Race Report - First Half

Below are my splits for the first 14 miles.  All I could think of as I ran over the start line was "don't go out too fast.....don't go out too fast......don't got out to fast....."  So I did my best to start out slow.  It actually wasn't that hard to do.  When I signed up initially I told them my finish time was 6hrs not knowing how fast I ran, so I was with some people who actually ran slower than me.  I was actually with a whole group of people who were doing the 2 min run/1 min walk thing.  Almost as soon as we crossed the start line, groups of people were walking all over the place.  So it slowed me down to get around them.

The first 2 miles of the race are over the Verrazano bridge so it's just you and 1000's of people, but no spectators.  At the start in the corral, I was pretty quiet and just sort of lost in my thoughts of "holy crap am I going to be able to do this?"  On the bridge, there was this mid-60's Italian guy who was running around yodeling.  I think he was running with a woman who may have been his daughter.  I mean I made up this whole back story in my head.  Anyway, he wasn't crazy, but just seemed like he was having the best time.  As we got into Brooklyn and the crowds of people started, he would smile at all the spectators and go say hi to them.  This guy really had an impact on me because I realized that I just needed to have fun and not stress about it.  So I just totally changed my mindset and decided to enjoy it.  I may only do this once, so I am going to take in every second.

And I did....I had my name on my shirt and I tried to acknowledge every person who cheered my name.  I'd smile back or say thank you or give them a wave.  The first 13 miles of the course are in Brooklyn and the crowds there are great.  After a few turns just after getting off the bridge, we ended up on 4th avenue that is pretty much a straight shot until mile 8.  The crowds here were amazing.  At about mile 6, I came upon a guy with a 5:00hr pace sign on.  I was so surprised.  I thought, hey if I can keep this up, I might be around 5 hours which would be awesome.  So I kept that guy in my sights for a while and then lost him at one of the water stops. (a few more of the 5:00 hr pace people would pop up again around mile 10.)

I pretty much just plodded along walking through the water stop when I got there and then running again as soon as I finished the drink.  I alternated by taking Gatorade at one stop and then water at the next.  I was taking the gels ever 45 minutes or so and would have water with that.  It's amazing how fast some of the miles seemed to come up and also how hard it is to remember if you had Gatorade or water at the last stop.  I mean it's not like there's a lot else to think about. 

Well at mile 8 as I was about to make a right turn onto Lafayette Ave, I saw some familiar faces from way far out.  I definitely saw them before they say me.  It was my Dad and Mary.  I don't think Mary was expecting the humongous bear hug I gave her.  Both her and my Dad had their Go Lisa shirts.  As I ran away I definitely was choked up after seeing my Dad.  He was so excited for me and that just meant a lot.  This is a picture of another crew of folks that I would see with the same shirts.

It's amazing what a boost seeing someone you know can give you.  Mary said James and Emma are up ahead, so I instantly started looking for them.  The next stretch of Lafayette Ave was crazy.  It reminded me of the hilly part of the Tour de France where the people are all coming into the street and it looks like they are going to swallow up the bikers.  That's how many spectators there were.  It was awesome.  I was looking for James and Emma so much that I was almost getting motion sickness trying to find them in the crowd.  And then all of a sudden I heard the bellowing voice yelling my name and there they were up on a fire escape on the second floor.  Another blue shirt.  Love it!

Mile 10 was pretty quiet as we went through Williamsburg, but I knew that another crowd was waiting for me around mile 11.  Again, I saw them way before they saw me.  Can you see me below?

Donna had carried 2 more gels for me and I took them and stuffed them in my pack.  I had a little bit of a headache that had crept up, so I thought about taking Advil, but decided to wait. 

As I came up on mile 12, I had a big dilemma of to pee or not to pee.  I thought I should stop, but didn't want to take so much time in line.  I had passed two stops already that had really long lines.  I wasn't sure what the porta potty situation would be in Manhattan, so I thought if I had to stop, I should stop before then.  As I came up just before mile 13, there was a stop without too long a line, so I stopped.  I just watched my watch tick by as I waited in line.  My splits don't really reflect it, but I think I was there for about 5 minutes.  I was still with the 5:00hr pace group just before that, but I lost them at the pee stop.. Man!  

