Sue's
Complete Marathon Report:NYC Marathon // A FULL report!
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Sue's
Complete Marathon Report:
NYC Marathon // A FULL report!
For those of you who wish to have the facts and just the facts, here they are:
I loved it all. I love New York, now, more than ever.
The facts people should stop reading here.
Now....for those of you who were looking for more details here goes.....
Disclaimer: The staggering unreliability of the human mind at high mileage made the research problematic. To avoid relying excessively on my own perceptions. I consulted course maps and descriptions on several occasions. When possible, I corroborated details with other accounts maintained by other runners and spectators whose clear thought wasn’t in such short supply. Readers familiar with the course may notice discrepancies between certain details (primarily matters of the time and place of certain events) reported in the initial interviews or those reported in the newspaper; the revisions reflect new information that has come to light since the day of the race.**
note: People often ask what has made me repeat the marathon experience. There are MANY reasons. I have tried to point out some of the moments that especially feed this new found addiction.
The
New York City Marathon (AKA “Into City Air”)
I arrived on Thursday, three days before the marathon, in order to acclimatize myself to the City.
On November 3rd, I went to bed at 8:30PM after setting 4 alarms for 4:00, 4:05, 4:10, and 4:15. I woke up after a surprisingly good night of sleep at 3:30AM anxiously awaiting those four alarms. After getting dressed and having coffee, Nick and I caught the 4:46AM bus to the metro stop and then took the metro to the NYC public library for about 5:15AM. I insisted on getting there early as the bridge closed to ALL traffic at 8:00AM. If I didn’t make the 8 o’clock deadline, I would be forced to turn around and go back home. My chances for this year would be gone. I had to make the 8:00 cut off! I was split from Nick by a big burly security guard who was checking to make sure that everyone who got on the bus had a race number. I was then sent on my way to the bus that would take me to the start line. The path was lined with volunteers all with wishes for “a great day”, “good luck” etc. I was bubbling over with excitement. I had tears in my eyes and it hadn’t even begun. I’m a flippin’ sap.
A man in his 50’s sat next to me. It would be his first marathon and he was hoping to finish in 5 hours. I told him that I initially signed up just for something to keep me motivated and because I really wanted to run New York. I said that I was hoping to just have fun. I mentioned the fact that everyone, including the New York Marathon web site had said that this was a hard course to think about a time goal on much less PR on....too many hills, too many turns...too many people...just run NY for fun...don’t set yourself up for failure etc. etc. So I just wanted....to be a part of it...(New York, New York...) All he really had to say about that was “There are hills?” I haven’t trained on ANY hills.” “I don’t think there will be hills.” I quickly said that maybe I was wrong. I didn’t want to scare him. I knew that there WERE hills but I didn’t think that fighting the issue would do either of us any good at this point. The bus ride was short. We passed near to “Ground Zero” and could see the smoke still rising up from the rubble and parts of the buildings still standing, a very sad sight.
Soon we were crossing the Verazzano Bridge. I noticed that the toll for crossing the bridge is SEVEN dollars. That’s highway robbery!!!!...literally. Off the bus we went and I was soon VERY glad that I had my sweat pants and sweat shirt on over my race attire. Fort Wadsworth was very cold in the early morning. I wandered around the start area...took a bottle of water from one of the hundreds of volunteers and sat down to eat the bagel that I had brought with me. They were giving out food but I had brought my own to avoid the chance of not being able to eat exactly when I wanted.
There were thousands of runners hanging around. There were photographers (50),dentists (148), politicians(12), C.E.O’s (330), waitresses(62), librarians (44), musicians (70), nurses(395), clergy (75) etc.etc. etc. all who had paid over a hundred dollars to be lead 26.2 miles through the five boroughs all on their own two feet. Thank goodness for the friendly UPS drivers who were hired to carry our gear to the finish line. I told a few people that I was looking for the other two runners who shared my last name. I needed something to keep me occupied for 3+ hours. I had written down their race bib numbers. I never did find them but I found out later that one of them crossed the finish just five minutes before me!
