I woke up at 4AM wide awake. The first thing I did was check to see if the Yankees won. I didn’t even have to move to do this since I sleep with my blackberry. They had! I debated going back to sleep at catching a later bus, since 4:30 or Bust left a great comment that they don’t check bus times. But after 15 minutes of lying in bed, I knew I wouldn’t fall back asleep. Once I am up, I am up, so I decided to start getting ready. I put on my tank, thermal and sweatshirt, my capris and fleece pants. I put my stuff in a whole foods bag to make it easier to carry. I gargled with salt water.
And I headed out to the subway. The bus stop is only two stops away from me, so really that is like 5 minutes in transit once you are on the train. Unfortunately, the manhattan bound train was not running on the correct track, so I had to cross the street and enter the other terminal. We just missed the train. Another train came about 10-15 minutes later (pre-5am on Sunday is not peak hours). They were definitely not checking reservation times at all at the bus stop, which is annoying, since I could have definitely got on a 6:30 bus no problem. Oh, I also had 3 times more stuff with me than any other runner! Or even a ferry, since they don’t check there either, even though 5 different official people at the expo swore to me up and down that there was no way to board a ferry without a reservation. No ferries for the public! Apparently, they mistook a whole bunch of drunk people in costumes for marathoners then because lots of runners reported riding over to SI with hard core halloweeners returning home.
Anyways, I was on Staten Island by 6AM latest with 4 and a half hours to kill. For a little while people were sitting on concrete in a parking lot until someone pointed out the tents. I was really glad I brought my beach towel, so I layed down and rested half asleep until about 7. Then it was getting pretty noisy. I had a tiny cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee and mixed my emergency in an 8 ounce poland spring water (thank you sponsors) and started to talk to those around me. I will say the time passed faster than I though it would. 4 hours is a long time to be in a cold, muddy, rainy place, but I took it for part of the NYC experience and met two really nice guys. They made fun of my pants and my huge bag of supplies. Around 8:00 I ate as much of the bagel and PB as I could with my stomach feeling okay. I also took 3 ibuprofen (with dr.’s approval) and a cough drop. I was feeling pretty good, the best I had since Thursday. Then I downed the red bull. I hate red bull and have like 4 a year, but I consume a ton of caffeine in my daily life and I was afraid not to have any on race day. Red bull is a good concentrated form of caffeine as gross as it is.
After more waiting and talking, I check my bag, pinned on my bib, threw out all the stuff I didn’t need anymore—towel, whole foods bag, etc. At this point it was so muddy everyone had garbage bags tied around their shoes. It was pretty fashionable with my hot pink pants.
Finally it was time to get to the corral. To the Marathon’s credit, navigating SI and the corral, start villages was really easy. The wave starting was also great, there was less congestion at the start than most road runner’s races.
I took the first mile easy, after mile 1, the bandaid on my toe was driving me crazy, so I decided to stop, right next to a bunch of men peeing over one side and take off the bandaid and change to a thinner sock. After that I had to make two quick stops to get my shoes to feel comfortable and kept going. It was really just fun, I passed someone giving “free hugs” and every once in a while there was a great band which always pumped me up. I was being really conservative because I knew I had to make it to 10 fresh as a daisy if I wanted to have a good race. At mile 6 I put on my ipod and listed to three songs, all from a mix that Gena made for me before I left for South Africa.
- Catastrophe-Rainer Maria
- Off the Record—My Morning Jacket
- Sleepyhead-Passion Pit
Not high energy songs, but very special to me since they are from my dear friend.
At around mile 7, Greg jumped in with me. I was so thrilled. I knew it probably sucked to run so slow with me, but he kept me company and we chatted through Brooklyn. Greg is an amazing runner. He trained for Philly in 2005, but had to withdraw just a week before due to injury. But I saw him run Marine Corps in 2006. I made him talk about it, since he really struggled in a way. He said at mile 13 he blew by the 3:20 pace group and thought to himself, “if I am running significantly faster than 3:20, my body probably can’t handle this, but I don’t care.” So around mile 17, he said he “collapsed inside.” He could just not do it. He kept going until he just stopped. Then his friend came up to him, put his arm around him and said, “you have to walk greg.” Greg said he couldn’t. And Paul was like, “just move your right foot, now your left.” Despite being in pain, Greg finished the marathon in 3:28! He is now a serious biker, but he said he if he was more cautious, he could have finished in that time in way less pain. Believe he was toasted after. But I was so so so proud!
Anyways, I was really holding back, probably too much. Around mile 10 or 11 we passed a great church choir in Brooklyn. It was fun to run through williamsburg and greenpoint. And I was so so excited to hit the Polanski Bridge into Queens! I was literally dying with anticipation to hit Vernon around mile 13.5, the street I walk down many times a day! My heart pretty much burst with Long Island City pride and I was dying to see my roomates and cheer squad. As I hit the corner of my street and Vernon there they were! In costume with many many signs! I screamed when I saw them. In case you couldn’t tell from my idiotic grin in the photos!
