The NYC Marathon wasn't what I had hoped for months before, but it wound up to be a really fun race and experience.
It really was pretty amazing story that involved being honest, cheating the system, the military, lots of cops, a police chief saying "Get outta here!" in a thick NY accent, several miracles, our own private coach bus w/ bathrooms and TV's, gospel music, and a negative split fun run that had me road killing everyone in sight for miles upon miles.
Let's see here, a few things before the race:
We learned that in order to get a bib at the ever so important NYC Marathon, that all you need to do is show a confirm. That's it. Fuck security, fuck the countless checkpoints just to enter the expo, forget begging and pleeding with the director, forget it all.
This was Justin Jackson picking up Jason Kedzuch's bib. The resounding theme at the marathon expo was not only "Everything has changed since 911." ...but also "Everything has changed since Boston." Security was too the gills. (I hope everyone felt safe!) Now only if they could actually do something about the countless holes in the system. We were horribly hassled for trying to be honest and telling them we were picking up a friend's bib. Regardless of how low his number was or bringing countless forms of identification and proof, they wouldn't have anything to do with it. Apparently you could be the president and still need to show up in person to get your bib. Very VERY strict. In the end, all we wound up doing was going to the bin and grabbing Kedzuch's bib with no questions asked. The underlings didn't even care!! Just showed the emailed confirm on JJ's phone and that was it. Hilarious and tragic at the same time. Talking about a waste of resources. The lesson: screw being honest, and cheat the system.
OK, I also have this fixation with getting sleep before a marathon. Everyone should know this by now. Aaand occasionally, I like go in style. Enter the "Towne Car to Staten Island" trick that I learned from Myra Rasmussen long ago. It's very similar to "Spending the night in Hopkinton" trick before Boston that I graciously got from Dan McDowell. (I wish I could claim with these fool proof tricks as my own, but I can't). You get hours of extra sleep, reduce hassles of public transport, and boom. No problem right? I've done the Towne Car each of the last few times for NYC and without any issues. (Note to self and the short story: that theme of "Everything's changed since Boston" is apparently true. Perhaps using the public transit would be better next time).
I'll say that trying to take a Towne Car to the start was initially a good idea. The bad idea was getting a driver that didn't know his elbow from his asshole, and he's the driver in NYC that doesn't speed and doesn't know where the fuck he's going. Ultimately, the bridge closed on us because he couldn't fucking drive. Not totally my fault, but I'll take the blame. My bad. Needless to say some guys got a little stressed out about that.
Being a resourceful, calm person that I am, I started checking options off the list. The next easiest thing was to dump out of the car and then attempt to walk over the bridge. Years ago, this was fine. But of course... "Everything has changed since Boston." And every single cop in NYC reminded us of this. Jesus. Fine, we get it. So we walked... and we walked. Trying to find different ways onto the bridge. Dan Stanton even attempted to climb a fence at a military base to get to the bridge. The heavily armed guards chasing him were not amused. And we walked some more. And then a WSJ reported started walking with us. We told him that we were sub-elite runners and he started interviewing us. He tried hitching along with us to the start.
After a couple miles (which are not ideal before having to run 26.2 miles, but ok), we got to the base of the bridge/expressway where there were hundreds of cops and a sea of busses carrying runners over to the start. We pleaded, begged, cried, and bled our hearts out with cops to halt one of the countless buses going 5 mph at the on ramp of the bridge. Eventually a captain came over and recognized that (shocker) we weren't actually terrorists, but merely runners trying to participate in the marathon. The cops weren't happy, but finally after playing our "Sub-elite Towne Car with a WSJ reporter escort" story to them, the captain caved. ...And the bus that he stopped for us? Well it was completely empty. We wound up with our own private coach with all the amenities on it. Gospel music included, praising us! Unfuckingbelievable.
So a tiny bit of a snafu trying to get us to the starting lined... but it happened. Just like in Boston. We made it there. Safe and sound. With plenty of time to spare. And an extra 90 minutes of sleep to boot! Ya bish!!
OK, on to the fun run that almost didn't happen because we couldn't cross the stupid bridge because everything's changed since Boston.....
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Race morning temps were chilly but eventually warmed up to the 40's. A slightly nasty wind was coming out of the NW, which meant a headwind for 20 miles. Typical for every NYC race that I've done... Why make it easy?
Amazingly, I was pretty calm and cool going into the start... even after the snafu of getting there. Probably because I had low expectations from the onset. In fact, because I didn't know how I would feel with my hip flexors/adductors, I wasn't even sure if I'd finish the thing.... I drowned myself in ibuprofen prior to the race to hopefully reduce this risk.
The basic plan was to hang with training partners, Justin Jackson and Evan Rosendahl for as long as possible. We were to target a 1:26-27 split, then to chop away towards a 2:50 goal if guys felt good. Ironically, Evan wound up missing the A-Corral cut off because he was site seeing (classic). And Justin and myself, which nearly missed the race all together, were perched in front of the A block. We stuck with one another for as long as possible.
At the gun JJ and I took it nice and easy, crawling up the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and getting passed by countless fat old ladies and guys. It was quite comical. We then put in several miles at a 6:40ish pace. We weeded our way through the crowds of runners that went out way too fast. (I still have no idea how all those people wound up in front of us!? We literally had thousands upon thousands of them!!) Justin helped to keep the reigns on me through that stretch. By mile 10, I was chomping at the bit to pick it up. I felt good. The ibuprofen had done its magic. If I was going to try for that 1:26/2:50 target, I needed to pull away.
At that point, I started passing everyone in sight. The crowds of runners became thinner as time went on... but wow, were there a lot of people back there! I guess that's what it's like to shoot for a 2:55 race? It's been a long time since I've seen that. Just taking it from 6:40ish down to 6:20-6:25 had me passing people like they were standing still. No doubt too that I pissed off a bunch as I jumped from pack to pack. It was windy though and I couldn't do it without a little shelter.
I continued that strategy of pack hopping and cutting them down until the 17th mile. Then I picked it up up 1st Ave. That's a great stretch of this race, and possibly one of the best straights in any marathon. Monster of crowds all the way pushing into the streets. I still felt solid, and it was basically like crawling compared to my normal MGP. I dropped some 6:15s. That was about as fast as I was willing to go, and about what I needed to get towards 2:50. After a couple miles and by the end of 1st Ave, I didn't have many more packs jump to.
At about 20 miles, I realized that sub 2:50 would be out of the question. I had a good stretch, but I needed another gear for sub 2:50 and I just didn't have it. Too much fitness had passed since Chicago. I still maintained 6:20-30s into Central Park. At that point, I broke slightly in on the hills, and it became a mere battle to just finish. My adductor and hip flexors were on fire. Those hills hurt a lot. More than they should've. I began to feel the pains I had in Chicago, but more so. I just hung in there. The last couple miles were about 6:35-40. It wasn't a travesty, but by the time I hit Central Park South and my final mile... I was begging for the finish like never before.
After I crossed the line, holy shit my legs hurt! I could hardly raise my knees to move forward. I was officially trashed. The mile walk to the gear pick up might've been the most painful mile of the day/week/month/year. Wow.
NYC wasn't what I originally wanted, though it was still a fun race. I adjusted my goals and made it work. It's hard to say if I enjoyed the experience there more than some of my other marathons. It was different. It wasn't as competitive so the glory wasn't there, but definitely had great stories! 2:52:18 and a nice negative split "tempo run". By some miracle I still placed 344th. Guessing that was due to the nasty head winds. Maybe I would've broke 2:50 without them? Doesn't matter.
In the days and weeks that followed, it became very apparent that I am now officially injured. I'm still not sure what it is... whether a torn adductor/groin muscle? Torn hip flexor? Something in my abs? Heaven forbid sports hernia.
For now, I'm chalking up running altogether and letting things heal. I've tested it a few times with some easy runs and to no avail. I'll give myself until the end of the year before I sort out what to do next and actually seek medical attention. Technically, I'm signed up for both Boston and Berlin in 2014 - but I need to get back to where I can run again before thinking about them.
Split recap:
K Time Diff Pace
5- 0:21:32 21:32 6:56
10- 0:42:02 20:30 6:36
15- 1:02:34 20:32 6:37
20- 1:22:30 19:56 6:25
25- 1:42:54 20:24 6:34
30- 2:02:50 19:56 6:25
35- 2:22:53 20:03 6:27
40- 2:43:10 20:17 6:32
2.2- 2:52:18 09:08 6:37
1st Half- 1:26:54 6:38
2nd Half- 1:25:24 6:31
Overall- 2:52:18 6:34
344th Overall
