The first few miles of this run felt pretty good. Legs felt rested and stretched out from rolling them out with the foam roller at the gym yesterday. Running down Pershing Dr. is a little sketchy during the weekday evenings though. Cars tend to drive a little too fast and there really isn't a sidewalk for pedestrians. I had stomach issues, halfway through the run and it hit me pretty hard during the last mile of the run. All in all, the evening was cool and running through Balboa Park in the early evening is so nice.
Pershing Dr. / Balboa Park Garmin Stats
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
I want to run faster!!! (2011 Surf City Marathon / 2011 La Jolla Half Marathon)
It has been a while since I've logged on and updated my blog. Since then, I ran the Surf City USA marathon in Huntington Beach and the La Jolla Half Marathon.
Surf City USA Marathon - February 7th (Finish: 04:44:29)
Surf City USA Marathon, the first of the five marathons that I'll be running in 2011, has probably got to be my least favorite of all the marathons I've run so far. The latter half of the course had me going back and forth for 16 freaking miles!!! Yes, the view of the gentle crashing waves of the ocean was right there, but when I'm zig-zagging for that far of a distance, I couldn't care less if there were hundreds of speedo-wearing men waiting to fan and feed me grapes! One of my worst pet-peeves are out and backs and this had runners zig-zagging 6 times! I guess the one positive thing I found about this was that I got to see Joe at least once during the race. Overall, the weather was over cast and the organization of the race was mediocre. My goal initially was to beat my NYC marathon time of 04:30, but from the beginning of the race, I could feel my legs were heavy and never properly warmed up. I changed my goal to finishing under 4:45 and was happy that I barely achieved that.
The Surf City USA marathon was Joe's first marathon, which he did extremely well (not that that would surprise me in the least bit, of course!). It was also supposed to be the first of 3 marathons that would make up the California Dreamin' Series in which upon completion, you would receive a jacket and a medal. I found out not too long ago that this series actually ended this year with the Surf City USA marathon, AFTER I had already registered for the SF and LB marathon. The race series had been replaced by the Beach Cities Challenge, a similar series except the SF marathon had been replaced by the OC marathon. You get a nice medal for completing the series, but not a jacket as you would have in the Cal Dreamin' Series. In addition, you have to complete these 3 events CONSECUTIVELY, whereas the Cal Dreamin' series allowed you 2 years. It was extremely frustrating to learn that they ended the series and it was not even mentioned on their site of a end date.
2011 Surf City USA Marathon Garmin Stats
La Jolla Half Marathon - April 17th (Finish: 1:59:40)
After my disappointment with the Surf City USA marathon, I decided to up my running from 4 times to 5 times a week and including a day of speed/interval/tempo training to try and regain my speed to last year. I had noticed that since November, my pace had been gradually getting slower and I attribute it to slacking on my running and weight gain (diet and stress). So, since February, I had been watching my diet and trying to increase my running and visits to the gym to 5x and 3x respectively.
The week of the La Jolla half, I ran a total of 38 miles (17mi on Mon, 5 on Tues, 8 on Wed, 5 on Thurs, 3 on Sat). So needless to say, my legs were very tired. I was determined to keep up with my running schedule. It was strange, though, because in that week of running, even though my legs were tired, I was able to keep up a pretty decent pace for each run ( they ranged from 9min/mi to 9:20 min /mi). However, the 3 mi on Saturday proved to be an exhausting run. I'm glad that I shortened it to 3 and did not run the 5 I had planned. It was enough to push out the lactic acid and warm my legs up for the LJ half.
