HALF MARATHON

The sound of church bells pulls me from my slumber at 5:30 a.m. A calm, gentle chime to transport me from the floating subconscious to the waking world. Sunday mornings usually begin this way, however I am not heading to Tribeca to serve coffee to the brunching stroller brigade. Oh no, this Sunday is all mine! And I'm voluntarily running 13.1 miles in Central Park with about 8,000 other women!

Team Honduras slowly rises to greet the pre-dawn morning. My older sister beside me in the bed and our other teammate, Tiffany, has already popped her head in the room to make sure we haven't accidentally forgotten to get up. Must eat 2 hours before the race, so Rachel gets to work toasting our whole wheat English muffins with almond butter. We decide to wake up the whole house by setting off my overly sensitive fire alarm when toasting the muffins on the stove! Our fourth teammate is Bethany, also team photographer and designated jacket holder for the race! Whom we greatly appreciate!

We manage to catch an express train down to Columbus Circle. Very fortunate considering we lost a few minutes when we got to the subway and realize someone forgot their Metro card (Tiff)! We MUST be at the start one hour prior to start time so we can use the restroom, stretch, use the restroom, check our bag, use the restroom and warm-up! One of the many new experiences this race allows me to experience... Central Park at sunrise. So peaceful!

We make our way to the corral with all the other heifers, waiting for the race to begin. Lots of people have to say a few inspiring words before we start, none of whom I knew or could hear. We did all pause for the singing of the national anthem. And then slowly but surely the thousands of women around me move from a walk to a jog to a run. And we're off!

Let me preface the account of our race with this: Rachel and Tiffany have been training buddies in Honduras since we signed up in January. They're a little hardcore about it and to be perfectly honest, its been a hard winter in New York City, so I have trained as best I could, kind of. All that to say, I was not 100% sure I could even run the whole 13.1 miles, but my sister and I made a deal that if I never walked, she would stay with me the whole time. Thanks Rachie! Tiffany on the other hand left us on mile 2! She also set a personal best, so we're very proud of her! Also, Rachel and I decided we were going to dedicate each mile to someone we loved, which would motivate us a little extra during the race. Oh! And a last minute decision to run with my iphone allows me to document the journey around the park!

Mile 1 is for the parents, who recently celebrated 33 years of marriage!
I am feeling good and quite pleased with my photography skills in mid-stride! The sun is shining! This is going to be a wonderful run. Mile 2 put us on the the UES near the Great Lawn in park. Still able to converse fairly well with my sister and trying not to think about the approaching hills. Stay present. Stay present. Actually the climb by the boathouse wasn't so bad. Mile 3 is for our Air Force brother Zac, who is somewhere overseas flying some mission! We're so proud! Mile 4... dreading! The climb on the top side of the park. A slow, gradual incline that just keeps curving and you can never see the crest. However, due to adrenaline or peer pressure, I maintain a positive, almost happy disposition as we receive encouragement from folks clapping and cheering us on! I think they're angels! Mile 4 is dedicated to my roommate Jacob, so I sent him this picture, which woke him up laughing! This inspired him to get out of bed and come down to Central Park to be my lone supporter! I will love him forever for this!

We continue traveling down the west side of the park thru Mile 5. Did I mention this race was just loops of Central Park? The park is about 6 miles, so we ran a little over 2 loops. As we pass the Delacorte Theatre (where Shakespeare in the Park is during the summer) I do my best to quote a few lines from a sonnet, but my lungs and brain are a bit short on oxygen to I can't get out much. Mile 6 is for my brother Matt, who just recently visited me! Mile 7 is for brother Adam! And Mile 8 for brother Joey! Good thing I have a large family to fill up these miles! You can see the truth start to show in my eyes for these pictures! Mile 9 is for our dear Bethany! And Mile 10 for the Grandparents back in Dallas! Mile 10 is the second adventure with the slow and steady incline at the top of the park! This time I pull the headphones out of my iPhone and allow my sister to be inspired by the tunes! What came on? "Hullaballoo! Caneck! Caneck!" The Aggie War Hymn, which anyone reading this who has never heard of Texas A&M will be ultra-confused, but anyone who knows it and especially is an Aggie will appreciate how brilliant the timing is for this song to play! Definitely got up the hill with that!