I handed them my hat and gloves. And then my heart rate monitor!
You guys rock my life!
Then I kept going. My friend Debbie joined Greg and I as we head toward the Queensborough Bridge. People say this is the hardest part of the marathon, but it really isn’t that bad. Of course, I was going pretty slow. The bad thing about being slow is that at every mile you have to run over piles of water cups and get your sneakers totally sticky from spilled gatorade. It was pretty treacherous and gross at points. I mean 40,000 runners is a lot of cups!
We entered Manhattan just after mile 16. I was freaking out because so many people start suffering at 17. But I was excited to meet Sue. I couldn’t believe Greg was still with me! I only asked him to run a mile! He said to me at one point, “ I think I could finish this thing!” He ran until I met Sue at mile 18. Sue was carrying a fuelbelt of supplies for me like the goddess she is. My stomach was really bothering me at this point, I had two chomps at mile 6, a gu at mile 13 and grabbed half a banana from someone on the street at mile 17. The banana seemed to help, but every time I drank water I got that queasy feeling. But I decided to worry about that later.
Sue really pumped me up. We chatted steadily into the Bronx. I had to stop and readjust my shoe for a minute or so, but then the weird pain went away and all was good. I would say mile 18-20 were probably were I felt it the most, but really nothing bad. I was being really conservative and just enjoying running with my friends and the street party all around me. Sue was amazing sharing her water and offering me pretty much everything. I took 3 more ibuprofens around 20.
We chatted through the Bronx, I knew I was slowing a little, worried about the hills of Central Park. Derek met us at 22 or so and I made them entertain me, so I could take a break from talking. Sue really pumped me up, counting down the blocks to the park, describing the finish etc. The park was not nearly as bad hill-wise as I expected. The hill at 23 kind of sucked, but I finally realized, I was almost done and totally fine. I couldn’t believe it! Had I held back too much? How did I get to 23 in no pain and with no walking? I finally trusted myself to push the last couple miles, I took of my thermal to display my bib at 25 and said goodbye to Sue and Derek. Then I pushed on to the finish. I passed pretty much everyone around me. Lots of people were cheering my name. It was amazing. I finished strong and felt like I could have kept going, which is probably not a great thing. The only silly thing was that I got really nervous about my chip tag, since my friends said it wasn’t reading my intervals. So after i had walked 50 or so feet past the finish, i went back to stomp on the mat a few more times. I got yelled at by an official. I am not sure if that screwed with my time, since my watch said I finished in 4:46:48, and my official time was 4:48:50, but I really don’t care.
After the race, I got my medal and had to stand in what was a silent death march to the baggage. Everyone seemed so down and beaten. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like a caged animal and I just wanted to run my UPS baggage truck. I did start weaving through the crowd since I couldn’t take it anymore. Be happy, we’re done people.
I somehow made it beyond the crowds. On my way to Derek’s, I stopped at Ann Taylor and the Gap since I realized I need to go to a bar and to work and I really only had sweats. I couldn’t find anything so I showered at Derek’s and ran down to Banana Republic and bought a few things. At this point, I realized that while my stomach wasn’t feeling great water and a hunk of baguette was in order. Then we headed down to Pete’s Tavern for Heather’s post-marathon party. I had a glass of champagne and a few piece from the appetizer trays. But I had to be at work at 7, so I could stay long. Work was just judging a preliminary hall talent competition and everyone was so supportive of me, lots of hugs and more congrats than I was comfortable with. I had some dinner there, eggplant parm and ziti.
After that I took a cab home , I assumed the cabbie would take the midtown tunnel, but almost symbolically he took the 59th Street Bridge that I had run over hours before.
I got home to the greatest surprise of all. My windows had been postered. Tell me I don’t have the greatest roomstars and friends ever! Amazing! 
I am so glad they celebrated the day with me. When they said the were having a mimosa party, I baked a cake for them. From Emeril’s recipe. I don’t know how it turned out, I might not use the glaze next time! 
And my friend Jessica sent me these gorgeous flowers.
I couldn’t sleep much last night. Still energized I guess. I ran out to get the NYTimes just in case they decided to extend the 4:30 cut off for finishers. But sadly, I just missed it, 4:44 was the last time published. 
Oh well, it was a fun day and a great race. Afterthought to come another day. I am looking out my window at the 59th Street Bridge and I can’t believe it’s all over!
I am off for a massage and to meet Heather for coffee before she heads back to London.
