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| Esther and I headed into the expo |
I would not have planned this on purpose (to run two marathons almost back to back) but when you put in for the NYCM lottery and are actually chosen, how can you say no? And I wasn't about to give up Portland because that was to be my comeback race. So I did the logical thing - I asked my coach what in the hell I was going to do. She gave me two options: run Portland as a training run and go for a PR in New York or run Portland hard and run New York as a recovery run. Haha...run a marathon to recover from a marathon. Cute. But that's what I chose and I am really happy with how it worked out. I flew in on Thursday prior to race weekend and Esther picked me up from Newark. I will always be grateful to Esther for inviting me into her home and being a wonderful host! We hit the expo on Friday and I went into the city by myself on Saturday to do some sightseeing then meet up with Caolan and Sandra at the expo. I hit Penn Station, Times Square and then took a cruise around the city to see all the bridges I would be getting to run over on Sunday.
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| Coast to coast marathons - Portland to NY |
So race morning started VERY early; I honestly don't even remember what time it was as it was over a year ago (yeah, you could say I suck at updating my blog....lol). But I was heading to Staten Island on Esther's running club bus and since most of them are ridiculously fast, they were in the first waves. Hence, an extremely early arrival to Staten Island only to wait around for a few hours until my 11:00am wave started. I arrived at Ft. Wadsworth and immediately was enthralled with all the activity. SO many people. So much going on. We were herded into the start village where I attempted to contact my coach unsuccessfully. My phone wasn't playing nice with all the cell usage and I pretty much gave up trying to find her and Sandra. I did what any grown woman would do - I plopped myself on the grass and cried. Yep, I started sniffling like a baby. I don't do well in crowds and especially not when I already had anxiety going on. Then I hear a voice from the heavens....no, wait...it was just my coach. Might as well have been a voice from above because I have never been so happy to see anyone in my entire life. She gathered me up and took me over to where the rest of the gang was waiting. And we waited. And waited some more.
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| Sandra, Caolan and I waiting in our corral for the start |
Then, it was time to head to the corrals. Again, SO many people! I was really impressed with how quickly they get the runners across that start line with so many of us. As Frank sang New York, New York, we headed over the Verrazano Bridge. I was kicking myself for not picking up a DD beanie so I went shopping on the bridge - found a hat in perfect condition and shoved into my skirt for the duration of the marathon.
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| In the first mile of the marathon on the Verrazano Bridge |
Coach had given me course specific paces as NY is a hard marathon to pace. I really did try to follow it and was actually somewhat successful. I did some walking, did some jogging, did some photo taking then ran a little more. It was a great start to the morning. Loved going over the bridge and seeing the city from a different view. I was feeling pretty damn good so far but was also trying to keep in my mind what my coach had told me. When we were discussing the race, she had said to me that at some point in the race, I was probably going to find out my legs were not as recovered as I thought they were - she gave me until around mile 15-16. So I was keeping that in the back of my head and just enjoying the race, sticking to a 13 min or so mile. As I was headed down one of the streets, probably around mile 6 or so, I see this skirt. It's a skirt I recognize because it was a custom she had made for the race...it was Kristin! She was a FB friend who wasn't even sure she would start the marathon because of all the pain/injuries she had leading up to the race. I was SO happy to see her running and running well. I had been hoping I would run into a few of my fellow SparkleSkirt wearers on the course and especially her.
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| Kristin and I after the halfway mark! |
I caught up with her and asked her how she was doing; she said "so far, so good" and that her ankle wasn't bothering her at all. We had very different styles of running as I was doing Galloway, running for 2 min and walking for 1 min and Kristin was straight running. But we decided to hang for a while and ran together, chatting and taking in the sights. We were also in her neighborhood, Brooklyn (I think) and by far one of my favorites out of all the five boroughs. I think I veered off for the bathroom, we parted ways and said good luck to one another. I waited forever in line at the porta potty and then headed back out to the course. Wouldn't you know it, Kristin and I ran into each other again. Um, how often does that really happen?? A huge race like NY with 50,000 runners, two people who have never met in person and we run into each other....twice. So we decided to stick together. A lot of the middle miles are a blur but oh, do I remember the QB bridge. Remember when I mentioned that my coach thought I would feel the Portland marathon in my legs? Around mile 15-16?
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| Oh, this bridge....it went on and on and on.... |
Well, halfway up that damn bridge, my legs suddenly realized they were running another marathon. And they began to protest. No pain, just tired and dead legs. Lots of walking on that damn bridge...lol. We hit Manhattan and I knew I would be seeing my friend Esther soon - that kept me going. I was also hoping to meet Joan, another FB friend I hadn't met in real life but who was volunteering at one of the aid stations. I was looking forward to a hug or two. This next stretch of miles, until 20 or so, was probably another of my favorites. Not sure why. I just really enjoyed the crowd support and I knew we were getting closer to that finish. At some point, we hit these green things on the road....sponges, hundreds and hundreds of sponges. I was focused on not tripping and breaking an ankle at this point. They were everywhere.
Part two of the marathon report up next.......
