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As promised, here is the story of Marathon Weekend.
D-Dad and I went into the City on Saturday, stopping off to buy Philly pretzels on the way. I wanted them for carbing up before the Marathon, and to eat during the race.
Saturday evening was the Team McGraw pre-race pasta dinner. I had the chance to see some old Team McGraw friends and meet some new ones. It was touching hearing everyone's stories about why they were running the Marathon, and wonderful seeing so many great people.
The dinner ended early, so D-Dad and I went to TKTS and bought tickets to see In The Heights. It was a great show, although I probably should have been in bed a little earlier that night. But everyone says that you never sleep the night before the Marathon, and we did enjoy the show.
We woke up bright and early Marathon morning so I could meet Team McGraw at the hotel down the block. Funny story - we took the elevator down with three police officers. They noticed my race bib, and we made small talk about the race. In the lobby, though, we had a little issue getting out the door, because we had to walk around a fourth officer who had someone in handcuffs! In all of my years of living in New York, I had never seen someone being led away in handcuffs before....
But we made it to the hotel without any further incident, and I got on the bus to Staten Island with the team. It was great being a part of the team, because I was able to hang out with friendly faces during those cold early morning hours before the race. That made a world of difference!
I was supposed to be in the third wave for the race, but I got a little antsy and decided to see whether I could sneak into the second wave. The plan shouldn't have worked - they were checking numbers at the front of the corrals. But I was there right at the time that they were getting ready to close the corrals for Wave 2, and kind of got pushed into the corral by a surge of people behind me! So I was in!
The cannon went off, and I started to run. I felt good at the start, and saw D-Dad two places in Brooklyn. But by the time I was getting ready to leave Brooklyn, shortly after saying hi to JCL, the cold air was taking its toll on my glute, and I went to a medical station to get it massaged. That helped, but by the time I was done running through Queens and on the 59th Street Bridge, I knew I was going to have endurance issues.
I met D-Dad again, along with an old friend, up on 97th Street. Then it was up to the Bronx. I was kind of nervous about running through the Bronx in my Mets cap, but I actually heard one Let's Go Mets cheer there (the best kind of Bronx Cheer possible ). Then it was back to Manhattan, and I met up with D-Dad and several friends in front of the Museum of the City of New York. My boys were there as well, thanks to the kindness of a good friend in New Jersey, so that was a nice moment.
From there, though, things were hard. That last 5K has a lot of inclines, and I couldn't run uphill any longer. So I did what I could do, and eventually crossed the finish line in 6:12:20. I was hoping to finish in under 6 hours, but when you factor in the medical stop and the bathroom breaks, then even with the walking my net time was close to 6 hours. Besides, back in April I decided that my time limit would be 6:53 - the time of the Mets' 20-inning game against the Cardinals
After the race I met up with D-Dad, checked in with my Team McGraw folks, and went to my friend's apartment for celebratory pizza and champagne with friends and family. I was worried that people would be disappointed in me for the walking, but everyone has been really supportive and proud of me :)
Today I'm feeling pretty good, save for one toenail that I may lose (there were several signs along the race route, btw, that read, "Toenails Are Overrated!" ).
If you told me two years ago that I would run a marathon, let alone the New York City Marathon, I would have laughed in your face. Even with the walking, I am thrilled with the fact that I accomplished that. Raising $6,214 for the Tug McGraw Foundation at the same time is just icing on the cake. This was an amazing experience, and I am so thrilled that I was able to do it.
Ya Gotta Believe!
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