Yes, I was that girl who took out her phone to take a picture in the middle of the bridge. (In my defense, everyone advised against getting caught up in the excitement and running too fast, so my photography - and the first 45 seconds after crossing the start where it was too crowded to run - helped me avoid that.)
I’m tempted to be disappointed in my marathon performance (because of its rank as the second slowest I’ve run), which is absurd for a lot of reasons, I know.
Around mile 14 or so my legs were like “WHAT EXACTLY IS IT THAT YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU DOING TO US?” and I started to realize that maybe you can run two marathons in three weeks, but it is not going to be easy, and likely neither will be the fastest you ever ran. I would never have traded getting to run two fun marathons in two great cities, but I need to remember that adding one to my calendar mid-training plan meant that I probably traded in the most critical weeks of NYC runs for my pre-San Francisco faux taper, and that, along with whatever it was that was going on with my foot after that race that kept me from running more in between the two, led to far too many miles of yesterday’s run being a little rough.
Somewhere in Harlem I forced myself to realize that, once I finished, I would have run three marathons, hiked the Inca Trail, and PRed a half marathon this year. I was not allowed to feel bad or lazy or like I hadn’t pushed myself enough. I was going to keep going until I got to the finish and be proud of what I’ve accomplished.
Some notable items:
- High fives from kids always make me happy.
- The crowds were as great as promised, and I apologize to those along the last 5 or so miles of the course for looking so pained as I passed them.
- The last-minute addition of my name to my shirt happened, despite the attempts of iron-on letter makers to thwart this by only including one letter S in the package.
- Somewhere in Brooklyn “Murder She Wrote” was playing (the reggae song, not the Angela Lansbury vehicle - 7th grade dance soundtrack, waddup).
- I almost ran down an Orthodox Jew who decided it would be a good idea to cross the course around mile 10.
- I somehow spotted my family on 1st Avenue and around mile 25 (oy) even though neither of us were properly positioned so that I could find them as planned on the “runners’ right.”
- The truck that held my baggage was almost as far away from the finish line as possible, which, along with my walk to the PATH, walk to the Ferry, walk to the starting line, and walk to meet my family, means I’m pretty sure I actually covered 30 miles yesterday. (Then I took a cab to my apartment. Thanks for the cash J$!)
- While sitting down for the first time after finishing, somewhere along 77th, someone from the radio station 92.3 asked if she could interview me for the Nick Cannon morning show. There’s a chance my obnoxious voice and deep thoughts about the marathon and the Kardashians may have found their way onto the radio this morning, and for that I apologize, New York.
