A Journey to the Marathon - On Cloud 9

So it's less then two weeks to the Philadelphia marathon and I am doing great. The main reason has to do with the fact I ran 10 miles in the NYC marathon today.  I had no idea that the energy was so amazing.  Kyle and I started in Brooklyn where it seemed liked there was a band every 10 blocks playing music that pumped you up.  Between the music, the energy of the spectators and the runners surrounding you the feeling was euphoric.

The route was one we had done many timed before through Williamsburg to 59th street bridge to 1st Avenue so it felt great being on familiar ground. The difference this time was we were running in the middle of a party. I started with Advil to prevent any knee pain which was key and we finished the 10 miles feeling as if we could have gone the full 26.

Unfortunately, last weekend was not such a positive story. On our 20 mile run my knee was really hurting and by mile 5 I had to stop. We found Advil and sat down for a few minutes. Kyle asked me what level the pain was and I said a 4 or 5, but I didn't want to do anything to make it worse. It was his next line that got me up again when I was ready to quit. He said, "if it was me I would run until my leg fell off or at least until the pain was at a 9."  The thing is with him I knew that was 100% true and that got me going again. So I got up and finished the next 15 miles with great energy. It really is amazing to me what a positive mindset and 3 Advil can do for you.  We continued from 100th street down the east river and looped around the bottom of Manhattan up the West Side highway to 42nd. Running around the river is just beautiful.  I love how the Philly Marathon website has a clock ticking down to the minute. 13 days 9 hours and 36 minutes and counting!

See “A Journey to the Marathon” (Part 1)
See "A Journey to the Marathon" - A Defining Moment (Part 2)