Sunday morning I got up just before 5am, spent 30 minutes taping up my toes and applying bodyglide, and cooking porrige in the coffee machine in the bathroom. I met up with the other runners from the 2:09 events ltd group at 6am in the lobby, and we walked to NY public library to catch a bus to the start. We queued for about 40 minutes and then took about an hour long bus ride to the start at Fort Wadsworth, Staten Island.
I ate a Go energy bar on the bus, and a half of one an hour before the start. I drank 400ml of PSP22 carb drink half an hour before the start, and had a Go gel minutes before the start. I wore my Pattstrap for the ITB and I had a gel belt on with 8 gels, one to have on each half hour. I also had a pouch to carry my gloves and hat when I got warm. I chatted to an American Tom Davies from Texas in the queue for the bus and stayed with him until the start. He was looking for a 4:45 finish, so we bidded each other good luck at the start line and I never saw him again. I checked on the website and he did a 4:44:56; talk about accurate predicition!
A large US Airforce plane, flew low and buzzed the crowd as the gun went to huge cheers from everyone. It took over 7 minutes for me to cross the start line, when I started my watch and GPS, hence the finish line clock didn't tally with my end time. Just as the gun went I also took a Tylenol 8 hour painkiller as a precaution. The race starts on a 150foot climb up one side of the Verazano-Narrows bridge and down the other side. The 3 different coloured race numbered participants run on seperate carriageways, but the route is nonetheless very congested. It was so crowded that the first mile took me over 10 minutes, and the second mile I was still averaging 9 and a half. At mile 4 one of the other race numbers merged with our side (blue race numbers) of the road making congestion even worse! It was mile 6 or 7 before I managed to pull the average mile back to 9:01 minute miles. At mile 8 the whole field merged, and it was again congested and my time slipped back to 9:12 for a couple of miles.
The crowd support through Brooklyn was amazing. Loud cheers, people high fiving (although I avoided to save energy), Fire trucks parked at the road with the firefighters on top etc. The first 10 miles passed by quickly, and easily. I'd read that the first 10 miles should feel easy if you set off at the right pace. So far so good I thought; I feel fine. I kept reassuring myself on route that it was all working out well and I felt fine and strong.
11 and 12, then half marathon 13 arrived. About mile 13 my legs felt a little heavy, but nothing serious. It was the first time I'd felt a little tired, but I was still OK. The route crossed briefly into Queens before going into the Queensbro bridge at mile 15. For a whole mile you are undercover. The bridge isn't normally open to pedestrian traffic, it's just a double-decker road. However it's narrow and we can only use one carriageway. There is about 1 mile long climb, some of it almost pitch darkness, before the steady descent down the other side and into Manhattan. I lost quite a bit of time as there was no room to pass slower people on that bridge. I emergerged into deafening cheers from the crowds at mile 16. I hadn't paid any attention to my GPS, and didn't really look at again until mile 17, just awed by the crowds.
This is where things went strange. I looked down at my watch and it said I was running 8:58 minute miles. I thought "No problem, maybe I just subconciously speeded up with the crowd noise". So I slowed down a little, but my time still kept dropping and I kept slowing until it went down to 8:50. I then looked at the distance and it was about half a mile behind the road markers. I then realised that the covered bridge had probably obscured the GPS signal and it had only picked up again when I emerged. However, I had been slowing down because of it time had been ticking by. It was mile 18 now, and maybe it was because I had started to slow up, or maybe it was my body running out of sugar, but I started to feel awful. I think it was a combination of the two perhaps. I slowed up still further. I almost felt a little detached, my left hand tingled too, I remember it doing that once in training. I'm sure it happens when I run out of carbs to burn and my body switches to the less efficient burning of fat stores.
Whatever it was I felt rough for abour 2 miles until we crossed ito the Bronx. I had to make a quick loo stop in a portacabin that prob lost me 40 secs or so, but it was necessary as I had been taking on water and the sickly sweet gatorade as the miles had passed, as well as the carb gels. After the loo stop I felt better. Maybe the brief break had revived me, or maybe it was the last carb gel I'd had hitting my blood stream. I picked up a little, although obviously tired at this point. I was almost running on auto pilot, maintaining a reasonable pace, though I knew not quite as fast as the start. I'd already calculated that I could not finish in under 4 hours, but that was never really going to happen anyway after the training injuries. From miles 21 - 22.5 I continued like this, but got tired again at mile 23 where there is a steady incline for a whole mile, and you can see it ahead of you. That's pretty demoralising! I think I must have looked in pain as I ran up the hill, but I didn't stop and was dodging lots of walkers. The crowds were very supportive here, but it's hard to block out the tiredness and pain at this point. My GPS had bizarrely picked back up and was almost in synch again, but still showing I was running at just aover 9:00 pace.
