New York Marathon 2009
I tried my best to smile ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
The marathon race report.
My FIRST marathon.
Frankly, I don't know where to start. It has been a week and I am still riding on an adrenaline high.
I can't quite recall when we started talking about it, signed up for the lottery draw, waited and started planning the trips and stuff. But I remembered wanting to do a marathon by the time I hit 30 and my first choice was the Nike Women's Marathon in SF - mainly because the finisher medal is a Tiffany necklace! How cool is that? But my two girlfriends TS and E that were to be my marathon buddies had violent objections against that option. Well, they simply said, Are you MAD? SF is hilly!!! And I was persuaded to explore the NYC marathon with the huge incentive of visiting the Woodbury Premium Outlet mall thereafter.
I was quickly persuaded. New York City has always been on one of my top travel list and this was a perfect opportunity. B.T had lived in NYC before and was able to bring me around and we had accomodation sorted out. So the discussions started and I think it was even as far back as in November last year.
We set a reminder to sign up for the lottery the day it opened. I convinced B.T to sign up as well and whilst everyone else was secretly hoping that the lottery wouldn't go through, I think I was the only one praying hard and crossing my fingers, toes and eyebrows that we could each get a slot. And we did. TS said she went into a shock and went OMG and I think it hit all of us that we had to start training seriously. The travel plans were made, air tickets were booked and slowly everything fell into place.
So those who have been reading regularly will know that B.T and I were on the Racers' Toolbox training program. We did our lab tests to find out our training heart rate zones and started training 4 months before race day. We both said that we have to give the Racers Toolbox team a big kudos and thank you for providing us with the training program because we don't think we would have achieved our targets without it! The program made us disciplined in our runs - we completed perhaps 90% of the program with the rest left uncomplete due to travels or sheer laziness. Overall, it kept us focused and on track.
It was a gruelling program that included an average of 5 runs per week. B.T made us run in the heat as well. For our long runs, we ran mainly in the late mornings and as much as I detested running in the sun, I have to admit that it made running in the cold much easier. We also ran on a gradual slope for our training runs which helped to build strength for the NYC course which is not flat contrary to what most think!
Before we knew it, the countdown to the marathon started and as everyone know, I went into my panic attack :P
Okay. I am getting to the race day report..
So pre-race day, this is what I did.
I flew in 2 days earlier on a 20 hour flight and reached NYC on Friday afternoon, severely jetlagged. Instead of carbo loading and eating properly in preparation for the race, we headed out to eat uh fried Korean chicken for dinner -_- The night before the race, we had a heavy meal of steak for dinner. Not the smartest thing that we did but that was what we did!
The NYC marathon has to be the best race that I have ever experienced mainly because it is extremely well organized. At the race pack collection centre, we collected our packs in 5 minutes! That's pretty amazing considering that we were there on the last day of the expo and there were 45,000 participants.
The race starts around 10am but for most of us, we would have to wake up 5-6 hours before to get ourselves over to the start point. We woke up at 530am - thank goodness for daylight savings we managed to have an extra hour of rest! I started chewing on some leftover buns from dinner and was desparately trying to clear my tummy of poop but to no avail. So that started another bout of panic. M was nice to drop off the 3 marathon runners at the ferry terminal where we had to catch the ferry to Staten Island. I was afraid of getting seasick on the ferry and starting chatting non-stop to everyone.
At the ferry terminal, my tummy started to hurt and I decided to queue for the toilets. The lines were long! At least 50 over women and it was moving slowly. I decided to line up at the mens' toilet and the women that followed, created a mayhem much to the amusement of the men. It was a huge relief for me when I managed to clear out my tummy and I felt a lot better and less nervous.
From the ferry terminal, we had to take the shuttle bus to the actual race grounds. It is quite chaotic and trying to reach someone on a cellphone there is almost impossible as reception is weak. It took us many frustrating minutes before we finally manage to meet up with TS! Dropping off our bag that had our change of clothes post race and other stuff was easy. UPS trucks line up on the grounds according to bib numbers. Each truck keeps 1,000 bags and the bags are kept secured and properly and post-race, it made collecting of the bags quick and easy.
