It seems like a dream now, and if it weren’t for some sore quads, friction burns from my water belt, and eyewitnesses, I wouldn’t actually believe that I had completed the NYC marathon! I couldn’t have asked for a better weekend or a better race. Will asked me to spare no details in my description of the day, so I’m taking that to heart and recording it all. But, I’ve divided it into sections, because I imagine you won’t all want to read everything!
Friday to Saturday: Travel and Race Prep
With all of my visitors from out of town, the whole weekend felt like a party! On Friday, Adam and I drove up to my aunt’s house in New Jersey to spend the night, after which we traveled by train to Penn Station. Everything was so well organized and convenient—the shuttle bus to the convention center where I picked up my packet stopped right at Penn Station. The convention center was abuzz with marathon activity, full of runners, friends, family, and the nicest crop of volunteers imaginable! As I was walking out, I noticed a mass of folks huddled around a large screen, which turned out to be playing the entire marathon route in fast forward. I caught it just at the last mile. At the end, the other runners cheered and clapped and the announcer wished us luck, and I found myself a little choked up at the sight of it. It hit me again—I’m actually going to run this thing! I hopped back on the shuttle and got back just in time to meet Erzulie, who had also taken the train to Penn Station, and we met up with Adam (who was studying at Starbucks) and walked about 8 blocks to our wonderful hotel, the Courtyard Marriott Times Square (I recommend it highly!). We wandered Times Square for a bit before Erzulie went off to meet friends, and Adam and I walked the final half mile of the race, at the southern edge of Central Park to Columbus Circle.
Annie and Ariadne met us back at the hotel, where we rested for a bit before heading down to lower Manhattan to meet Erzulie and Caitlin at a cozy little Italian restaurant called Bianca—it’s on Bleeker at Bowery, if you’re ever in the neighborhood! We left Caitlin and headed back up to the hotel, where I took advantage of the softest bed I’ve ever slept in.
Sunday: Race Day
Sadly, I was too nervous to really sleep, and at 4am, I was up and dressing for the big day. Luckily, the hotel was two short blocks from the pick up spot for the shuttle buses to the start on Staten Island. I was so nervous about making it onto the bus that I took the earliest shift at 4:30, meaning that I was sitting at the start by 5:30 am, for a race that was to begin at 10:10. It was dark and cold, but the volunteers were, once again, upbeat and friendly, and there was plenty of warm tea and other goodies to keep me occupied. I also had my cell along with me, so I chatted with Mom, Erz, Adam, Annie, and Ariadne, which helped pass the time. It seemed, from the conversations I heard around me, that most of the people who were running the race had run several marathons before—one group of women was discussing how they ought to “go international” for their next one! At that point, I could barely envision myself completing this one marathon, let alone making it a lifestyle! It takes a certain type of person (driven, competitive, wealthy) to be able to run marathons consistently, I think.
Finally, 10:00 rolled around and we were lined up in our corrals for the start. The Air Force did a fly-over to start the race, I heard the gun…and I was still standing in line. I realized as we shuffled forward that my corral was the next to the last, and it was a good 15-20 minutes after the starting gun before I got to the starting line. I must have put down a fairly slow finishing time on my application, because there were literally 100 or so people behind me when I got on the bridge at the start, and I found myself among people who fully intended to walk from start to finish. I spent an infuriating three miles or so weaving in and out of walkers and trotters until I was able to get into position with people who were running at my pace. Surprisingly, these first three miles were the most discouraging of the race; I thought I’d never get into position, that everyone who’d come to see me would think I’d gotten lost and would give up on trying to see me, or would be disappointed that I was so far behind. But, as I said, I did manage to move up and was in a comfortable place by about mile 5. I had been warned that the hardest parts would be the starting mile at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and the Pulaski Bridge at the halfway point in Brooklyn, but honestly, they were a breeze!
It had been cold before the start, but in the end, conditions were perfect for the run—sunny and in the 50s with a breeze on the bridges but no wind. I couldn’t have asked for better weather! As I trotted through Brooklyn, I tried to take in the scenes of the city, but it was really the people along the way that were the most fun to watch. As the neighborhood changed, so did the people who lined the streets, but they were alike in their enthusiasm for us. I think New York puts on its best face for the marathon—as I have mentioned, the volunteers couldn’t have been nicer or more helpful, and the spectators were fantastic. I saw plenty of signs for individual runners, but lots for us as a whole. A few of my favorites were:
“NYC (heart)s you! You are all winners today!”
“Wow! You’re in the NYC Marathon!”
“Four boroughs down, only one to go!”
and
Train
Endure
Achieve
Matter
plus welcome signs for the different boroughs.