After I ate my bagel, I decided to wait for the portapotty for what would be the first of 3 visits each with 20 minutes to a half hour wait. I spoke to a few people but not many. There was a band playing some sort of latino music and I wandered over to see if I could find any of the Puerto Rican runners. I thought that I might know some from my year over there. I couldn’t find any. I checked my bag in the UPS trucks and eventually made my way over to my starting corral.
We were on the bridge about a 1/6 of the way up the incline at the beginning. There were three different starts. I had a pretty good position. I could see the elite women from where I was standing. They were actually running up and down the bridge warming up.....uggg, now THAT is endurance! It was exciting to be standing there. There were four press helicopters flying overhead. There were men standing way at the top tip of the cables that hold the bridge up. The police on the bridge said that they were snipers. Security was pretty tight. I heard later that they had run security checks on every runner and that the coast guard was patrolling the harbors.
They also banned boats from being within 500 feet of the bridge and no private planes were allowed to fly overhead. The weather was perfect....sunny, not too warm, not too cold, hardly any wind (which I hear is rare for NYC).
Beware of this next statement...it may be more than you wanted to know....some may laugh...others may be offended. I decided to join the 20 or so girls around me in the “tradition” of peeing on the bridge. Everyone else was doing it and I thought “Better here than after the race starts.” Ok ,Ok...for those of you wondering, NO , I would NOT have jumped off the bridge if everyone else was doing that too. So ok then the mayor gave a speech, some guy sang God Bless America, doves of peace were released and the cannon was fired.
Mile
One 8:53
After the start gun fired and I was immediately in motion (uphill). Just for
a reference, I took me 7 minutes and 4 minutes to get to the start my two times
in Disney. It took me only 17 seconds to reach the starting line in NYC. I was
completely surrounded shoulder to shoulder by other runners on the bridge. It
spread out a bit later, but there was no time in the race that I didn’t
have four to five runners within three feet of me. The run over the bridge was
incredible. The Manhattan sky line in full view. Still a great sight although
tragically altered. Most of the runners just looked over silently. I couldn’t
help but think of the thousands of dead bodies still right across the water
from me. I felt very lucky to be alive and healthy enough to run a marathon.
Mile Two 8:45:34, Three 9:27:24, Four 8:50:95
Not too eventful...fairly flat. We ran by some rap singers who were making everybody
throw their hands up in rhythm with the beat of the music. I thought that it
was a good thing they weren’t standing at mile 25...they would certainly
NOT have gotten such good participation from the runners! At one point, a stereo
was blasting out Van Halen’s “Jump.”There was a lot of music
along the course. I can’t remember it all now. I heard at least five other
languages being spoken around me. New York City IS the place where the world
comes to run!
Five 8:27:51(my fastest mile of the race)
Can’t really explain why this was the fastest. I do remember thinking...”Just
1.2 miles and a whole bunch of people will know where I am thanks to the wonders
of internet updates.” Maybe that sped me up.
Six 9:31:41 10K in .....56:09.
I like to hear the sound of all the chips ringing when I pass over one of the
sensor mats. For some reason that is exciting to me.
Seven 8:52:46, Eight, 9:12:75
We joined the people in the other starts at the 8 mile marker...a bit of a bottle
neck. We had started ON the bridge. They had started down on flat land in Fort
Wadsworth. For the first 8 miles, the men (green and blue starts) were running
on the left side of the road and we were on the right. Only the median divided
us. Sometimes I would look at their clock by mistake. I did that on the first
mile and panicked thinking that I’d run it in 7 minutes instead of 9! Right
before 8, we made a small detour and made up the missing mileage (I think about
2 tenths of a mile or less). Also, from 8 miles on is where the hills start.