At mile 24 we entered central park and the route climbs and dips for the whole way to the end. My GF had missed me at mile 17 (where we arranged for her to wait), and she didn't know if I had pulled out as the mobile networks were all jammed. I passed her just after mile 25, much to my delight, "Hey, I've got a supporter". I strided out as much as possible on the downbanks, doing fairly well, but the upbanks slowed me back down. I began to feel really rough again after mile 25, and I slowed up considerably. I think a combination or knowing I was almost there, and that I'd do it, plus knowing that the 4 hour mark was long gone made me think "I'll just slow up, take it easier and try and feel a little better". I actually felt more elated at mile 24 and 25, knowing I'd done it, than I did when I saw the finish approach. 800M to go, 400M, 300yrds it all went by so slowly. I was just desperate to cross the line at this point. I tried to wave for the camera a hundred metres or so before the end. I probably looked awful, I think the photo's just about capture that.
I thought I raised my arms in the end as I finished, but I could not remember. I found the photo's and I did, just before the line as you can see, before dropping them behind my head in relief and tiredness.
I only remember crossing the line and slowing down to a walk in a couple of steps, and feeling more relieved than happy. I felt terrible at this point, pretty sick really. Some stomach ache and kidney ache. I'm guessing this was injesting so much sugar, but I just don't know. It was at this point a horrifying thought entered my head: In 18 months I will feel like this (or quite possible a lot worse) then have to do it all over again the next day, for 6 days, in the Marathon Des Sables. What have I done I thought...
It was so crowded at the finish and very narrow. I picked up my medal and put in on, and then wrapped myself in a provided space blanket. I was amazed at how quickly I started to feel cold afterwards, and how grateful for the blanket I was. There were people who had collapsed onto the road at the sides, plenty of heads in hands, and even people curled up asleep (I hope). Everyone was herded onwards to have the timing chips removed from our shoes, then through other areas where I think the announcements said they were taking photo's. I must have missed the area where I picked up the finishers T-Shirt, but I didn't care I was so tired I just wanted to get my bag. My surname beginning with letter right near the end of the alphabet meant that my gear was on truck number 71. They were parked in single file for what seemed like a crowded, narrow eternity. Any future events I enter, my surname will be Aadvark!
I slowly started to feel a little better. My legs felt fine, and it was at this point I realised I had not had any knee or hip pain at all. I had not even thought about it on the course. I was amazed and owe a big thankyou to my Uncle the chiropractor for sorting me out a few days before, as well as to my physio for the ITB massages, and Clive for the gym workouts and advice. I speeded up my shuffle to a quick walk, slipping past hundreds of people who looked a lot worse than I did. My phone rang at this point. It was my parents congratulating me! I asked if they had heard from my gf and that's how they knew I had finished. No, my father said, he'd been tracking my progress live on the ING New York Marathon website. We had run over pads every 5k and the data was trasmitted to the website in real time; amazing!
We talked for a while and the lorry numbers passed by and eventually I found number 71, and got my bag. I put on my jeans and left the park to find my gf. It took ages to find her. It must have been an hour and half since the race ended until we met up. I allowed myself the luxury of being transported by the hotel by one of the rickshaw things. Some guy pedalling us back. However, I should have asked the price first.... $40. It was only about a mile and a half! However, I was just happy to be back and sank onto the bed gratefully.
My legs still felt OK at this point, but I still had stomach and kidney ache. I stayed in for the rest of the day and didn't eat anything. I think this was the problem. At about 10pm I ate a few fried left over from my gf's meal and made sure there was some salt on them. I also forced down half a litre of water and did feel much better.
The next day I had some knee pain on each knee. Two very small points on the bony parts on the outside of the knee. The ligaments or tendons I'm guessing as they twinged as I massaged them. I applied some heat rub and spent the whole day shopping. The pain eased off as the day wore on and the following day they were fine. I was suprised that I had hardly any muscle soreness, certainly no stiffness. I think I'm still expecting it to kick in, maybe a week late! So, the following day I was pretty much fine, and I thought... "actually I could probably do another distance if I had to. So, maybe i'll be ok for the Marathon Des Sable after all".
I managed two days solid shopping, probably walking another 10 miles. Maybe thats what stopped any stiffness or soreness?
We flew home on the Tuesday night and I'm now going to take several weeks off traning. I don't feel tired or sore, but I want to give my injuries time to heal properly, and my body get stronger.
So I did it. I only managed one long run of 15 miles, where I got injured, seven weeks before the event. After that I took weeks off running and only did short runs of a few miles. Maybe the faster pace (7:30 pace) running I did each time on those short runs helped on the day when I ran at 9:00, or maybe it was because I had built up months of base fitness. Probably it was all of this. If my GPS had not have gone beserk maybe I could have finshed faster, then again maybe the tiredness would have kicked at the same time anyway. Who knows? At the finish the GPS said:
Average Speed: 6.6
Average Pace: 9:04
Event Distance: 26.10
This is obviously wrong. 9:04 would be under 4 hour pace (I averaged 9:34 according to the NY website. My pacing was perfect until the last couple of 5k's where I slowed up by half a minute a mile for 30-35k, then a minute per mile for 35-40K) I knew it was wrong before the end, as I was calculating the 9mm mile times. So, what happened to it I have no idea, but it's a lesson learned for next time. Don't put all your faith in technology!
But I made it, despite the show-stopping inuries. I think I can be proud. I almost forgot my time. I did it in 4 hours and 10 minutes. Not bad all.
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