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November 08, 2004

The NYC Marathon

I split this entry into 2 pieces. The first one is further down describing the entire morning prior to the start. If you haven't read that yet and want to get the full feel for the day, read that one first

Standing in the blue starting corral in the staging area on Staten Island, about to run my first NYC Marathon, we started moving forward. Walking. I realized all of a sudden, it was hot. I was starting to sweat a little so I took off my sweatshirt. the day was beautiful, but the sun was going to be a factor and it was not going to be a day of low to mid 50s that the forecast had predicted earlier in the week. It was going to be headed up to 68 later in the day. As I tossed my sweatshirt over the fence and we continued walking, I thought of something my friend had said about drinking fluids and how even thinking they were hydrating more than enough, they weren't and wished they had more from the start. With a day like today, I was going to have to hydrate alot. I kept swigging from my Gatorade bottle that I had been carrying and sipping from for the last 10 minutes up to the start.

We rounded the corner onto the highway as the Star Spangled Banner was finishing up. People cheered. A couple of minutes later the canon went off, Frank Sinatra started singing "New York, New York" and the runners cheered again. I had no idea how close we were to the starting line at this point. We rounded a herd of busses and there it was. Volunteers were standing on busses, next to them, in them all psyching us up. I jiggled my legs, hopped up and down. We moved closer. Again, I didn't realize how close we were to the starting line. I tossed my Gatorade bottle away. People started to jog in front of me. The starting line was 20 yards away. "This is it..." Deep breath. I started jogging. My feet hit the mats and I was off...

My first thought was, "that's kind of an anti-climactic start". 5 seconds later, I did not agree with myself. I looked up and saw the thousands of people tromping across the Verrazano Bridge, bright beautiful day, people smiling, yelling, music playing. It was awesome in the true sense of the word. The first mile is a significant uphill climb but as I'd read, you don't even notice it. My legs were fresh and I was not paying attention to the climb. Only the amazing sight and experience. Up to Mile 1 I started to settle down a little bit. I looked around alot. I wanted to see everything. I was thankful I was in the blue start. The blue and orange starts run across the top of the bridge while the green start runs on the lower level. The starts are a little staggered from each other so we would all be slightly separated for a while to keep it fair until our mileages could all converge at an even point around mile 8. Running down the bridge I notice more things around. Helicopters in the sky hovering. People were jumping up on the barrier and taking photos of themselves with the massive crowd behind them, smiling, beaming... These two miles were probably my favorite in the race. Everyone was invincible. Down the bridge during mile 2 people who didn't time their pee well and didn't hit a tree along the corral go off the side of the bridge. Another reason I'm glad I wasn't a green start. We got to the bottom of the bridge and there were just a handful of people right there to greet us. They weren't routing for anyone in particular. They weren't there to see a friend or family member running. They were there to be our first fans, our first spectators. "Welcome to Brooklyn runners!" they were yelling. This was where I felt the race truly started. I watched the green runners wind away from us. The blue and orange runners mostly ran next to each other though separated by a barrier until we evened up in the slight mileage difference. The green runners were more staggered so they had to do a little more out of the way. We wound around a few turns and there they were, spectators with signs shouting encouragement at us. I glance at my watch curious to see how fast or slow I had started. It was the first time I had really thought about it since I started my watch as I crossed the starting line. I was around a 9:40 pace. I didn't have much reaction to that as I checked the pace time on my wrist. I was behind it by a bit already. I didn't care. The pace band was there if I felt it. I was just running at my comfortable speed for now until I settled in a bit.

I soaked up the crowd for a while. I wondered when I would hear my first, "Go KP!" When it came, it was another milestone of the race. I got into it a bit. I stayed on the right hand side as we ran up 4th avenue in Brooklyn. I caught eyes with people who yelled my name or pointed back at them. Slapped hands with a few people as I ran by. I especially tried to slap hands with the kids who were trying to get involved, though I was consciously lightening my force so I didn't knock them over as I passed by.

I didn't see the first water table approaching and thought I might miss it as I had drifted to the center, but I wound over and grabbed a cup consciously making an effort to keep myself hydrated. I wanted to hit them consistently. As I mentioned, I sweat alot, so I was sure to dehydrate rapidly today with the rising temperatures and the sun.

