The end, or just the beginning?
Nov0720087:24 p.m.
Wow, harder than I thought! It was also a better experience than I thought!
NYC marathon rocks!! I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Really really tough, and the waiting around from 4am killed me, and definitely had an effect on me for the last few miles. The crowd were fab and really encouraged you around the course whenever you needed it.
I did the course in 4hrs 22mins and 30 secs, which was longer than I had hoped, but I was dead on my feet for the last few miles. Everytime i stopped to grab water and walk whilst drinking it was painful as hell getting going again, my left knee just locked and took some persuasion to get moving again.
In the end I was just looking to do it in less than 5 hours, which in hindsight was a mistake, as i probably wasn't hard enough on myself - and should have had a firmer target in mind, and carried on going when i felt like stopping to drink.
If they had made the drinks easier to take in whilst running i.e. in a pouch then this may have helped also. As they were in paper cups i basically had to walk whilst drinking.
The course itself was tougher than i thought, even though I had read about it and seen the elevation charts, the bridges were killers!!
Seeing the GOSH team cheering me on was amazing, and also seeing my two family groups on the last few hundred yards was really emotional, and made all the pain and training worthwhile.
If i have learnt anything from the race it is that I perhaps didn't do enough training, and I perhaps wasn't focused enoguh come race day. I suppose this was down to combining the race with an NYC holiday. Having said that i think all the waiting around and lack of food from 4am played a major part too!
Loved it, would love to do it again next year.
Somebody stop me!!
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Comments (1)
hilaryjohnson 'Well done Simon! It is such a tough course - I had built up the hills to be alpine-like mountains in my head beforehand so ended up being pleasantly surprised but the one at approx 23/24 miles I found hard. But it is such an amazing experience - like you I would definitely do it again! The crowds are so supportive and the whole city seems to have election fever for a few days. The wait for the start is hard - not quite so long for me as for you - but it was the cold that really got me - I wasn't prepared for that at all. Luckily I met up with a friend who had a square centimeter of space in a tent that he shared with me (as well as his hat and gloves!) but it did take 5 miles for my toes to thaw out and for me to discard the 2 extra T shirts that I started in! Thanks for your comments/encouragement on my blog. The good for age comment is that I have qualified for a place for London 2010 because of the time I ran (sub 4 hours for over 50 females - there are some benefits of being old!). The London website details all the different times for different ages. Well done again - feel pleased with yourself and GOOD LUCK if you do it (or any other marathon) again next year! Hilary' added 9th Nov 2008
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