The following miles are rollers on the west side and certainly worthy of a great deal of effort. Its amazing how the simplest phrase can really help inspire you through a difficult moment. A woman on the side, maybe even a volunteer, cheers us on with, "Come on ladies! You can do it! Kick this hills ass!" (sorry mom) But it really did help! I thought, "Yeah! Its not gonna beat me! I can keep my legs going!" Which, by the way, each leg weighs 50lbs at this point! Mile 11 is for Krissy, my other roommate. For Mile 12, Rachel and I were a little lost as to who we wanted to dedicate it to. We were out of brothers and parents and grandparents. We decided to devote Mile 12 to my brothers girlfriend, Ashley, whom we love like a sister anyway! And Mile 13, the finale, the home stretch, the coup de gras is dedicated to each other! Awwwww! Aren't we sweet?! Even the last mile is crazy hard! But there are SO many people around for the last couple miles that there is no way I'm stopping to walk here! We make the turn toward the fountain and the race path gets incredibly narrow. Our teammate, Tiffany, had already finished, so she burst through the crowd to scream, "Go Team Honduras" as we made our final push! Maybe the most people dodging of the entire race is there in that last tenth of a mile! How could someone possibly walk now?! I actually speed up! Rachie & I cross the finish line together!

We immediately hit a wall of runners filing through a tiny passage way to receive our medals, apples, bagels, and shiny space capes (not sure what they're really called but this is what I call them). I think a little more planning needs to go into the finish area. Way too narrow! But we did it! I picked up two apples, two bagels and couldn't wait to get my cape!

We snap photos together! Share race stories! Congratulate one another! And bask in the endorphin-induced euphoric state of completing on of the most challenging physical efforts of my life! I am truly surprised I ran the entire race and profoundly awed by what can be accomplished when doubt is shunned and possibility embraced, fully!

The post-race festival ends up being a little lame-o, with not nearly the food we had hoped. We do get a free stretch and on our way out of the park, stop by the bagel/apple station to load up! Delicious & free!

This final image is what I found in my house this morning, three days after the race. Team Honduras has parted ways, with two teammates returning to Honduras and one to Tennessee. Shoes abandoned having surpassed their duties, running more miles than they should through the trails leading to and from Guatemala and the streets of Manhattan. How many conversations do they hold? How many thoughts have they carried? Could there be a better place of rest than laying side by side in the spring sunshine? I sooooo appreciate my sister and Tiffany dumping their old, smelly shoes in my house! Haha! Kidding! I kinda like the memento!

The Final Countdown

This afternoon Team Honduras was united for the Women's Half-Marathon Sunday. We're Team Honduras because 2/3 of the team are living in Honduras and our race day shirts are Honduras soccer jerseys! It may be confusing as none us look anything like Hondurans, but it matters not!

Presently, the latest arrivals have decided to scope out the race course. I ran an easy 4 miles this morning. I'm absolutely the slowest one on the team, but hey... I'M ON THE TEAM! I will run as far as my legs can carry me and then I will zen out on the run and my legs will keep going and when I rejoin my body it'll be over and I'll be getting free stuff at the finish line! Can't wait!

Ugh... Daylight Savings

Nothing makes me happier than the thought of longer evenings spent in the warm glow of a late afternoon sun. A time when I can get off work and still have hours to enjoy the bustling metropolis of Manhattan. HOWEVER, that first day after we "spring forward" and are robbed a precious hour of sleep, I reconsider its value.

"Is it entirely necessary to subject our bodies to this every year?" "Other countries don't practice this ridiculous ritual of moving clocks and therefore confusing everyone?" "Why does my phone jump ahead and not my computer?" All these thoughts were circulating thru my mind yesterday morning as I awoke. And it was a long, arduous day of serving brunch to those who did get to sleep in (i loathe them).