Compared to last year, my over all pace was slower by about 30 seconds (8:33min/mi 2010, 9:02min/mi 2011). The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was overcast and a very gentle breeze. Of course, it was way too cold for me in the morning, but I knew that it would warm up quickly once I started running. Once I began running, I was very excited to feel that my legs didn't feel like it did on Saturday. It felt good and ready to run 13.1 miles! What I love about the LJ half is it doesn't feel like 13.1 miles. I'm familiar with the route as I ran it a few times last year before the 2010 race. Once over the N. Torrey Pines Hill, you are more than half way through the race! I throughly enjoyed the race as I did last year, even if I did not run it as fast as 2010. I was proud that I was able to keep a great pace for over 13 miles! This has further encouraged me to keep up with my speed training and stick with my gym routine to get back to where I was last year. In 2 weeks, the OC marathon!
2011 La Jolla Half Marathon Garmin stats
Surf City USA Marathon - February 7th (Finish: 04:44:29)
Surf City USA Marathon, the first of the five marathons that I'll be running in 2011, has probably got to be my least favorite of all the marathons I've run so far. The latter half of the course had me going back and forth for 16 freaking miles!!! Yes, the view of the gentle crashing waves of the ocean was right there, but when I'm zig-zagging for that far of a distance, I couldn't care less if there were hundreds of speedo-wearing men waiting to fan and feed me grapes! One of my worst pet-peeves are out and backs and this had runners zig-zagging 6 times! I guess the one positive thing I found about this was that I got to see Joe at least once during the race. Overall, the weather was over cast and the organization of the race was mediocre. My goal initially was to beat my NYC marathon time of 04:30, but from the beginning of the race, I could feel my legs were heavy and never properly warmed up. I changed my goal to finishing under 4:45 and was happy that I barely achieved that.
The Surf City USA marathon was Joe's first marathon, which he did extremely well (not that that would surprise me in the least bit, of course!). It was also supposed to be the first of 3 marathons that would make up the California Dreamin' Series in which upon completion, you would receive a jacket and a medal. I found out not too long ago that this series actually ended this year with the Surf City USA marathon, AFTER I had already registered for the SF and LB marathon. The race series had been replaced by the Beach Cities Challenge, a similar series except the SF marathon had been replaced by the OC marathon. You get a nice medal for completing the series, but not a jacket as you would have in the Cal Dreamin' Series. In addition, you have to complete these 3 events CONSECUTIVELY, whereas the Cal Dreamin' series allowed you 2 years. It was extremely frustrating to learn that they ended the series and it was not even mentioned on their site of a end date.
 |
| Surf City Marathon Route - Curse you, zig-zags! |
La Jolla Half Marathon - April 17th (Finish: 1:59:40)
After my disappointment with the Surf City USA marathon, I decided to up my running from 4 times to 5 times a week and including a day of speed/interval/tempo training to try and regain my speed to last year. I had noticed that since November, my pace had been gradually getting slower and I attribute it to slacking on my running and weight gain (diet and stress). So, since February, I had been watching my diet and trying to increase my running and visits to the gym to 5x and 3x respectively.
The week of the La Jolla half, I ran a total of 38 miles (17mi on Mon, 5 on Tues, 8 on Wed, 5 on Thurs, 3 on Sat). So needless to say, my legs were very tired. I was determined to keep up with my running schedule. It was strange, though, because in that week of running, even though my legs were tired, I was able to keep up a pretty decent pace for each run ( they ranged from 9min/mi to 9:20 min /mi). However, the 3 mi on Saturday proved to be an exhausting run. I'm glad that I shortened it to 3 and did not run the 5 I had planned. It was enough to push out the lactic acid and warm my legs up for the LJ half.
Compared to last year, my over all pace was slower by about 30 seconds (8:33min/mi 2010, 9:02min/mi 2011). The weather couldn't have been more perfect. It was overcast and a very gentle breeze. Of course, it was way too cold for me in the morning, but I knew that it would warm up quickly once I started running. Once I began running, I was very excited to feel that my legs didn't feel like it did on Saturday. It felt good and ready to run 13.1 miles! What I love about the LJ half is it doesn't feel like 13.1 miles. I'm familiar with the route as I ran it a few times last year before the 2010 race. Once over the N. Torrey Pines Hill, you are more than half way through the race! I throughly enjoyed the race as I did last year, even if I did not run it as fast as 2010. I was proud that I was able to keep a great pace for over 13 miles! This has further encouraged me to keep up with my speed training and stick with my gym routine to get back to where I was last year. In 2 weeks, the OC marathon!
