NY Marathon 2008 Race Report

As always, I'm a sucker for a race, a bigger sucker for a marathon and the biggest sucker of them all for a race that is in NY as a guide for the Achilles Track Club of NY. And after the light week of training following the Marine Corps Marathon and the unusual spike of energy I felt on Monday morning, I was excited by the prospect of going at a faster pace in this year's NY Marathon. At the very least we would start with everyone else in the first wave (NY just started using waves this year: 9:40, 10:00 and 10:20 expecting everyone to cross the start line no later than 6 minutes after the gun goes off) and it would be a completely different experience than last year's 2-hour headstart. I was in for a fight, but a fight worth partaking in. Problem was, I've never guided a blind runner. I don't know any blind runners, let alone blind people. And I've only met two blind people in my life. So how was I going to run a 3:10 at someone else's pace not to mention holding a towel or string or something of that sort to connect us throughout the entire race? These were questions to which I had no answer.

The race came upon me sooner than expected and before I knew it I was standing at the Javits Convention Center in NY getting my bib number and spending more money than I thought was possible on merchandise - and for those who know how much I spent on IM Arizona gear, you know I have a problem. But what the heck, I like to enjoy the event and why shouldn't my creditors as well? (You're welcome VISA. I hope you enjoyed the NY Marathon as much as I did.) And great news!!! Russell, who is an employee of ACHILLES, a fellow actor, in charge of the guides for NY and one heck of a sweet woman, landed the jackpot for me. As I was about to leave and rest up for the night she informed me she landed a 2nd guide for my athlete Mario (Mariusz Golabek) and I. His name was Simon and he was the ACHILLES coach from Kenya. Unfortunately, the club from Kenya didn't get their VISAs and paperwork in on time, but Simon made the trip nonetheless. Oh, and he can do a 2:50 marathon (OK, now who didn't see that coming from a mile away...he's from Kenya, duh.) SWEET! My fears lessened with the ability to switch the tether between the two of us, I head to Brooklyn for an evening of relaxation. The only other issue tomorrow could be a language barrier, and with a Pole, a Kenyan and an American that shouldn't be too much of problem, right?...right?...hello?

With the added boon of daylight savings, I marched out the door towards the subway, removed the gook from my eyes, clung to my styrofoam container of oatmeal and waited for the "L" train. The 5am bus towards Staten Island and the sea of nearly 39,000 awaited me. It's amazing to me to see so many people out and about at that time in the morning, and even though this is NY, the site continued to impress. Luckily, ACHILLES has their own buses for all AWD athletes (Athletes With Disabilities) so the early morning hubbub was lessened greatly and we all enjoyed the ride. That would be the end of the joy. When we arrived, Staten Island greeted us with a wind chill that was unexpected, a temperature that froze your toes and a tent for ACHILLES that's protected from everything but the wind (someone had the bright idea to have the "open" side facing the wind...smart, real smart). We were 0 for 3 with over 3 hours to go before the start of the race. If things were going to get worse, I was clueless as to what it could be. But their was light at the end of our tunnel. Simon sat next to Mario on the bus and during the ride he discovered Mario was shooting for, at best, a 3:30 marathon, but realistically around a 4-hour run. Now I won't lie to you, mentally, I did the happy dance. And even better news, Mario isn't blind, he's visually impaired. He's a "close talker" -- out of necessity of course, which means no tether required. Woo-hoo!