To allow my body to adjust to this immense time shift, I came home and went to bed at 6 p.m. Nevermind that I was several hours behind on sleep from this past week. It definitely had nothing to do with that and everything to do with losing one, single, solitary hour due to daylight savings!

p.s. half-marathon is in 3 weeks!

The Unexpected!

Last night marked the closing night of "A Night of One Acts" with Love Creek Productions (that Off-Off Broadway company, of which I am a member). Unbeknownst to Erin, Sunday night's show began at 7 p.m. not 8 p.m. like the two previous nights. Oops!

As I was en route to the theater last night, I received a text message at 7:10 p.m. from my scene partner saying, "Our show started at 7 tonight". Then I checked my email and at 6 p.m. my director had emailed a reminder saying the same thing. Now, I accept full responsibility for not checking the flyer of the program to double-check start times BUT my director and I had exchanged emails earlier in the day and that might have been a better time to remind me OR my scene partner arrived to the theater at 5:30 p.m. and found out our show started at 7 p.m., so a text message from him would have been helpful too! Again, though, I know it was my own fault and thank goodness this is a relaxed group of people and a night of One Acts is easy to shift around a bit.

So we opened the second half after intermission, which was great cause it allowed us to set the stage. We had our best performance of the run (still with dropped lines) and I felt humbled and embarrassed for my mistake, but no one seemed to care. I love Off-Off Broadway! Good lesson to learn early in my career... no one will look out for you, you must be on top of yourself! I don't think I'll ever be late again!

MARCH

Hooray! This is the month of Spring! I don't care if it actually gets warmer, the very idea of Spring exists in this month! Spring break for schools is this month! St. Patty's Day is this month (not really sure how much that has to do with Spring). I am very happy to report that this is the final month of training for the half-marathon Rachel (sister) and I will be running! To be perfectly honest, my attention has not been entirely occupied with training so I've got one month to really prepare myself to run 13.1 miles! In fact, I'm heading out to do a lap of Central Park right now. The high today is 34 degrees, but its sunny!

A Life Less Ordinary

Sometimes, when fighting the gusting winds on 8th Avenue and shivering on the subway platform and drinking coffee to suppress hunger, I begin to question the life I'm living. Then I get a text from my old college roommate sharing news of a baby on the way, and I really start rethinking things. Not to say if I had stayed in Austin and found a nice Southern man to marry and a job I liked and start popping out babies of my own that I wouldn't have a similar feeling at some point BUT I feel its a little different up here.

A quiet life like the one I was raised, seems pretty ideal, especially in the dead of winter. (I will admit this is usually the hardest time of year for me). But when I reflect on the years I've spent in NY pursuing this crazy life of uncertainty I cannot help but smile. Many tears and many laughs I've shared with some of the most extraordinary people here. I have no guarantees about my future, which is exhilarating and petrifying all at once. Lucky for me, I have support and faith.

But if spring could come a little early, I'd really appreciate it!!!

A Week Gone By

Alright, the writing every day thing was a lofty goal, but one I'm continuing to strive for, just so you know!

I caught a glimpse this past weekend of the madness of pulling together a wedding and trying to appease all expectations of everyone the day is NOT about! My dear friend came in from LA and exhausted herself shopping (very successfully, I might add), finding bridesmaid dresses for her wedding late this summer in Hawaii! Her pains were rewarded bringing together an ensemble of delightfully different dresses while utilizing various shades of her colors. As someone who values comfort over fashion, if the dress fits and I don't look heinous, then it works. So when I tried mine on and waited for her comments, she feared I did not like it! I laughed and said, "Do you?" I suppose it will be my dress so I do need to have an opinion, but its her creation of a vision that is her wedding day, so wherever I fit into that picture, I'm fine. I just don't want to mess it up! Heaven help me when its my turn to make all these decisions for my own day! This is no where close to happening so I have no worries for the time being!

Another milestone was reached this weekend... I ran 7 miles. At least I think I did. Its hard to measure distance in the park. Whether or not I did is secondary to thinking that I did! So hooray for me!

Back to work!