2011 La Jolla Half Marathon Garmin stats
Monday, January 10, 2011
I survived the streets of NYC!
Almost 2 months have passed since I ran the NYC marathon and the thought of this amazing run still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
My morning started off at 3:30am... only because the time did not adjust properly on my boyfriend's, Joey, cell phone. I had a rather restless night sleep regardless. The anticipation of the 5 hour wait in the cold was really making me anxious, even more so than the marathon itself. I laid in the pull out couch that my high school friend, Alvaro, had so kindly let us use for the past 4 nights, attempting to relax myself and clear my mind. I semi-dozed off for what seemed to be only a fraction of a second when the alarm went off at 4:30am. I got up and felt the goose bumps raise on my skin, partially from the cold and the excitement of the day finally arriving.
I laid my clothing out the night before because I knew in the early hours with just a few hours of sleep, I was bound to forget something. I got dressed slowly, yawning between each article of clothing. My legs felt tired from the hours we had spent walking around days previously sight seeing. Regardless, I was ready to run. For some runners, tapering off allows their legs to recover from their weekly high mileage and is welcomed with open arms, for others they go batty and curl up in the corner like a drug addict jonesing for another fix. I fall with the latter group.
Afterwards, Joey and I walked to the South side of Central Park, the meeting spot of the MMRF chartity shuttles. It was cold... 35ºF cold. Despite being under layers of clothing, I was still shivering. How am I going to survive this long and agonizing wait before my wave's start time? Shuttles left at 5:30am and 6:00am. I decided to get orange juice and a bagel with Joe before getting on the 6am shuttle to the starting point in Staten Island. His encouraging words helped calm me down.
After breakfast, we made our way to the MMRF shuttles. Joe gave me the biggest, warmest embrace and kissed me. I flashed him a quick smile and told him, "See you at the 5 mile marker!"
At the beginning of the shuttle ride, Betsy gave us some last minute instructions, regarding bag checks, wave starts, the MMRF chartity tent... too much information for too early in the morning. I felt my adrenaline dying down and dozed off on the shuttle ride to Staten Island. The next thing I knew, we had arrived and were being hurried off the bus towards our tent. As I was following Betsy and the other MMRF team members, there were lines of men off the side of the road, urinating. I was a bit disturbed by this, I mean, really, you couldn't wait until getting to the porta-johns? Sheesh.
Sinatra's "New York, New York" started to play and I developed a lump in my throat that I spent many times
I fumbled with my phone to take a picture of the momentous first mile crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Knowing my clumsiness, I decided it was best to not attempt to take pictures any more during the run and just enjoy the marathon. Being so short, I didn't have much view of what was over the bridge, all I could really see were the backs of the runners ahead of me. I knew the first mile would be a slow one because of the elevation, warming up the muscles, and the getting through the masses. The second mile was about the pace I was expecting to run (in the low 9min/mi) and the crowd of people started to spread out a little bit more. I started to feel like I was in my element, it did not feel like I was laboring with the pace that I was running. In fact, I felt like I could have picked up a bit, but I decided to keep the same pace and try to speed up for the second half. Once I finished crossing the bridge, I, along with many others, were welcomed into Brooklyn by a man who wore an expressionless face and held a sign up in the air that read, "Get out of Broklyn, runners." I heard a man shout back, "Learn how to spell Brooklyn, first!"