Nine 9:06:06,Ten 8:40:33, Eleven 9:14:81, Twelve 9:03:82
Brooklyn went by very fast. Throughout Brooklyn I maintained an average of just
over a nine pace. 9:03 at the 10k...9:04 at the halfway point. I was happy but
I somehow knew that under four hours was not in the cards for me on this day
(perhaps me “knowing “ that was part of the reason that it didn’t
happen). I knew the course too well. I had read and reread every description
that I could get my hands on. This was the easy part. The hills were coming...as
was the impending glycogen depletion which was sure to slow my pace. I would
have to maintain almost exactly this pace to break four. I just didn’t
think it was possible. I decided to give it all I could and try to maintain
as long as possible. We left Brooklyn at some point in here.
Thirteen 9:18:99
I seem to remember a hill around thirteen. Didn’t bother me. I guess the
Pulaski Bridge was around here.
Halfway at 1:58:48 (9:04 pace)
almost exactly when I crossed the half at Disney this year in January. There,
I started to gradually fall apart after 13.1. Could I push it at this pace a
bit longer this time? Turns out that I could. It turned out that at 20 miles,
I was still at a 9:11 average, this is encouraging to me. I wasn’t even
planning on doing that well. I’m still surprised by it.
Fourteen 9:07:20 (??could be a little off, I hit the button about four times),
Fifteen 9:16:91....
I seemed to remember that this was one of the least populated areas spectator-wise.
Runners were talking about what was coming...
Sixteen 9:37:77 ”...na na na na feeling groovy.....” The Queensboro Bridge (AKA “The 59th Street Bridge” )
I knew it was coming. I was ready. I had trained on hills WAY worse than this. But, everyone that I talked to had built it up. It was on a pedestal of sorts...the dreaded Queensboro.....for this, I feared its arrival. Actually, I felt powerful and strong on the bridge. I kept my pace. I thought of the Sisu sign on my back and was thankful for my strong Finnish genes. “I have SISU.” I said to myself....immediately laughing out loud at my goofy self congratulatory talk. Just then, I saw a girl with a Finland sign on her back. “Hey” I thought “There she is!!” There’s the girl that I wore this sign for.” She looked like she was suffering. I decided to charge ahead and run in front of her so that she could see the Sisu sign. I did. She said nothing, typical Finn. But, I am sure that she saw it and I like to think that it helped her. The bridge was a bit of a bottleneck too. I think that this slowed my pace a bit.
Upon reaching the middle of the bridge I heard a sound that I just couldn’t place...a roar....was it cars? water? a distant plane? the wind??...Then, all of the sudden ...oh my!!!! I placed the sound and a lump swelled up in my throat. I think tears may have welled up in my eyes too. (I’m a sap.) It was PEOPLE!!! It was the crowd on 1st avenue that everyone had talked about. As I ran they got louder and louder then finally, as I turned the corner on to 1st avenue I saw them...thousands of them screaming and cheering and waving their hands and smiling and even calling my name. I was smiling so much that I started to laugh, I mean actually laughing right out loud with tears running down my cheeks. It is something that I hope never to forget. (This is the stuff that feeds the addiction)
Seventeen 8:55:27 ...Eighteen 9:19:51(1st Avenue)
These two miles went by like two minutes. The huge crowd went on for about two
miles I guess. They didn’t let up on the cheering either. It was great.
I saw Tom, Rich, Amy and Nick at this point. They seemed very excited. They
were yelling and waving too. That helped.
Nineteen 9:34:69
Somewhere around here we crossed two bridges. One was the Willis Avenue Bridge,
the other was the Madison Ave Bridge. Both were inclines. One had a red carpet
put down for the marathon but one could still feel the metal grating underneath.
I think one ends at mile 20 and the other ends at 21. These are the bridges
that brought us into and out of the Bronx.
Twenty 10:18:47
At around twenty miles there was a guy on his porch with a Karaoke machine belting
out New York New York with all the heart and soul that one could imagine. He
was great. Somewhere in between 20 and 21 there was a huge sign “The Wall
Can’t Stop Me.” They were right. It couldn’t!
Twenty One 9:33:62
Sometime after 21, A bad feeling in my sides started, kind of like cramps. Just
a little... “nothing I can’t handle”... “they will pass”...
