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November 9, 2004
Marathon Day
The alarm went off much too early, 5:30. I was not ready to get up so I procrastinated as long as I could. It did not last long. I was on the living room floor on an air mattress and my friends needed to make coffee and get going so I decided I was probably in their way and should get up. I got up and was pleased to find out that it was not freezing outside. I decided to definitely wear my short sleeve shirt and started to drink some water. We left the apartment at 6 a.m. and caught a cab to the library. Once we arrived at the library we had to wait in line for about a half hour before catching the bus to staton island. The bus ride was very relaxing. The friends who I was with asked me some advice about marathon running and I gave them a bit of advice about drinking water vs. Gatorade and about taking gu. I then fell quickly to sleep. It was probably a 20-minute nap. It felt really good. We arrived at Staton Island around 7:30 a.m. and quickly found a place to lie out and relax. I took another nap for about 45 minutes but did not sleep as soundly as I had on the bus. I did feel pretty relaxed which was good. Before I napped I ate my wheat bagel with peanut butter, which hit the spot, and I finished my water. I got up around 8:30 and started to walk around and loosen up. I found a secret place to go to the bathroom behind some trees that were next to a building. It was much easier than waiting in a line. I dropped off my drop bag and did a slow jog for about 10 minutes. At 9:15 I had to head over to the women's orange start. I said good-bye and good luck to my friends and made my way to the chorale area. I made my way to the front of the line. We were in this area for at least 35 minutes while they called out instructions about where to throw unwanted clothing and water bottles. At 9:50 we made our way to the Staton Island Bridge. Again I maintained my position in the second row of the starting line. I was shocked to see the women around me sit down and go to the bathroom right there at the start. I have seen men do that but not women. We waited around for another 10 minutes while the announcers welcomed runners from all of the foreign countries in their native languages. A little after 10 the gun finally went off. I felt that the pace was not too fast and I felt relaxed. This first mile however, was slightly uphill since we were going over the bridge. I recorded all of my splits for the marathon. For the most part I think the splits accurately reflect how I was feeling or how the course may have changed in that mile. I had my ups and downs in the race but for the most part really had an amazing time.
Mile 1: 7.11 Mile 14: 7.16
Mile 2: 6.26 Mile 15: 7.26
Mile 3: 6.55 Mile 16: 7.45
Mile 4: 6.59 Mile 17: 7.27
Mile 5: 6. 58 Mile 18: 7.13
Mile 6: 7.00 Mile 19: 7.10
Mile 7: 6.57 Mile 20: 7.32
Mile 8: 7.02 Mile 21: 7.29
Mile 9: 7.12 Mile 22: 7.26
Mile 10: 6.53 Mile 23: 7.41
Mile 11: 7.13 Mile 24: 7.45
Mile 12: 6.55 Mile 25: 7.33
Mile 13: 7.04 Mile 26: 7.21 Last .2 = 1.37
For the first 10 miles of the race I felt very relaxed. I really enjoyed just running with the women for the first 8 miles of the race. The men were racing on the other side of the median in the road. The area where I was running was not that crowded and the pace was pretty consistent. At mile 10 I realized I was getting a horrible blister right on the ball of my right foot. I was pretty surprised. I hardly ever get blisters on the bottom of my feet when I run. The more I thought about it the more it bothered me. I decided not to think about it. By mile 13 my foot was numb and it barely bothered me. When I did think about it I wondered why I got it. I figured it was because I had not worn my light training shoes in so long. When I finished the race I would discover that I had no insoles in my shoes so my feet were rubbing against the lining of the shoe. I was so mad at myself for making such a dumb mistake. I used to wear orthodics so the insoles were out for that reason.
After 13 miles I found that my motivation to stay at 7 minute pace was not as high. I knew I had run the first half faster than I expected but it felt pretty comfortable. The course seemed to be harder the second half of the race. When I was running on the city streets between miles 14-20 I felt great but as soon as I hit a bridge I felt like I was jogging. The bridges were hard to run on because they were rolling and the surface was so hard. I did not feel like I was moving at all and there were no crowds. Running over the Queensboro bridge was the hardest. However, once I hit First Avenue and heard the crowds screaming like mad it was very difficult not to get excited. I felt the rush of excitement through my entire body and forgot about my blister completely. I just soaked up the entire scene.