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| 26.2 miles through the five boroughs of NYC |
My morning started off at 3:30am... only because the time did not adjust properly on my boyfriend's, Joey, cell phone. I had a rather restless night sleep regardless. The anticipation of the 5 hour wait in the cold was really making me anxious, even more so than the marathon itself. I laid in the pull out couch that my high school friend, Alvaro, had so kindly let us use for the past 4 nights, attempting to relax myself and clear my mind. I semi-dozed off for what seemed to be only a fraction of a second when the alarm went off at 4:30am. I got up and felt the goose bumps raise on my skin, partially from the cold and the excitement of the day finally arriving.
 |
| "*Yaaaaawn* Remind me why I do this again?" |
Afterwards, Joey and I walked to the South side of Central Park, the meeting spot of the MMRF chartity shuttles. It was cold... 35ºF cold. Despite being under layers of clothing, I was still shivering. How am I going to survive this long and agonizing wait before my wave's start time? Shuttles left at 5:30am and 6:00am. I decided to get orange juice and a bagel with Joe before getting on the 6am shuttle to the starting point in Staten Island. His encouraging words helped calm me down.
 |
| Bye Central Park! Off to Staten Island! |
At the beginning of the shuttle ride, Betsy gave us some last minute instructions, regarding bag checks, wave starts, the MMRF chartity tent... too much information for too early in the morning. I felt my adrenaline dying down and dozed off on the shuttle ride to Staten Island. The next thing I knew, we had arrived and were being hurried off the bus towards our tent. As I was following Betsy and the other MMRF team members, there were lines of men off the side of the road, urinating. I was a bit disturbed by this, I mean, really, you couldn't wait until getting to the porta-johns? Sheesh.
 |
| The entrance to the "Start Village" staging area. The home for over 43,000 runners for the next 3.5 hours. |
I was so thankful for the MMRF charity tent. Were it not for all the people huddled in there, I would have been so much colder and more miserable. I chatted with a few people there, helping to ease our nerves of the race. We talked about our reasons for running, our inspirations, what a wonderful charity group the MMRF is. I became caught up with last minute preparations and didn't realize it was already time to check in my bag and head off to my corral! The wait actually went a lot quicker than I had anticipated... I didn't have time to be anxious.
 |
| Huddled in the corner, feeding off the warmth of fellow MMRF team members. |
The sheer number of people within Blue Wave #3 was insane. The air was filled with a hodgepodge of emotions: excitement, nervousness, anxiousness... I was feeding off each and everyone's emotions. My heart was racing. The announcer's voice boomed through the frigid air, exclaiming "good luck" and "have fun on your run!" Helicopters flew over head to capture the organized chaos down below them.
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| Over 15,000 people ready to go! |
 |
Lovin' every moment of it. |
Sinatra's "New York, New York" started to play and I developed a lump in my throat that I spent many times
trying to swallow. Crowds on top of buses were cheering with cowbells and boomsticks, trying to get the runners amped up...
I was pretty emotional at this point. I wanted to enjoy each moment of it, but I felt my mind wandering in other directions:
"Will I be warm enough?"
"Am I going to make my sub 4 goal?"
"Am I going to see Jared?"
"Should I just stop thinking and enjoy the moment?"
And before I can finish asking myself 21 questions, I was crossing the start line. "Shit, I guess I should start running!"
And before I can finish asking myself 21 questions, I was crossing the start line. "Shit, I guess I should start running!"
 |
| Crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn. |
I fumbled with my phone to take a picture of the momentous first mile crossing the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Knowing my clumsiness, I decided it was best to not attempt to take pictures any more during the run and just enjoy the marathon. Being so short, I didn't have much view of what was over the bridge, all I could really see were the backs of the runners ahead of me. I knew the first mile would be a slow one because of the elevation, warming up the muscles, and the getting through the masses. The second mile was about the pace I was expecting to run (in the low 9min/mi) and the crowd of people started to spread out a little bit more. I started to feel like I was in my element, it did not feel like I was laboring with the pace that I was running. In fact, I felt like I could have picked up a bit, but I decided to keep the same pace and try to speed up for the second half. Once I finished crossing the bridge, I, along with many others, were welcomed into Brooklyn by a man who wore an expressionless face and held a sign up in the air that read, "Get out of Broklyn, runners." I heard a man shout back, "Learn how to spell Brooklyn, first!"
