NYC Marathon - DONE! - Josh Spector

NYC Marathon – DONE!

I did it. I survived. And not only did I survive, I raced well and finished with a fantastic time – 3:13:08! I don’t really know what to say about it or how to describe it. I can say that it was really, really hard – much harder than I expected: the course is hilly, the distance felt really far, the pounding on my feet hurt, and trying to keep up a sub-7:15 for that distance proved too much. I could feel pretty early on that 3:10 was going to be nearly impossible, but I certainly didn’t let on to Assaf and he pushed and pulled and I kept trying until just about the end. Running with Assaf was great – his experience was huge and the companionship helped the entire way, but especially at the end when I started to suffer. He did splits on his watch the entire way, and I’ve pasted those in below, along with his post-race commentary. I’ve also pasted in my official splits, which are divided in 5K increments. At the half I was still on pace for 3:10 and even until through 35K I was pretty close. It was really that last 10K that killed me. Miles 21-26 were pretty tough. I never hit a “wall”, but coming through Harlem and down towards the entrance into the Park, I had a bad side stich, my feet were hurting and I was slowing down. I really think that if not for Assaf, I might have found that mystical wall. I actually barely remember the end, all I could think about was doing sub-3:15 and finishing the damn race. I do know that I raised my arms up over my head and acted excited as I crossed the finish.

The race day was great, though it started off a little stressful. The hook-up we had for the “Honored Guest” status was HUGE. I got up and had some oatmeal and an apple and some tea, then got dressed. Assaf and I spoke at about 6AM, when we were both getting ready to leave home to head to 52nd and 7th Ave for the special bus to the start. For some stupid reason, we both decided not to bring our cell phones. Oops. Well, I got up to 52nd and 7th at about 6:20 and started looking for Assaf. The buses were actually around the corner between 6th and 7th and we didn’t choose an exact spot to meet. I didn’t see him and I spent the next 25 minutes running around back and forth on 52nd looking for my boy. As it turns out, he was doing the same thing – I can’t believe we missed each other. At 6:50, the last possible moment, I got on the bus and figured that I would just hopefully find him at the race site. I borrowed a phone and called Elizabeth and asked her to tell Robyn that if Assaf called, I would see him there. I just hoped that he would make the same decision I made and get on the bus instead of looking for me. Needless to say, I was pretty stressed out! The bus there was great – it wasn’t crowded and we got a special police escort, past all of the other, normal-people, not-so-honored-guests buses! The only problem was that my bladder was seriously about to burst. I almost just let it go, really. Thankfully, we got to the race site and I ran in to find a bathroom. Our Honored Guest status also got us into a special breakfast, which was near the entrance. I ran in, found the special porta-potties and peed for literally a couple minutes. Thank goodness I didn’t try peeing into my Gatorade bottle, it definitely would have overflowed.

That done, I got some more breakfast (this special tent was stocked with oatmeal, berries, water, gatorade, muffins, coffee, tea, etc.). I sat down and kept an eye on the door for Assaf. Then, he walked in. I have almost never been more relieved to see someone than I was at that point. Phew, now I could relax. We just hung out in this nice heated tent, used the nice, special porta potties and chilled for a little while. We made our trashbag shirts and skirts, got all our stuff together. Then, we dropped our bags at the special Honored Guest bag drop and made our way to the start. It was now about 9:15, less than an hour to go. We sat down and waited. At about 9:45, we joined the crowd right at the front of the 5000-5999 bin and jammed in waiting for it to open. It finally opened and everyone pushed to the front. We were actually pretty close. We stood around there for another 20 minutes, waiting, waiting, waiting. It was quite a scene. Then, it just started. Bang. And we were off.

We actually crossed the starting line pretty quickly (about 45 seconds behind the clock) and after just the first quarter mile or so, it was thinned out enough that I didn’t feel like I was running through people. The first mile is uphill over the first half of the Verazano Bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn. The second mile is downhill, down the other side of the bridge and you’re pretty much free of the crowds. That all helps explain why our first mile was 8:15 and the second was 6:26. Then we settled into our pace through Brooklyn – trying to keep it around 7:10-7:15. In retrospect, perhaps we should have taken it a little easier for a few miles, but the restraint/control to do 7:20’s (I wouldn’t have wanted to go any slower than that, really) just wasn’t there. We were having a blast and feeling great. Brooklyn was a lot of fun – the streets were packed through the whole borough and I saw a few people I knew.

