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November 08, 2004

The morning of the NYC Marathon

Saturday I woke up having slept like a rock for almost 12 hours. I had really wanted to get a good night's sleep that night because I wasn't sure how I would sleep the night before. So I went into the city and went out and did some last minute shopping. I wished I hadn't had to worry about this but it was a little distracting. My stomach was a little unsettled which was worrying me, definitely nerves. But I went to try and exchange my race shirt that I had accidentally bought the wrong size of. I just wanted a new color (red) for the race. This was a bit of a nightmare but I ended up with a white one. I grabbed some sweats for the morning to discard and headed home and had a fantastic mild pasta dinner with my parents. It was relaxing to be there and just having nothing else to do except write "KP" in big marker letters on the front and back of my shirt.

Boy was I glad I slept well Friday night because I could not sleep at all. I may have slept and hour and a half of actual sleep. Most of the night I was in and out of that half-conscious state. So frustrating. I wondered if I should have rethought my choice to not take my usual dose of Nyquil I had been taking at night because of my cold. Probably. Oh well.

I awoke at 4am not entirely sure if I had slept at all or not. Already I decided it didn't matter because my adrenaline was already flowing. I ate my breakfast, a bagel with peanut butter, a banana, a scrambled egg and a bottle of water. Then went and took a shower. My stomach was still not settled and this was getting a little scary. Again, without being too graphic or gross, I did manage to expel some of my fears though. I got dressed. I had to run my shirt through the washer and dryer again as soon as I got up because the marker I had used to write my name stank something awful and I didn't want to have to smell that through the race. I wore my usual spandex underneath my new Race Ready shorts and my new Under Armor loose race shirt with number pinned on. Threw my Old Navy toss-away sweats on top put my chip on my shoe and tied them up. I sat down and started writing the list of people to look for and where they were going to be on my left hand. My dad thought I was writing a race strategy on my hand and took a photo before I explained what I was doing. I wanted to try and find as many people as possible.

I grabbed my clear plastic bag that had a hat and gloves (which I promptly put on even though it wasn't that cold) some pre-race food, some meds, several packets of Gu, Body Glide, a map of the start, and a couple of other odds and ends and headed out the door. My parents both got up at 4am with me to send me off... truly amazing.

I hopped in a cab down to the New York Public Library to catch the marathon bus that was to take us all out to Staten Island. I was looking out the window of the cab keeping my eyes unfocused and watching the colors of everything blur together in streaks of early morning light. I had no idea what to expect in the next few hours.

When I got to the library, there were hundreds of people streaming toward the loading zone. Volunteers greeted and directed us. It was incredibly organized. As a rule throughout the day, every detail of the race was organized to near perfection. I cannot even believe how well NYRR does with the organization and details of the entire day. I was herded on a bus and sat in a window seat. I was happily swigging my Gatorade throughout the ride. I was joined by a very pleasant woman in her 40s who was very chatty from Scottsdale, AZ. We talked the entire ride about the race, and racing histories, family, and even the infamous Seinfeld episode about the Marathon. It was shaping up to be a gorgeous day and the view of the city from the Verrazano Bridge was amazing. I remember thinking as I was looking at it, "It used to be even more amazing." Very strangely at that moment, the woman sitting next to me said, "I had a dream last night that someone bombed the bridge while we were running across it." I thanked her for that image.

We arrived at the staging area at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. I got off the bus and followed the crowd into the staging area. Runners were assigned a color: blue, green, or orange. Each color would start at a different corral slightly separated for the first few miles. That’s what happens when you have 37,000+ runners running the same race. I was blue. The staging area had different areas setup for the different colors. I went to my area and found a patch of grass and sat down and took in everything. There were a few stages with music and presentations about recovery, hydrating, some stretching clinics. It was pretty active. There was plenty of food available (water, coffee, Gatorade, yogurt, bananas, bagels). People were scattered around doing their own rituals, walking around, sitting and reading. UPS trucks were lined up organized to transport runners' belongings There were Porto-pod a plenty yet huge lines for all of them which wasn't surprising. I sat and just soaked it up. I laid back a few times and pulled my fleece hat over my eyes and tried to zone out for a while. I munched on my bagel and drank a bottle of water as soon as I got there. I had a little less than 3 hours to kill. With an hour left, more people were roaming around. I was a little chilly even with my sweats, hat and gloves on. The sun was creeping over to my area. with about an hour and a half to go, I ate my banana took a few small swigs of water. I decided that with my stomach in a state of uncertainty, I didn't want to chance anything and popped some Imodium as well as a couple of Tylenol 8-hours. If you're not a runner, you may think this is overreacting. It's not.

I had to pee. But I wanted to wait until the right time. I had to time it well so that at start time I didn't have to go again. But I didn't want to wait too late so that I would be rushing to make the start. At about 9am I got in line behind a guy from just north of London who was running his first marathon, his first race actually. And he had torn his Achilles over the summer. He said he wanted to do his first one right, so he chose NYC. I decided to share some tips I had received from past runners about the course which he didn't seem to know and appreciated. After some silence he said, "How about the Red Sox?" He didn't know much about baseball, but was making an effort that was truly so nice. And a good topic too since, I proudly wear my Red Sox hat. I made it through the line and took care of business.

The time was 9:40. Time to get myself ready. I felt myself getting excited. This was it... People were now starting to line up in the corral. I took my time. stretched. Retied my sneakers. Added another tie to the chip on my shoe (this tracks my time electronically) to make sure it didn't fall off. paranoid. I took my sweatpants off because all of a sudden, it was getting warm. I systematically went through my bag of gear and threw out stuff I didn't need. I put 3 Gu packs in my shorts packets. I took my body glide and put a nice thick coat on my nips to prevent painful chafe. I decided to take the travel size stick with me just in case it rubbed off... pocket. I put 2 more Imodium in my pockets as well. Again, just in case. Hopefully overkill, but if not, I'd be happy to have them. Let's see, I think that's it. Oh... bandana! I have grown very accustomed to wearing a bandana when I run especially long runs. I have no hair to absorb sweat so this helps allot. Plus people say I look like cheesy 80's dude with it on. Sweet. It's on. I put my pace band on. At the expo they gave out these paper bands that show what your splits should be at each mile in order to finish at certain times. I wasn't truly gunning for a time especially being sick, but I decided I'd have one just in case... I strapped on my 4:00 pace band. Some guy saw me doing it and asked what it was as I realized it was on the wrong way. "It's a pace band that I have put on upside down so I can't read it". Carefully I unstuck it and put it back on the right way. I tossed the rest of my bag. Bounced a few times to loosen up. Kicked my legs up a few times. Okay ready... I looked at the corral to figure out where to wedge myself in. I found the 4:00 pace team and lined up in the pack. My timing was perfect. I was in line for maybe a minute of two psyching myself up when we started to move forward.

deep breath...

Posted by kp at November 8, 2004 04:15 PM

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