We got pushed into the pens and before we knew it, we were shuffling ourselves to the starting point. The atmosphere was great. Music was playing and as the first horn for the elite wave sounded, everyone started to cheer and clap. TS and I started 'shedding' our layers of long sleeves, pants and jackets and these discarded clothing are all donated to charity which is something that is really nice.
TS and I were still chatting and laughing when we reached the official starting point where the time mats started and we both looked at each other and went, OMG is this it?? We don't even have time to get nervous! And we started running. I couldn't quite believe that we had already started and 400m down the route I was still asking TS, Was that really the starting point??
The actual race.
The start was tough because it was across the bridge on an incline. The elevation profile for the race course is not exactly flat. You have to run across 4 bridges which all have inclines that last on average over a mile and throughout the course, some parts in the city have at least a gradual gradient of sorts. At the first bridge, it was windy and cold (temperatures were between 4-12 degrees C) and I half regretted throwing off my jacket so early.
The moment we got into town, we were greeted with a sea of spectators. The feeling of having thousands cheering for you, is indescribable. According to the news report the following day, there were about 2 million supporters cheering and routing for the runners! Imagine that! I guess it is because NYC marathon is the biggest in the world where you have about 40,000 runners all running a full marathon through the 5 boroughs. There were over 100 live bands playing throughout the race as well! We were so motivated and happy that we were throwing our arms in the air cheering and going yeah yeah yeah. B.T later told me that after a couple of miles, he realized that he was wasting a lot of energy doing that fist pumping action in the air and decided to stop and just run :P
TS was the best partner that I could have for the marathon. From the start to the end, we were like robots, obssessed with our pace, time and fuel intake. It was,
Next mile approaching, what is our target time? What time are we at now? 4 minutes under. Good job!
Salt in 45, gel in 30!
Water point up ahead. Keep left!
Wriggle your toes! Shake your arms!
What is our pace? 10:30? Too fast! Slow it down!
What is our pace? 11:10? Too slow! Step it up!
And it went on throughout the entire race!
TS did a run-stop technique where she runs for 10 minutes and walks for 30 seconds. She did it because she had injuries and this would help lessen the impact. So each time she walked, it was timed at a water point since I drank at every water point which was at every mile and she didn't. So I drank whilst she walked. We made sure that we never lost sight of one another and it was a good thing that we didn't.
The run course took us from Staten Island across the Verranzano Narrows bridge over to Brooklyn where we ran a good part of the course in it. We crossed over to Queens via the Pulaski Bridge slightly after the half way point. Then we crossed the Queensboro bridge over to Manhattan and ran up to Bronx across the Willis Ave bridge and crossed back into Manhattan by the Madison Ave bridge. The last stretch took us through the Central Park where it ended. Details of the course can be seen here.
The first few miles flew by really quickly and we were smiling and feeling darn good about ourselves saying that this was going to be easy. We were taking videos and pictures and our pace was ahead and even. We felt alright after the 13 mile or half way point and then things started to slide.
I had say almost every runner that I spoke to hit the wall at the Queensboro Bridge. That was a tough miserable run that had no supporters. It was dark and up an incline that stretched over almost a mile and by the time we entered Manhattan, I was tired and crushed. TS said that when she pointed out to me the famous Chrysler building, I responded with a mere grunt and was completely uninterested.
We both hit the wall at the 20th mile and everything pretty much went downhill from there. Our timing per mile got slower by 2 minutes and we started to feel the strain on our calves, hamstrings, and heck, every muscle in the body. We stopped a total of three times to stretch and I think that was a good call because we might have landed up with cramps that would have slowed us down.
On our third stretch, we suddenly realized that we were in front of a statue of Mother Mary and both of us being Catholics, started to exclaim and ask for help. On hindsight, it was quite a hilarious state. The last 6 miles were pure torture and the distance to each mile checkpoint seemed to be farther and farther away. In the course of the race, I was inspired by many runners such as those that survived cancer and were running the marathon, or the blind guy who was helped by the Archilles Heel team or the people on the wheelchair or prosthetic legs. I almost cried watching some of them painfully move on and we said to each other that if they could do it, there was no excuses why we couldn't. And we moved on.
