New York Marathon - 12 weeks to go.

I ran just over 55km this week. It was another week of travel and two evening flights meant that I had to miss a couple of outdoor runs, but I did get on the treadmill in the gym a couple of times, had a fast 8.5km in the park at home and did a mammoth run in the mountains on Sunday morning which left me feeling exhilarated and motivated and absolutely spent.

Will and I went up to FRIM where we kicked out a strong 21km. On the way up one of the trails we passed a runner coming the opposite way in her Vibrams, looking strong and fit. She greeted us and asked if we were "going up Steroid Hill today?". "Sure are" we replied with big grins. Steroid hill is about 850m and it is STEEP. You hit it around the 10km mark and how you tackle is very much depends on how that 10km has gone. I have never managed to run all the way from rest stop at the bottom to the top without needing to slow to a walk to get over the toughest part, but the conditions  yesterday were perfect and I knew that it was my day.


Leaving will to tackle it as his pace, I took off. I immediatley spotted a couple of mountain bikers a couple of hundred metres in front of me, moving at a slow pace. I have just read an awesome book called Born to Run (a whole other blog!) and to take a line from the book, I mentally made them my deer and put my head down determined to catch them. Within 200 metres I passed them at a steady pace. Instinctively as they were on bikes they obviously decided the hunter was to become the hunted and they were determined to track me to the top. It served as just the motivation I needed to hammer on and make it to the top well in front of them, feeling great. My heart was accelerating, but I punched the air in triumph and realized that my training really is going well. Will arrived shortly after me and (I am pleased to note) before the mountain bikers who had stopped to rest just after I had left them behind. I munched my way through my new favourite running snack - a Carmen's muesli bar and we set off again feeling great. Even though it was shorter distance, it was a tough trail and I think counts as a longer road distance on my training plan.


12 weeks to go and I still have a lot work to do but am feeling great and really really looking forward to NY.



Clearly not the hill at FRIM, but the best picture of a steep hill that google had to offer!