NYC 2010

It's just starting to hit me know, over 24 hours after finishing the race: it's over! When I crossed the finish line 4 hours, 26 minutes and 27 seconds after starting on Staten Island, I could not have been happier to finally stop, for it all to be over! But now, I already miss it! It's like with anything we anticipate for a long time, once it's over, it's a little sad.

But let's start at the beginning. I had a great morning on Sunday: woke up well rested 30 minutes ahead of my alarm, had some food, coffee, stretched, got ready, talked to my Mom, I just didn't have time to write a final blog post. But all was good when I headed out to the subway at 7. First thing I saw when I got on the 4 train was another runner clutching her uniform bag, with her name written on it: Baranyai, Boglarka, Hungary. I got so excited, I started talking to her right away even though she was listening to music and would have loved to be left alone I am sure. We chatted for a few minutes anyway. Meanwhile, an older lady offered her seat to me :) Only time that's ever going to happen. I respectfully declined. Then, 2 stops later, Jana got on the train - she had seen me on the platform when I was getting off and decided to come find me. I was glad not to be taking the ferry alone. So our trip to Staten Island - my first ever - was lovely, we were both getting psyched! The organization was absolutely flawless: the ferry wasn't crowded, the shuttle buses were waiting for us; the start village was easy to find, thousands of toilets with moderately long lines and I could go on. Huge kudos to the NYRR and everyone who helped with this!! Especially all the volunteers who were out in the freezing cold at dawn!

It was a bit cold once I had to check my bag with my long pants and fleece jacket in it, but there were tents we could wait in so at least we were sheltered from the wind. Once I was all set in the tent, I figured I'd listen to some music to get my head in the right place. I took out my iPod and there it was: an earbud missing! NOOO! Everything had been so perfect until then. Ok, calm down, seriously, this is not a big deal, just calm down! I am searching in the grass, down on my knees - a guy comes to ask what I'd lost and if he can help. I tell him it's an earbud, he agrees that really sucks... but no sign of the little black rubber piece. Ok, well, I wasn't going to listen to music to begin with anyway, I wanted to enjoy the crowd at least in the early stages. After all, 1 earbud is ok. And the other one sort of fit into my ear even without the rubber earpiece.

More calmly, I entered my assigned corral, got rid of my hat, went to the bathroom about 5 more times, just to make sure! and then we started moving. That was very exciting: New York themed songs playing super loudly, thousands of people singing, cheering, Peter Chacha giving the final race instructions like at every other race :) Everybody waving to cameras at the start line, starting my watch, oh my god, there is the Verrazano Bridge, a few tears, I couldn't believe I was there! The NYC Marathon!!! I was on the right side of the bridge so I didn't have the great view of the city, but so many people were still stopping to take pictures. I just wanted to run!

At first, I was looking forward to the mile markers to make sure I was keeping my pace for the 4:30 finish - I had a wristband, which listed the mile splits I had to run for my goal, that was very helpful! Then, after mile 2, when we got into Brooklyn, it was a joyride for a good 6-8 miles. No pain yet, comfortable pace, adrenaline rushing through my veins. The crowds were incredible!! And they were loud, like New Yorkers are! There were bands playing on corners, lone people singing on the sidewalks, people with big signs, small signs, no signs, silly signs (like, at mile 3, a sign said: Only 23 more to go, NOT FUNNY!, or "Get out of Brooklyn", which I thought was funnier). I was expecting to see someone around 10K, but missed him, then at Union St, I saw my friend Judy, who took a nice picture as I was waving good-bye.



For a few more miles, I was doing great, but then at about mile 10, my quads started to feel tight and I had to stop to stretch a little: immediately, a spectator came up to me looking very worried and asked if I was ok. Yes, yes, no worries, I said and quickly rejoined the runners. It was amazing how kind people were yesterday. After every bump - which happens a lot with 45,000 people running - people said sorry and asked if you were ok. Not a NY thing! But then again, there were people from all over the world. This is really the city where the world runs!

You realize how huge Brooklyn is when you run through it! It just went on forever, until finally there was a bridge and there was the Manhattan skyline, but we were only crossing over to Queens. I was excited though: I knew there would be a couple of friends in Queens, right before the Queensboro Bridge. We passed the half point and I was surprised just how quickly it had gone by. There was so much to see and hear, I wasn't even looking for the mile marks, they just appeared. Then I was looking for the sharp left turn up onto the bridge. Sadly, there were 3 sharp left turns in a row, and I got very confused :) but nonetheless, I spotted Linda and Haixia before the last turn, gave them a big group hug and took a baggie of oranges - yummy! Then I turned the corner and heard somebody yell my name from behind: it was Alex and I spotted him and Urszula behind some people - it was getting super crowded there. I turned around a gave Urszula a big hug, she was a bit stunned :)
The bridge was hard: long uphill, on the lower level, so it's dark and there is no view and you have no idea when it's ending. Again, I stopped to stretch: there was a nice railing that looked like a good place for a hip stretch. A line of men were peeing off the bridge on the side... oh well. The East river is dirty enough already...

Coming off the bridge was great! Picking up some speed, turning onto 1st Ave, there were sooooo many people!!! I couldn't believe it! I also had no idea how wide 1st Ave really was without the parked cars and all that traffic. All of a sudden, the field got spread out and it didn't even look like there were that many people running. This was home for me,having lived a block from 1st Ave for 5 years now, I know all the stores, restaurants lining the street. How great it was to see all that! Again, a few miles of pure joy! Then, at 71st, I moved to the left to find the HSS cheering team: Janice, Anna, Victor and Katherine were the people I saw and hugged. I finally handed off my gloves - I planned to do that in Brooklyn and then in Queens, but forgot, and they are too nice to just toss. I was too excited to take fuel that I had left with Janice; I even missed their really cool signs. But in return, they took some great pictures.







