AM - 4.6 easy miles around Prospect Park in Brooklyn w/ Andrea. Kind of a dreary, rainy day - same as the weather when we were here last fall. I've been going through emotional ups and downs over the past day. At times I just feel like I absolutely blew it on Sunday... it makes me sad. Physically - I am feeling pretty good right now, like I didn't go to the well at all, and that kind of makes it worse! I want nothing more than to redeem myself - I know I am in such incredible shape right now and I just want to prove it. The fact that we will be 30 minutes away from the best Thanksgiving road race in the country (Manchester) this Thursday is sooooo tempting. But discretion is the better part of valor, right? I'll get my chance to redeem myself. I'm going to enjoy the time with my family and some easy jogging with Andrea and my parents this week. And occasionally look at 2012 race calendars, because thinking about that makes me feel better :-) This sort of feels like my senior year in high school. In XC I was one of the favorites going into our sectional meet (in New York, sectionals are how you qualify for states). I fell apart in that race. Everyone thought top 5 was a lock, and I finished 26th. No state meet for me. That weekend I wrote on the wall of my bedroom "4:20, 9:20, Section II Champion." Those became my goals for the outdoor track season. We didn't have an indoor program at my school, so I had to watch my competitors run fast times all winter long, while I waited for a shot at redemption. That spring I ran 4:17 and 9:16, winning both the 1600 and 3200 at the sectionals, against all the guys who crushed me in XC. | 
