Wow. I don’t even know where to begin. I honestly just had one of the best weekends of my life. I’ll try to cover off our vacation to NYC (the non-run portion!) in a separate post. We did so many amazing things in the city I should write them down so I don’t forget them all.

Before the marathon:

I did a quick run in Manhattan on Saturday morning and we went to package pickup/the race expo around lunch. Chris and I have been to expos before, but definitely nothing of this magnitude! I could definitely feel the excitement in the Javits Convention Centre, and it made me really start feeling excited for the race. I think we both enjoyed wandering around and checking out our favourite vendors. Chris bought me some cool Newton socks, which had the NYC skyline stretch around the ankle and we also did a quick walk near the finish line in Central Park.

In the spirit of carbo loading, we went to Eataly for a little pasta dinner the night before the race. We ate dinner at La Pizza & La Pasta (the Linguine al Pesto Trapanese was incredible!). It took an hour for us to get a table, but fortunately with a 10:55 AM race start time, and daylight savings buying us an extra hour of sleep, I wasn’t being too much of a stickler about ensuring our dinner was super early. I think we ended up sitting down for dinner around 6:00 PM, which by New York standards is senior citizen dining time. Normally, when Chris and I order two different meals, I always like his better. Not this time! I think we both liked my pasta better than his. I almost licked my plate.
Chris had caught a red-eye flight to the city on Friday night/Saturday morning, and after dinner he (quite understandably!) started feeling pretty tired. This worked out well for me getting to bed at a decent time. We went back to our room and I got everything organized for the next day. I laid out all of my clothes and packed almost everything I needed in the start area bag that I could bring to Staten Island. Some of things I packed in the bag included throw-away sweatpants, sweater and toque, mitten warmers (the kind that you shake and the packet gets hot), cheap gloves, Gu roctane gels, a fruit bar, almonds and walnuts and my favourite EFS sports drink that I planned to carry with me until I emptied the bottle. We also stopped on the way to the ferry terminal in the morning to purchase a People magazine and an extra bottle of water to add to the bag.

The night before I was super paranoid about my alarm getting messed up by daylight savings. Because it’s expensive to use out-of-country roaming, we both had our cell phones on airplane mode. Somehow they still knew that the clocks were set back and the alarms ended up going off at the correct time. I guess that’s why they’re called smart phones. Worst case, we probably would have just woken up one hour earlier than normal. We also had a wake-up call programmed just in case!

We made it to the Ferry terminal around 7:30 AM. I wasn’t due to get on the ferry until 8:00 AM, so we had some time to kill and decided to wander around Battery Park. I was, of course, dressed in my hobo attire, which was quite amusing to Chris. I humored him by pretending to rifle through a garbage can.

It was pretty packed trying to get on the ferry. The boat had three levels and the top two floors were crowded. We were able to get a seat on the lower deck, where there was much more room. Our ferry was escorted across by several police/military boats and it made me feel more relaxed to see such high security. There were also several police (explosive?) sniffing dogs checking everyone who entered both the ferry terminal and the staging area at Fort Wadsworth. I was lucky to meet up with my friend Jane, who missed her own earlier ferry because the subways were too crowded for her to arrive on time! This worked out so well for both of us, to have someone to chat with to help quell the nervous energy before the race. Chris came with me for the ferry ride over, and he ended up staying on the ferry and returning to Manhattan after Jane and I got off.

It took a long time for us to catch a shuttle once we arrived in Staten Island. The lineups were at least  30 mins long, and we were probably on the bus for another 20 mins after that. By the time we arrived at Fort Wadsworth Jane’s wave was being called to staging. I gave her a big hug and she went on her way! She definitely didn’t have time to read the magazines she brought along with her. Looking back, I probably didn’t need the one I brought either – there were a ton laying around in the staging areas from people who had already discarded theirs (in true hobo fashion I could have just picked those ones up). But since we didn’t know what to expect, just knowing that I had a magazine I could read, if I was in fact sitting there for over an hour helped make me feel better in advance! So I really only flipped through a few pages, but it was still money well spent!

I was a bit worried it would be confusing at Fort Wadsworth, but the NYRR definitely knows how to host large crowds of people. The only real problem I had was finding my correct corral area, since the entrance to it ended up being behind a bit of a building. In retrospect I should have done a bit more exploring while I was waiting for my wave to be called. There were huge lineups in common areas for bathrooms, but there were a ton of portable toilets in the corral areas line-free. I ended up entering my corral around 10:30 AM, and the adventure began!

The Marathon:

What a spectacular starting location! Our corral filtered down from the blue staging area to one of the top sides of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. People were taking off their hobo clothes and throwing them everywhere! The clothing donation people must have had a major clean-up job to do.

The first mile of the race was unbelievable. Hearing “New York, New York” on the loudspeaker and seeing the gunboats still gives me shivers. It was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience (maybe more than once if I ever get lucky with the lottery again!). I definitely ran on adrenaline for the first few miles.

