2013 Challenge Series: New York Marathon Result (3)

I am sorry if this is really over-indulgent, but I do have one more report on the New York Marathon. So you can stop reading now if you think you've had enough. I'll tell you what the blog is about: its about my result and how I found running the course........

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First of all, my time? 4 hours and 46 minutes. Before the race, I would have accepted that as about what I was expecting: I would have been disappointed with a time of over 5 hours and would have been very happy with 4 hours 30 minutes, so I think this was about right. However, there is a little part of me that is a bit disappointed with my split times: my first mile was over 11 minutes, which is over 2 minutes more than I would have normally taken... this was going over a very windy and fairly steep Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, but even so, I was surprised at this. And then my 1/2 marathon split was 10-15 minutes slower that I'd normally take, which again I was slightly disappointed about: I suppose I shouldn't have been totally surprised at this as loads of people overtook me in this part of the race. 

Half way or the end?

So why so slow? Well, two things I think. Firstly i had been advised by others to start slowly and steadily, which I did, perhaps too slowly! Secondly, I was just so taken in my the atmosphere and crowds and cheering and generally high fiving people that my head was just not in the race: about half way, I remember thinking that the time had just flown by and that I needed to focus a bit more. 

However, from half way onwards to about 20 miles, I found the run harder going: there were a couple of bridges and the route went North through Manhattan for about 4 or 5 miles up a gentle incline. This for me was the hardest part of the race, and I walked two or three times whilst taking on water at the water stations. There was also a short but steepish slope up a bridge into the Bronx where a lot of people were walking, but once out of the Bronx, I remember thinking that I felt strong and that i was going to do it! I was encouraged, as at this stage I was overtaking people and going towards Central Park, I felt that I could run strongly towards the end..... In fact I thought that I was running quicker than the previous miles and I was overtaking loads of people (many of whom were walking) right till the end of the race. However, my daughter, following me on the marathon "tracker" over the internet, informs me that I was getting gradually slower throughout the race, including the end stages!

So, I came 34,084th out of 50,304 runners! So not fantastic, and my time's certainly not effected my Run Britain ranking either! But for me, just finishing intact was an achievement: for others, it was their time which was important. After the race I had a meal with several others, some of whom were clearly "veteran" marathon runners, who'd completed the course in times ranging from 3:04 to 3:23..... clearly a few steps up from me! They too had obviously enjoyed the run, and I was pleased to hear that they thought it was one of the hardest of the major marathons around. In fact they said you could take 10-15 minutes off your New York time to give equivalent times for other marathons. It made me feel a little better! 

Towards the end: Central Park

In fact all the people I spoke to after the race had completed it quicker than me..... apart from one person. On the day after the marathon, I visited Ground Zero. I saw a man gingerly trying to bend down to pick something up: he looked like someone who'd just run a marathon! I got chatting to him and found out I had completed the course about 2 minutes quicker than he had..... I was immensely chuffed to find out I'd run it quicker than him! ....... He then went on to tell me that he had had problems with his knees and Achilles just days before the race, had thought he could have broken down at any time and had stopped many times during the race to take photos as he went along. He broke down in tears at the finish, he was so overcome with emotion at just having finished because he did not think he would do it. A great achievement!

So to sum up: not a great (race) time, but I did have an absolutely amazing time running in New York. I would do it again, and would recommend it to anyone else who was thinking about it. Just do it!