Arrived in NYC Friday night.....was staying at the Marriot, one of the race hotels, near the Airport. Turns out there are two Marriots near the airport. I, obviously, went to the wrong one but the friendly staff happily shuttled me to the correct location, a few minutes away. It wasn't a total loss as in the wrong hotel lobby was a young lady, dressed up as Lady Liberty, greeting the guests. Got a pic of the two of us in front of the "Big Apple" before I went on my merry way to the correct hotel.
Saturday morn' I hustled over to the Expo....I love how all the buses are decorated with running ads...very cool.
Very well organized expo, especially considering the number of people who go through their doors.....ambled over to the Runner's World booth and had a very nice chat with Bart Yasso....didn't ask him anything about the Yasso 800s.....
Back at the hotel to lay low for the rest of the day....ws lucky enough to stumble into the ballroom where they had all the timing equipment for the race....had a great chat with a bunch of the timers, all avid runners, about the D-chip technology that was being used for the first time at NY.....I loved the fact that there was no waiting around for chip removal at the end of this race. One of the timers told me that next year at NY the timing device will actually be embedded into the race bib.....not more foolin' around with stuff in your shoes...amazing! here's my shoe with my D-chip timing device.
Sunday morn' and it was go time....up at 4am to get a seat on the bus at 5am.....sat on bus until 5:30 then we pulled out and headed to Staten Island, where the race starts....when you see the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, where the race starts, you know it's on! I took this shot of the bridge from the Athletes' Village.....longest suspension bridge in North and South america ( or so they say...)
Here's me at the village....still smiling at this point, not knowing the hell that was coming my way in a couple of hours....
I was targeting 3:30...plan "B" was a 3:35...plan "C" was to finish without medical attention!
Went thru the first km in 26:12, in other words nice and steady. Hit the 10km mat in 50:16 and the 15km mat in 1:15:11 so I was looking good. The half-way mark passed at 1:45:43 so I was where I wanted to be. Fast forward to the 30km mark and I had started to feel the cramping sensations in my calf starting to creep up on me.....I eased up a bit, figuring that if I kept pushing I would blow a tire and perhaps not even finish....30km came at 2:32:20, still in good shape for my "B" goal.......with about 10km, however, the wheels fell off the bus....cramps were comin' fast and furious...I was bleeding time all over the place as the last 10km was a steady diet of run/cramp/stretch/walk......run/cramp/stretch/walk......
One of the really neat features in NYC was that at the race expo Asics had a booth where you could sign up, get your picture taken, and they would post underneath "why you were running the marthon....at the 21km mark I see a huge electronic billboard and as I was approaching it I saw my name and why I was runing with my picture.....I started yelling at anyone who would notice "hey, that's me, that's me!!".....very funny! It happened again at 30km where crossing the mat triggered my picture going up on the massive electronic billboard....it was actually a little scary to see myself that size!
Now it was just about getting over the finish line without headin' to the tent.....with about a mile to go I see Jess A. in the crowd cheering on her hubby...was great to see and hear and friendly face...thanks Jess!
Stiil, I had a smile when I crossed the finish line...I was happy with the 3:50, given the circumstances, and any marathon finish is a reason to celebrate! I did the wounded walk, picked up my gear from the UPS truck, and headed out to Central Park West where all the rich people live. Here's me, no worse for wear, not long after the marathon finished.
All in all, a pretty good weekend...not the result I wanted, but that's the marathon for you.....the good news is that I can't wait until #16....I'm taking that as a good sign!