“I can run through this”.....I trudge on...my pace suffers...
Twenty Two 10:11:06
“This is Harlem Sister!!!” “Come on Sue, you’re looking
good girlfriend!” one women shouted. But this is where the trouble started.
If I truly was “looking good” it was a miracle....The intestinal problem
had worsened...I had never felt this before. Both sides of my abdomen were aching.
The best I can explain is that it felt like someone reached into my intestines,
filled them with cement and was squeezing them. Not sharp pain and not dull
pain either...It was somewhere in between. I would take a deep breath in and
the pain would go away for an instant then I would breath out and it would come
back in full force. I stopped looking at the crowd.
Absolutely consumed with my own extreme discomfort, I lost all focus...I stopped looking at my watch, I forgot to consider my pace. I was completely focused on trying to breathe. It hurt. I had no idea how to deal with this because I had never encountered it before. Too much Gatorade I thought and I took it too soon. I never drank it straight in training. I was trying to mix it with water but the aide stations were so congested. One loses time taking one cup...never mind trying to grab TWO cups. I was sloppy with what should have been a precision fluid replacement system.
I heard some gospel singers....they were great...they lifted my spirits quite a bit. ..but the rest of Harlem was a complete blur. I had tunnel vision. I vaguely remember two sweet little girls with braided pigtails reaching out to me...I couldn’t give them the high 5 that they were looking for..I could only keep running....I couldn’t even smile....I wasn’t thinking straight. I think that i might have taken more Gatorade in Harlem...smart move. ......So “museum mile” was somewhere around here past Harlem???” I had no clue..They could have dug up the Statue of Liberty and placed it on the side of the road here and I would have missed it. The Queensboro was long past and so was my “feeling groovy”.... to top it off...miles 22 through 24 are composed of a fairly continuous incline. Nothing like adding insult to injury...I think that my mile splits speak for themselves......
Twenty Three 11:23:14, Twenty Four 11:23:68
I want to make perfectly clear that, in explaining the intestinal disturbance,
I am not making excuses. I don’t think that I need to. I am only trying
to make an accurate account of the events as they happened. The time I did is
the time I was ready for. Period. There are no excuses. Who knows, maybe if
I had not taken so much Gatorade, my legs wouldn’t have felt so strong
at that point. There are so many variables to marathon performance. It’s
all part of the mystique in my opinion. Won’t it be a fine day when I run
THE ONE where every single detail comes together perfectly! I’m hoping
that that search will keep me very healthy for a long time.
I am officially taking the position of “happy with my finish line time” even though I am secretly disappointed thinking that I could have done better (this is the stuff that feeds the addiction). My estimation is that, without that problem, my time would have been between 2.5 to 3.5 minutes faster, maybe 4 but still not under four hours. I have decided to officially be “glad” that it happened even though I am secretly very frustrated that it happened when my legs felt that they could have pushed very hard at that point. I am “happy” that I learned a valuable lesson about Gatorade, during this marathon. This way, I go to my next marathon that much smarter. That much closer to THE ONE.
Twenty Five 9:56:95
Somehow...some way....the relentless gradual mile long incline seemed to have
stopped the cramping.... but it was too late....if there WAS still a chance
it was gone now...the coveted title of “a 3 something marathoner”
would not be mine today. It was sucked into the agonizing blurry blinding vortex
of NYC called Harlem. I pick up the pace in the park....I think that I started
to feel better right before 24 miles because I remember feeling good when I
saw Tom, Rich, Amy and Nick again and they said that they were a bit past the
24 mile marker, but it seems by the split times that I didn’t pick it up
until 25. I think that my splits (well, me stopping them at the right place)
got a bit sloppy in the park.
