky and downright tearful.  I have a bad history of losing phones and to replace my new iPhone would be downright painful (especially sans a lawyer's salary).  I had just about given up hope on finding my phone (and the run AND life altogether) when I stopped a tiny Asian woman.  "Excuse me, have you seen a phone?"  "Oh yes - right there!"  She pointed to the sidewalk and there was my phone.  THANK SWEET JESUS!!!  My case is a little (okay, a lot) banged up, but my phone was A-OK!  I was SOOOOOOOO RELIEVED and literally thanked God about a million times. 

I found my phone around mile 4.5 and then proceeded to turn back around and continue my run (note: this meant tackling a hill I had already tackled - grr).  Around mile 5, I stopped and bought a Gatorade and then proceeded to stop frequently to sip said Gatorade so I wouldn't have to hold it (thankfully, I had gloves on this time).  Eventually I hit 6 miles and thanked God once again for helping me find my phone and finish my run.  It was at this point that I realized just how painful it was to walk.  Slowly but surely I found my way back to the subway and made it home.  Walking up my 2.5 flights of stairs?  Tres painful.  I iced, donned my super hot compression socks, showered, made a huge bowl of food, and then proceeded to lay in Roomie's bed (again) for the next several hours.  (My room was too messy.)  All in all, not a bad run considering.  Voila my stats:

Total Distance:  6 miles
Total Time:  59:03 

• Mile 1:  9:24  (Had no idea I was going so fast - normally, my first mile is super slow.)

• Mile 2:  9:47

• Mile 3:  9:32

• Mile 4:  10:29  (When I realized I lost my phone...)

• Mile 5:  10:24  (Stopped for Gatorade and lots of Gatorade-drinking)

• Mile 6:  9:25  (At this point, I just wanted to be DONE so I made it a point to hustle!)

I could've sworn my time would've been more than 60 minutes, but somehow I managed to be a speedy demon (well... for me, anyway) for 4 out of 6 miles and managed to finish under a 10 min/mile pace - AWESOME!  Honestly, I could care less about my speed - I'm more interested in finishing.  But the fact that my runs have become speedier has definitely been fun.

No pre-run picture b/c I looked downright uggo.  Also, the week of excessive eating and drinking left me bloated and quite... round.  I'm going to get all kinds of serious about my training in January.  That means weekly runs, long runs, cross-training, strength training, AND yoga and pilates.  Will write more about that later!  Hope you had a FABULOUS weekend, my darlings!  I'm off to a fun Art Show and to see Black Swan!