These Little Town Blues...

I ran the NYC Half Marathon yesterday. Or maybe I should say it ran me. It really wasn't pretty.

We arrived in NYC Friday night. It was a fine trip up, nothing too exciting. Saturday, we met up with my friends Amanda and Kate and their respective husbands. Amanda, Kate and I were all running the race. We met at Niketown, picked up our packets and then went to lunch. We went to the Great American Health Bar on W. 57th. Yum! I got an avocado sandwich and there really isn't much more to say about it. It was so freaking good.

After lunch, we walked around a lot. This was Amanda's first time in NYC, so we wanted to show her some of the city but still not completely exhaust ourselves before the race. After walking around some, we all went back to our respective dwellings to rest, have dinner, and get ready for the race.

The weather Saturday night was so wonderful. It was cool and breezy and little humidity. I was pretty excited for the race. We had dinner at Josie's Kitchen up near the apartment. It was really good. We got some Pinkberry on the way back and then just spent the rest of the night getting ready for the race. I think I was asleep by 9:30!

Sunday morning race preparations went well. I felt good and ready. We headed over to the race start at 5:30. As soon as we left the apartment, it started to thunder and lightening. Oh, great. I was pissed. As we headed over to the race, it started raining. It was muggy and hot. I was not happy. The race started in Central Park, which is nice, but inside a park the trees kind of keep the humidity in and it's stifling.

I met up with Kate and Amanda. This was about 6:30. It had stopped raining by then and I was getting excited. The race started at 7:00 and we were off. I felt good at first but it was so freaking crowded. Between the humidity and the 14,000 people, I started to feel claustrophobic. I have to say that my nemesis in running is humidity. It kills me. I swear, the reaction is like air being let out of a balloon, with a little scream and everything. It's so not pretty.

So, we ran around Central Park, which is about a 7-mile loop of undulating, horrendous hills. Seriously, they really suck because they're all gradual inclines so you're climbing for an extended period of time. In addition, the humidity was making me feel nauseous. I started having dry heaves and thought I was going to lose it all over the place. Thankfully, I didn't. Finally, we left the park at mile 7 and we headed out onto 7th Ave. It was like the angels started singing for me. With the street being open and no trees in sight, the air thinned out, the crowd thinned out and I could breathe. We ran down 7th through Times Square, which was awesome. That was the best part of the race. We made a right onto 42nd Street and headed over to the West Side Highway. We then just ran down to the finish in Battery Park. I was pretty much done by the time we go to the West Side. The hills and nausea from the beginning really took their toll on me.

We finished and my poor friend Kate had to go to the medic tent. She was burning up but not sweating. She was feeling cold and shivering, but she was hot to the touch. She was suffering from heat exhaustion, maybe even heat stroke. They took her to the hospital in an ambulance and it was pretty intense. But she was all right. I haven't gotten the full story yet because they had to get on the road as soon as she got out of the hospital. We're still in the city, so I'll catch up with her tomorrow. But she called when she got out and she's doing all right.

So, that's that. This was not my best race in any sense of the word and I'm pretty disappointed. I hate having a bad race because it's such a blow to my confidence. But I'll chalk it up to experience and consider it a training run and move on. The next race is Virginia Beach Rock n' Roll Half Marathon, so hopefully that will be a little better.

Hope everyone had a good weekend!