NYC Marathon - Race Report

I didn't think I was going to be able to run the New York City Marathon. I had to stop running for over two weeks after the Vermont 50 to let a shin injury heal and wasn't sure that it was going to be enough time. Following that I had to take it slow just to get back running at all. I had planned to do speed training following Vermont, but as the race neared the reality of my lack of faster training set in I changed my goals to have fun and enjoy running with 50,000 people and screaming fans for 26.2 miles.

Lunch

Dinner

After a week on my hands and knees laying floors on North Haven, I caught the ferry, and headed to Portland. I had to take the 6am flight to New York so I could get to the city in time to register and pick up my race number. When I got to the Javits Center on the West side of Manhattan there was a line out the door, around the block, and back again. Turns out the folks who organize the NYC Marathon have done this before. The line moved fast and the whole process was quick and easy. I then had lunch with my friends Smith, Sarah, and Asa at our favorite spot Pies & Thighs in Williamsburg. As lunch settled I questioned the intelligence of a fried chicken sandwich on a biscuit with grits and coffee as a pre-race meal. But Smith gave it a thumbs up so I decided it was alright. Sarah and I followed up the fried chicken by going to see the new Jackass film Bad Grandpa. Hilarious and way too strenuous on my abs. We then went back to Sarah and Asa's apartment where I got my gear together and Asa and Sarah cooked me a great pre race pasta dinner. (with a Guinness of course!)

Race Day Gear & Supplies

The next morning Asa was kind enough to get up at 4:30 and drive me to Times Square where I was catching a bus out to the start on Staten Island. I sat next to a nice woman named Heather and was really happy to get to hang out with her, her friend Kelly, and a bunch of other folks. I had almost 4 hours before my wave started and it helped to have great people to get to talk with and make the time fly.

We made it to the start area and the Robin Hood runner's tent by 7. A little after 8:30 I tightened the laces of my Hoka One One trail shoes, (yes trail shoes!) and started making my way towards my start corral which happened to be only a couple back from the elite men runners. (how did I end up here?) After they corralled everyone we were marched up towards the starting line. On route we ditched our warm layers in bins to be donated to goodwill. As we reached the starting area someone on the stage shouted 7 minutes to the start. I had thought there was still over 30 minutes! After sharing a panicked look with an Italian guy next to me, I ripped open a GU packet, and crammed it down with some water. Mayor Bloomberg got up on the stage with some other folks, said a few words, and then bam! The race started...for the elite woman.

We still had a half hour to stand around and wait for the start. It was pretty cold at that point but I was thankful it was not colder as it could have been on an early November day. The overcast weather and temps were actually perfect for running. Everything except the 20 knot North Northwest wind that for this course is a headwind for the first 20 miles. As the eventual men's race winner (Spoiler Alert! I didn't win.) Geoffrey Mutai said, "The weather today. It was not easy."

I felt slightly nervous leading up to the race as one often does before embarking on something like this, but the last half hour before we headed off I felt very calm. I was so happy to be out there, and felt relaxed and ready to run. After some more short speeches and the National Anthem sung by a Staten Island middle school choir they got the racers ready, fired off the cannon, and we were off. For real this time.

It's not easy to start fast in a mass of people going uphill into the wind, but all things considered I was able to make decent time and knock off my first mile over the Verrazano bridge in about 7:46. It's quite a view of the city from here. You can see the entire course and just how far you have to go. It's also fun to be running through all sorts of places that you can't at any other time. I have spent a lot of time in New York in my life. My dad's whole family is from there, I have lived there, and I have a lot of friends there as well. I have driven over the Verrazano bridge at least a dozen times and even sailed under it. But I never thought I would run it too.

From BuzzFeed's
"35 Best Signs From the NYCMarathon"

After getting off the bridge I got to experience what this race is all about. The fans. immediately the road was lined with people, with signs, with loud voices, and smiles on there faces. Shouting out and cheering you on. No matter who you were. I ran this race with headphones, but I could still hear plenty of the people. And this first moment heading into Brooklyn will probably go down, for the rest of my life, as one of the best moments I have ever experienced running.



From here all the way through South Brooklyn and into Williamsburg I felt great. I was running miles between 6:15 and 6:45 and started to think that I could actually break 3 hours. I felt light on my feet and flowed between all the runners around me. I was eating GU's every 30 minutes or so and alternating between water and gatorade at most of the aid stations. I had never run a race where you get handed water like this, but I liked it. It felt easy to stay on top of hydration and nutrition knowing that there was a station exactly every mile.

Thanks Smith!

After passing through South Williamsburg I moved to the right of the course to keep an eye out for Smith and Asa who I knew would be waiting for me somewhere around mile 11. I almost missed them but fortunately saw them off to my right just as I went by them. I gave two thumbs up to Smith and kept moving. Smith made a sign for me and it pumped me up even more.

From here the course moves into Greenpoint before heading over the Polanski Bridge into Queens. The Half-Marathon mark is just at the beginning of the bridge and I had just done it in 1:26:53. I knew it would be hard to keep that same pace for another 13.1 miles but I felt like it was still possibly in reach considering how good I was feeling at the moment.

Of course it was right around then that things started to feel not so good. I was still feeling decent but my legs started to feel heavy. As we hit the 59th St. Bridge that heads over to Manhattan I ran my first mile over 7 minutes. The bridges are the hills in this race and this one put me in check. I came down it fast and was fired up by hitting the "wall of sound" as I entered Manhattan for the first time, but it wasn't too long after this that my legs felt even heavier.