HUGE THANKS TO YOUR UNBELIEVABLE SUPPORT THROUGH ALL THIS! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!
I woke up at 4AM wide awake. The first thing I did was check to see if the Yankees won. I didn’t even have to move to do this since I sleep with my blackberry. They had! I debated going back to sleep at catching a later bus, since 4:30 or Bust left a great comment that they don’t check bus times. But after 15 minutes of lying in bed, I knew I wouldn’t fall back asleep. Once I am up, I am up, so I decided to start getting ready. I put on my tank, thermal and sweatshirt, my capris and fleece pants. I put my stuff in a whole foods bag to make it easier to carry. I gargled with salt water.
And I headed out to the subway. The bus stop is only two stops away from me, so really that is like 5 minutes in transit once you are on the train. Unfortunately, the manhattan bound train was not running on the correct track, so I had to cross the street and enter the other terminal. We just missed the train. Another train came about 10-15 minutes later (pre-5am on Sunday is not peak hours). They were definitely not checking reservation times at all at the bus stop, which is annoying, since I could have definitely got on a 6:30 bus no problem. Oh, I also had 3 times more stuff with me than any other runner! Or even a ferry, since they don’t check there either, even though 5 different official people at the expo swore to me up and down that there was no way to board a ferry without a reservation. No ferries for the public! Apparently, they mistook a whole bunch of drunk people in costumes for marathoners then because lots of runners reported riding over to SI with hard core halloweeners returning home.
Anyways, I was on Staten Island by 6AM latest with 4 and a half hours to kill. For a little while people were sitting on concrete in a parking lot until someone pointed out the tents. I was really glad I brought my beach towel, so I layed down and rested half asleep until about 7. Then it was getting pretty noisy. I had a tiny cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee and mixed my emergency in an 8 ounce poland spring water (thank you sponsors) and started to talk to those around me. I will say the time passed faster than I though it would. 4 hours is a long time to be in a cold, muddy, rainy place, but I took it for part of the NYC experience and met two really nice guys. They made fun of my pants and my huge bag of supplies. Around 8:00 I ate as much of the bagel and PB as I could with my stomach feeling okay. I also took 3 ibuprofen (with dr.’s approval) and a cough drop. I was feeling pretty good, the best I had since Thursday. Then I downed the red bull. I hate red bull and have like 4 a year, but I consume a ton of caffeine in my daily life and I was afraid not to have any on race day. Red bull is a good concentrated form of caffeine as gross as it is.
After more waiting and talking, I check my bag, pinned on my bib, threw out all the stuff I didn’t need anymore—towel, whole foods bag, etc. At this point it was so muddy everyone had garbage bags tied around their shoes. It was pretty fashionable with my hot pink pants.
Finally it was time to get to the corral. To the Marathon’s credit, navigating SI and the corral, start villages was really easy. The wave starting was also great, there was less congestion at the start than most road runner’s races.
I took the first mile easy, after mile 1, the bandaid on my toe was driving me crazy, so I decided to stop, right next to a bunch of men peeing over one side and take off the bandaid and change to a thinner sock. After that I had to make two quick stops to get my shoes to feel comfortable and kept going. It was really just fun, I passed someone giving “free hugs” and every once in a while there was a great band which always pumped me up. I was being really conservative because I knew I had to make it to 10 fresh as a daisy if I wanted to have a good race. At mile 6 I put on my ipod and listed to three songs, all from a mix that Gena made for me before I left for South Africa.
Not high energy songs, but very special to me since they are from my dear friend.
At around mile 7, Greg jumped in with me. I was so thrilled. I knew it probably sucked to run so slow with me, but he kept me company and we chatted through Brooklyn. Greg is an amazing runner. He trained for Philly in 2005, but had to withdraw just a week before due to injury. But I saw him run Marine Corps in 2006. I made him talk about it, since he really struggled in a way. He said at mile 13 he blew by the 3:20 pace group and thought to himself, “if I am running significantly faster than 3:20, my body probably can’t handle this, but I don’t care.” So around mile 17, he said he “collapsed inside.” He could just not do it. He kept going until he just stopped. Then his friend came up to him, put his arm around him and said, “you have to walk greg.” Greg said he couldn’t. And Paul was like, “just move your right foot, now your left.” Despite being in pain, Greg finished the marathon in 3:28! He is now a serious biker, but he said he if he was more cautious, he could have finished in that time in way less pain. Believe he was toasted after. But I was so so so proud!
Anyways, I was really holding back, probably too much. Around mile 10 or 11 we passed a great church choir in Brooklyn. It was fun to run through williamsburg and greenpoint. And I was so so excited to hit the Polanski Bridge into Queens! I was literally dying with anticipation to hit Vernon around mile 13.5, the street I walk down many times a day! My heart pretty much burst with Long Island City pride and I was dying to see my roomates and cheer squad. As I hit the corner of my street and Vernon there they were! In costume with many many signs! I screamed when I saw them. In case you couldn’t tell from my idiotic grin in the photos!