The crowds in Brooklyn were so memorable. The first few miles were PACKED. I’ve never run a race with so many spectators before.  I soaked it all in. The signs were amazing, and so, so funny, and the energy level was intense! I really enjoyed the different neighbourhoods within the borough. I could tell when we went through Mexican, Italian and Jewish areas, to name a few. I really enjoyed Brooklyn.

We were only in Queens for a mile or two. My Garmin kind of crapped out over the Queensborough bridge and lost satellite reception, which threw my pace and distance off a bit. This bridge was a killer. I suppose one of the disadvantages of going in to a race you’ve never run (or even seen) before is that you’re not mentally prepared for what you have to face. The Queensborough bridge seemed to go on forever. My legs were definitely starting to hurt at this point, and it started to become mind over matter. I do remember running in to Manhattan and seeing crowds on the side of the road lined 8, maybe 10, people deep. Total random strangers cheered for me. It makes me feel emotional to think about. The crowds were incredible.

I don’t remember much from the Bronx, other than seeing a grocery store that had some strange name. I think it was “Western Beef Grocery”. Seriously, for like a kilometre I recall thinking, “How strange of a name for a grocery store”. It kept my mind off the pain in my legs, so whatever. Back in Harlem I got lucky around kilometre 35. At the race expo, Chris had recorded a video message for me, which was displayed for me on a giant jumbotron at this point in the race. Even if the mental pickup only lasted a kilometre or two, it was amazing. I love that man.

During training I imagined myself running the final few miles through Central Park. What I imagined, and how I felt on race day were totally different. First, my legs were killing me, and second, I think my mind was totally just glazed over at this point. While I can remember running and what the scenery looked like, and how much pain my legs were in, I don’t recall at all if I was happy, sad, or what I was thinking. It’s so odd how you can just get in the zone.

My Garmin battery beeped at me that it was “low” with probably 30 minutes still to go. It’s super old and in total need of replacement, since it obviously can’t hold charge for much longer than four hours. For those of you with a Garmin, you’ll know that when this happens, the low battery message stays on the screen. Because of the way I have my screen set up, this meant I couldn’t see my current time. I didn’t think to just change the view (again my mind wasn’t working very well!). I knew I was close to my goal, but I wasn’t sure how close. The only other (non-ironman) marathon I had run was in 2010, and I did it in 4:56 hrs. This time around I knew I was able to go faster, but I didn’t know exactly how much faster. At the expo, I picked up a pace bracelet for a 4:20 finish time, thinking it was realistic for me to finish in the 4:20-4:30 hr ballpark. After the race, Chris later told me that he thought I was being optimistic picking up the 4:20 band, because of how much faster it was! My chip time ended up being 4:22:56 hrs, nearly 35 minutes quicker than my last marathon attempt. This was a huge PR, and I am incredibly proud of myself for achieving it!

I found out later that Chris ended up coming to Brooklyn and ran alongside me (but on the opposite side of the road) yelling my name for almost a kilometre, and I didn’t see him at all! I’m so bummed that I never saw or heard him, I totally could have used a smooch and a pick-me up at that point in the race. Sorry honey, I must have been focused and zoned in!

After the marathon:

Ouch. I was SO relieved for the run to be done. But I was also in an incredible amount of pain! I finished the race around 3:20 PM, and it easily took me 40 minutes to navigate my way out of the park and to my meet-up location with Chris (which was just outside of the runner-only area). This was probably the worst part of the day. There was plenty of herding and waiting that happened earlier (waiting for ferries, waiting for shuttle buses, waiting in corrals), but this was easily one of the most painful, leg shattering walks I’ve ever done.

Chris and I decided in advance that we would meet up at a Starbucks, located at Columbus Ave and 67th Street on the Upper West Side. We figured Chris would be able to use their free wifi while he waited, so he could check in and see how I was doing! I was so overcome with pain and emotion (well, mostly pain) when I saw him across the street I started to cry. A police office who was monitoring that intersection made eye contact with me, asked me where I was wanting to go (I told him across the street) and he was so kind and told me that I looked fantastic. I felt badly for Chris once I arrived. He was so excited for me, and for how much time I took off my marathon time, that my tears probably took away a bit of our celebration excitement. I was so thankful to have Chris there supporting me.

Post-Race Thoughts:

I saw this poster in the subway a day or two after the race, and it couldn’t have been more true (sorry, it’s a bit blurry)! While I was sad last year when the race was cancelled, I was way better prepared this year! In the race packages you receive a magnet which you can put your own time in to. I’ve had the blank 2012 magnet on our fridge since last year, and was finally able to add the new magnet to reflect my 2013 time! I’ll probably leave it on the fridge for awhile – I feel quite proud of myself when I see it!

The pain hasn’t quite left my legs, but I somehow still find myself wondering “what’s next”? This is somewhat humorous to me, since it was just a few days ago I hobbled in to Chris’ arms in New York City in tears after the marathon due to my legs screaming out in agony. At least for this week, I’m doing absolutely nothing. Not even taking the stairs up and down at work. Next week we’re hoping to start back up with the Insanity DVD’s, to do a bit of fine-tuning to our bodies in advance of our next big adventure – our wedding!