The past year to eighteen months have been a roller coaster of emotions. We’ve mentally gone from strict stay at home to stay safe- to embracing the boys going back to school (what a blessing) to now what I call reacclimating (which apparently isn’t a real word) back into regular “normal” life. I’m not going to lie, I think I might need a class or at least a top ten list of things to do while I get myself back into society. Granted, I’ve been fortunate enough to be substitute teaching all year, so I haven’t been strictly at home. However, my social interactions have been pretty limited to family and our pod family. We will continue to navigate the ups and downs and modifications of life brought to us by COVID.

This time last year I was learning that the NYC Marathon was canceled. It made total sense, but broke my heart. This year I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the NYC Marathon is happening and I’m IN!! It’s hard to believe that it’s really going to happen. Quite honestly I won’t fully believe it until I’m waiting in Staten Island to cross the Verrazano Bridge. But even before November we are seeing the return of racing in “real life.” Many states have been ahead of Maryland and I’ve seen friends share their racing experiences for months, while I was getting antsy to run. Now is finally my chance. Go big or go home. Why run one race in a weekend if you can run two??

After not running an in person race since the “there’s some trail” all trail race in August some ten months ago I’m slated to run two this weekend. Saturday is a 10 miler (that I ran virtually last year) that I actually wasn’t going to run. There’s a smaller 5K that was my first race two years ago when I started running again that I wanted to have fresh legs to run. One thing led to another (some friendly peer pressure) and how could I pass up a real life race ten minutes from my backyard. The course is challenging and post COVID racing looks a little bit different than pre-COVID racing, but I signed up at the last minute. I’ve had nervous, excited energy about it all week. Deciding what to wear. Deciding how much water to carry. Just honestly being excited to run with the push of other people around me. I’ve totally dialed back my pace to a lot of easy runs of late because I was focusing on number of miles and staying injury free. So I’m not quite sure what my pace will look like. I have a target pace in my mind that I’ve been hitting on my outdoor runs; I would imagine with the adrenaline and running with others will shave a little bit of time off that target pace. We shall see. Really it’s about running my best race and time shouldn’t matter. If you’re new here, I put crazy pressure on myself, so I’m the one who needs to be reminded that it’s just about finishing the race.

I was so excited to share with the boys that I would be running a race. So, I must share a funny story that occurred over dinner regarding the race.

Me: I’m running a race this weekend.

J (age 7): Can we shoot you with water guns when you finish again? (this is what they did when I finished my virtual marathon)

Me: Not this time. It’s an in person race.

J: Wow, like a real race?

Me: Yes!!

J: How far is it?

Me: 10 miles.

J: That should be easy. It’s not very far.

I don’t know, I kind of think 10 hilly miles when it’s supposed to be in the 70s with 90% plus humidity is kind of far. Apparently even my children have become numb to the fact that running long distances is just what I do. That said, I’m feeling some butterflies getting ready this week. I started laying out my gear and thinking a bit more about my nutrition and water intake during the week to make sure I’m properly hydrated. I’m trying to get more sleep, but that’s a losing battle this week. As I’m typing this I’m laughing and thinking of something someone told me when I was a trial attorney. “If walking into the courtroom to start a trial doesn’t still give you nervous excitement you should find something else to do.” I believe racing is truly the same thing. If it becomes too old hat that you don’t get some butterflies before you toe the line, it’s time to find a new hobby! Fortunately the butterflies are flying and hopefully I will be too!