My hip flexors felt very sore around mile 17 and I felt like my stride was becoming weaker. I felt like I still had a lot of energy but I was very tight. I decided that this was the result of not doing any quality long runs since the summer. My longest run since the 100k in September was my 2-hour runs, which I ran back to back the past two weekends. By mile 17 I was over the 2-hour mark and starting to feel some tightness. I noticed it mostly when I was running uphill so I tried to shorten my stride and not raise my knee up so high. I just ran mile to mile and was hoping not to run over 8 minute pace. Once I hit mile 20 I was no longer worried about my hip flexors. I knew that even though they were tight I could run the last 6 miles with the tightness.
I drank water at every single mile and had Gatorade and water at every other mile. I had a gu with an hour to go and a half hour to go. My energy level was high the entire race. The two main problems were the blister and tight hip flexors.
The final 4 miles were really fun even though I thought they were challenging. Running up 5th Avenue was tough. I did not expect the hill to seem so hard. On a normal training run I thought I might not notice the incline but after 22 miles I noticed it and was waiting for it to be over. Once I hit central park I was so excited. The park was so pretty and there were so many people lined up cheering for the runners that I could not help it but to be really happy. Once I entered Central Park I saw Alison photographing and saw one of my college teammates cheering for me along the course. Seeing both of those two people was really exciting and made me want to push a little harder to get to the finish. I saw that the time on the clock was close to 3.10 so I decided to push a little harder for the last 0.2 to make sure I was under 3.10. I was really surprised to exceed my "dream workout goal pace of 3.10" for the day. I had no idea what kind of shape I was in and was planning on running somewhere between 3.10 and 3.20 for the race.
Once I finished my foot ached where the blister was and I sat down to remove my shoe. Officials rushed over and told me to start heading up the hill. This was the only negative of the entire racing experience. I had to walk what seemed like a mile to the family greeting area before I could sit down. I had no one waiting for me there because my friend who I stayed with had VIP seats at the finish. My friend lives a block away from the family and friends meeting area so I went to her house and showered and then returned to the race course to cheer people on. I met up with my college friend Miguel who I have not seen in ages and we caught up for about an hour. It was really nice.
My two friends who I went to the marathon with were very happy with their race and finished in 4 hours and just under 5 hours. My friend's boyfriend did not expect to finish so he was ecstatic. I was really happy for him. We all met up at the house and shared our racing experiences.
In the evening I met up with five running friends from CA and went to an exquisite party in Brooklyn Heights that was being held for one of our friends, Joachim Bechtle, who won his 60-year-old age group at the marathon in a smashing time of 2.54. He gave a toast at the party to thank his friends and coaches for their support. He talked about how he ran the race 20 years ago in 2.55 and was so happy to be faster 20 years later. He also told us how he learned about negative splits and how that analogy could be carried over to every day life as well. I was so happy for him. Joachim has worked very hard and is very talented. In the past year, he has won his age group record at Boston and New York and last year he won his age group at the Chicago marathon. He won the Triple Crown in marathon races.
I was beat by the time I got back to my friends place on the West side. I went right to bed and woke up at 8 the next morning to take the 9:07 train back to Milford. I had a lot of work to do when I returned to school and took the day off from running.
Posted by mary at November 9, 2004 12:58 AM
Comments
What an awesome run!!!! Congratulations on a great race, Mary! I think you are going to surprise yourself in your 50K - I feel a PR coming on :)
Posted by: bridget at November 9, 2004 8:57 AM
Mary
Awesome Recap!!! Your race sounds great. Way to go!
Liz
Posted by: Liz at November 9, 2004 10:00 AM
Congrats Mary! I had you on my "race tracker" and was so excited to see how fast you ran, especially considering the fact that you didn't specifically train for this race! Awesome! Hope the blister isn't giving you too much trouble. Happy recovery...
Posted by: Beth at November 9, 2004 7:20 PM
Great job, Mary! Those splits are so consistent.
I can't believe you fell ASLEEP ON THE BUS on the way out there. You were *way* too relaxed for pre-marathon. (I need to learn how to do that.)
Posted by: jenandmats at November 9, 2004 10:50 PM
I am also equally impressed about the napping bit. I bet lots of other runners were looking on in pure jealousy! Congrats on a great race and I hope the blister heals! Meghan
Posted by: Meghan at November 10, 2004 12:06 AM
i CANNOT believe you ran without insoles!!!! that is so hard core!!!
-audrey-
Posted by: Audrey at November 10, 2004 9:53 PM