It’s five weeks until the New York City Marathon. 5 weeks! Training hasn’t been going according to plan, but does it ever go according to plan for anyone I wonder. In the end there is always a point where life seems to be getting in the way of marathon training somehow. It doesn’t matter if it’s work, or other responsibilities or injury or illness. There always seems to be something.
My training was going pretty much according to plan until the half marathon in Dublin in August. And even the Tilburg Ten Miles at the beginning of September went according to plan, although I didn’t manage a PB, but I wasn’t that far off either. So far, so good.
Only after that, the rest of September didn’t go according to plan. I was supposed to ramp up the mileage and do a 19 mile training run halfway through September. Only I got a cold the week before. I also had a cough and I’ve always learned that if you suffer a cold and it also involves your lungs, you shouldn’t be running. I’ve also been told by doctors that I should be a bit cautious when it comes to catching a virus, since if it gets worse it could also eventually effect my heart. That doesn’t mean that every cold is life threatening, far from it, but better to be safe than sorry.
Thus, I decided not to run that week and not to run my 19 miler. Since I had other races and stuff planned the weeks after I knew I wouldn’t be able to make up for it some other time and that I would just need to let it go. My longest run for the New York City Marathon would then become a 15 mile race in London 4 weeks before the marathon.
Unfortunately for me, the cold is pretty persistent and after two weeks I still hadn’t recovered for the full 100%, but I deemed myself recovered enough to run the Dam tot Damloop 10 miler. Only on that particular day it was pouring with rain and I got totally drenched. Not great when you just got rid of the cough. I’m still not running the amount I should be running and my lungs still aren’t completely happy when I go running. Breathing during exercise is still clearly a bit harder than it supposed to be. On top of that I’m currently moving and that doesn’t leave a lot of time for running.. So, at present I don’t feel very fit and I don’t feel very prepared for the marathon. I hope the Urban Rush 15 mile race on Sunday will put my mind at ease a bit and give me a bit more confidence.
Luckily, I wasn’t really planning to run a PB in NYC anyway. The course is very busy and it includes a lot of bridges and elevation. From the beginning I decided I just wanted to enjoy running the NYC Marathon. I can always try for a PB at another race. I want to enjoy every second of the New York City Marathon, because it might just be a once in a lifetime thing. And since there isn’t a very strict cut off in New York, I’m not going to worry about my time. If it will be slower than Paris or Berlin, so be it.
Heart Runner Girl 
Yes. Use this opportunity to enjoy the NYC Marathon. Last year, I could not train as hard as I would have liked to. I ran the marathon hard for 15 miles and “lived” the rest of the marathon. It was an awesome experience chatting with people and absorbing the energy of the crowd.