T-0: Race Recap

Two years of training and we’re finally done!

Final Time was 4:16.

Not the sub-4 hour I was hoping for, but I knew early on it wasn’t likely and I knew for sure by the half.  15 minutes slower than my Long Island marathon pace.

The difficulties were several:

• Calves and thighs were still a little sore from the get-go from the last long runs I did a few weeks ago, wasn’t a good starting sign.  They really hurt by half way and the calves are still killing me.
• Wow, this entire race is up-hill.  The climb on NYC is more than double the LI marathon, and about 3.5 the climb of my last training runs.  It’s not until around 21 that you get some regular downhill.  See the above point.
• I was 5 minutes off my last time by the half.  By mile 15 for the 59th Street Bridge, I wasn’t running up-hill on the steep ones anymore.  That’s when I knew for sure it wasn’t happening.
• People, people, people everywhere.  I am still waiting for finisher demographics but I heard 50,000 people ran this year.  They were constantly blocking you, knocking you, cutting you off etc.  Some of the streets and water stations were quite tight.  There were times I would have liked to go faster but couldn’t.
• Also bystanders dashing across the road in front of you to get to other side – multiple times.
• Work craziness meant I didn’t train as hard speed or stamina wise.  It showed.  I was so spent by the 20s, I was more than half walking them.  I couldn’t even muster up a job for the final 2.  It wasn’t until the 400 meter sign came up that I could find the will to run again.

That said, so far it looks like I still came in better than top half and still with a half decent time.  I completed a tough tough goal.  I didn’t take in a lot of scenery (I’ve lived here most of my life and while we went through places I wasn’t familiar with, it was all NYC).  The volunteers were awesome, and the cheerers were awesome too.  Very few dead spots.  I slapped a lot of kids’ hands yesterday (and a fair few adults’).

NYC Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	7.14 miles	455.02 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:35:00 hh:mm:ss	2:50:01 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:42 min/mile	9:22 min/mile

LI Marathon Prep

Metric	Last Week	In Total
Mileage Run:	6.72 miles	411.86 miles
Longest Run:	3.61 miles	18.55 miles
Longest Run Time:	0:32:46 hh:mm:ss	2:49:45 hh:mm:ss
Longest Run Pace:	9:05 min/mile	9:09 min/mile

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