I’ve been wanting to write this post for a while. These three words- patience, passion, and superstition- describe my life of the past few months. 

Patience.

After my 16 mile run I did 10 miles the next weekend in Atlanta. I ran two hilly laps around stone mountain. The run felt great and I was met by many kind folks, fellow runners, with lots of head nods and “mornins.” So different from New York when fellow runners rarely look you in the eye.  

The following week I had a super sweet 19 mile run. With 5 others I ran from the lower east side to the Rockaways. Yup, the beach. Nothing like running from the big city, through Brooklyn, and ending up along the ocean. The views of manhattan from 17/18 miles away were breathtaking. The tacos at the end were legendary. Rockaway Taco, check it out if you can. No better post-run meal. 

It wasn’t until I was at work the following day that yet again pain kicked in… This is where patience appears. Something was wrong with my groin, hip flexor, adductor, not exactly sure what. I stayed off for it for at least 2 weeks and then finally gave in and went to PT. Since then I’ve run an 8 miler and a 13 miler, with a few 3-4 milers in between. I REALLY wanted to do 22 miles but, what can you do. I had to be patient. No more soul cycle, no crossfit, I had overused my hip flexor and caused tendinitis. Since the number one goal is to finish the marathon rest has been my focus along with PT twice a week. Thank goodness for physical therapy. Serious deep massage, stretching, and glute strengthening. Patience with my body and slowly I’m feeling much better. I’m ready to ROCK OUT this marathon. 

Passion.

I’m a UBER passionate person. In the fall, and always, my passion is in running and football. It’s amazing how passionate I am about both. I hate when either fail me. And I’m over the moon when either goes well. I wouldn’t be who I am without this passion. I couldn’t run 26.2 miles if I wasn’t passionate about running. I wouldn’t spend hours each Saturday watching football, and cheering hard sometimes to the point of tears, for UGA. I expect those tears to overcome me crossing the finish line next Sunday too.

 Superstition.

Ohhh am I superstitious! I’m not really sure why except that the people around me are too. Of course this starts with football. Many fans wear the same thing every week in a row if their team is winning. My mother for example. I stick to jewelry being good luck. After being in Athens when UGA beat South Carolina I had 7 pieces of lucky jewelry, including one paper bracelet that my mom and I strategically figured out how I could move on and off without ripping it. Well, these pieces served me as good luck for 4 weeks until BOOM we lost. And then we lost again. 

Running all falls along with my superstition. Every game we won I ran on either Friday or Sunday, never on game days. Well then I ran 13 miles the morning of the Missouri game. And we lost. Then I didn’t run the morning of the vandy game, and we still lost. Ugh. 

Patience is often the key to my passion and what calms me down. Superstition adds to my passion and keeps is quirky. All three of these will come together next Sunday. I’ll somehow try to tie together the outcome of GA/FL to how I’ll do in the race. I’ll have to stay patient with the 50 thousand other runners as we tread through all 5 boroughs, and super patient with my body, how it feels, and making sure I don’t go out too fast. My passion will carry me through. All the way down 5th avenue, through Central Park, around the corner, up the hill, and across the finish line. Loving and enjoying every second of it.