Damn I\'m short compared to some of these guys but I can actually draft of them. One good thing about being small.
You can get a better idea from the following picture links of what it was really like. You may have to cut and paste this into your browser.
and the on demand video of the race, or course I\'m not in the video because I\'m at the back :)
The race week:
First I have to say that my Achilles tendonitis was probably caused by my running shoe choice. For 9 weeks I had been running in a very neutral well cushioned Brooks Dyad. The arch support and lack of medial post was causing my Achilles tendon to twist around a bit I\'m guessing from what I\'ve read. After reading a lot of things about what causes the tendonitis it seemed that maybe I needed a more stability to keep my Achilles aligned better. Moving to a Asics 2120 shoe I began running again after a day of wearing them. Just another note of caution to everyone how much shoes can mess you up.
I came into this race with some injuries but they luckily did not bother me during the race at all. I had some Achilles tendonitis starting 3 weeks prior and it was questionable for awhile if I would even be able to toe the line. I battled back doing a lot on the Power Cranks (stationary bike with special crank arms for those who care to know) and what I could running. I was able to resume some normal training 2 weeks out and ran 80 miles with a 20 mile long run and two speedwork sessions, although those didn\'t go as smoothly as before but good enough to give me some confidence the Achilles might hold up.
26 miles in racing flats is a whole different ball game though and I thought I may have to run in trainers to keep the Achilles in check. After trying a 5 mile VP session in my heavy trainers I decided that I had to risk it and run in racing flats for the race. I had not run in flats for almost 2 weeks so I did a 4 mile VP session to see how the Achilles would hold up. It held. I was amazed at the difference running in trainers (11oz stability shoes) vs. flats (6.5oz of nothing) even at marathon pace (5:20ish/mile).
The week of the race was crazy because of work trying to kill me. They sent me to Minneapolis, MN Sunday night. I worked until the wee hours of the night on conference calls with the west coast and China trying to resolve some customer issues. I flew back Tuesday morning at 5:30am, packed for NY. I was able to get in a 11 mile run with 4 miles at 5:20 pace to try to loosen out the legs that had been sitting in a car and plane for 2 days. I was taking some medication for the Achilles tendon inflammation and that was making my legs very sore for some reason. Might have also been because I had only been sleeping 4 hours a night the past 4 days also. Either way my legs were sore, not fresh like they should be.
I did 5x400m reps Wednesday to stretch and loosen up more. Again the legs were sore like I had just run a 22 miler. Luckily I had taken myself off the meds the day before thinking maybe it was that that was causing the soreness.
Thursday I ran the course loop and glad I did. The hills were more significant than I remembered, especially the one right after the finish line and the downhills more pronounced. The big downhill on the lower section is pretty steep and would be beating the crap out of your legs for 5 laps.
I picked up my number that afternoon and everyone was very helpful. I was still in a daze about work, sleep deprived, flying all over, getting to NY, etc.. so I wanted to make sure I was squared away. The staff was very helpful even for this B qualifier. The swag was nice too!! I wasn\'t expecting anything more than a number but they gave us a backpack, nice sweat shirt, gloves, and hat. Pretty cool.
My Friday morning jog felt good so things were looking up.
The race :
Race morning was interesting. It wasn\'t like a big city marathon start, or staging. It was more like a low key race. Usually at a big city marathon there is a lot more people running about at the start. We staged in the eating area down stairs of the Rockefeller Tower. It was cold and windy outside so it was nice to be inside a heated area. Not a lot of hub glub going on and it didn\'t seem like a lot of media was there. All the big guns were stretching and getting worked on. I prep\'d next to Ryan Shay (who would later have a heart attack at mile 5.5, may he rest in peace) on ones side and a couple feet over was Hall, Abdi was getting worked on nearby, and the who\'s who goes on. You say good luck to people you know but everyone knows, and its quite obvious, who is racing for a spot on the team and who is just there as pack fill. I was the back pack fill.
The big concern for all the people I spoke with was the wind and hills. It was going to be a windy day. The forecast was for gusts to 35mph. Luckily the wind was only 12-15mph for most of the race and not too bad.
The start was dark in the shade of the tall buildings and early morning light and the fact that daylight savings had not started yet. In a effort to minimize the time spent in the racing flats I warmed up in trainers and quickly switched to flats minutes before the race start.
There were crowds about but they were only 1-2 people deep and we could easily get in and out between people. You can see in the pictures how dark it was at the start. It was like an early start ultra race.
The start line was pretty plain. Just some pillars on each side and some banners and barricades. The finish was all decked out though.
Since I decided to relax and start in the back I was talking to a guy I knew and the gun went off all of a sudden. There was no countdown or indication that I heard so that was a bit anti-climatic.
The first miles had a decent crowd cheering and I just wanted to stay comfortable and moved up to about mid pack. Luckily the pack was moving along at a pedestrian pace even for me. I didn\'t care about the pace because I was racing for placing not overall time. This was a championship race to see how you stack up against everyone else on the same course on the same day. I was still worried about my Achilles making it all 26 miles in flats but I just tried not to think about it and run hard, and see what happens.
