last for the first time.

so while most of you were snuggled under your covers saturday morning, the hearty brooklyn team in training crew took the slushy streets to run many a mile.

by friday afternoon, practice had been canceled for the manhattanites - i think ramon is going soft. he *never* used to cancel practice! lisa sent an email letting us know it was on, that we would meet up at 8:30, but if it was to slick she reserved the right to cancel on the spot. fair enough.

i left work a little early and headed to jack rabbit on 14th street to get some new running shoes. i probaly have had the others for 350 miles, which is about 50 miles too many and i had a hunch that they were contributing to my injuries. i wasn't really excited about breaking my shoes in on a long run - the last time i did that i ended up with a monster blister - but i was more scared of getting more hurt than i already am.

i didn't go through the whole "get your stride checked" thing. i simply brought my old ones, asked for the latest model, tried them on and wow. they felt like slippers compared to my old sneakers. it was niiiiiiice. it was also no longer snowing but raining and i had a feeling that we would be running in the morning.

and i was right. as i headed to our meeting spot, the streets were relatively clear, aside from a few slick spots here and there. i was pretty relieved that we were going to be running - as i said, i was freaking out a little over my miles + my injury so it was really important for me to see how i was going to do (and of course, get those miles in.)

lisa explained our route for the morning - we woud be headed to the city. our route would take us:
-from park slope, through brooklyn and over the brooklyn bridge.
-across chambers to the westside highway and back.

there are three marathons training together this season - paris, nashville and new jersey. the people that were not running paris (all but 4 of us) got to turn around at houston for a nice 10 mile recovery run. i would be running up to 54th street on the west side and back to the way we came, over the bridge and back to brooklyn.

i had one of the new jersey-people to run with for the first 7 or so miles, up to 30th or so, and it was good to have someone to chat with. also i had forgotten my watch so i was able to pace a little bit. and then...i was on my own. the weather at that point was eh. it was misty raining and you could start to feel the chill creep in. i was good and was wearing my fuel belt and because i knew of a good little bathroom/water fountain spot, i wasn't "rationing" as i might have been otherwise.

i was quite quite tempted to turn around at 34th, then 44th (that would have been 15 miles) but i knew i would just be mad at myself if i stopped short, so on i went, past where the intrepid should be, through the tourists departing the cruise ship docks with their many suitcases blocking the path, and up to my turn around spot.

once i turned around i was excited for my stop at the "secret" water taxi dock. there were a few other runners (not with tnt) follwed me in. a british woman in the group saw me eating a goo and said "ah, looks like someone else is in training, else you wouldn't be eating those dreadful things" (note - i think the word "dreadful" is highly underused, and i plan on incorporating it more frequently). we talked running talk for a few minutes, who was training for what, how many miles was i running, etc.

the last stretch on the west side was the toughest. long. straight. you know exactly where you are. i longed for music and thought about the things that tend to keep me going:

-a comment from a reader a few days ago (thanks angie!)
-a video of the hoyts (father/son triathalete/marathon team from massachusetts)
-a note from jeanne's sister that made me smile
-finding out that morning that lisa's (the coach) dad, who had been having a rough time of it lately, is now cancer free
-running the full san diego marathon when i was only going to do the 1/2 (until i got inspired by the 80-year old who was participating in her 9th marathon for TNT)
-and of course bouv...i had told my running buddy about him earlier, its good to talk about these things...even when you've talked about it a million times.

i realized at some point that i had not a piece of id on me, so i'd better be carful not to hurt myself. i had visions of hitting my head, getting amnesia, and the hospital not knowing who to call. once i was back on chambers i knew that the rest would go by quickly between dodging people and traffic, running the brooklyn bridge (a first by the way) and getting myself back to our meeting spot to "check out" aka let the coaches know we didn't get lost or crack our heads open.

i found that i was the last - a first for me. everyone congratulated me and i smiled big but wearily. 16 down. minimal pain. i am rather proud of myself.

yesterday's mileage: 16.0
season mileage to date:165.0