I started running about a year ago today. My first race was the NYC Half Marathon. This is one of the largest Half Marathons in country with over 20,000 finishers. I remember that morning getting up being nervous and excited at the same time. My training wasn’t pretty. My long run was six miles on a treadmill. “I only run outside on race day” hadn’t officially been coined yet, but I was doing a pretty good job of giving myself that mantra.
It was a great race. I was excited. I took photos, videos, FaceTime, I photo bombed people, I got photo bombed. It was amazing. The dark side. It was about 30 degrees and the air was freezing. I finished the race with a decent time. The aftermath was hilarious to watch. I was shivering. I could barely walk up the stairs. I could barely walk down the stairs. I could barely move. I rushed home and showered and wanted to show off my medal at some cool brunch spot. All I could remember was eating, and wanted to go to bed. The following days were no better. I was pretty much in the same position for two weeks. It was awful. I couldn’t wait to do it again.
So this year, after winning the lottery, I was all signed up to revisit this monster of a course. It started again on the east side of Central Park, going up the park, around the top, and down into Times Square, while finishing downtown near Wall Street. Amazing.
I ran with a couple new friends I made a few months ago. Matt is fast—really fast. I guess he humored me for the first half and ran with me. It was fun. It was just how I remembered it. The best part, aside from brunch after it was over, hands down, Times Square. That infamous place in NYC, where all NY’ers new and old avoid. What we tend to forget about Times Square is, its full of energy and happy people. This is you get a burst of energy seeing all the bright lights, and screaming spectators. I had a blast revisiting this race and getting my first back-to-back medal.
