NYC Marathon

Short version: it came, it was cold, it was windy and I accomplished my goals: sub 3:50, BQ for 2016 and qualify for a guaranteed entry for NY 2015.  

Overall stats:    Finish Time 3:49:42  9206th overall, 1894th woman, and 113th in F50-54 AG

Splits:      5K      27:12     25K  2:14:27
               10K     53:50     30K  2:41:27
               15K  1:20:34     35K  3:08:43
               20K  1:47:20     40K  3:36:42
              Half   1:53:09   Finish 3:49:42

Not too bad a job of holding it together until the very last 2K where I realized that I had given it everything I had and I just couldn't fight the wind anymore.  I also knew I was under the 3:50 (even though secretly I hope for 3:48) which is a PR for my 50s.  To finish that high in my AG in a big race is rewarding even if the field isn't "fast" like Boston.  I still accomplished more than I could have asked for overall.

Long version:  If you have been following my blog, you will know that training went pretty well and I was in much better shape than I had been in even before Boston.  That is what helps training over the summer not the winter (even with the warmer weather) and adding in races to get myself into the right mindset. I've run lots of marathons where my body was ready but my mind was not and it was evidenced in my overall results especially where I doubted myself and lost confidence.   I had regained my confidence before Boston and the last few months only helped.  I ran some of the fastest half marathon times that I had run in a couple of years as well which helped to boost it as well.  

My last week of training went fairly well.  During the last track session on Tuesday, I stressed a little as our splits seemed slower than they were the last few sessions, and I had to keep reminding myself that we were running mostly in lane 3 and had to avoid the band and the tuba players many times. Thursdays final tempo run was strong and effortless, so I knew that the training was there and I just had to trust it.  Weather reports were already showing colder temps and wind and well, that never changed.

Friday morning I met Chris at the airport to find that our flight to Newark had mechanical delays and we were not leaving at 11 am as we had hoped, but closer to 1 pm.  We finally got off the ground around 1:30 pm and made it to the city and our hotel by 5 pm.  We had hoped to go to the Expo that afternoon, but it was too late by then and we needed dinner, to meet Mary Pat and to head to the show, Matilda. Chris and I had a wonderful sushi dinner (and even two glasses of wine) and then we met up with MP who had traveled up from Philly on the train and went to the show.  Matilda was fun and it was a great diversion especially with the craziness of Halloween going on outside in Times Square. We saw lots of crazy costumes and even families with kids dressed up at that hour. We turned in early as MP had to travel to Buffalo and back for a family birthday party (she had to defer and wasn't running) and get up early. 

Saturday began with Chris and I heading to the Expo to do some retail damage and after getting our numbers, we did just that.  Wandering around and buying NYC marathon stuff along with some capri tights (because we thought we might want to wear them), compression socks, and some other fun stuff.  We then headed back to the hotel to relax and then off to dinner to meet up with my friends David and Kathy (former V-teamers and good running friends who live in Westchester) and Jennifer and Dennis who are 2nd Solers living now in Hartford, CT.

Sunday morning came early even with the time change and we woke to find the rain gone (thankfully), but the cold temps and the wind to have arrived.  We did decide on shorts/skirts and short sleeves with arm warmers under our many layers of throw away clothing and headed to the bus.  It was a quick walk and quick ride (no motor coach with a bathroom for me Steven, you missed out on a true fun time) and then we were over the bridge and at the Ft. Wardsworth staging area and "Green" village in Staten Island.  It was extremely cold and windy in the village area and we tried to hide in a plastic clothing collection bin that had flipped over in the wind, but alas we were soon evicted.

Chris and I staying warm

The village was well stocked with coffee, bagels, Gatorade and Gatorade products, bananas and port-o-potties.  So well stocked with the latter that the wait was never more than 2-3 min to use the loo which was a wonderful change over most big races that I have run.  Chris and I both remarked that Boston might take a page or two out of NYC's staging area book.  After what did seem that long a time (of sitting and shivering and making new friends), we were off to the Wave 1 corrals and the race was about to get real.  

Chris and I separated then as we had already made the pack a long time ago to run our own races.  We went to our respective corrals and after using the loo once again, it seems like the corral finally moved and we were headed to our start area on the lower span of the bridge.  Not sure what the real speed of the wind was on that lower section, but it was almost hysterical how difficult it was to actually cross the bridge.  Due to the gusts, there were no mile markers or clocks on the bridge, but it wouldn't have made a difference any way as everyone was pretty much blown into clumps in the center.  I had put that crazy pink and orange Dunkin Donuts hat over my cap and put sunglasses on to keep things from blowing into my face and contacts and was sure glad that I did.  I had also kept my tyvek throwaway jacket on for the bridge as well.  It was nonsensical running in that wind and if my Garmin was right that first mile was like 10:50 and of course the second mile coming down the bridge was timed as 8:12.  

The next few segments went by quickly.  There were many gusts but you were able to keep it together if you just didn't let it get to you.  The gusts were so strong in many cases that you were literally kicking yourself! With the addition of the 4th Wave, the course was not as crowded with runners as I remembered from 2011, and I never even noticed the addition of the merged runners from the blue wave.  It got a bit more crowded when the orange wave joined us, but nothing like I remember.  Unfortunately, it was in this mess of runners that I missed Tim's daughter, Lizzy, and her sign.  The next thing I remember was that we were on the 59th St Bridge (Queensboro) and fighting the wind going up and over to 1st Ave.  My Garmin froze and went haywire a this point so I was pretty much watchless when it came to pace.  I did have on my other watch (I always wear two ever since I became a pacer) and it had overall time, so I kind of knew where I was.  I had really been running mostly by feel anyway with the wind as I figured my paces were all over the place.  (As it turns out my 5K splits were actually pretty darn consistent).  I knew there were times on 1st Ave where I again was moving too fast, but there were others where I was moving too slow.  I was just hoping to get to David & Kathy and Lori & John in the Bronx as they were after mile 20 hoping for the promised tailwind.

When I go to the Bronx (and who put a hill on the Willis Ave bridge?), I was still feeling really good.  I grabbed a pretzel from David, but I didn't really stop as I didn't want to lose my momentum.  I kept rolling even along those hills on 5th Avenue and into the park and I was still passing a lot of people.  It was right around the 40K mark that I knew I had the race in the bag, and I was starting to slow and kind of look around and take it all in.  No we had never gotten that tailwind, but I knew I had fought my way through the toughest winds and I was going to finish the NYC marathon once again.  I know I probably could have run harder through this last 2K, but I also just let myself go at that point and dropped out of "race" mode as all that hard work was paying off and I relaxed. I made a bit of a mistake as I almost let the 3:50 slide by but when I realized that, I refocused to the end passing a bunch of runners as we approached the line.

Homeless me somewhere in the race

Thanks goes out to Coach Emily for believing in me, Coach Tim for leading us through those tough track workouts (in the rain) and the tempo runs that seemed almost impossible but were accomplished, our Group 3 Sole Train runners including Cathy, Liz, Anne, Denine, Diane, Elizabeth, Jen, Joe, Glen and others, to Chris and Mary Pat for a super fun weekend and one that we might just have to repeat next year since we are all in (Chris made her BQ and NYC times as well), and to my family for putting up with all this running again.