Turkey Trot and marathon prep

The cancellation of the NYC marathon was national news, so no point in writing about that little drama. I strongly disagreed that it should be held, and decided about 6 hours prior to the cancellation that I was going to defer to 2013, and spend that Sunday volunteering in some way instead. I followed NYC Marathon of Relief on Facebook, and ended up heading out to Staten Island on Sunday with hundreds of other runners. It was a really interesting day: I met some wonderful people, said hi to Amby Burfoot, felt really productive helping out, but at the same time it was pretty emotionally difficult to meet nice people and families who had lost so much. I've been there twice now, and would like to go more because help will be needed for awhile, but there are apparently some concerns about dust and air quality right now so I'm holding off. It was really beautiful to see so many runners come and help out.

Staten Island Ferry Terminal, pretty much all runners:

When NY was cancelled, a lot of people chose races the following weekend...Fiona went to Richmond, other friends went to Harrisburg, and I heard that Indianapolis opened more spots to NY runners. When I'd debated deferring NYCM, Steph had mentioned she wanted to run Rehoboth Beach on December 8th. I decided to join her there, since it would give me time to make up for my injured time off. 

I still didn't train all that well, mostly focused on my long runs and couple of short, fast runs (more on that in a moment). I sucked at doing tempos-when I did them, they were great, but I just rarely did. My peak long run, 22 miles, went incredibly well. I felt strong, not too exhausted in the last few, and I ran them at an average of 8:40. I entered that into some run calculator to see what my marathon time would be if I kept that up. 3:49:something. I hardly dared to hope, especially since I have no clue what those next 4.2 miles feel like! I did feel confident about my ability to sub-4 though. 

I decided to stay in NY for Thanksgiving this year, for various reasons...money, school work, just generally wanting to relax. Last year in Iceland was unreal but I hoped to get in some good quality time with friends and get a lot done. Thanksgiving morning, I ran the Prospect Park turkey trot with a friend. I thought it was a 5K but luckily realized the day before that it was 5 miles. No big deal, just glad I caught that before the middle of the race! I slept at Hanna's, and then we ran to the start to get some extra distance in. That was my first small race, where I started right at the start line-it was great, no one in my way! I chose to not wear my Garmin, and the mile markers were easy to miss, so I really didn't know how I was doing. I knew it was hard, but had no idea if that was because I was going fast, or because I was tired/out of shape (what??)/hungover...

Turns out it was hard because I was FAST (for me)!!! I finished in 38:03, 7:36 minute miles. I was really excited for that. Then I went home, made an amazing dinner and dessert from scratch, and dragged it to the UWS for a friend, and he and I just watched movies and ate a lot. All in all, an awesome Thanksgiving day. 

Apparently, I HAVE to look at the camera button when taking a picture with my phone: