NYC Marathon Essay 3

7/31/2019 NYC Marathon Essay 3

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the apartment. Walking in NYC is hard! Lots of people to dodge. By the time we got back we wereexhausted and agreed that it was not a good idea to spend the day walking all over NY. By then mysister Jennifer and her husband Randy and their son Quinn had showed up, so we were now 11. Wewent out to a delicious dinner at a Lebanese Restaurant (another long walk) and got back to theapartment about 8:00PM. My wife AnneMarie and my two boys, Alexander and Matthew had landed in

LaGuardia, and we expected them to show up any minute. Unfortunately, it took them about an hour and a half to get a cab from LaGuardia Friday nights are busy at the airport. They finally arrived about9:30 (plane landed at 7:00) cold and hungry. They ate and we all went to bed.

Saturday, we all split up. Randy and Jennifer went to Central Park, The older cousins went to a models photo shoot, Amy took Matthew and Maloy to see the Statue of Liberty, AnneMarie, Alexander andJulie went shopping, and Mike and I went for our last training run. We ran along the East River for acouple of miles, then went back to the condo and met my dad, who had just arrived from WashingtonDC by train. Now we totaled 15! Mike and dad and I decided to travel down to the Staten Island Ferrystation as a practice run for the following morning. We found the subway, and rode it down to thesouthern tip of Manhattan. It took about 30 minutes, so we figured we needed to leave the following

morning at 7:00am to have plenty of time to catch the 8:00am ferry.At that point we were getting hungry, sowe arranged to meet some of the familynear ground zero, and have lunch. Itseemed close, so we walked (a longway) up to Wall Street. We thought itwould be fun to see the Occupy WallStreet protesters, so walked to the park where they are camped out. It was

pretty underwhelming, a very small park with a hundred or so folks camped out,outnumbered by tourists, media, andstreet vendors. There was not muchgoing on, so we decided to move on tolunch, and then check out theconstruction on Freedom Tower.


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We had a late lunch (grilled chicken, veggiesand mashed potatoes) then walked over toFreedom Tower. What an impressive sight! Itis going to be a beautiful area when all finished.We traipsed all over, looking for a view of the

memorial at ground zero, but wereunsuccessful. You have to buy tickets to get in.At that point, Mike and I said enough! We areexhausted! We need naps! We then grabbed acab and went back to the apartment for a shortrest.

Look closely, you can see Mike and Dad inthe shadow

Saturday evening we all went out to eat at aself-serve BBQ joint. Mike and I were ableto resist the beef, and had more grilledchicken and mashed sweet potatoes. Then itwas back to the condo and bed. We neededsome rest, having spent the last two daystraipsing all over New York.

The wives think we are crazy.


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We got up Sunday morning, psyched to run our first marathon! We were a little late getting out thedoor, leaving around 7:10. We walked a couple of blocks to thesubway and went down to wait for the train. The sign said train 6was due in 5 minutes and train 6 was due in 15 minutes. Wewanted train 4. We needed to make the 8:00am Staten Island

Ferry, and started to get a little worried. Another runner camedown and stood there waiting for the train. We went over andasked her if she was taking the ferry. She said she was, and thatthe 6 was fine, we would ride it to the end, and then get on the 4 tothe ferry stop. It turned out that she had practiced the day before

and knew exactly what to do. She said "what time is your ferry ride?" We said "8:00". She said"oooooo, it is going to be close, mine is 8:30". We then chatted all the way to the ferry stop (all runnersare friends). We parted ways at that point, wishing each other a great run.

Mike and I hurried to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, ran up the escalator, cut in front of a hugeline, ignored the attendants, forced our way past a large sliding glass door as it was closing, and leapt

onto the 8:00 ferry as it was about to leave. We were the last peopleon. We found a seat on the lower deck and relaxed for the 40 minuteride. The temperature outside was 39 degrees Fahrenheit, but we had3 layers of clothing on, and the ferry was warm. We reached StatenIsland, and the ferry(s) slowly disgorged all the runners. It was a river of people, flowing through the terminal and outside to thestreet. Lined up on the street were (what seemed like) hundreds of

buses. We flowed onto a bus and sat down. It then left the terminaland drove for a long time, probably another 30-40 minutes to theMarathon Village at the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. We got off a bus, used a porta-potty, and walked to

the "Blue Zone" where we were supposed to start from. We gotthere about 9:40 the start time for the Wave 1 runners, includingthe elite and more serious runners. We were in Wave 3 (the lastwave) at the back of the pack, so we had another hour until our starttime of 10:40.

The weather was turning out to be beautiful, bright sunshine andwarming up. We took off our outer layer, stuffed it into our UPS

bags, and gave them to the UPS truck that corresponded with our bib numbers. This was a nice feature UPS gave us a large clear bag with our number on it at the Expo. The transported the bagfrom the start line to the finish line for us, so we could have clothes,

etc. to put on after the race. We then went into our "corral". Theyhad the 3rd wave split up into 3 parallel groups, Blue, Green, andOrange. We were Blue. Blue wave 3 was then split up into 1000

person "corrals". The corrals were set up in a line, and sectioned off from each other by rope. We found our corral and waited with therest of the cattle.


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Around 10:30 they took down allthe ropes, and we flowed to thestart point, which was a large areaat the start of the Verrazano

Narrows Bridge, where all the toll

booths are (the bridge was closedto all traffic). We heard "GodBless America" and someinspirational speeches, then ahowitzer was fired, and off weran! Well, no, actually we did notmove an inch right away. It takesa while for 15,000 people to getmoving. Pretty soon we were

jogging in place, and then slowly jogging shoulder to shoulder in a

tight crowd of runners. The paceacross the bridge was very slow, lots of jostling. We got about a half mile and Itold Mike hey we have gone a half mile, but lets keep running. He said Pat

stick with the program! so we moved over to the side and walked for aminute. We then started back up and did the run/walk thing across the bridgeand into Brooklyn. I found running to be very difficult much different thanmy training at home, where I was by myself. There were so many people Icould not run the steady pace that I wanted to run. Mike and I were constantlydodging people and moving side to side as well as forward. There were peoplerunning faster (not many) and people running slower (lots). Still, it was prettycool to be running with so many people. Also, there were spectators packed onthe sides of the roads every inch of the way! The only places without spectatorswere the bridges.

Our family saw us for the first time in Brooklyn, around mile 4. We ran past them screaming andyelling and high-fiving, then settled in for the long run. Our pace was slower than expected, but wesimply ran with the crowd. At mile 8 we took a right turn, and they had a huge screen up above the


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road. I watched Geoffrey Mutai win the raceas we went through the turn. We still hadover 3 hours to go!! We ran north through theBronx, then crossed into Queens, running

parallel to the East River. We were still

run/walking, eating a shot blok every mile, anddrinking plenty of water. By mile 12, therunners had spread out a little, and you couldrun freely. Mike and I started looking for a

porta-potty at that point, as we had done agreat job hydrating. At mile 13 we stopped for several minutes to wait for an use a porta-

potty, then started off again feeling much better.

The cousins

As we left the mile 13 station (halfway point), I started to feel a twinge in my right knee. As I keptrunning, it got worse and worse. We turned left and crossed over the Queensboro Bridge intoManhattan, arriving at mile 16. At that point, my knee was hurting. Every step was very painful. Ilearned that walking was actually worse than running; it would stiffen up so quickly that it was hard tostart running again. We turned north, and began running up Manhattan along the East River. Our fansmet us between mile 17 and 18, screaming and yelling encouragement. It was fantastic! Mike and I puton our happy faces, straightened up and ran proud until we were out of their sight.

Still Smiling!