My favorite fans were the little kids who came out for high fives and to pass out water. One little girl in Queens was unforgettable. She couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5, was teeny tiny and stuffed into a puffy purple jacket. Although she was holding out her cup of water as far as she could, she was too small for most people to see her or for them to be bothered to reach down to grab the cup. But, she looked so earnest that I stopped, took the cup, said thanks and smiled. She just grinned from ear to ear, the little missing-toothed grin of a small child. It was just the cutest thing. To her, I think we were all celebrities or something! Honestly, I did feel important for a day, to have so many people out and impressed with our achievement—even local fire fighters were out cheering!
Somewhere along the way, I found myself surrounded by a contingent from South Korea (they were running with a flag), and we passed through a Korean neighborhood—the cheers were deafening, the runners and spectators were beaming. It was fantastic! All that cheering for the other runners made up for the fact that I had my Ipod on too loud to hear my own fans! I knew to look for my friend Darren at 4th and 9th in Brooklyn, as the race passes nearly right in front of his door. I did see him and that was exciting, but I expected to see all of my out-of-town friends and family, plus my mom, aunt, and cousin at mile 8, where the various starts for the marathon converged. Sadly, though, it was too crowded for me to see them, though they did see me. But, I knew they were out there somewhere, so I kept trucking and hoped I’d see them later in the race. The miles literally melted away under my feet and at times, I even forgot that I was running. I’d let my mind wander then I’d return to find that my feet were still moving under me and that I was indeed still chipping away at 26.2 miles. At times, I felt too much like my own private island, lost in my music and my thoughts. People say that the best thing about the NYC marathon is that you’re never alone, but I think had the best of both worlds. I doubt I would have felt as strong without my Ipod to distract me, but when I felt like being part of the crowd, I could be.
The only point at which I started to feel a little tired was on the Queensboro Bridge. The two bridges that I’d been warned about were fine, but Queensboro seemed three times as long and higher, too. Plus, we had to run in the underside, and some of the lights on the bridge were out, so we were running in almost total darkness! Fittingly, Nelly Furtado’s “Turn Out the Lights” came on that point and gave me a laugh; I probably would’ve been fuming otherwise! My knees felt a bit stiff along the way, but the crowd was going slowly enough that I could do some quick high knees or butt kicks along the way without losing my pace and that seemed to do the trick. Before I knew it, I was at mile 16—where the whole gang was again, but again, I didn’t see them! Erz said they had a group of strangers cheering for me, but the Ipod tuned them out again, sadly. I was scanning the crowd, and didn’t see them, but enjoyed myself anyway. After mile 16 we were running up 1st Avenue, and it was just incredible to see the sea of people stretch endlessly in front of me. The next thing I knew, I was at mile 20. I had been telling myself that the last six would take care of themselves, and they did. As I was running down 5th Avenue, I was thinking of the video at the expo that I’d seen, feeling pretty incredulous that it was almost over. My favorite running song, “Life is a Highway” came on, as did Christina Aguilera’s “Fighter,” and I knew I was going to make it. It must have been around mile 22 or 23 that I finally saw my family and friends, first Ariadne and Travis, then my sister, who jumped in to run with me for a mile or two. Then, I saw my mom, aunt, and cousin—seeing all of them was really the best feeling in the world! Erz told me that Adam and Caitlin were waiting at the finish, then jumped off the course when she saw that I was finishing strong (what a good sister, eh?). I rounded a corner and saw that same 26 mile banner that Adam and I had passed on our walk the day before, and that I’d seen in the video. The next thing I knew, I was across the finish line!!
I finished with a time of 4:26:50, or 10:11 per mile and was one of 38,368 people from 100 countries to complete the marathon. It was especially fun to see so many people from different countries, and to hear their countrymen cheering for them from the sidelines!
After that, there was an excruciating 20 minutes or so where the other runners and I shuffled along a narrow, fenced sidewalk to pick up our medals, silver covers, bags, water bottles and to have our timing chips removed from our shoes. We looked like an army of lost souls and I couldn’t have been more frustrated! There are plenty of advantages to running the largest marathon in the world, but getting stuck in the crowds at the start and finish are pretty big disadvantages! In any case, I finally found my crowd of family and friends—Erz, Mom, Linda, Jenn, Caitlin, Ariadne, Travis, and of course my faithful coach, Adam, to whom I owe so much. Lance Armstrong called the marathon one of the most physically punishing things he’d ever done, and granted, I wasn’t running that fast, but my training and my coach prepared me to run a strong and enjoyable race. I was so thankful to see them, and many of them escorted me back to the hotel, where I took a hot shower—couldn’t take a bath because I was so sweaty that I made the bathwater salty, which stung in my friction burns! Yikes! But I was otherwise not that much worse for wear.
It meant so much to me to have so many people supporting me, both at the race and in spirit. In the end, we raised $1036 for Save the Children and $366 for Invisible Children! Thank you all for your generosity, and for your love and support!
