2 Weeks Out From United NYC Half / 6 Weeks Out From Jersey City Half

Here's what's been going through my mind lately...

Feb 28, 2025

Before I go into some deep thoughts that have been percolating in my mind since I started training for the United NYC Half Marathon, I want to start on this note first:

Something I realized I had unintentionally been doing since I started my running journey is writing a training journal. Except, it doesn’t feel like your typical training journal because it focuses mainly on my thoughts and emotions versus the workout itself.

This Notes was from August 8, 2024 when I was training for NYC Marathon 2024 and it was during the hot and humid peak of summer.

I look back and I can’t help but feel so grateful. That’s mainly why I write my thoughts down in the Notes app on my phone. The Notes I wrote when I PR’ed my marathon on the New York City Marathon course in 2024, still to this day, makes me emotional. The next morning, I found myself looking back and reading through all the Notes since I started training last summer, and wanting to burst into tears all over again. The hard runs, the easy runs, the runs that made me question everything, the runs that gave me confidence… all leading up to the most surreal experience of my running journey yet.

I wrote this after the NYC Marathon (2024) last year. The emotions are still there whenever I read these words. It transports back to sitting on my bed in tears and in awe, still trying to process what happened.

Sharing those two Notes that I don’t share with anyone, makes me a little bit nervous, but I want to be as transparent and candid with my thoughts. These are the thoughts that run through my mind post-run. It usually focuses on the strength — God’s strength — that gets me through.

Speaking of thoughts — even though we’re nearing the end of the United NYC Half Marathon training, here’s what’s been going through my mind leading up to this race.

United NYC Half Marathon Focus:

For starters, every year, this race has been my biggest half marathon race to focus on. I usually run one half marathon, and it’s been this race for the past 3 years. I’ve PR’ed every year on this course.

My focus on this shorter training block (6 weeks) coming off of the Houston Marathon in January has been to focus on speed. I know my endurance is there — especially coming off of a strong marathon cycle. I’ve incorporated speed work every Mondays on the track, tempo runs ranging from 4-6 miles at 5 seconds faster than half marathon goal pace to get my body and mind familiar with race pace, and then long runs with some miles at goal race pace. The long runs for the most part, are at least 1 minute slower than what I’m targeting.

United NYC Half Marathon Week 4 (2 WEEKS OUT):

This year’s training block for the United NYC Half has felt… different than last year’s. And there’s a multitude of reasons running through my head right now. One of them being this: This winter has been way colder than last year.

Last week, it was so brutally cold outside, I remember standing in the hot shower for half an hour just to warm up.

I’ll be honest: I’ve been mentally in a battle with myself this half marathon training block. The runs have felt hard. My progress the past two weeks have felt stagnant. In these moments, I have to continuously remind myself that effort matters more in situations like this. Not hitting the paces doesn’t make me a failure, even though every part of me wants to convince myself I am.

Going into this week, I started to change my perspective on the word consistency. Usually when I think of the word consistency, I think about it in the form of numbers.

Consistency in mileage. Consistency in paces. Consistency in time.

The past 3 weeks, I’ve made the effort to trek from Jersey City to Central Park once a week to run 10 miles with some fast half marathon paced miles. I’d be lying if I said I’ve been consistently hitting the paces in the workout, but here’s what I have been consistent in that I overlooked:

waking up at 5 AM to run once a week in Central Park
showing up to run the same workout that scares me once a week
still having the same attitude about a hard workout, even though the progress is stagnant

I don’t know what’s going to happen at the United NYC Half in 2 weeks, but I’m letting go of how I need to run it. The pressure was so deafening to me when I started and with the taper coming up, I’m trusting that there’s purpose in what I’m currently going through. I’m going to run the race as He sees best fit, and that’s where I’ll end for now. 🙏🏼