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We continued north, crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx, arriving at mile 20. The runthrough the Bronx was short and hilly, running through a very pleasant residential area of brownstone

buildings. We then crossed back over into Manhattan across the Madison Avenue bridge, and turnedsouth for our run down to Central Park. At that point we were at mile 21 and had 5 miles to go. Myknee was on fire! I slowed down dramatically, and could not walk at all. I would jog in place during

our one minute walk sessions. I knew that if I stopped I would not be able to start up again. Weslowly ran south through Central Park towards the finish. The family saw us one more time around mile25. Even though they were screaming and yelling our names, I never saw them! Mike saw them at thelast minute, and gave them a quick wave. Both of us were focused on the finish, as we had been runningfor almost 5 hours.

No happy face at this point! We just want to finish!

We finally crossed the finish line at 5:19:51 about an hour longer than I expected! My goal (and Mikes), however, was met wefinished! What a great feeling. Five hours of pounding on your feet, however, is quite an ordeal.


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After we finished we walked and collected our medal, a goodie bag (apple, water, candy bar, nuts, etc)and aluminum blanket. It was getting dark and cold. We entered a long narrow roadway with a highfence on either side, and proceeded to shuffle along for about another 90 minutes. Thousands of runnerscrammed together, shuffling down the roadway. Nobody was happy. We finally got to our UPS truck and retrieved our bags. By that time, Mike and my teeth were chattering we were so cold. We put on

our pants and jackets, and shuffled to the parks exit. By then it was full dark. We walked to a subwaystation, and got on the first subway south. We obviously looked very puzzled about how to get back tothe condo, because a runner on the train (all runners are friends) asked us where we were going and gaveus directions. We went about four stops, then got off and took a cab back to the apartment. I think it

was about 7:00PM when we got back.The whole event took us 12 hours! Whata day! We showered and rested for ashort bit, then went out to eat at a smallItalian Restaurant nearby. Then back tothe apartment and pack up for the flight

back home.

I had a 7:00am flight back to Atlanta inorder to make a managers meeting atwork. Amy wanted to leave early as wellto drive back to Washington, so we leftthe apartment at 4:30am and she droppedme off at the airport. I was in the office

by 10:00.Back at last!

My knee ached constantly all day Monday, so I decided to take Tuesday off and go to the Orthopedist. Ifound out that I had severely irritated my Ilial Tibial Band (ITB) which is a band of tissue that connectsyour hip to your knee. This condition is common in runners and is called runners knee. While I hadno symptoms during training, it seems that all the dodging side to side and slowing down and speedingup caused it to get irritated then continuing to run caused more damage and swelling. Therapy is ice,stretching, Advil, and no exercise for two weeks. I learned that I have not been adequately stretchingmy thigh muscles, which were very tight. Keeping them loose and well stretched will help me avoid this

problem in the future.

While the orthopedist was rotating my knee around we heard a loud popping noise (veryuncomfortable!). He could repeat it every time with my right knee, but not my left. He thinks I mayalso have a torn Miniscus, which is material under the kneecap. The only fix is orthoscopic surgery. So,he sent me for an MRI, which I did on Wednesday. Ill find out the results next week when I visit himagain. Hopefully it is OK, if not Ill have to decide what to do, I suspect Ive had this for a while, andrunning did not seem to irritate it, but golf and tennis do.

Not exercising is terrible! Ive become an addict, plus I like to eat! Mike and I have to decide what thenext goal is, I definitely want to run another marathon, and see if I cannot significantly improve thefinish time. Im thinking the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington DC next November would be

perfect. Anyone want to join me?


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For our first 12 miles, we averaged a 10.7 minutes per mile pace. At that pace, we were looking at a4:30 marathon, which is about what I had expected. Throw out the porta-potty break and the whiningabout my knee break, and the second 12 miles averaged a 13 minutes per mile pace, and getting worseevery mile. Hence the 5:19 time. I think we would have done better if no knee injury. Sorry Mike!

This is the run as captured by my Garmin watch The left map shows the travel through the 5 boroughs. The top graph shows the elevation. The bottom graph shows our pace.

NYC Marathon Essay 3

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