The 1/2 way point is in the middle of the Pulaski bridge on the way to Queens.  There were all kinds of clever signs along the way.  Here there were signs saying bye from Brooklyn and others saying welcome to Queens.  We really weren't in Queens that long.  I was still feeling pretty good at mile 14 and was just enjoying the people and the view of Manhattan in the distance.  Just before the 59th street bridge which is the bridge to Manhattan, there was a DJ tent that was playing Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z.  Couldn't have been placed more perfectly.  I definitely sang along and put my hands in the air.  Why not?  I was loving it.  Just as I rounded the curve to go onto the bridge, someone had a sign that said "Make the bridge your bitch".  I did my best to do just that.  Well in that I mean I ran it instead of walked it which was a feat in itself because there were a ton of people walking it.

Lisa

NYC Marathon Race Day

Race Day is finally here.  It was so weird for November 6th to actually be here.  I managed to get some sleep the night before even though I woke up a few times.  When my cell phone alarm went off, I quickly shut off my phone so I wouldn't wake everyone up.  I got ready as quietly as I could, but of course within 15 minutes, Kara, Donna, and Melissa were all awake.  I mean, that's what you get when three Mom's are in the room who all are used to getting up with each of their two kids.  I'm not sure they can even sleep late if they tried. :)

As part of being with Fred's Team, there was a lot of "special treatment" on marathon morning.  I really can't say enough about Fred's Team.  They were all really great people and were extremely organized.  Breakfast was from 4:45AM to 6:00AM, team picture at 6:00AM, and board the bus at 6:15AM.  Luckily I was also staying in the hotel with all of those activities, so all I had to do was go downstairs.  After getting some last words of encouragement from the girls, Donna actually came downstairs with me for breakfast.  We got a bagel and banana.  This picture was of me with my clear bag of goods just before breakfast. 

After breakfast, we lined up for our team picture.  Here's what the picture looked like from Fred's Team. 

After the picture, we all filed into the bus.  The Fred's Team buses have a police escort to Staten Island.  It was like we were the President.  Even with the NYPD escorting us to Staten Island, it took about an hour to get to Fort Wadsworth.  When we finally got there, we all filed off the bus to go into the fort.  For Fred's Team, the top 450 fundraisers got a wrist band to go into the special tent in Charity Village.  It was basically a tent like for a wedding reception with a blue tarp on the bottom.  We had special green wristbands that let us into Charity Village.  The best part was that we had our own porta potty's in the village.  It's amazing how much this race prep can become about peeing and where to pee.  I was definitely obsessed with how much I was drinking and making sure I peed so that I didn't have to stop during the race. 

I was able to meet up with my two running buddies on Fred's Team who I had done a few training runs with.  We hung out in the text and chatted and took turns watching each other's bag.  I was in Wave 3 which started at 10:40AM.  There were lots of announcements in the tent for each wave.  It was either when people had to drop off their bags or when they needed to get to the starting corral.  It is amazing how I was so caught up in the logistics of the day and the weekend that the actual running of the marathon sort of took a back seat.  It was actually a great distraction.

At 9:20AM, I finally had to load my bag onto a UPS truck and then about 10:10AM we had to head to our starting corral.  You hang out in the starting corral for a 1/2 hour then.  The longest 1/2 hour ever!  They sang God Bless America and then the starting gun!  I was in the Green Wave which went on the lower level of the Verrazano bridge.  As we crossed the starting line, someone sang Sinatra's New York New York.  What an amazing moment.  Definitely gave me goosebumps.  I was next to this really loud group of people from France who started this rocketts like kick line to the music.  It was really obnoxious, but fun at the same time.  I mean at least I didn't get kicked.  And I was off and running!

Lisa



Pre-race dinner

OK sorry I've been slacking with getting the marathon updates out there. It's been a busy week.