With the wind and knowing this was on a hard course my plan was to run conservatively and pick people off at the end. My original goal was top 50, with a lofty goal of 2:22. I was really just happy to be toeing the line and running in this race after all the things I\'d been through the past couple weeks.
Going through the start line the first lap with the lead group (because of the very slow pace) was great because the crowd was going crazy. Just past the 5k on the first downhill of the course the race broke open and everything surged apart. I was getting dropped off the 3rd pack and I put down a 5:10 4th mile. I started backing off a bit and ran a 5:23 5th uphill mile then a 5:12 down hill 6th mile. I tried to bridge to some stragglers up the big hill and surged to catch onto some guys up ahead. After catching onto a couple stragglers at mile 7 I could see that the big 2:18 pack was going away in a hurry. By mile 8-9 I decided I needed to run my own race to survive and pulled back my pace and relaxed.
On the first lap I was surprised to see so many familiar faces cheering me on. PA guys, WVTC members, family members, friends from CA who were out watching. It was exciting and a very personal experience.
Steve Moreno, Konrad Knutsen, Aaron Sharp, Jason Ryf and I stayed together, more like around each other, for about 4 miles until mile 13.1 and I dropped off that group. Mile 13-15 were some rough miles for me. I had some tightness in my stomach due to eating and drinking up to that point. To try to alleviate that I stopped drinking until the mile 17 fluid station and I started to feel better. My splits had been all over the place because of the rolling course and combined with my current misery I said \"the heck with the time, just race\" and I stopped taking splits at mile 15. I never looked at my watch again.
I started recovering a bit and got into a solid rhythm by mile 17. Looking up ahead and I could see that the group (Aaron, Steve, and Konrad) that I was with at 13 were starting to come back to me. I started to feel better and better and reeling in people who were starting to struggle. I told myself to wait until the last lap (mile 21) before trying anything significant. I was moving up quickly anyway and didn\'t want to use up to much energy with large push too soon but man I was feeling good at mile 19-20 and I just kept reminding myself of the 1.5 hour sessions on the PC. It didn\'t last that long though.
I caught Konrad at mile 20 and was reeling in Steve and Aaron. Along they way I was also passing people who were really struggling due to their initial pace. I was waiting to pounce on the big hill at mile 21-22. I moved by Steve and he asked if I needed any fluids. I said no because I didn\'t want to interrupt my mojo I had going on at the moment and was going to drive to the line with out any interruptions. After my surge up the hill to mile 22 and skipping the fluids I started to get a bit of a bonk feeling going into mile 23. I was thinking man that would suck surging by those guys only to bonk a mile later and be passed back.
I tried to relax and recover until mile 24 then put down my big push to the finish. At 24 I started my push for home and subsequently I started to suffer more (not that I wasn\'t suffering already). My turnover was still feeling solid and I was moving up fast on some guys way out in front. I wasn\'t done yet. I really wanted to catch some more people. Moving up the last hill I bridged within striking distance of the next group of runners. I passed one guy on the downhill into mile 25, and another just over a 800m to go. At 800m it starts to go uphill slightly again to the finish. I started to suffer really bad at this point. 2.5 minutes can be a long time. I had just passed one guy and wanted to make sure he didn\'t come back on me.
At 400m go to I could see one last guy limping along. Could I catch him? He was moving pretty slow and it was uphill so I had a chance. I was close. The crowd was going wild. This was my last big race and I wasn\'t going to quit so soon. I was going to leave it all out there. At 200 to go I started to sprint (well kind of). The guy ahead was struggling but I was running out of road. Pushing to the line I passed him with 50 feet to go! One more placing up!!
There is nothing like finishing a marathon strong with a cheering crowd, feeling the excitement and energy. You can soak it in. When you are trashed you roll in just wanting it to be over and could care less. On the other hand maybe the crowd was cheering for the Hall, Ritz, and Sell making their victory walk. Heck no... it was all for me!!
I was hacking and bent over at the finish and some helpers came over and asked if I was ok. I said \"no, but I did just run 26 miles so I should be hurting\". It was party time all the way to the gear check tent. Yelling at the crowd, pointing, \"who is running tomorrow??\" and they would scream and go crazy since the NY marathon was the following day .
I was actually amazed my time was 2:23:04. I thought it would have been more but since I was not taking splits I had no idea. 55th place. So close to my original target projection.
It was a great finish seeing the family again and a great way to finish the journey that started 4 years ago just for fun.
Age: 35, Sex: Male, Height:5'3",racing wt: 119lbs, marathon PR: 2:20:54, Occupation: Full time Mechanical Engineer; Family: 2 children ages 2, 4
Background: Ran mediocore in high school. Transitioned to road bike racing in college and was 7th in the collegiate nationals road race in 1994. I graduated and quite bike racing and didn't do much for several years. In 1999 I took up running marathons recreationally with my wife as an excuse to travel. In 2003 I took up marathoning competitively.