 |
| 5 mi water station: Babo, Carlo, Boni, and Joey met me here (loudly ringing a cowbell and posters!) |
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| The Cheerleaders (minus Carlo) riding the subways to get to the next meeting spot: L to R Boni, Joey, Babo |
At the 5th mile water station, I was extremely elated to see some familiar cheering faces among thousands and thousands of unfamilars. I was greeted by my personal, very loud and enthusiastic cheering section - Carlo, Babo, Boni, and Joey.
They were each carrying a poster: one had the word "GO" and the other 3 each had a letter of my nickname "Lin." Joey rang that cowbell loudly and they were all shouting words of encouragement.
It quickly made me forget about the first 5 miles that I had just run and I was ready to tackle the next set of 5...Another 3 miles or so brought me to downtown Brooklyn. I started to notice that my legs were starting to feel heavy possibly because after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the last 8 miles were relatively flat. The next few miles had a few elevation changes that I would normally not even give another thought. But after 6 miles of flat running, I definitely felt the changes. I was starting to feel tired already, which bummed me out a bit because I still had a long ways ahead of me. I was hoping that seeing cheering squad at mile 10 would refuel me with the energy that I needed to finish the rest of the race.
I passed the 10 mile marker and was casually looking around for my cheering squad for another pick-me-up. When I didn't see them after the water station, I started to look frantically around for them. Did I miss them? I figured that getting from one mile marker to another would be a difficult task, given the immense number of spectators trying to do the same thing for their runners. I was dis-heartened, but I tried very much to not let it bother me. After all, I still had 16.2 miles more to go.
I hit the half marathon marker (13.1 mi) and feeling a bit defeated. I was crossing the 2nd bridge of the race, the Pulaski Bridge, and felt the quarter mile elevation increase. On the other side of the Pulaski Bridge, Queens lay ahead of me. The change of borough felt good mentally. I felt like I was stuck in Brooklyn forever and now I was finally in a different area. I felt like I was making progress now. The jaunt through Brooklyn lasted only about 2 miles before I realized I was going to cross the Queensborough bridge. It was here that I felt I hit a wall. The elevation on this bridge may have been slight, but I felt like I was climbing a hill. I began to walk and tried to regroup myself. A sharp cold breeze blew through the bridge and that combined with the sweat on my head caused my head to ache pretty badly. I wanted to stop and it to be over so badly at that point. I looked down and I saw my bib that read, "My run is in tribute to: John Zell." I was not only running for myself, I was running in memory of my friend's Aaron, whose father passed away from Multiple Myeloma. I was running for the MMRF, whose main purpose was to spread awareness of the disease and to raise money for research. I was running for Joey, Boni, Alvaro, and Carlo, who had gotten up early that day to support me and cheer me on. This sparked my motivation and I slowly picked up my pace. I was here in this majestic city and have had an amazing time sight seeing the days before. This is what the months of training prior have led to! Not finishing was NOT an option!
Mile 16 on was a bit of a blur. I tried to focus on other things beside the how many more miles was left. The spectators and the volunteers kept me going. I heard volunteers from the water stations yelling, "Water... get your water over here" in their New York accent. I heard spectators cheering and music playing. I was happy again and enjoying the race. After I had crossed the Queensborough bridge, I was in Manhattan, where I had spent the majority of my time in New York and where I'd spend the majority of the last portion of the race. After running what seemed like a LONG 3.5mi stretch, I'd cross the Willis Ave. Bridge into the Bronx. We'd only spend about a mile in this borough. I believe it was here that they had a billboard set up and when crossers would cross the mile marker, a message would pop up specially dedicated to that runner. I was looking at all the dedications from family and friends as each runner crossed the mile marker. When I crossed it, a photo of Bi-ying and me covered the screen. I, unfortunately, could not read the message, but just seeing her beautiful smiling face was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I had to compose myself because I tend to hyperventilate when I start crying. I crossed the final bridge of this race, the Madison Ave. Bridge, which brought me back to the final 5 miles!
