sheer willpower

Remember how I said that I had fallen off my half-marathon training plan? Well, today was judgement day! I have to confess that I was more than a little nervous this morning. I hate doing anything half-assed. And since I barely ran in the past two weeks, thanks to deadlines and a cold, I knew that this wasn't going to be my best performance. But instead of adopting an all-or-nothing attitude, I decided to make this race about enjoying the experience. There's something so amazing about waking up at the crack of dawn (with the super-moon still out!) and shivering in the start corrals with thousands of people of all ages, sizes, and backgrounds. So I fought my natural instinct to track my pace and took the time to soak up the scenery as I ran through Central Park and past the giant buildings of Times Square (one of my favorite NYC memories to date!). Even though the last three miles down the West Side Highway were a little stretch of hell, I let my determination take over and forced myself to jog until the very end. And you know what? I did surprisingly well—finished in 1:52:55, just shy of my personal record of 1:52:48. I'm chalking this one up to sheer willpower. It's incredible how far that can take you!