I continued on, trying to record my splits on my watch. I didn't get them all but I got a lot of them. I looked at my left hand to see where my first fans might be. I think it was Peter around 3rd street and 4th avenue. I got really psyched as I got closer and started scanning the crowd intensely. Then I saw him and yelled out "Peter!" His group looked up and went nuts. Wow... I like this. Much of the first half of the race was filled with this. I am so lucky to have had so many friends and family come out and support me. Granted, many of them would have been out there anyway, but I know as a spectator, having someone to cheer on is alot more exciting. And it is truly amazing how much it can do to keep you going as a runner. My parents, sister, and Leanne wanted so desperately to see me at least once in three attempts they were going to make and I definitely wanted to see them too. the first try was mile 8 as we turned on to Lafayette and sure enough, there they were. So great. I saw a few other people I was looking for including Jeremy and Cory, but I missed Deanna and Bridget who I later found out were on the wrong side of 4th Ave before we merged.

I was feeling really good. Very relaxed. I was definitely enjoying the day, the race, the crowd. I was checking my watch to see my pace. I was a few minutes off a 4:00 marathon. I checked myself at this point to try and decide if I was going out too fast for myself. No. I was relaxed, breathing easy, and felt good, consistent, and said, "I've got 18 more miles. This pace feels good."

All of the starts had now converged. We were now all one unit running together for the rest of the course. the crowd thinned out as we made our way up to Williamsburg. A couple of people here and there cheering us on. I actually liked this break. It gave me time to focus on the reality of my pace, how I was feeling, unfortunately, how hot I knew it was getting. It's not that hot to a normal person or spectator (and not anyone who runs in AZ or in the Honolulu Marathon), but for me, low 50s and no sun is ideal. Me furnace. I radiate heat. I was having a blast. I grabbed my first Gu pack and sucked it down as I saw the approaching water tables. I kept taking water and Gatorade consistently. I felt pretty hydrated.

As we approached Williamsburg the crowds built up again. very different type of crowd here. Welcome to hipsterville. the break had been nice but it was great to have the cheer start again. I felt a small little weirdness at the top of my right kneecap. I was a little concerned about it but decided I wouldn't freak out. this was not anything that had given me trouble before. As I approached Bedford and Grand I started looking for Sarah Fresh and Todd, I saw them ahead holding up signs and I yelled out and again was totally thrilled to see them and they were jumping up and down and then I caught site of Chris (CB / rotomonkey) and I was in shock for a second or two. He had called me the night before to wish me luck and tell me how much he had wished he could have been there. when in fact, he had taken a red eye from SF and showed up to surprise me. My reaction was apparently a good one. I think I yelled out, "what the fuck?!? Holy shit! Mother FUCKER!!!" with extreme enthusiasm. (Chris reminds me... I high fived him with a force that probably could have ripped both of our shoulders off). He with camera in hand. It was amazing. All three of them. thanks guys. Chris... bastard, I should have known better. ;) No sooner had I recovered from that, I saw my friend Cricket from a block away who I didn't even know was going to be out. Abi had told her to look out for me I think. I don't know how I spotted her from so far away but I yelled out here name and she responded with huge enthusiasm. It was great. I was totally on cloud nine. I continued through Williamsburg through Brooklyn and the crowds started to thin out again. Reality check again.

My knee was okay. I don't know what the funkiness was but it had gone away. My legs were still feeling strong. I was feeling hydrated. I checked my pace and was looking good. I was still a couple minutes behind 4:00 but I was pretty consistent. As we headed for the bridge to take us out of Queens, a woman asked me "What borough are we in?" I pointed to the bridge and said we were headed into Queens. We had passed the half marathon mark. My net time was 2:03:00.

As we started climbing up the bridge, I had my first feeling of any sort of fatigue during the race. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was the first time I even though about fatigue. The roads were quieter again with some sparse cheering here and there. We entered Queens and made a few more turns. I hopped up on the sidewalk occasionally to make a turn easier or to bypass congestion. At one point, a fan had stepped out into the street and was talking to his running friend patting him on the back. I hopped up on the sidewalk to run around him but he backed up and wasn't looking where he was and I ran right into him. I angled my body to the side and put my arms out to basically move him out of the way as I bumped by him. the maneuver worked and he bumped out of the way and I didn't land on my face.

I had thought a few times about how I was going to break the race up psychologically in my head. There were the obvious three chunks that the marathon maps outlined. That was good. But I thought back to my longer training runs of 20, 23 and 25 miles in Greenwich. I ran to the beach, around the beach and back twice for about 23 miles. So I equated my progress with where I would be on one of these runs. At this point I'm at Drinkwater avenue on my way back to the beach for loop 2. That felt good to think about.

I knew the Queensboro Bridge was coming up. From friends and just reading about the marathon, I knew this would be a tough part. It's a fairly steep incline and between mile 15 and 16 would be significantly harder than the Verrazano at the beginning. I decided I wanted to take my second Gu before the bridge to give me a boost a couple of miles after it when I decided I might be feeling it. As I decided this, I had just passed a water table and heard someone yell out "last water before the bridge!" Damn. You can't take a Gu without water. so much for that idea.

The spattering of fans thinned out and we hit the bridge. It was eerie. No crowd or street noise. anyone who had been talking or even uttering a quick message to a running mate had stopped talking. All you heard were hundreds of feet tromping up this nasty bridge. People were tired. A fair number of people moved to the side and were walking. G gave me a short "book" that a friend Chris had written about his first experience with the marathon (which I read a few times and felt was an enormous help with preparing me for mine). In it the Queensboro bridge is a major hurdle he had prepared for as well and said he wanted to yell at all these people to get going and not let the bridge conquer them after all the time and effort they had put into their training. I decided not to yell anything. I definitely worked up the bridge. I was breathing hard but my legs were doing the deed and hanging in there. The thing never ended. It just kept going. Finally the plateau was in sight and we started heading down. Someone was down on the left side of the bridge being tended to my medics. I felt so bad for him. As I headed downhill to the end of the bridge and past mile 16 I relaxed to let my legs recover but realized they weren't recovering quite as I had expected. As I rounded the corner off the bridge to the massive crowds, I had the advice of everyone I know who has run the marathon ringing in my head. "Don't let the roaring crowds on 1st Avenue pump you up so you take off and burn out! Keep your pace." The crowd was insane.

The crowds in Brooklyn and Queens were great and at times maybe 3 or 4 people deep. On 1st Avenue, they went sometimes 10 deep. It was packed. I thought to myself, "So this is what it feels like to be on the other side of that barricade." As I trudged up 1st avenue, I immediately sucked down a Gu and hit the first water and Gatorade station. As I prepared to seek out more friends I was definitely aware of my tiring legs. I think I pushed the bridge too hard. They were burning a little still and I was hoping they would recover a bit more and the carb infusion would give them a little boost that they needed in a couple of miles.

I stayed left on 1st. The list of people and places I had written so diligently on my left hand 8 hours earlier was too smudged to read now from me spilling water and sweating. I didn't see Ravi at 69th. I watched everyone as I was running by. I got a kick out of the drunk people who just wanted an excuse to have beers on Sunday and yell at people. It actually made me laugh. As I got toward 85th, John yelled out my name and Bree and Alexa were all there yelling. My parents, Tessa and Leanne were going to try again up by 96th. Around 93rd I just happened to see them out of the corner of my eye and we yelled and I raised my arms. People all along 1st yelling "Go KP!" As a spectator when you don't get an acknowledgement from a runner you are cheering, it's not much fun. I tried to catch eyes, shoot a finger (not the finger... an index finger) at them, or wave. When I caught eyes with someone, they kept there eyes on me and would keep yelling for me. So cool.

We got up to mile 18 and my legs hadn't recovered much. They didn't feel more tired though. I was still in the game. My pace was still pretty consistent. I had some quick miles here and there but they were more on the downhill miles. When we got up to the Willis Ave bridge, another uphill climb, we were headed for mile 20. I don't believe in a "wall" that everyone talks about, especially at mile 20. Mile 20 was hard but it wasn't a wall. I was more noticing that the run was not as naturally relaxed anymore. I was loosening my shoulders up and forcing myself to relax every once in a while to make sure I wasn't unnecessarily tiring myself any more than necessary. The Bronx was great. I had heard the spectators there were great. There certainly weren't as many but they were all heart. They weren't holding anything back and really seemed like they would do anything they could to help us all out. They were great, but I wanted to head back to Manhattan and finish this thing up.

We headed across the 3rd avenue bridge I popped my last Gu. By the time we hit 5th avenue around 125th street, my legs were burning and starting to stiffen up noticeably. I checked my pace and was still hanging in there. I knew I wasn't going to hit 4:00 but I wanted to at least keep my pace finish strong and consistent. "4 more... you're done" I kept saying to myself. I was still hitting the water and Gatorade religiously now. 5th avenue has an ever-so-slight incline that is more evil than anything you can imagine at this point... for me anyway. I curse it. The sun was blinding too which was incredibly annoying. The temperature was approaching 67 degrees as well which wasn't helping any of it. This was the point of the race where it became 70% work. I said to myself, "Cake. It's in the bag." The crowd was still cheering us all on. It was interesting to hear the phrases change from the start of the race ("Go KP") to the end of the race ("Hang in there!" "Almost Home!"). It was almost annoying. I would rather have kept hearing "Go KP!" I tired to focus on the crowd more and enjoy them again but it wasn't nearly the same as the first half of the run. My left leg was burning a bit around my IT band. I have had problems with it in the past but this wasn't a race-ending burning, just a sign I was going to be sore tomorrow. The sun...damn I can't see anything. It was so annoying. "Just get to the park... then you're at the last push"

As I hit 96th I looked for my friend Karin but didn't see her. I hit 90th and headed into the park with a bit of relief both to be there and the sun was not longer completely blinding me. That pesky incline had let up as well. There was Sarah, Todd, Chris, and Bridget who had rebounded from a miss in Brooklyn to meet up with them in time to try to catch me again. that was a huge shot in the arm for me. The final push and right at the start seeing them was huge. I was feeling a little more energy. No more Gu. No more boroughs. Not more changes of scenery. This is it. The park was a little hilly, but this was much more bearable than 5th avenue which just went on forever, because they were short quick hits. I saw G and Ramya which was amazing too because G has been helping me tons with my strategy in training and prep for the race all throughout the last few months. apparently I was "looking good!" Friggen liar. :) I trudged ahead and figured I was going to have a tough time catching my parents, Tessa and Leanne again in the park. It was much harder finding people without a straight path and sidewalks to create organized lines of people. As I hit one of the last water and Gatorade stations, I swerved over as I was now feeling quite dehydrated despite my best efforts. the heat had certainly taken its toll and I didn't want to miss this one as I needed it badly. I couldn't get it down on the run and didn't want to spill it on my face (like Ted Striker from Airplane!) so I slowed down to a hurried walk as I sucked them down. I threw the cups on the ground and started up again. Ugh... that was hard. No more stopping, I don't think I would be able to start again like that.

As soon as I started running again, there was Tessa, Leanne, and my parents again. I was so psyched to have seen them at all three spots! I ran over and gave my mom a high five (which apparently threw off my dad's carefully planned, mid road focused photo, he got a nice shot of my shirt though ;) I'm actually going to do this. My legs were basically on autopilot at this point. I don't remember having much control over them. They were just... going.

My final encounter was with Ravi and Savita around mile 24.5. I thought to myself how amazing it was I had seen about 98% of my friends. I couldn't imagine having done this without that. I felt bad for visitors to NYC who didn't have that. I saw the Mile 25 banner up ahead. This is going to be the longest mile. I had been comparing my remaining mileage to a 6 mile loop I do at Bruce Park in Greenwich which is a fun easy run. But it wasn't working too well to make this all easier. Every step was burn burn burn burn burn burn burn. A couple of miles earlier I had a brief lightheaded moment (prior to my mandatory walk paced water/Gatorade stop) and thought, I'm not going to go down now. Though the brief panic moment was enough to get some adrenaline going problem solved. I saw a guy being transported by medics who had completely collapsed. I was so sad for him. I hope he's okay. I was thinking about how frustrating it would be to come this far to fall just short of the finish.

When are we going to be out of the park already???? Finally. On to Central Park South. I was almost done. So much training and preparation. I thought about something G said to me about doing more than one marathon. I have always said I have no interest in doing more marathons. I just wanted to do the NYC marathon once as a life goal. He said I'd be surprised and that many people think towards the end of a marathon that there is no way in hell they will ever do one again. Then after they finish and it starts to settle in, they say well, maybe they might. And a couple of weeks later they are signing up for their next one. Mile 25.5 and there is no way in hell I am running one of these again.

I was zoning out a little trying to figure out where we head back into the park for the finish. A woman yelled at me from the left of Central Park South. I don't remember exactly what it was she said, but I looked over at her and she was staring at me intently encouraging me on and that was the look that got me into the park. I even smiled.

"Watch the turn! Watch the turn!" A volunteer was yelling as we made the turn back into the park. It was a little sharp and sure enough someone started to bite it, but was caught by people lining the way. Up to the road. More uphill. Slight was not a word that existed in my vocabulary at this point. I was numb to everything and was just looking ahead for the finish. I wondered what the finish line grandstand looked like that they sold tickets for. My random thought for mile 26.

There it was. Banner. Clocks. Crowd. And the site of runners... not running. I chose the middle lane. I remembered they say don't look at your watch when you cross the finish line because they take everyone's photo as you cross the line. I ran in. I think I was smiling. maybe that was just inside my head. I gave a peace sign and crossed the finish line of my first NYC marathon in 4:14:16.

Update: I hope to have a few photos up soon from friends on the sidelines, but for now, please enjoy some great photos from these guys: Tien Mao, limonada, rion, amit, and Kiri

Thanks Gothamist, for the shout out support!

Posted by kp at November 8, 2004 05:26 PM

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» KP ist der hammar! from rotomonkey.org
This weekend I had the pleasure of flying back to New York to surprise my friend KP while he ran the NYC marathon. It was totally awesome: not only did KP do extremely well (4:17:52), but it was a beautiful... [Read More]

Tracked on November 9, 2004 02:28 PM