The iconic Central Park run. I was so tired and so cold that even though I had only 5 miles to go, it definitely felt like I was running another marathon. In fact when I hit mile 22, I had for some reason worked out in my head that I only had 2 more miles to go... When the delirium somewhat subsided, I realized that there was still a 5K's worth of run. When I got to mile 24, I saw my cheering squad and I was elated! Alvaro and Boni were screaming at the top of their lungs, holding up the signs, and ringing the cow bell as loudly as they could. Joey popped out from the crowd, shirtless, with "Go Lin!" written on his chest in green marker. I couldn't help but laugh, albeit, weakly, but it was enough to keep going. He ran alongside me for those last 2 miles, encouraging me and giving me the motivation to get to the end. About mile 25, I ran alongside a man who had an ice pack taped around his right knee. I thought to myself, "Man, that guy is really hurtin'." I looked in front of me and had noticed a vehicle with a man sitting on the back with a camera. I waved at it, thinking it was a crew filming runner's last mile of the race. I later realized that the man I passed was Edison Peña, one of the Chilean miners.
Joey cut out at Mile 26 and I had to finish the last 400 yards on my own. I gathered the last bit of energy that I had to "sprint" across the finish line. Tears welled up in my eyes, a knot formed in my throat, and I threw my hands up in the air. I did it! I completed the NYC marathon!
They were each carrying a poster: one had the word "GO" and the other 3 each had a letter of my nickname "Lin." Joey rang that cowbell loudly and they were all shouting words of encouragement.
It quickly made me forget about the first 5 miles that I had just run and I was ready to tackle the next set of 5...Another 3 miles or so brought me to downtown Brooklyn. I started to notice that my legs were starting to feel heavy possibly because after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the last 8 miles were relatively flat. The next few miles had a few elevation changes that I would normally not even give another thought. But after 6 miles of flat running, I definitely felt the changes. I was starting to feel tired already, which bummed me out a bit because I still had a long ways ahead of me. I was hoping that seeing cheering squad at mile 10 would refuel me with the energy that I needed to finish the rest of the race.
I passed the 10 mile marker and was casually looking around for my cheering squad for another pick-me-up. When I didn't see them after the water station, I started to look frantically around for them. Did I miss them? I figured that getting from one mile marker to another would be a difficult task, given the immense number of spectators trying to do the same thing for their runners. I was dis-heartened, but I tried very much to not let it bother me. After all, I still had 16.2 miles more to go.
I hit the half marathon marker (13.1 mi) and feeling a bit defeated. I was crossing the 2nd bridge of the race, the Pulaski Bridge, and felt the quarter mile elevation increase. On the other side of the Pulaski Bridge, Queens lay ahead of me. The change of borough felt good mentally. I felt like I was stuck in Brooklyn forever and now I was finally in a different area. I felt like I was making progress now. The jaunt through Brooklyn lasted only about 2 miles before I realized I was going to cross the Queensborough bridge. It was here that I felt I hit a wall. The elevation on this bridge may have been slight, but I felt like I was climbing a hill. I began to walk and tried to regroup myself. A sharp cold breeze blew through the bridge and that combined with the sweat on my head caused my head to ache pretty badly. I wanted to stop and it to be over so badly at that point. I looked down and I saw my bib that read, "My run is in tribute to: John Zell." I was not only running for myself, I was running in memory of my friend's Aaron, whose father passed away from Multiple Myeloma. I was running for the MMRF, whose main purpose was to spread awareness of the disease and to raise money for research. I was running for Joey, Boni, Alvaro, and Carlo, who had gotten up early that day to support me and cheer me on. This sparked my motivation and I slowly picked up my pace. I was here in this majestic city and have had an amazing time sight seeing the days before. This is what the months of training prior have led to! Not finishing was NOT an option!
