NYC Marathon Wrap up

Well another Marathon in the books. I ended up with a finishing time of 3:16:58 This was my slowest Marathon time ever but I finished and I had fun doing it. I ended up getting a stomach bug last Tues/Wed and that took most of my energy away from me. I was not eating right, Hydration was messed up and I was not feeling good the night before the race but I ran anyway. It was a battle and I wanted to run no matter what. For those who read this if you are sick the week before a race do not run. I have been in pain before when racing but this one hurt. Here is a wrap up of the weekend.

Got up to NJ Sat morning and went to my buddies place. We then headed over to the expo. I have been to many race expos but I was not that impressed by this one plus it was crazy crowded, hot and everything was picked over. We did not stay long and headed back to NJ.

Sunday morning (race day) got up and prepared to run this race. I was able to get dropped off at the start rather then take the bus. Once I got dropped off I had to wait online for almost 30 minutes to get into the starting area because they were checking all bags. This was a pain and needed to be done better since most of the people in line were foreigners and did not speak English. Once inside the race start area I got my stuff together and waited for the race. Once it was time they lined us up in corrals and then took us out on to the bridge but this was still messed up because they allowed a slower corral to go out first which cause chaos and people were running to try and get to the front. Eventually everything smoothed out and we got on the bridge and waited. Finally at 9:40 the race began and we were off. The first mile is all up hill over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge then you run through Brooklyn. The one I did notice was the first 2 mile markers were off by about .1 of a mile then eventually it evened out but not sure what mile it did because I did not run the tangent I ended up running 26.47 miles.

Well back to the race. The first half was great i was on pace to run 2:55/2:56 but then things started to go south. Around mile 13 there is a bridge and this is were I saw my times begin to slow. Then around mile 15 when you cross the 59th bridge this was were I lost all my steam. After mile 15 things went down hill. I have run races where I have hit the wall and usually you can't even think straight but this was nothing like that. I was flat out of energy. I heard NYC is a tough race because the course can beat you up. Well know I know the course and know what to expect. I guess being sick the week before does not help. Overall i thought this was a good race and I would definitely run it again. The only thing I found hard was that there is no real space to warm up. The crowds were great but walking almost a mile at the end to get your stuff is not fun. Congrats to all those who ran. Maybe you see me at Philly in 3 weeks.

Time for some recovery and rest. GO PHILS