Well, I did it! I finally ran the race I grew up watching and it was SPECTACULAR! It was the best race ever, but my worse marathon run ever.
By the time we got to NY on Friday I was already sick. Fever, stuffy nose, chest congestion & cough. Totally sucky. And for a while I contemplated packing it in and just not running at all. But I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t not run this race. Yes, I know how bad it is to push your body that hard when you’re not well, so please don’t tell me what an idiot I was, I already know. But this race was really personal for me and I needed to run it no matter what, and I’m so happy I did.
I ran for Fred’s Team for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for Kids cancer research. All 720 of us (on Fred’s Team) met at 4:45am for Breakfast at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Times Square. I could feel the excitement in the air, just being home made me smile non-stop. After breakfast we went out to Times Square to take a group photo (I am front row almost center all in white!) and then hopped on the buses to take us to Staten Island. Our buses had a private police escort all the way there, and it was just so cool to watch traffic being stopped as we rode by.
The runner’s village was humungous! I had met a nice guy at breakfast (hi Scott!) and stalked him all morning. He generously gave me an extra hat he had (it was COLD) to help keep warm. We people watched the runners walking around in trash bags, sleeping bags, huddling in tents, and the die-hards that wore only shorts and a tank (I don’t know how they do it!).
Our wave was at 10am but we were in different corals, so we wished each other luck and off we went! The start of the race is so beautiful. Running over the Verrazano Bridge you can see the entire city ahead and it is magnificent. I started off alright, pacing myself and trying not to go out too fast, but once we got to the spectators I got caught up in the euphoria of it all. It felt like all of NY was cheering just for me. The crowds were so amazing and supportive that I was teary and overflowing with emotion. I have so many memories in every borough, that no matter how sick I was feeling, I was just so happy to be ‘home’.
Looking at my times, I was actually doing ok time wise, at the half it was 2:05. By mile 17 (pic above) I was still smiling. Going up 1st avenue I ran by the Fred’s Team cheering section with all the kids there and it was electric.
But by the time I got 10 19-20 my chest really started to burn. I was coughing a lot so I tried to keep my focus on steadying my breathing and just chugging along. By 21 I had to take lots of walking breaks and was cursing myself out for running the race. I had $5 in my pocket and wondered if I should just hail a cab to the finish. Ugh, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. It was painful. I couldn’t do it though, I had to finish, even if it meant crawling.
24-26 took forever and when I finally saw the finish line I started to cry. 4:42 was my finishing time, significantly slower than I had hoped, but to be honest, I don’t really care. Running & finishing the race was enough for me. It was the best.