Mile 16 on was a bit of a blur. I tried to focus on other things beside the how many more miles was left. The spectators and the volunteers kept me going. I heard volunteers from the water stations yelling, "Water... get your water over here" in their New York accent. I heard spectators cheering and music playing. I was happy again and enjoying the race. After I had crossed the Queensborough bridge, I was in Manhattan, where I had spent the majority of my time in New York and where I'd spend the majority of the last portion of the race. After running what seemed like a LONG 3.5mi stretch, I'd cross the Willis Ave. Bridge into the Bronx. We'd only spend about a mile in this borough. I believe it was here that they had a billboard set up and when crossers would cross the mile marker, a message would pop up specially dedicated to that runner. I was looking at all the dedications from family and friends as each runner crossed the mile marker. When I crossed it, a photo of Bi-ying and me covered the screen. I, unfortunately, could not read the message, but just seeing her beautiful smiling face was enough to bring tears to my eyes. I had to compose myself because I tend to hyperventilate when I start crying. I crossed the final bridge of this race, the Madison Ave. Bridge, which brought me back to the final 5 miles!
The iconic Central Park run. I was so tired and so cold that even though I had only 5 miles to go, it definitely felt like I was running another marathon. In fact when I hit mile 22, I had for some reason worked out in my head that I only had 2 more miles to go... When the delirium somewhat subsided, I realized that there was still a 5K's worth of run. When I got to mile 24, I saw my cheering squad and I was elated! Alvaro and Boni were screaming at the top of their lungs, holding up the signs, and ringing the cow bell as loudly as they could. Joey popped out from the crowd, shirtless, with "Go Lin!" written on his chest in green marker. I couldn't help but laugh, albeit, weakly, but it was enough to keep going. He ran alongside me for those last 2 miles, encouraging me and giving me the motivation to get to the end. About mile 25, I ran alongside a man who had an ice pack taped around his right knee. I thought to myself, "Man, that guy is really hurtin'." I looked in front of me and had noticed a vehicle with a man sitting on the back with a camera. I waved at it, thinking it was a crew filming runner's last mile of the race. I later realized that the man I passed was Edison Peña, one of the Chilean miners.
Joey cut out at Mile 26 and I had to finish the last 400 yards on my own. I gathered the last bit of energy that I had to "sprint" across the finish line. Tears welled up in my eyes, a knot formed in my throat, and I threw my hands up in the air. I did it! I completed the NYC marathon!
 |
| Official Finish time: 04:32:19 |
 |
| Tired, sweaty, but somehow managed to smile. |
The aftermath
After taking a photo, we were given a goodie bag, the iconic aluminium capes and were corralled. There were trucks lined up where we could pick up our belongings. All I wanted to do was be in Joey's warm embrace and sit down, but instead, we were all forced to walk, very slowly, to two outlets onto Central Park West. After what seemed like an hour, I finally met up with Joey and received that hug that I was longing for since mile 16. Of course, that wasn't the end of the walking, we still had to make it back to Alvaro's apartment on 51st and 8th.
 |
| Zombie runners |
I have learned a few things in the days leading and the day of the marathon:
1. New Yorkers are amazing people… don’t believe the stereotype.
2. The bagels and pizza really ARE good there…
3. The mind is stronger than the body.
4. When you start to doubt yourself, your friends, families, and the enthusiasm of strangers will keep you going.
5. It’s not quite worth accepting a bet to down a tablespoon of wasabi 2 days before race day in order for your loved one to go shirtless with “Go Eileen” painted on his bare chest in 40-45F weather (but highly entertaining).
My final contribution to the charity totaled $3300!! Thanks again for all your support and donations to the MMRF.
2011 ING NYC Garmin Stats
2011 ING NYC Garmin Stats
… Now on to training for the Huntington Beach Marathon in Feb. ;)
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