4 weeks to the day after the NYC marathon, I am trying to keep up the running. I read an article in the NY Times before Thanksgiving about how daily exercise can help prevent becoming a couch-potato over the holidays. Duh! I don't think one needs to do a scientific study on this. In any case, according to a study, even after a week of overeating and spending too much time lounging, fat cells begin to change, accumulate bad molecules, insulin levels rise; overall, bad things happen quickly in our bodies. I've been thinking about this when I forced myself twice over the past 4 days to run on the treadmill, an activity I almost never enjoy. Even while watching my favorite bad TV show...
But today, finally, the temperature went back over 40F (+4-5C) and the sun is out, so I went out by the river for an easy run, 5 miles or so. Felt good. No pressure these days in terms of the distance, the pace, the regularity of these runs. It's nice to just go, and decide on the way how much and how fast.
I never got a chance to write about this year's marathon. It was great! Really really great! And I am not saying, "well, it was good for the first couple of hours and then really really painful for the last couple of hours, but overall, enjoyable". It was really really fun almost the whole way! This year, I started the race with Daniel and David, and ran almost the whole thing with Daniel. It's nice to have a buddy around, even if too tired to chat, just to see a familiar face. Just like seeing the familiar faces in the crowd. As always I saw a lot of friends on the course, which is always the highlight. Check out what one of my biggest fans was wearing on his head so I could see him from blocks away! :)
In terms of the actual running, I started at an ~9 min/mile pace and finished at about the same pace. Which is a novelty in my marathon career, so to speak. Sure, there was some pain and during the last few miles, I was thinking more and more about the finish line and about finally stopping, but overall, no "wall", no falling apart, no walking, just looking straight ahead towards the finish. 3:58:28. New PR. I was very happy.
On our way to the start with Daniel and David:
Start village pictures :
List of all the people I was going to look for on the course (note: you might notice Paul isn't on the list, as he could not make up his mind about where to stand - but fortunately, he had a pretty distinctive look that day)
At 10K, all 3 of us still in the shot, then near 18M, I am trying to grab Janice's goodie bag (cut-up bananas and oranges):
This whole biting the medal thing is weird, but I felt compelled to do it:
This whole biting the medal thing is weird, but I felt compelled to do it:
My orange finisher cape matched Paul's hat well (this is at the Plaza Hotel after-party with some friends from out-of town
who also ran):
1 comment:
When you fulfil the actual Marathon race I regularly remember your relation to the running in your fencing practices when you had to run certain distance along the MTK stadion (400 m).
Most of the team members hated running and you didn’t have an exception. The distance you have to run was a mile or so! If you could you took a short cut.
In comparison you regularly run and at 3 November fulfil your 4th Marathon race recently.
I'm not only proud but also admire this performance.
CONGRATS :)
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