Non-committal relationship with races

My running has been funky and I guess that's all I should ask for at this point. I feel tired every morning and it's hard to fathom doing anything but a slow jog. And even that seems like a thing I would only wish to my neighbors (of course they are idiots, this is NYC).

Last week I headed out to do a tempo run but quit after about half a mile because I felt completely sluggish. I forced myself to do a fartlek to at least get something done. Thankfully, a couple of days later when I tried again, I got it done.

And then again this morning.

I'm now looking at getting two "efforts" per week under the belt. They are certainly on the short side of things (4-5 miles) but it's still very nice and hot here (did I mention I love summer?).

I bailed on two more races though: first was the Harlem 5k. I simply didn't see a point to race without any training. The second was today's Rockland Lake Marathon. I was quite close to doing it but ended up not to for various excuses such as having to pick up a rental car the day before and parking it overnight etc. blabla. I did that thing 5 years ago and jogged - seriously! - through in 2:44. Completely unfathomable right now.

Saturday I emailed my buddy Michael to see whether he's still on for the New Haven 20k on Labor Day. It's usually a nasty hot slog but definitely an overall good event and even a US championship which makes for a good field (not that it would matter to me). Last time I ran it was 2010. I hung onto the women's lead pack but got dropped rather early. They make you run along the shore which sounds pretty but it's not and the sun just burns down on you. Even if you manage to convince yourself that you just ran a half marathon (although it is 1.1k less), your time will still suck.

Well, at least mine will.

Long story short, Michael actually signed me up because it seems he lost faith in my ability to actually do one of the races I keep talking about. Sad but fair enough.

At this point I am only also registered for the Rock 'n' Roll Half in Brooklyn mid October before NYCM. Let's hope I get other races done as well. I wanted to run the Bronx 10m but that has been sold out for a couple of months now.

My long runs have been decent so far. Nothing longer than 2:15 but one weekend I did two 2h+ runs in a row, one of them with my coach and his driver around the tip of Manhattan (see picture). One day I will run around Manhattan which is 50k and it sure would be good for me to do it soon.