I handed them my hat and gloves. And then my heart rate monitor!
You guys rock my life!
Then I kept going. My friend Debbie joined Greg and I as we head toward the Queensborough Bridge. People say this is the hardest part of the marathon, but it really isn’t that bad. Of course, I was going pretty slow. The bad thing about being slow is that at every mile you have to run over piles of water cups and get your sneakers totally sticky from spilled gatorade. It was pretty treacherous and gross at points. I mean 40,000 runners is a lot of cups!
We entered Manhattan just after mile 16. I was freaking out because so many people start suffering at 17. But I was excited to meet Sue. I couldn’t believe Greg was still with me! I only asked him to run a mile! He said to me at one point, “ I think I could finish this thing!” He ran until I met Sue at mile 18. Sue was carrying a fuelbelt of supplies for me like the goddess she is. My stomach was really bothering me at this point, I had two chomps at mile 6, a gu at mile 13 and grabbed half a banana from someone on the street at mile 17. The banana seemed to help, but every time I drank water I got that queasy feeling. But I decided to worry about that later.
Sue really pumped me up. We chatted steadily into the Bronx. I had to stop and readjust my shoe for a minute or so, but then the weird pain went away and all was good. I would say mile 18-20 were probably were I felt it the most, but really nothing bad. I was being really conservative and just enjoying running with my friends and the street party all around me. Sue was amazing sharing her water and offering me pretty much everything. I took 3 more ibuprofens around 20.
We chatted through the Bronx, I knew I was slowing a little, worried about the hills of Central Park. Derek met us at 22 or so and I made them entertain me, so I could take a break from talking. Sue really pumped me up, counting down the blocks to the park, describing the finish etc. The park was not nearly as bad hill-wise as I expected. The hill at 23 kind of sucked, but I finally realized, I was almost done and totally fine. I couldn’t believe it! Had I held back too much? How did I get to 23 in no pain and with no walking? I finally trusted myself to push the last couple miles, I took of my thermal to display my bib at 25 and said goodbye to Sue and Derek. Then I pushed on to the finish. I passed pretty much everyone around me. Lots of people were cheering my name. It was amazing. I finished strong and felt like I could have kept going, which is probably not a great thing. The only silly thing was that I got really nervous about my chip tag, since my friends said it wasn’t reading my intervals. So after i had walked 50 or so feet past the finish, i went back to stomp on the mat a few more times. I got yelled at by an official. I am not sure if that screwed with my time, since my watch said I finished in 4:46:48, and my official time was 4:48:50, but I really don’t care.
After the race, I got my medal and had to stand in what was a silent death march to the baggage. Everyone seemed so down and beaten. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like a caged animal and I just wanted to run my UPS baggage truck. I did start weaving through the crowd since I couldn’t take it anymore. Be happy, we’re done people.
I somehow made it beyond the crowds. On my way to Derek’s, I stopped at Ann Taylor and the Gap since I realized I need to go to a bar and to work and I really only had sweats. I couldn’t find anything so I showered at Derek’s and ran down to Banana Republic and bought a few things. At this point, I realized that while my stomach wasn’t feeling great water and a hunk of baguette was in order. Then we headed down to Pete’s Tavern for Heather’s post-marathon party. I had a glass of champagne and a few piece from the appetizer trays. But I had to be at work at 7, so I could stay long. Work was just judging a preliminary hall talent competition and everyone was so supportive of me, lots of hugs and more congrats than I was comfortable with. I had some dinner there, eggplant parm and ziti.
After that I took a cab home , I assumed the cabbie would take the midtown tunnel, but almost symbolically he took the 59th Street Bridge that I had run over hours before.
I got home to the greatest surprise of all. My windows had been postered. Tell me I don’t have the greatest roomstars and friends ever! Amazing!
I am so glad they celebrated the day with me. When they said the were having a mimosa party, I baked a cake for them. From Emeril’s recipe. I don’t know how it turned out, I might not use the glaze next time!
And my friend Jessica sent me these gorgeous flowers.
I couldn’t sleep much last night. Still energized I guess. I ran out to get the NYTimes just in case they decided to extend the 4:30 cut off for finishers. But sadly, I just missed it, 4:44 was the last time published.
Oh well, it was a fun day and a great race. Afterthought to come another day. I am looking out my window at the 59th Street Bridge and I can’t believe it’s all over!
I am off for a massage and to meet Heather for coffee before she heads back to London.
HUGE THANKS TO YOUR UNBELIEVABLE SUPPORT THROUGH ALL THIS! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!