Well, most people know that Mile 20 of a marathon is the so-called "wall" where even the most prepared runner starts to feel the slight twinge of having run 20 miles. Or the throbbing, pulsing, miserable reality of it. Take your pick.
Anyway, dear blog reader, I hope that this post won't feel like a wall because I was actually lucky enough not to really feel it while I was running. I just wanted to put that out there, you might start dragging.
So I've mentioned that the New York City Marathon is famous for the huge crowds that line the course. Well, the most famous moment of the marathon (besides the finish of course!) is the Queensboro bridge, which connects Queens to Manhattan and is at mile 15-16 of the course. Essentially, it's about .6 miles UP followed by .6 miles DOWN. Most people will tell you that the UP is the hard part. I disagree. Due to my IT band issues in my knees, running downhill is the most painful thing for me, and this was the steepest descent of the whole course. So, at about mile 16.2 I was freaking out a little because it was the first time I was in a lot of pain and I knew I had 10 miles left to run!
But the Queensboro bridge entrance into Manhattan is not just famous for being the so-called "heartbreak hill" of the New York City Marathon. It is also famous because at this point is where you come upon the screaming, booming, 16-people deep crowds that line the race in Manhattan. And I am not even kidding you, I am getting goosebumps right now just typing it! As runners come off the Queensboro bridge (throbbing knees or not, haha), they greeted by hundreds of thousands of people cheering. We turn and run up First Avenue and I'm not even kidding, it's the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade for about 3 miles.
For me, First Avenue was a wonderful, difficult, emotional rollercoaster. Coming off of the bridge I was PETRIFIED that I would not be able to keep running because my knees were hurting so bad. Luckily, though, most of First Avenue is a slight incline, which was good for me.
The plan was to see my parents and Taylor's parents at 78th Street on the left side of the course. At about 77th Street, I hear someone screaming my name from the right side of the course and look over to see Taylor's parents! I waved to them and then started looking for my parents on the left. It turned out that 78th was too crowded so they were standing at 80th street. I stopped again to hug each of them and, being the logistics-oriented person that I am, made sure to tell them exactly where Taylor's parents were so that they could meet up with them.
So that was about mile 17.5. After that, the real battle began. I knew I had about 6 more miles before I would see my family again, the crowds thin as you go up the street, and I was starting to feel tired (imagine that!). So when I crossed the Queensboro bridge, I was still keeping a low-nine minute per mile pace. As I started to feel the pain on the way down the bridge, and especially as I was to distracted by all the crowds to really pay attention to my time, I really started to slow down and run more based on how I was feeling than on my aggressive time goal (4 hours). So, starting at about mile 18, I kept about a 10-minutes per mile pace for pretty much the rest of the race. And I was happy with that. Being more conservative with my pace really made the last part of the race bearable, which is really all one can ask for at the end of a marathon!
So miles 18 - 22 took me up into the Bronx which I'd like to say right now is NOT as bad as the say. People are always saying that there aren't many people cheering in the Bronx. Well, those must be the people who don't go to the Bronx to cheer because from where i was standing (running), there were tons of people and it was great! I think because I was smart and slowed my pace, I felt really good, even through the doldrums of miles 18 - 22. Which set me up for a great time the rest of the race!
Next.
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