We left off mid-day on Saturday before the race.  The plan was to have a big pasta dinner on Saturday night before the race and my whole family was going to join the rest of us in the city.  Late Friday night, I asked my stepmother if she thought I should call the restaurant again just to confirm the reservation for 14 on Saturday at 6PM.  I've already confessed by self-diagnosed OCD I think, so being responsible for dinner for that many people of course had me concerned.  Mary said "I guess you could...couldn't hurt"  Well wouldn't you know that the restaurant had cancelled our reservations.  Nooooo!  I won't get into the annoying conversation I had with a Mad Italian Guy at the restaurant, but the end result is we didn't have a reservation anymore (even though this was the 3rd time I had called to confirm with absolute confirmation the other two times).  Like I said...OCD.

My Dad, Mary and I trotted down to the concierge in the hotel to ask about recommendations.  They suggested this Italian place around the corner.  We went there and the only reservation they had was at 11:30PM Sat. night.  No good!  Luckily Mary knew of another place close by, St. Andrew's Cafe.  We went there and the super nice woman had room for us.  Of course there was no pasta on the menu, but they had pizza on the bar menu and rolls which worked fine. :)

Cut to Saturday at 6:00PM.  We all got to the restaurant and it was great to have everyone there.  I so appreciated my stepbrothers, sister in laws, and the rest of my friends making the trek into the city.  It was great.  When we went up to our seats, Kara, Melissa, and Donna were lagging behind a bit.  When they finally got up to the table, they had these amazing shirts on.  These are them in the shirts the next day.

The funniest part was that Melissa started pulling out all of these shirts and saying....Tom, you were a medium right?  They had written to my entire family and got all their sizes and everyone had a shirt.  I don't really have words for how happy that made me and how thoughtful it is.  I loved it! 

The best part about going to St. Andrew's cafe is that they have Sticky Toffee Pudding on the dessert menu which is Malcolm's favorite and definitely pretty good.  So let's recap my pre-race meal.....2 rolls, calamari, 3 pieces of pizza (I would have quit after 2, but everyone at the table pretty much forced me to eat the third), a sticky toffee pudding all to myself.  Does that sound like an athlete's meal or what? :)  I also got my favorite words of encouragement after dinner from my sister in law.  As she was leaving, she said (with a smile) "Good luck, you'll do great.  Don't f*ck it up." 

We went back to the hotel and I packed up for the next day.  I got all of my clothes laid out for the next day and my bag packed.  The alarm was set for 5AM.  Time for a good night's rest.  Big day tomorrow.

Lisa

Saturday in NY

Saturday started with meeting my Dad and Mary for breakfast.  When I went to walk over, the NYRR 5K had just started and happened to be running right down 5th Avenue in front of my hotel.

After breakfast, my friend John from DC came over and we went to check out the finish line.  I wanted to see how it looked all built up with the grandstands and also to find a spot where I could meet up with everyone after the finish.  It was crazy how long the finish line chute went on for.  It was hard to tell where the runners actually existed after the race.  As part of Fred's Team, I had a sticker on my bib that allowed me to go to the Cherry Hill area after the race.  Basically, just after I got my medal and bag of snacks, someone from Fred's Team pulled me out of the line of walking zombies and brought me to a special area where we had our bags waiting.  Here's a shot in front of the finish line.

We settled on meeting at the Starbucks at 73rd and Columbus Avenue which turned out to be a great spot. 

It was such a beautiful Fall day in Central Park and the city in general.  I can't even believe how lucky we were with the weather all weekend.  After checking out the finish area, we headed back to the hotel to get off our feet a little bit and wait for Donna and Melissa to arrive.  It was so fun having so many friends in town.  Saturday became a day of "How many fun things can we fit in?"  After Melissa and Donna got to the hotel, we met up with Raul who is another friend from Grad school who also happened to be running the marathon.  The five of us went out to grab lunch at Sarabeths.  I would definitely recommend it if you are in the city.  

