The NYC Half Marathon has an open lottery registration system. I got in the last two years, but for various reasons I wasn't able to do the race. I'm so excited because I was accepted again this year!! The race is July 27th. I think it will be a fun race as the course takes you through parts of Manhattan you normally wouldn't get to run through.

Half-Marathon Course The course will begin on Central Park's East Drive (near 85th Street) and make a complete, clockwise loop around the park. Runners will then continue to the south end of the park and exit onto Seventh Avenue, heading south to Times Square. A right turn onto 42nd Street will take runners to 12th Avenue (West Street), where, after a left turn, the race continues along the Hudson River waterfront to Lower Manhattan. The finish is on West Street near Rector Street and Battery Park.

I'm really looking forward to the race and I likes that it gives me extra motivation to up my training!

Today I did my first duathlon, which consisted of a 2 mile run, 12 mile bike ride, 2 mile run. It took place on the campus of SUNY Old Wesbury. I was so nervous this morning, I had butterflies in my stomach. I was hoping to get out of doing the race somehow, but that just wasn't happening.

Rodney came to the race with me and helped me get everything situated. It was a very well organized race. Here I am with my bike in the transition area before the start of the race:

Here is a picture Rodney took of all the bikes in the transition area:

Before I knew it we were off running. The run was brutal and started with a hill. Actually, never mind started with a hill, just about the entire course was uphill, or at least it seemed that way. I started out too fast, but it was ok and I got through the first run without too much difficulty.

I finished the 2 miles and was faced with the transition area. This is the part I was nervous about, but it went fairly smoothly and before I knew it I was headed out for the 12 mile bike portion of the race.

I was hoping the bike portion wasn't as hilly as the run, but that hope was short lived. It was a very hilly course and I worked really hard to finish. The course consisted of 3 4 miles loops. One good thing was that the loop seemed to go faster each time as I became more familiar with the course. On the first loop, I did a bad job of shifing my gears on a hill and my chain fell off, so I lost a little time there. Other my chain falling off, the day getting hotter by the minute and screaming quads, I made it through the biking portion of the race. Now I had to face the 2 mile run again before I would be finished.

The run was harder than the first time around. It takes a while to get your running legs back after biking. Knowing that it wouldn't be much longer before I was done with the race kept me going! It wasn't long before I was crossing the finish line.

I finished the race in 1:48:24, placed 114 out of 124 and 4th in my age division. I even won a medal for the Athena division, which just make me laugh. The Athena division is for the heavy weight women, over 150 pounds. I placed first in this division. I find it funny that I placed first in the heavy weight division after losing so much weight!

So, I conquered this new challenge. I was really nervous about the race, and I did it and finished. It was a lot of fun and I would definitely do a duathlon again.

Here are the complete results from the race:

Today I did the More Half-Marathon in Central Park. More puts on a half and full marathon for women only. You have to be over 40 to enter the race unless you partner with somebody over 40. Lucky me - I meet the over 40 criteria. I couldn't believe it when I signed up for this race and realized that it would be my 6th half marathon!

I was apprehensive about the weather. It was supposed to be beautiful today and the forecast changed to include rain. Luckily it never rain and it ended up being fairly decent weather for a long run. I was also concerned as I didn't get to train as much as I would have liked. In addition, despite my asking my trainer on Friday to take it easy on my legs, everytime I get up to walk after sitting for a while I walk like I just got off a horse! I was concerned about how my poor sore legs would hold up during the race.

When I got to the park, I found out my GPS watch wasn't charged, so I had no idea of my pace during the run. I felt really good the first lap of the park. It was great compared to last week. I always love these races that loop around the park. At the 11 mile marker the marathoners starting looping us - it is just amazing the way they can run!

So, after thinking I had a few thing going against me, I had a half-marathon record for race done in NY. My only half marathon done at a faster pace was in Dublin, Irelend. My time was 2:34:27 - I am really happy about that! Hopefully if I stay uninjured this year I will see more improvement. My goal is to do under 5 hours for the NYC Marathon in November.

I did a 10k race in Central Park today. I had trouble getting it together this morning and getting out of the house. Rodney thought that everything would start clicking for me by the time the race started. It didn't! It was a really hard race for me and I wanted to quit so badly! I ended up doing a decent time for me, I finished the race in 1:09:19 for a pace of 11:10. That was a pleasant surprise.

While I was running, I realized that there are 3 things I need to do to ensure a better experience while running. They are basic things, but really stuck me today. First, the one that isn't so easy to accomplish, get more rest. The other two are to drink more water (I was so thirsty this morning) and not to drink alcohol the night before a race. I don't normally drink much but we went out Friday night and had company over for dinner last night so I had more to drink than normal.

So, this week I will need to follow my lessons learned to get ready for the 1/2 marathon I am doing next Sunday.

So, I joined this training program and it is really forcing me to take my running to the next level. It is tough because I am the slowest in the group by far - it is not like I have any company at my pace level. I'm finding it tempting to want to quit the program, but tonight I had a little break through that illustrates the advantages of being pushed to the next level. We did a 3.16 mile flat tempo run around the reservoir in Central Park, which I did in 31:27 which is a 10:03 pace. That beats my best time by lots! I am just so happy! Sometimes you really do have to work outside of your comfort zone to make progress.

I was surprised to hear that US News & World Report wanted to take a picture for the article on WLS and diabetes for when the article appears in the printed magazine. I was planning to do a 4 mile race yesterday, so it seemed appropriate to do the picture then. I met the photographer before the race and she took a bunch of pictures. It was freezing yesterday morning and I wonder if my teeth chattering will show up in the picture - lol!

I was really tempted to skip the race because it was so cold. I had a super busy day, a bad night's sleep and it was just so tempting to head back home after the photo shoot and take a nap. However, the photographer sealed my fate by taking pictures with my number on. I just couldn't live with myself with having pictures taken with the number and then not running the race. So, I decided I needed to go ahead and do the race.

While waiting for the race to start a woman near by was wondering if she should go back to her car. I told her that she was here now and might as well run. I wouldn't have been able to be stand the jealously if she went back to her warm car - LOL.

My GPS watch wouldn't pick up a satellite so I didn't have much of an indication of how I did during the race. I felt like I was having a pretty good race and I was really happy with how I felt during the race. I ended up finishing the race in 42:44 which is a pretty good pace for me.

I still get tears in my eyes at the end of the races. It is still emotional for me to be able to finish the races and remember how far I came and what a difference the wls surgery has made in my life.

I started a new training program last Thursday. I have to say I didn't realize just how intense this program would be. We did a one mile time trial. I ran the mile in 9 min 16 sec. This was my fastest mile ever - and it was about 2 min slower than the next slowest person! Wow - talk about room for improvement. While I am happy with my time on the mile, it is intimidating to be that much slower than the next slowest person.