The half-marathon point is on a bridge between Brooklyn and Queens. We passed half-way right on target. Queens was still good and I was still feeling strong and fast. Assaf kept telling me that the “race doesn’t start until First Avenue” and I was gunning for it. It was sometime early in Manhattan that I started to hurt. I was still keeping up the pace, but I was much less conscious of the crowds and having a harder time concentrating on the running. I could feel the hurt starting. Robyn had a huge “Go Assaf! Go Josh!” sign on their balcony. Miles 17, 18 and 19 up First Ave were pretty fast, but around mile 20 when you go through the Bronx and start in Harlem, I started getting a side stitch and I could feel my stride shortening. I was hurting. With 10K to go, I realized that all I had to do was match my good 10K times from triathlons and I would hit my goal. “All I had to do” of course… but those 10K’s weren’t after 20 miles of hard running. It was tough and I really wanted to stop. That’s pretty much all I wanted to do. But there was no way. I kept going and going and going. I remember little bits and pieces of things – a DJ from a rap radio station, this black dude in Harlem at one of the official cheering sections, cheering harder than just about anyone else we’d seen on the course. I remember taking the turn onto Fifth Avenue and being worried about taking the turn too quickly. I was still going, but it didn’t feel pretty. Assaf really kept me moving. Going down Fifth Avenue all I could think about was getting into the Park. Running through the Park, I remember hearing my name and there were Ally and Charlie! The finish was so close. I don’t really remember finishing. I threw up my hands in celebration and wanted to cry for the joy of being done. 3:13:08. No shame in that. Fantastic, in fact. I don’t know many 3:13 marathoners. It has to be at least a half hour off my previous best.

After we got our medals, the Honored Guest thing kicked in again. We were grabbed by two NYRR volunteers and escorted to the special Cherry Hill family reunion area. We met up with Robyn, Myles and Elizabeth and sat, finally sat. Phew. What a day.

I have to admit that I am a bit disappointed that I didn’t run a 3:10 and qualify for Boston. That’s not to say that I’m not proud of my time or what I accomplished out there yesterday. I am, very. I knew all along that it was a very aggressive goal and probably beyond me. But, as the race got closer, I knew that it was possible. I will say that that possibility carried me through a lot of my training and gave me the confidence to go for it and thereby end up with my 3:13, instead of a 3:20, which would have been considerably easier and more enjoyable. So, I’m happy for that. And, I’m happy because I feel like I gave it my all. I didn’t leave anything out there and any seconds or minutes I think I might have been able to take off my time is pure conjecture. There’s nothing I can point to that I would say I would do differently and it would have gotten me to 3:10. Nothing. Those minutes were like centuries toward the end. And, if I want to (and I probably do), I can run Boston in 2008. I age up (to 35-39) for the 2008 race, the qualifying time for that age group is 3:15 and any race after September 2006 (including NYC) counts for 2007 or 2008. So there.

The rest of this week is really easy – today, I took the morning off from work. I went to the dog run with Charlie and had lunch at home with Elizabeth. I rode on the trainer for a half hour at a really, really slow pace. It felt good, I guess. I’ll probably swim a little and get on the bike again, but no running for this week. Thank goodness!

Mile splits – from Assaf:

1, 8:15, traffic and bridge
2, 6:26, downhill bridge
3, 7:04, nice flat
4-5, 14:13, Brooklyn pumped up – still a little fast
6, 7:08, 4th ave straight
7, 7:18, we sensed going too fast – slowed it down
8 -9, 14:52, ? a bit longer mile 8 at merge, somehow it had us running
a 7:35
10, 7:01, sped up to make up for our “slowness”
11, 7:26, slowed down again
12, 7:08, starting to feel like work
13, 7:20, a bit uphill leading into the bridge
14, 7:08, hill at the half
15, 7:26, Queensboro bridge hill
16, 7:30, starting to feel it
17, 7:01, I started to put the hammer down and half step you out front
18, 7:11, still rolling!
19, 7:15, hurting badly but still keeping the pace!
20, 7:30, after the bridge – starting to shorten the stride a bit
21, 7:23, again – hurting badly but still rolling
22, 7:40, heading back into manhattan – cramping
23, 7:21, hell yeah! the kid is back with the jump and the long stride
24, 8:10, someone handed you a piano
25, 7:51, feeling the crowd, getting back into rythmn
26.2, 9:21 – translates to about a 7:48 pace for the last mile and
change – again keeping a rythmn and not giving into the crazy pain.

Overall place: 1,818 (out of 37,000+)
Gender place: 1,689
Age group (30-39) place: 706 (out of 8,341)
Final time: 3:13:08

Official marathon splits:
5K: 0:22:29
10K: 0:44:40
15K: 1:07:32
20K: 1:30:06
Half-marathon: 1:35:01
25K: 1:52:58
30K: 2:15:14
35K: 2:38:26
40K: 3:02:35
overall average pace: 7:22/mile

Below are some more marathon pictures: