2 days. 2 causes. 15K.

So this past weekend was a pretty busy weekend fitness-wise. Saturday morning I ran the UAE Healthy Kidney 10K in Central Park. Proceeds went to the National Kidney Foundation.. which is pretty cool because not only did I get to run a 10K race the week before the Brooklyn Half, but it was actually benefitting something other than just myself.

I felt alright during the run.. but not great.  It was a major improvement from how I felt during the LI Half though so I really shouldn't complain.  I honestly feel like those hills in Central Park continue to get steeper and steeper each time i set foot on them.  I must be doing something wrong because my sciatic nerve and hip flexor really only bother me when I'm running up an incline.  It's gotta be the way I'm moving my body or something.  Perhaps once marathon training starts, I'll have one of the coaches look at my form, especially when I'm running uphill, to see if it's the way I'm running that's creating the problem.

So while my time was not a PR for me on Saturday, I still feel pretty good about the run in general, especially since I had a negative split time.  I'm typically a little slower the last half of a race and this training season I really want to work on making sure that my last 13 miles are slightly faster than my first 13.  We shall seeeeee.  I'm actually quite excited about the training season starting back up again.  It's nice to feel like I had a group rooting for me the whole way (and by whole way, I mean for 5 months, not just the 26.2 miles that first Sunday in November).  I liked meeting up with everyone on Monday and Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings.  And i most definitely loved my marathon training body.  Seriously, I want it back.  Let's goooo.

So Sunday was the NSLIJ Every Woman Matters Walk at Jones Beach.  The money raised ($500,000! -that's $500,000 exclamation point, not $500,000 factorial.. that'd be ridiculous) went to the new Women's Center that the hospital is building.  It was a really nice day so I ended up with a little bit of a tan (no complaints here).  A 5K feels like such a small distance when you're running because it's like "oh, a 5K, that'll take a half hour."  Turns out, walking a 5K takes a lottttttt longer.  I found myself thinking "if i were running this, I'd be done by now."  but yea, pretty good all in all.. and a good recovery from saturday's 10k.

I stayed on LI pretty late as I didn't feel that I needed to get back into the city for anything.  I've got a lot going on this week and I'm feeling pretty stressed.  I definitely just sent Andy an e-mail that only read "I'm cranky >:o" in the subject line.  If i can just get through this week unscathed, I'll feel a whole lot better.

just breathe, ang, juuuust breathe.