I am happy.

Endorphin-wasted and over-caffeinated and loving life right now after the NYRR Gridiron Classic.

Yesterday, I co-hosted a bridal shower for one of my best friends, Lacey, and she had a great time.

This morning, the ole alarm was set for 6:45 so I could get a little work done and then get some running done! I went to sleep excited for the race and woke up dreading the cold and doing lots of internal bargaining. The race was four miles long, and I had to do a total of eight miles today, per Jess’s (evil) plan for me.

Going to bed last night, I totally thought I’d just knock out the four miles prior the race. I’d run up there, grab my bib and finish the 4 miles. BUT MY BED WAS SO WARM THIS MORNING, and I took a cab up there. Ooops.

Picked up my bib and jogged a nice two miles to warm up. I rarely warm up before a race unless I have extra mileage on the agenda for the day, but I am pretty sure I would have run some warm-up miles anyway because it was so damn cold.

I got into my corral just a few minutes before race start and had a moment of claustrophobia surrounded in the cold by lots of runners and felt like that through the first mile.

But my plan was to take the first 3.5 easy and pick it up for the last .5 so feeling crowded was actually fine for my pace.

That first damn mile felt so long for whatever reason. When my watch beeped at the first mile, it felt like it’d been at least 1.5 miles.

The course started at E. 68th, turned at the 103rd St. Transverse and went back down the west side, ending at W. 68th. NO HARLEM HILL WOO!

Jess had said to take it easy, so I went faster than a jog but slower than a tempo. I tried not to obsess over pace, but when I peeked at my watch it kept saying 8:40-8:50ish, which felt fine. But I wanted to go fast!

I couldn’t wait until 3.5 to turn it up. I hit lap on my watch and surged ahead.

I am trying SO hard to not obsess over what I see on my watch, so I tried to just run with all I had left (and felt like I could do safely – I have some hamstring tightness from lots of heavy deadlifts at Uplift the other night that I didn’t want to irritate.)

All I had left was 7:30 for the last .5. Fine by me!

I finished in 34:41, an 8:41 pace and about 2 minutes off of my PR (from Gridiron Classic 2012), which is right about where I wanted to be for taking it easy.

Afterwards, I ran 2 more miles to get to 8 for the day and ended at The Smith to meet Jess and some of the other runners she coaches for brunch. I drank too much coffee because it was so warm and I was so cold.

Anyone else run a pre-Super Bowl race?