Great success!

Highlights of a fantastic weekend:

1. Engaged in healthy decisions for once and pregamed the 15K with a trip to the Korean spa in Flushing with the girls on Saturday. Sweated out any residual toxins/alcohol and loosened up my muscles in the 195degree sauna! Despite a brief freak-out when forced to go into the naked only shower/bath area, yesterday was delightfully relaxing and a great way to rest up before a long race. On the way back, there was no way Dasha and I were going to pass up a return trip to the Golden Mall (aka the most amazing place in the world) to get some authentic Chinese food. Yummy hand-pulled noodles and stuffed pork bao buns were the perfect carboloading for today.

2. Made it through the 15K without blowing out my knees! Low standards, I know, but seriously, I was crazy nervous earlier this week about the prospect of running 9.3 hilly miles in Central Park without incurring (additional) serious injury. Think my awesome new knee strap helped quite a bit. Not exactly the foxiest look out there but the straps did their job and kept my patellar tendon slightly in place. The pain only hit hard around mile 5 when it was time to climb back up Cougar Hill for the second time. Gutted it out and came in at 1:31, around a 9:45 pace. Pretty much the same pace as the 10 miler a month ago, but aerobically I felt that I could have gone a lot faster. Good to know for when my knees finally heal!

3.. Greg ROCKED the race and left slow-poke me behind to finish in 1:21, a 8:40 pace. Very impressive, especially since he's only been seriously running for around 3 months. Gonna keep that up for 56 miles at Comrades?

Up next: long runs in Alexandria next weekend and the NYRR/JPM Run as One four-miler in the Park on April 11th. Greg's sitting this one out as he'll be too busy getting his blackout on at a bachelor party in Philly, but the GTS runchers will be turning up for a short run then our typical AYCD brunch.