March was nice, but gosh did it go by fast. I’ve been thinking a lot about the passage of time lately, mostly about how time flies when life is good but drips like molasses when it sucks. Why is that? Is that too banal of a thought to even articulate here? My brain felt mostly intact in March but it got mushy again in April. Blame hormones, my favorite scapegoat.
It was a big month for running. I ran the New York City half-marathon and PR-ed by more than two minutes. (Hold for applause.) I’ll go into a full recap below, but it was an emotional race for me! I cried while I was climbing the Manhattan Bridge at mile 5 because last year, at the same race, I was in SUCH a weird place. At the time, I was cheering for my husband, a newly established distance runner, and I hated being on the sidelines. I was 28 weeks pregnant and about to start a new job the next day. (Yikes!) And though I had run through most of my pregnancy, it was getting to be uncomfortable and unenjoyable. I was self-conscious and lost because so much of my identity was tied to running and work, and both of those things were so wobbly. I was also freezing and there is no place to warm up in Chinatown at 8 am on a Sunday morning. This year, as I passed the spot where I had stood cheering, I cried thinking about it all and how I “found my way back,” which is corny but true.
Anyway, the race was great. My start time was 7:20, which meant I had to get up at 4 am to pump, do my bathroom biz, and get to Brooklyn. That reminds me, the first person I’d like to thank for helping me have a good race is my baby, who slept through the night. She usually sleeps through the night but you never know when a sleep regression is going to hit. (One did come for us the weekend after the race.) The second person I’d like to thank is my mom, who watched her while my husband and I ran.
I don’t usually listen to music when I run races, but I just wanted to turn my brain off this time. I sometimes overthink a race too much while it’s happening and psych myself out, and listening to music helps me zone out and go into auto drive. I put a lot of effort into curating my playlist for this half, and I’m honestly really proud of the final product. Three songs were from the Tarzan soundtrack, which is one of the best soundtracks ever made? “Two Worlds” and “Son of Man” are absolute bangers! I’ll let you guess the third, and no, it’s not “Strangers Like Me.” I even cracked open my 2011 MacBook Pro and opened iTunes to find a song from one of my college silent disco playlists. (“Kickstarts” by Example.) I added some old standbys too, like “Bombs Over Baghdad” by Outkast, which has an ideal BPM for fast-paced exercise. That’s just a taste. Only the hits, people!
The actual running of the race was pretty uneventful. I started out slower than I intended because the first mile was so congested, then got into a groove from miles 2-5, where the course runs from Prospect Park down Flatbush Avenue and to the Manhattan Bridge. I always hit a bit of a mental wall around mile 7 in a half-marathon—you’re slightly more than halfway but you aren’t at the point where you can pick up the pace and give it everything you’ve got. You’re in no man’s land and just have to stay the course. Mile 7 in the NYC Half is the start of a brutally boring stretch of the FDR Drive, where for three miles you pound away on an empty highway without spectators. I was struggling to keep my pace those three miles, but when I turned onto 42nd street at mile 10, I got a second wind. I don’t think I sped up so much as maintained my pace. By the time I got to mile 12 I was really feeling it, but I thought of this guy my husband knows who throws up at the end of every race because he goes so hard. Did I have it in me to go so hard that I would throw up? Probably not because I’m deathly scared of vomit, but I tried to channel that aggro energy. In the end, I’m proud of my effort. I didn’t hit my A goal of breaking 90 minutes, but I came close enough.
Baked Good of the Month
I know, I know, the baked good section of Run the Shoes has been bleak in 2024. I tried to change that in March! I got a chocolate chip cookie from Culture Espresso in midtown and it was 10/10. I featured the cookie in an experimental TikTok I made but forgot to say where it was from. It’s from Culture Espresso and it’s delicious! I also made sugar-free spinach muffins for my baby and they were mediocre. “Sugar-free spinach muffin” doesn’t really inspire confidence, huh. While I got used to them, she would only eat them dipped in peanut butter.
Run of the Month
After a few failed attempts, my baby and I finally had a successful run with the jogging stroller. We ran three miles in Central Park and she only started grumping at mile 2.8. A win for everyone!!
That’s all I’ve got for you this month. No running shoe of the month this time since I don’t have anything new and exciting to share, but stay tuned for next month.
Elaheh
Nicely rendered, upbeat and personal. Times continue to improve!