It's Been *HOW* Long?

Um... 8 months? After the NYC Marathon, I kinda went into that slump you have after planning a huge party. You know, like a wedding, an all-consuming life event that you get tunnel vision over and nothing else seems to matter? Training for a year, fundraising, planning the marathon weekend with my friend Jen, was all I could think about between working and taking care of the family.

Then it came and went, all that planning and anticipation for a 24 hour day. Now what? Well, I put that 20 pounds I lost before the marathon back on. I think I started overeating the week before the marathon and then the holidays hit... I've been up and down since January. I was doing really well with some challenge groups, but my determination and motivation seemed to fizzle out. Now I am about 9 weeks from my 45th birthday. Frickin' fabulous, right? I'm just gonna keep trying.

I've raced a lot, for my standards. There was the Rob's Run Cross Country 5k on November 29th and the Run to the Brewery 10 Miler on January 17th.

Run to the Brewery

And then I got into a little race called the NYC Half Marathon through the NYRR lottery. Charlie did not get in and we weren't about to fundraise for him to do it with me. It was VERY strange doing a race and that distance without him. I had to get myself through it. It was extremely cold that day, but I commuted with my friends Alicia, Jen and Jeff, so I wasn't alone and knew I had them waiting at the finish line for me.

After getting into the NYC Half Marathon my friend Alicia decided to run the 5 Borough Series, where there is a major run in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, da Bronx and Staten Island. AND if you run 4 of 6 qualifying races you are then guaranteed entry into the 2017 NYC Half. THIS was how Charlie was going to get to run that race, with me.


The next race in the series was the Brooklyn Half Marathon, on May 21st, and it was a warm one, but I did well and enjoyed the day with Charlie and our friend Kim, who was now also running the 4 of 6 races to get into the NYC Half with us.

Grand Army Plaza on the Brooklyn Half course

Finished!

For fun we ran the inaugural Brooklyn Bridge Memorial Day 5k on 5/29. Since it was the first time this race was put on, we should give the race company the benefit of the doubt, but most of the logistics of this run left a lot to be desired! You start in Manhattan and run over the bridge into Brooklyn. Sounds pretty simple, except the course really wasn't closed and it was as hot as Hades and there was only one sorta self-serve water station at 1.7 miles... I could go on and on. We finished and after getting some post race pics, we all walked back over the bridge back to Penn Station, but before we hopped on a train home we had a phenomenal meal in Brother Jimmy's BBQ. It was a good day spent with Charlie, Kim and our friends Chris and Zorana.

me, Kim, Charlie, Chris, Zorana and Tana

sharing the bridge with tourists and cyclists was *not* fun

On June 18th we ran the Queens 10k in Flushing Meadows Park, home of the 1964 World's Fair. It was a very hot day and I was thanking the good Lord above that we only had to run 6.2 miles. Jeff and Alicia took the 3 of us in and Jeff, again, took awesome race day pics!

3/5 done for me and 2/4 for Charlie! photo courtesy of JSL Sports Photos

It's now July 13th. Two months until my 45th birthday. Ten weeks until the Bronx 10 Miler and about 12 weeks until the Staten Island Half Marathon. We are probably doing the Smith Point Bridge 5k on 9/10. It's the 1st race we ran together and we missed it the last 2 years because of my knee injury and marathon training. I'm also thinking we will finish up our race calendar with the Suffolk Half Marathon on 10/30. It's not far from where we live and we did the 1st annual on my birthday last year. Might as well try and keep that streak going!

I have a lot of work to do to get where I want to be for the SI Half. I'm anticipating a tough course and I really want to get back under the 3:00 cut-off. That's only going to happen by dropping weight and working hard.

WHAT I REALLY WANTED TO SHARE WITH YOU....... drum roll please....

 

From Fat To Finish Line is being released on iTunes and Amazon on August 2nd!!! It can be pre-ordered right now! Here's the links to order it on Amazon and on iTunes. 

After 4+ years it's finally a finished product I will be holding in my hands! I have seen multiple edits and I just love it. I know you all will enjoy it, too.