This week has been absolute mayhem. Lets do a recap and finish with a race shall we?

I started Monday off with a happy hour hanging out with my Harper Collins friends. Roll call: Robin, Mandy and Feeza. We went to a place right by our offices called Papillon. That’s frenchie for butterfly people.

Tuesday was speed sessions but instead of speed Erika, Matt and I did a cool 6 miles around the park (The Coogan’s still had my calves begging for mercy). Erika offered me a piece of cake so we left Matt and ran to her apartment. Any of you that personally know me understand my weakness for sweets) Her chocolate peanut butter cake was so delicious and fueled me for what happened next! I ran from the Upper West down to Midtown East to Robin and Ahern’s to cook them dinner and watch LOST. Total miles somewhere around 13 give or take.

Wednesday night I fell asleep watching movies (Muppets From Space followed by Life Aquatic) at like 10PM! I needed it.

Thursday was my friend Amanda’s masters opera recital. The word amazing barely describes her beautiful performance! What I really like about the whole situation is that she had our friends (Walter, Kiersten, Noah, and Antonia to name a few) playing along side of her singing. Too cool. After the show we went to Phoenix River for the after party. I got to hang with my piano teacher Sugar (founder of the Nouveau Classical Project) Daniella and Pokie, all great people. I was out till 1AM which is very late for me these days.

Friday night was my friend Danny’s birthday. We started at El Quixote in Chelsea then ended up at he and his wife Anna’s pad. They have a newborn baby named Alice who is completely adorable! We were all drinking Jamesons Irish Whiskey which is a no no for me the night before a race. Beer=yes, liquor=no. On the plus side, I had no problems falling asleep…

RACE DAY

I awoke to a miserable cold and rainy morning around 7AM. Really? Run? After a few motivational texts from Erika (she also noted that the race was at 8 and not at 8:30 like I had thought, thanx) I got in gear and headed out. I was already late.

I ran from the west side of the park over to the east where the start was. I could hear the National Anthem as I was approaching from the rear – realizing that I would be starting at the back of the pack blue bib or not.

Luckily there wasn’t as many people running as there are normally so I started blazing down the right side trying to catch the leaders. I felt great and even though there was a borderline monsoon happening it didn’t really phase me, I was all smiles. It was here that I once again had the existential thought “This is what I do now, I race. I love this and live for this moment, enjoy all of it.”

Mile 2 passed at 15:00 which meant I was doing 7:30 miles so I had to really pick it up. Overdrive!

Coming down the west side of the park who do I see in front of me bobbing along with her yellow leotards  but Erika! Yes, I called them leotards. I came up along side of her and pretended to be an annoying runner and was elbowing her and getting all up in her runner space. When she turned to yell she was like “Baker!”  and started laughing. We cruised along for a bit before she ushered me off to continue picking off people.

Mile 4 came out of nowhere and I was like “Really? Already?” I picked it up again at this point and even stripped down to my dry fit short sleeve. In my head, I think… “Short sleeves, more aerodynamic=faster me.” Does it work? I have no idea.

I sprinted through the finish to a time of 32:48. Not my best, but a good race all things considered AND I had fun.

So now the weather makes itself known.  Cold. Windy. Rain. As I was walking along cooling down (with my head bowed down) I see this pair of feet like totally up in my space. I look up and its Ed from ‘Dad Posse’! High five. We hung out for a hot second before he took off for his morning run. Shortly after, I see Erika and we headed to baggage to wait for her friend Frankie to finish.

We three hopped in a cab and bee-lined it to the Upper West to have brunch at Popover Cafe. It was awesome! Erika and I had the Eggs Benedict ON a popover and I will probably get that every time now. Its like Eggs Benedict on crack and now I’m addicted. Please help.

We split up after to head home and get cleaned up. We were all very happy about our races! Rain, what rain!