After about 6 months of training, the race has finally come and gone. So as not to keep you in suspense, I’ll let you know up front that I met my 1st and 2nd race goals, but not my third. I do have a fairly good excuse for that though, which I’ll let you know in a minute.
But first, I’d like to say to the New York Road Runners - congratulations, you folks really know how to put on a race. Almost everything about the ING NYC Marathon was incredibly well organized starting with the pre-race packet pickup. Sure, I wish the wait at Staten Island before the race was shorter (I think about 3 1/2 hours), but there’s probably nothing that can be done about that given the street closures that have to be done to pull off this massive event. If I had to pick one thing to change though, it would be the post-race. Although this too seemed fairly well organized, the total amount of walking that needed to be done to get your food and medal, pick up your checked bag, and drop off your chip, felt much too long. It seemed like it took me well over an hour between all the walking and the crowds to meet up with my family after the race.
However, what a great group of volunteers the NYRR Club had for the race - and what wonderful crowd support. You New Yorkers are fantastic. Anyway…I digress. Back to the race.
I woke up race morning with a massive cold - a sore throat and runny nose. Not something I was really prepared to deal with because I almost never get sick. Really I don’t - years sometimes go by without me getting even the sniffles. So, that was a bit of a disappointment, but after training for so long, waiting 4 years to get into the race, and given that it was only a cold after all, I mooched a Benadryl from my sister and she drove me to the bus in Midtown Manhattan that took the runners out to Staten Island.
Once we got to Staten Island, the wait began. There were, however, plenty of provisions for runners - bagels, Power Bars, water, and most importantly, coffee. I had brought my own food - greek yogurt and a bagel, but I gratefully took a cup of coffee, courtesy of the wonderful people at Dunkin’ Donuts.
It was a pretty long, cold wait. The morning was pretty windy and I’m guessing the temperature wasn’t much above 40 F. I was grateful that I had brought a blanket. So I passed the time watching and listening to all my fellow racers and trying to stay warm. It was really cool to hear all the different languages being spoken - the NY Marathon seems to have a huge number of international participants.
This year for the first time, there was a 3-wave start. I was in the second wave, which took off around 10 a.m. We linked up by about 9:30 or so, and were marched out to the bridge shortly before 10. And then we were off, to the sounds of the classic song, “New York, New York”.
I can’t tell you how many people were along the race course and cheering - it seemed like most of the city must have been out. The only place on the entire course that didn’t have spectators was the Queensboro bridge, which is around mile 15. Shortly after the bridge, I caught a glimpse of my sister cheering me on, which was a really nice boost.
The race actually went pretty well for me until about mile 18, when I got bumped from behind as I was going around a corner. It threw my stride off a bit and I almost tripped but didn’t - I think it did cause a slight strain behind my left knee though. Until about mile 20 I think I was on pace to get at least a 4:15, but after that, I started slowing down quite a bit. Although I was taking in fluids about every 2 miles and had energy gels at about miles 7 and 14, I think being sick just started to take its toll. I wasn’t feeling really that bad - just slightly stiff, and mentally a bit worn down. It also could have been a mistake to take the Benadryl that morning because they’re a bit dehydrating from what I understand.
Anyway, I kept shuffling along, thinking that the people that say that the real race starts around mile 20 are completely right. Thankfully, around mile 25 or so - just when I thought I must have missed them - I saw my sister with my niece and nephew. They were so cute, and so excited to see me! It was a great mental pick me up, as was seeing my husband about a minute later.
That last mile seemed like it too forever - definitely the longest mile of my life. In retrospect, I think would have been physically capable of running faster at the end, considering I wasn’t really even sore the next day; mentally though, I just didn’t have it in me that day. What I did have in me was a finishing time of 4:26:07. It was my slowest time of the 3 marathons I’ve run - but given that I’ve aged 12 years since my last marathon AND I was sick, I’m feeling pretty okay about that.
So that’s the race report. I hope everyone else that raced last weekend had a wonderful time. And those of you who also ran in New York - I’d love to hear about your experience. That means you, Fitarella!
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