The NYC Marathon

Training for my first marathon What a journey this has been. I started running last December because my girlfriend kept asking me to run with her in the early mornings (5:45am!) I finally gave in. Even though it was freezing, I very quickly actually came to enjoy running outside in the quiet early hours. Before I knew it, I became self-motivated to run, which is so unlike me. Although I could barely run 2 miles on the first day, I kept challenging myself to longer and longer runs and eventually saw that I could possibly run a marathon one day. Then, I realized that if I stayed dedicated, I could actually do the New York Marathon in November. Getting in to the NY Marathon is really tough if you're a first-timer. The lottery registration is a crapshoot and I didn't want to take any chances so I contacted Citymeals-on-Wheels, one of the charity organizations that allow you to run in the marathon if you raise money for their cause. I signed up and got a spot in the marathon!

Training was going great. My long training runs were 14-16 miles. I ran in the NY Half Marathon and felt great. I had no pains or soreness to speak of and actually looked forward to running 4 days a week. Fundraising was going well, too and I felt sure I would reach the $2,500 minimum.

Well, then it happened. After a long run one day, I had some pain in my hip, which caused me to limp when I walked. I stopped running for a while to allow myself time to heal but when I ran again the pain was still there. I tried to just run through it and was running up to 19 miles in training. Well, that did it. The pain moved around to include my adductor muscle. Ouch.

After visits to the osteopath, some acupuncture and the fairly new M.A.T. therapy, it still really hurt to run so my training has essentially stopped. With only 12 days until the marathon, I’m not sure I'll be able to run after all. I'm SO depressed about it but I've decided to turn this negative into a positive! I am using the free time I have, now that I'm not able to train, to raise even more money for my extremely worthy charity. You see, because of this journey I have been introduced to a really wonderful group of people who do great things for the elderly homebound in NYC. Often the only contact some of these seniors have is with the volunteers who bring them meals.

So, if you could, please make a donation to Citymeals-on-Wheels. I'll feel so much better knowing these eleven months of training has not been in vain.

To donate, follow this link. Thank you so much!

Love,
Bobbie