So thankful! + Searching for a Silver Lining

So, remember that time we trained for a year and then didn't run a marathon?  Mmmm, that was fun.

Evan and I didn't really know what to do with ourselves this weekend.  We'd made the call early Friday morning to stay in Chicago, and we thought at first we would look and see if there was a race here we could get into.  I remembered a bunch of friends were planning to run in the Hot Chocolate 15K, so we tried to get in:

I guess I need to work on my convincing sob stories.  We didn't hear anything else, and they missed out on a great PR story from letting displaced NYC runners participate. Bummer.

Apparently we were not meant to run in a race this weekend, so we just did a long run along the lake.  We went up to Hollywood and back, which is 13 miles, but we ended up walking the last mile, from the zoo to home.  Neither Evan nor I really had our heart in it. 

That run made me realize the power of having a goal.  Obviously we did not run the NYC marathon this year, but having that as a goal and following a training program was motivational.  We're wrestling a bit with the next step - should we find another marathon to run in the next few weeks, or put our efforts into training for next year? 

There are still a couple of marathons this year that could be fun, and we are currently considering heading to Vegas for the Strip at Night marathon.  Neither of us has ever been to Vegas, and that happens to be my birthday weekend, so it could be a fun way to celebrate.  Though we aren't totally sure we want our first marathon to be an afternoon marathon - we've discovered the later in the day you start a long run, the harder it is to fuel your body.  A friend is planning to run San Francisco in June, so we could join for that...

Though we had to give up our marathon goal this weekend, we are cognizant of how trivial that is in relation to what so many people have lost this week. We have so much to be thankful for. Especially that our friends and family are okay in the wake of the storm and that we're both healthy and looking forward to finding our next big physical challenge.

We are so grateful for what we have, and are sending thoughts and prayers to those affected by hurricane Sandy.  Instead of spending money in NYC this weekend, we made a donation through NYRR's crowdrise platform.  We would have liked to help out in person, but with the logistics of being so far away felt like a donation was the best we could do for now.

Stay tuned for our next goal... to be announced soon!

NYC or Bust!!! ...or bust.

A year ago, when Evan and I decided to run the NYC marathon in honor of our 30th birthdays this fall,  our lives were totally different.  We lived on the Upper East Side, so getting to the marathon involved a subway ride to the ferry.  Hurricane Irene had come and gone without really hitting NYC, so the idea of a hurricane causing this sort of damage was kind of unthinkable.

It is with great sadness that I write this post announcing our deferral to the 2013 marathon.  We are still very excited to run NYC and to be a part of the action, but as this week has gone on and more information has come to light about the situation in the city right now, it seemed a little selfish to show up and draw on the resources in the city for a sporting event.  

We are so lucky - though we've lost the opportunity to conquer a big goal, it is nothing in comparison to the losses that many New Yorkers are facing.  We've put our hotel room back into the pool for someone who needs it, we will not have our trusty NYC dogwalker taking hours of busses to get in to take Teddy around on marathon day, and we're sending donations through the NYRR page.

Our thoughts and prayers are with those working on the recovery efforts.

And we'll see you at the finish line... next year.