Our long search for hot water, hot chocolate, hot coffee...anything hot ate up most of our time and before we knew it, we were stripping down to our racing shorts only to wait for another 30 minutes 'til the gun went off. Now, the amazing part of this year's race was, for me, that we were in the main pack. 3 waves, ours being the 1st, 3 corrals, ours being Orange and 3 runners: Mario, Simon and myself. As announcements were made clothes flew left and right from every runner, athletes relieved themselves at will and music was playing. We were jazzed. The mountainous climb of the Verrazano Bridge lay before us and we didn't care. We cared about the wind the might we across it, but the steep incline was welcomed - anything to get the heart rate up. The National Anthem, Mayor Bloomberg's well-wishs, the Gun and then...............Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." It was incredible. We were all singing, dancing to the music, enjoying the moment and then we were off. The 3 minutes and 20 seconds it took us to get to the start wasn't too bad and a minute later the jubilation of the race was gone, the music was faint and we were racing. An 8:14 minute mile to start off. Not bad considering the uphill climb and with a 3:30 projection at best, we were looking to do 7:30's the whole way. Mile 2: 7:00. No big deal. With the massive downhill a fast mile would be expected and life was great, for all runners. It was a massive sea of paparazzi runners. Every 100 feet another would climb onto the bridge divider and snap a few shots: one forward, one backward, power off, place in fanny pack and go. Unfortunately, a forgot my camera back in DC, but with an originally predicted 3:10 pace, I couldn't afford such a luxury. Mile 3: 7:14. A perfect pace and with Mario removing his protective layering, we were now ready for a smooth sailing day...or so I thought. I'm not sure what went through Mario's mind, maybe he was excited, maybe he felt he was losing too much time by taking off his warm-ups or maybe he just can't read his watch, in any case, Mario took off like a bat out of hell. More specifically, a cat that effortlessly weaves and dodges its way through a crowd. So "effortlessly" that Mile 4 was a 6:45 mile! What in the world is going on? I was struggling. I wasn't warmed up enough to start doing 6:45 miles--my feet were still frozen from waiting on Staten Island for almost 3 hours. Besides, if you're gonna predict a 3:30 marathon at best, let's try to stick to the plan---6:45's are nearing the 2:55 mark. This is ridiculous. My only hope was to keep Mario in sight, thanks in large part to his yellow hat and once I was warmed-up, join him at his side. Yeah...that didn't happen so much. Before I knew it, Mile 4 had gone and so had Mario. Worst yet, the corrals were about to converge up ahead and my chances of find Mario in a crowd of 13,000 were much less than our starting corral of only 4,500. I wasn't expecting to do that kind of running nor was I warmed up to do it. At the very least we should pace ourselves so we can finish strong, right? No chance. Around mile 5 or 6 I was warm enough to start dropping some 6:45's myself guessing I would see him soon. I scanned the crowd dilligently for any yellow hats, but to no avail. At one point the course made a right hand turn which allowed me to see nearly a 1/2 mile ahead of us...no Mario. This adventure called "guiding" was turning out to be a failure. But lo and behold I caught back up to Mario a little before Mile 13. This was absurd. I had already wasted so much energy catching back up that I was unsure if my body could handle the overdrive that I was putting it in. In general, I'm a steady runner who will usually have negative splits and a strong kick at the finish, but with this morning's antics, I wasn't sure I would have ANYTHING left at the end. For those who aren't runners, I can only liken it to starting your car up on the coldest winter day and going from 0 to 60 in a few seconds expecting the car to perform in top condition---it doesn't happen. Your car needs to warm-up and so does my body. I truly thought that if there was going to be a 2nd Achilles guide at the halfway point as expected, I might just call it a day. No such luck - we couldn't find the 2nd guy. Oh well.

So there I was, running this erratic race/pace and I a feeling it's only going to get worse. Once I catch up to him and stick with him we proceed to do crazy miles: 6:45, 7:15, 7:00, 6:50, 7:22. $#$%%@!!!!! Let's just be consistent. It's like flooring the gas and then braking all in one motion. But I'm here to guide, right? I lose him again. Who's guiding who here? This time he had to relieve himself, which is OK, but tell me! I slow up and wait to successfully find him again only to lose him once more on the bridge. Is he ahead of me? Behind me? I'm not sure. He's the type of runner with bursts of speed weaving in and out of others and 5 minutes later getting paced by those same runners, to do it all over again a few moments later.

Finally, I assumed he was ahead of me and I took off to find him. No such luck and before I knew it, I had reached mile 22. It was at this point I thought to myself, "Hey I could set a PR for myself, but I thought better of it and decided to hold up and do some 8:00 miles hoping that if he WAS behind me I would find him. Nope. By the time I reached the 24th mile, I said "Screw it!" And took off for the finish. Dropped a couple nice miles and finished strong, honestly shocked to do a 3:10 with the lack of training an erratic energy wasting pace that happened all day. Later at the AWD tent a woman from Poland would come up to Janet and Genna while I was right there complaining that Mario didn't have a guide. I was a little upset, but explained to her the issues when you set a goal and do NOTHING to reach that goal. NO communication, NO pacing...nothing! Mario ended up doing a 3:19. A 1:32 1st half followed by a 1:47 2nd half. Clearly, his lack of pacing made him blow up at the end. He's a good runner, but you'd think he would understand pacing a little better. I guess the language barrier WAS and issue...not because I couldn't understand him, but because I was never close enough to talk to him. :) Oh well. Despite working harder than expected and a little frustrated, I still had a great time.

OH, and Simon, the other guide from Kenya - he was dropped even before I was around Mile 3. I guess genetics don't help you much when you get older. But still, a 2:20 marathon...that's crazy.

Overall, it was a wonderful day with great weather and a unbelievable crowd. Truly a marathon everyone should do...especially if you're from NY. (and yes Mr. McClure, that comment was geared towards you.)