As obvious from the pictures, seeing friends along the course was such a thrill: every time, it gave me a lot of energy! Next up was Kelsey on 85th, gave her a hug too, then 2 block north I saw Aditya climbing on the barricades, noticed he was wearing his running clothes and told him to come run with me. The police officer standing right there seemed completely apathetic and so he jumped in. Quickly called Rachel who was up at 120th, and we started chatting. That might not have been the greatest idea, in retrospect, but I was so excited I wanted to tell him about how great the race had been so far. We then saw Rachel, Dave and Tyler - poor Tyler decided not to run just the day before because of an injury - who had a huge sign I could see from half a block away. They handed Aditya a half a banana to hold for later and me a big piece of orange, which felt amazing!



And that's where my problems started: all of a sudden, my Achilles was tighter and more painful than before, my quads like rocks, the side of my left leg - IT band - painful, and just losing energy all together. I grabbed some gatorade, a wet sponge, more gu, but in the end, this was the wall, and nothing was gonna change that. Right around mile 20, I began suffering. No longer able to hold a conversation, I was just nodding when Aditya asked how I was doing. I hated the Bronx: every moment of it! And then I hated 5th Ave. The sun started bothering me, I saw Rachel again at 115th St. but I didn't really care anymore. Aditya stuck with me all the way into Central Park, even ran ahead at one point to take a picture.



Then I saw Eileen at the entrance to the park, that helped a little. We passed mile 24 and I felt that I needed the music. I had it with the crowd. Too noisy, too distracting. Aditya's parting words were: "After you finish, you never have to run again." And that was as good a plan as I had. I just wanted this to end. I looked at my watch and only had 3 minutes leverage left from the previous 5-6 to make it within 4:30. I had to keep my pace near 10 min/mile. I realized that slowing down made absolutely no difference in terms of the pain in my legs. So what the hell, just get this over with as fast as possible! So I just tried to focus, turn inside, not look at people - missed Anna and Janice with the signs at 25 miles, although they saw me, and said I looked totally out of it - we turned onto Central Park South, so many people, but I didn't want to look at them anymore! Finally, there was the final turn, I knew there was a little uphill to 26, then just 0.2 left, which sucks, cuz you don't think that's a lot but believe me, IT IS! And then I raised my arms and smiled as much as I could. I stopped and there was no way I could have taken another step. I limped forward only because the volunteers were yelling at us. Some people were on the ground, not able to move. Others were hugging, laughing. I got pretty emotional for a few moments, someone said he hoped they were tears of joy. I was unable to answer. Then I pulled myself together for an official finisher photo with my medal. I hope to see that someday.

The next hour or so was pretty bad: freezing (the foil blanket they gave us didn't do much), super crowded, moving at a snail's pace towards the UPS trucks, that held our bags. Finally I made it to my bag and quickly put on my pants and jacket. As I was bending down to pull my pants over my shoes, which felt gigantic and I was suffering with that for a while, and as I look up, there is the Dutch man next to me undressing, COMPLETELY! He took off his pants and his underwear, so my head level with his crotch, no pants, everyone can imagine, in the freezing cold, not something I wanted to see! Maybe I've become too American, hehe.

A few quick phone calls, and then I headed to our prearranged meeting spot: Utopia diner. I had pre-ordered a hot chocolate, that kept me going, waddling more like. Blister, ankle, quads, legs not bending... oy! I saw Becky waiting outside, lovely! Everyone was inside, hot chocolate with whipped cream on the table already!






Once I was sitting, all energy came back and I couldn't stop talking! French toast with eggs and several glasses of water later, we were finally ready to go home. Getting up was hard, walking to the bus even harder - it was impossible to get a cab! Although: on the way to the bus, we saw a runner, still wrapped in his foil blanket, not looking too good. It was dark already, he was limping, all bent over. I saw a woman from across the street run up to him, I couldn't hear what they said to each other, but next thing I see, she literally jumps into traffic and forces an off duty cabbie to take the man. Amazing! The spirit of the marathon!

There are no nations, no religions, no men and women, no races, there is only the runner, the mind and the legs, the pavement, the miles and that finish line. It's a battle inside every person that nobody else can see form the outside. I went to Niketown today and listened to Shalane Flanagan, the 2nd place finisher in the women's race, give an interview, and even a professional runner like her has the same battle happening inside her: she said that as she saw that Edna Kiplagat was pulling away from her at the end of the race, she tried with all her strength to tell her legs to move faster, and they just refused. How far can we push ourselves, to the very limits of our physical abilities, to really find out who we are? Determination, faith in our abilities, setting goals and reaching them, that's what it's all about!

It was also cool to see Shalane and Meb Keflezighi, last year's winner (6th this year), they both seemed like such great people!



Niketown was also giving free massages, free Jamba Juice, and got my medal engraved :) Plus, there is my name in the NY Times. Although they lied, because people up till 4:49:52 are on the list.



And finally, while right now, I can only walk with the characteristic stiff legged wobble - like many people in the city, while proudly wearing their medals around their necks - and I have absolutely no desire to even think about running ever again, I know that once the pain subsides, I will be back. I am still a rookie to marathon running, and with this experience behind me, hopefully the next one will be even better!