According to TS, at the latter part of the race, I went half delirious and started reciting quotes from the boards that the spectators held :P I think I said, Pain is temporary! Needless to say, she was quite amused amidst her pain. Several times during the race, I was overcome with emotion and wanted to cry. I don't know why I felt that way but perhaps it was the energy from the spectators or the fact that it was such a wonderful course to run in where everything is so well organized with water and medic support at every mile and people giving out oranges, chocolates, tissue paper (yes useful for many! My nose got runny and it was raw and red by the time I finished the race).
As we ran into Central Park, we knew it was the last stretch but it was so tough. We felt as though it was hard to keep moving and I half regretted not bringing along my shuffle because I had decided at the last minute to run without music. Perhaps at those last hard few miles, the music would have helped! My left ankle was hurting bad (since mile 17 or so), my arm abrasion was bothering me and I was exhausted. But TS and I kept edging each other to move along and I guess that was pretty much how we both survived.
The last two miles were brutal. It literally seemed like forever. The 26mile marker seemed to be not in sight and I was running out of juice. TS started sprinting and I reminded her that we were not at the 26th mile yet. When we finally hit the 26th mile, we approached the countdown markers. 800 yards, 400 yards, 200 yards - how long was a yard?? I had no idea. And then as the finishing line came into sight, the tears started to well up in my eyes and we both started sprinting.
We ran our best, using up every bit of energy that we had left and pushed right through the finishing line. It was so surreal when I crossed the line, I don't know how to describe how I felt.
A photographer spotted me with tears in my eyes and stopped to take a picture. I felt so silly. I tried to smile but he said, Don't smile!. He took 3 shots of me. It's a pity I can't find that picture though.
Post-race.
You cross the line. Someone puts a medal around your neck, you receive a heavy bag with 3 bottles of drinks and packets of food, a space blanket and then you keep walking. We walked for about a mile before we got out of the grounds! We had to collect our bags and lug around the weight and I was literally half dead. My legs felt like jelly and I needed to sit down really bad. But it was so crowded, you had to keep moving.
I finally find B.T and we give each other a big hug and tell each other, Well done. We have both achieved our target and have completed our first marathon :) The next day, we find out that B.T, TS and I make it to the finishers' listing in the NY Times. The cut-off time was 4:44 and we just made it! It was surreal seeing your name listed in the NY Times. We are both going to laminate the newspaper portion :)
So that was my first marathon race report and adventure. It's been truly quite a journey and I am glad that I chose to embark on it. I have an amazing experience that I will remember for life and I guess finishing a marathon would be one of my greatest achievements. Would I do another one? I haven't quite decided. I'll let you know. :P But Nike posted an ad in the NY Times the next day. It said,
Today, you may feel like you'll never run a marathon again. See you next year.
And I guess that pretty much sums up how I really feel, deep down inside!
The day after the marathon, we spent our day hobbling at Woodbury Premium Outlet mall .. shopping :P The soreness wore off after the second day although we all experienced some aches and pains every now and then. B.T and I spent the rest of our trip doing alot of walking. We walked for 6 hours on Tuesday for example!
Before I sign off, some interesting facts about the NYC marathon -
... Men's winner was Meb Keflezighi 02:09:15. Women's winner was Derartu Tulu 02:28:52
... 2009 marks the 40th NYC marathon.
... First NYC marathon started in 1970 with just 127 runners.
... 100,000 applicants to the NYC Marathon 2009
... 72 UPS trucks transporting participants bags from start to finish
... 62,370 gallons of Poland Spring Brand Natural Spring Water provided during the course, 32,040 gallons of Gatorade, 2.3 million recycable paper cups used
... 41 medical aid stations
... 11,410 pounds of ice
... 390 tubs of vaseline
... USD$130,000 each to the male and female champion and if a previous champion wins again, it is USD$200,000!
... USD$250 million total economic impact of the marathon
... USD 21 mill raised for 80 charities.
My detailed splits breakdown. Mins/mile 10:50
B.T's detailed splits breakdown. Mins/mile 9:01
My pace tattoo
TS and I were happily snapping shots until the midpoint where we started to remain .. quiet
In all my pictures it looks like I am in church singing praise and worship :P ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
Proudly crossing the finishing line with TS. We made it! ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
His exuberant finish ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
I like this picture ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
And this one too ::Official photo courtesy of Brightroom::
Managed to remain blister free with all my toenails intact!
Painful abrasions where I forgot to rub on the glide