#1 | 13.1 | Under 2

After escaping from tonight's post-work shindig with the interns (only one of whom showed up), I decided to lace up my running shoes and hit the path. My Nike+ gives me the choice of a basic workout, a timed workout or a distance workout. I thought about doing a 5k distance workout but decided that was a bit ambitious given the long day I'd had. And then I thought about a 30 minute timed run but felt like that wasn't enough because it takes me almost five minutes to get to the path and that would leave very little running time. So then I decided to just do a basic workout where my gadget will tell me how long I've been running and how far I've gone. To make a long story short, I felt good and just kept running and running and running. I got to the southern tip of Manhattan, also known as Battery Park, and decided to run back up the West Side. When I got to 23rd Street, I noticed that I'd gone about nine miles. I thought I could do a bit more, so I decided to push through and do a full 13.1 mile run. And so I did. I did a few out and backs on the West Side Highway and before I knew it, my odometer read 13.1. I completed my first half marathon!!!


A quick Google search seems to indicate that the Nike+ is accurate within a few meters (this makes sense to me because I've done this one particular run several times and it always comes out to the same total distance within a few hundredths of a mile). But if this is true, and I ran a half marathon is 1:58, I'm pretty darn impressed with myself!

And of course every half marathon finisher deserves a reward!


I indulged myself in this fabulous snack on my way back across 23rd street. My body started to hurt more and more with each passing block. Somewhere around 5th Avenue, I actually considered taking a cab the rest of the way but thought that would be a bit wussy. And now? I think I might actually sleep in front of the computer rather than trying to drag my body across the room to bed.

The funniest part is that as I watched the odometer turn from 13.0 to 13.1, I could actually visualize myself running across a finish line amidst a crowd of spectators. It was pretty cool. But the odd thing is that if I had set out to run a half marathon tonight, I probably wouldn't have made it. Spontaneity rocks!