Twenty Six 9:53:20
It was actually an UPHILL to the finish. Who made up this course??? None the
less, 25 to 26 were great. To be honest I didn’t even notice a lot of the
hills including the one at the end. But in rereading the course descriptions
after running it, I realized that there were quite a few. The last two miles
felt like they went by sooo fast! The spectators in the park were my favorite.I
couldn’t believe how strong I was feeling. My legs held up tremendously
well. My training REALLY paid off. I picked up the pace to cross the finish
line. I heard the announcer “Sue from Massachusetts is finishing. “Great
job Sue.”
Talk about a crowded marathon! According to New York Times, six people crossed the finish line at the exact second that I did and 41 people in the surrounding ten seconds (4:08:26-4:08:36)
Crossing the finish line.....(this is the stuff that feeds the
addiction)
I lifted my arms and was absolutely giddy. I did it. A personal record on a
course that, supposedly, didn’t hold such a possibility. Crossing a marathon
finish line is an emotional rush like no other. I guess that is why for some...it’s
a high worth going through months of grueling training in order experience just
once more...just once more....and yep, just once more this June!!!! I signed
up for The San Diego Rock-N-Roll Marathon in the middle of my training for New
York.
As soon as I stopped running I started to feel a dizzy, achy, excruciating discomfort and fatigue. Who cared though, I was finished. I stumbled over to the “chip removal table” They removed my chip. It was official. Then I heard the medals clinking but there were too many people between me and those medals to see them. I slowly moved toward the sound. At this point I was crying...exhilarated, happy, sad....WAIT, let me rephrase that more accurately, SAD that it was over, happy that I finished my third marathon with a PR and just so plain utterly and totally exhausted and exhilarated all at once that it would be a sheer miracle if I were not crying. I’m a flippin’ sap.
Someone handed me a bottle of water. I tried to reach for it with my right arm. “Hmmph, seems as though I can’t lift that arm.” “oh well, don’t really need that arm right now anyway.” Too tired to give that little detail a second thought. I took the water with my left arm. They handed me a medal and I placed it on my head with my left hand. I look down with a lump in my throat (this is the stuff that feeds the addiction).
After that I got my traditional Mylar blanket and a bag of food. I had NO desire to eat but I forced down a Power Bar and a fruit cup anyway...already thinking of June... “...must recover properly so I can start training again.”
I realized that I felt VERY bad. “...must keep moving.” “can’t sit, can’t sit” I knew that, without a shadow of a doubt, I had worked harder in those past 4 hours 8 minutes and 14 seconds than I have ever worked in my life. I felt proud. I thought to myself that if anyone ever woke up feeling the way I did then on the way to the UPS bus to pick up my things, that they would be quite sure that they were dying a terrible death and would go directly to the hospital. I felt no need to go to the hospital. I knew that it would pass. I relished the moment (this is the stuff that feeds the addiction).
My step length must have decreased to about three inches at this point. It took all I had left not to just lie down on the pavement. I knew however that if I did, I would surely never get up again, never ever. “must keep moving....” “can’t sit...can’t sit” It is so weird that at one moment, you can feel like a running machine, charging to the finish, and in the next, you feel like the walking dead. After what seemed like an eternity, I reached the UPS bus that held my bag. They got it very quickly and handed it to me. “Who is the “dumb idiot” that packed this bag??”, I said to myself “It must weight 100 pounds.” “Oh yea, it was me.” hee hee. Good thing that my right arm was coming back to life at this point.
After another eternity, I reached the letter L where my people were waiting for me. I felt brain dead. For those of you who have not experienced it, long run brain drain (as I like to call it) is a very peaceful yet numbing feeling. I was put on the phone immediately. It was very hard to put all my thoughts into meaningful, interesting and short summaries suitable for a long distance phone call as my head was still numb and spinning from the events of the day. But, since this report is being sent to the two people with whom I spoke, it should more than adequately fill in the gaps.
One
last thought (and this goes out especially to my brother Tom)....
IT’S TIME TO ROCK-N-ROLL BABY!!!!!!!!
Thanks to all who were interested enough to read this whole LONG report. I REALLY appreciate your interest and support.
sue
**Who can identify the book from which this was altered to perfectly fit my story??
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