OK much more to come with dinner and a report of the race.....

Lisa 

Friday in NY

I know I'm behind in posting about the weekend.  First of all, the entire weekend was so amazing, but I'll break it down into a few posts.  I got to the city around mid afternoon.  I checked into the Hilton and then met up with my Dad and Mary to head to the Expo.  Here's a picture outside the Expo.  Can you find me?



I still was a little shocked when they actually had my bib number after I handed them my registration card.  It was weird.  Seeing my number for the race after so many months of build up was awesome!  After getting my number and my bag of goodies, we went through the store.  When I was listening in on the Fred's Team coaches call, I remember Coach Jeff saying that you should leave your wallet at home.  I get that now.  I ended up buying a short sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, and another zip up hoodie.  After the Expo, we went for a great dinner of fish and chips.  Lots of carbs!

Lisa

Bags are packed and I'm ready to go

Can you even believe it's finally here???  I can't really and it sort of doesn't feel real.  I don't remember the last time I waited so long for one weekend to get here.  Here's the plan for the weekend:

Friday - drive to NYC and get there by mid-afternoon.....meet up with the folks...hit the expo... dinner...lots of rest

Saturday - breakfast...spend the day checking out the finish area...meeting up with my friends and getting bagels and other supplies for race day...pasta dinner with the whole crew.

Sunday - 6:00 AM team photo...6:15 AM get on the bus...6:30 AM bus leaves for Staten Island...wait on Staten Island with crazy amount of anticipation...10:40 AM start...4:00 PM hopefully finished!

Monday - wake up....hopefully can still walk....buy a finisher t-shirt.....head back to Boston.


Sounds like a plan to me!  I will be sure to post lots of details after the weekend.  Be back next week!

Lisa

The Folks

I will hopefully be on Staten Island ready to start the marathon one week from today.  I have already started to pack a few things and get ready to leave for New York on Friday.  I don't want to get too sappy, but with a week to go, I just wanted at least write one post about how much this has meant to me and why I decided to start in the first place.  Training for this race has been so great and I can't begin to thank everyone for the support.  I initially decided to sign up because I wanted to run a marathon to see if I could do it and loved watching my Dad run the NYC marathon in 2002.  I decided to run for Fred's Team and raise money for Sloan-Kettering because of my Mom.  Training for this race has helped me in some way stay connected to her and help to do something to contribute cancer research. 

For those of you who didn't know my Mom, she was a great person with a great smile, a lot of fun to be around and a great sense of adventure.  My Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer when I was a sophomore in college and she was in treatment and remission, but then she eventually passed away my senior year from brain cancer.  Both of my parents were such fighters through that time and also kept their sense of humor through it all.  Even when you are 19 or 20, I don't think you realize how amazing your parents are and how lucky I am to have them.  I definitely have realized that as I've gotten older and looking back, they were so strong through such a tough time.  My Mom will have passed away 15 years ago in January which is a really long time.  There are so many moments I wish I could have shared with her over that time, but over my long runs training for this I've thought about her a lot.  And even though she hasn't been around for things in my life over the past few years, she has so much influenced the person I am.  I also have gotten a chance to talk about her through raising money for Sloan-Kettering either because of people asking about her picture on my fundraising page or by sharing stories of why I'm running with other people on Fred's Team who seem to have a similar story.

When I'm running the marathon, I'm sure I will think about my Mom and how I wish she could see me run, but I know she is watching.  I am so grateful for the family and friends that I have now and so glad they will be there to have a pasta dinner with me the night before and to cheer me on.  I'm so thankful for all the generous donations from people in support of my run who have helped me to feel like I am making a small difference against a disease that often seems so unfair.

And I swear if any of my friends reading this think of saying something like "your Mom would be proud" when and if I finish, please don't!  I will probably lose it and no one needs tears on a fun day like marathon day!  So just say "way to go Lisa" and I'll know that my Mom would say the same.  I will try and have a big smile on my face just for her as I cross the finish line.

Lisa