From here the course heads due North up 1st Ave for miles 17-19. On this day it was right into the wind. You can also see a long way ahead which was a reminder that there was still a long way to go. People started passing me for the first time all day. I was running miles in the mid 7 minutes here and thought to myself that it was best to just try and maintain this pace as best I could, get to the Bronx, back into Manhattan, and turn up my intensity then. At this point I was passing some walkers, and some folks doubled over and I knew that if I gave it too much right then that I would self-destruct before the finish and be doubled over myself.

Thanks Robin Hood Cheer Brigade!

1st Ave turns into the Willis Ave Bridge and heads over the Harlem River into the Bronx. I was not feeling any better at this point but the fans in the Bronx fired me up. I ran this race on behalf of the charity group the Robin Hood Foundation. They do amazing work in the city to fight poverty and promote education. And they do a lot of work in this particular area. (Including building a school that my new friends Heather and Kelly both work at.) I was wearing a Robin Hood shirt during the race and up here people just started going nuts for it. There was also an actual Robin Hood cheering station too. I ran by to a lot of high fives and cheers and picked up the pace hard for a few moments. A few moments that were unfortunately short lived. After I passed them I slowed even more dramatically.

Up to now I never quite understood how people could bonk so hard that they would drop out of races when they were so close to finishing but I started to understand that more clearly and personally the next few miles.  Around mile 22 the race heads back to Manhattan and mostly uphill to Central Park. My whole body started feeling heavy and I was getting light headed. I started having tunnel vision and new that I was not in a good place. I knew sub 3 hours was out, I knew qualifying for Boston was out, and I started to think sub 3:30 might be out. I never felt so bad that I though I would not finish, but I was pretty sure that I would be dragging myself for the next 4 miles to the line. I ran mile 23 at a 9:40/mile pace. I new I had to change my head space so I pounded a GU and took it easier through the next aid station making sure to drink a full cup of water and gatorade. There was also a woman with orange slices on the side of the road. I'm not sure if this was a sanctioned part of the race or not but I was happy to grab one and scarf it down. I was continuing to be passed by more and more runners and that was a bit discouraging. At the same time with over 50,000 runners I didn't feel like I was racing anybody but the clock and course. They were doing their thing. I needed to do mine.

At mile 24 the course moves into central park and finishes the last 2.2 there. I could now sense the finish line and knew the sooner I finished, the sooner I would feel better. I put the hammer down as hard as I could. At one point another Robin Hood runner came by me and put his hand on my shoulder. I don't know who this guy was but I want to thank him for this. It somehow snapped my mind from survival mode to race mode and for the rest of the race I raced. I ran as hard as I could and passed many people. Mentally it did change to be a race against the runners around me for this last push. And this mental shift helped give me what I needed to finish as hard as I could. I wasn't flying but I did start running sub 8:00/miles. It felt like the fastest and hardest I had run all day.

I crossed the line in 3:12:40 averaging 7:22/mile. I had aspirations earlier in the race that I might run sub 3. I also had though leading up to the race and just that morning before the start that sub 4 would be about right considering my lack of preparation for a road marathon. I know at the end of the day that I put all I had into this race and didn't leave anything on the course.

Splits & Results

I was a little bummed out not to run sub 3:05. If I paced myself better at the beginning I might have had the strength to maintain better in the second half. Maybe it was nutrition or training. But all things considered, I don't think I could have given anymore in the situation I was in. I have never felt so drained after any finish in my life. I learned a lot out there that I know will help me next time. All in all it was a great race and one of the best times I have ever had running in my life.

When you cross the line they give you a finishers medal, wrap you in a space blanket, and give you a recovery bag with some food and drinks. I felt very weak and slow as I made my way through the park and eventually out of the racing area. I kept eating and drinking water slowly. And by the time I finally exited I was feeling stronger and getting my bearings back. I was very thankful for the recovery bag. Everything except the Strawberry-Kiwi flavored Gatorade recovery drink which is quite possibly the worst thing I have ever tasted in my life. Seriously. Keep your distance from that stuff!

Found on the steps of Lincoln Center!
No time for a picture with space blanket.
Give me those cloths! And the beef jerky!

I would like to thank all the volunteers and organizers of this amazing race. Logistically it seems like the most challenging race to possibly put on. And besides the Strawberry-Kiwi Gatorade it was flawless. I would like to thank Robin Hood Foundation for all the great work they do, for allowing me to run on their behalf, and to Molly Brethauer and the other Robin Hood staff for their great communication and organization. I especially would like to thank Asa, Sarah, and Smith for taking such good care of me during my less than 48 hours in the city. They got me everywhere I needed to be including back to the airport after the race, fed me, and helped smooth out some rather difficult transportation issues as races are concerned. The only problem we had was that the place we decided to meet after the race happened to be in the race course and impossible to get to. I had no phone and we had no back up plan. So I sat in a space blanket on the steps of Lincoln center for quite a while before we finally connected. Fortunately I had 20 buck, a debit card, and a MetroCard with me just in case. I ended up buying an egg sandwich from a street vendor and after borrowing a 1/2 dozen different phones from nice random people, we connected, I got my warm cloths, ate more food, and we headed back to Brooklyn.

Over the last two years I have been bit by the ultra bug and only really cared to run this marathon because it was New York. A special race, a special place, and one my dad did many times. But after finishing this race I now have a lot more love for the road 26.2 mile distance. And even more love for the city of New York. I know now that on the right day with the proper race plan and training that sub 3 hours is doable for me. Something I didn't think possible before. I'm already looking forward to my next shot, and hope I might have the opportunity to try it again in the five boroughs.