One of the things that I love about running and life is entering the great unknown. I have thought about when I am done running professionally, how much I am going to miss the thrill and nerves of the starting line. Even though I don’t particularly enjoy the nerves at the moment, it is at these times that I feel truly alive.

I have been thinking about this because I am pretty unsure of my fitness level heading into the NYC half marathon. While it has already been nearly four months since Boston, I still feel like I could use more time to prepare for my first race of the fall. I guess it is a good sign to feel this way because I will still have plenty of time before the ING NYC Marathon and need to feel like there are gains to be made.

The first month after Boston I basically took down time. Two weeks of no running or cross training followed by two weeks of running every other day with biking on the off days. Then a couple weeks of running with strides and pacing Sara on the track and slowly getting into workouts.

It was hard to take the break after Boston. I was excited with the results and eager to train hard for the fall but I had learned that patience is a necessity for the marathoner, after cutting my break shorter than usual after London leading up to the Olympics. As a result I was pretty much flat and stale in my preparations. My body felt like it was rejecting any training I was doing compared to now when my body feels like a sponge absorbing every workout, getting faster and faster with every week.

After Track and Field Nationals in late June, Sara and I headed back home to the thin air of Mammoth and back to intense training. Training has been going as well as I could hope since being home, but I haven’t done many of the key workouts that give me the feedback of my half marathon fitness. Instead of doing the usual 10-12 mile tempo runs that I use as gauges I have been doing 9-mile uphill runs climbing from 7,000ft to 10,000ft. Those runs are hard, but the reward is huge. Not only physically, but also there is the best pie place in the world at “Pie In The Sky Café” that we have made the post-workout indulgence.

Heading into NYC I am running into the unknown. I will have to wait till the later stages of the race to find out what kind of shape I am in. Regardless of how the race plays out I will move forward with confidence that I am healthy and feeling good in my training. I guess you never know what is going to happen on any given day. I am always in search of that pearl, those really special days when everything clicks, and maybe I will find it on Sunday.