NEW YORK MARATHON SERIES (Part 3/5)
My first kilometre was my slowest. Despite the adrenaline rushing through my body and the excitement of finally starting this race that I have been thinking about non-stop for the past 6 months, it is actually a pretty good thing that it is just not possible to run any faster at that stage!
The start of the race takes you across the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and is the steepest climb of the entire race. You wouldn't know it though because there are so many people that keep pushing you along, and your legs are very fresh so you just run and enjoy the view across Upper Bay to the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.
Our corral was on the lower deck of the bridge which meant that I was in the shade of the upper deck of the bridge with a fairly brisk breeze coming from the ocean and most likely a lot colder than it would have been in the sun on top of the bridge. The bonus was that the lower deck isn't quite as steep as the upper deck - but bloody cold!
Scott and I ran together for about the first kilometre (6:27min/km) and then he took off ahead of me weaving through some very small gaps between the other runners.
The second half of the bridge is obviously downhill and this was my fastest kilometre for the race! (4:44min/km). Everyone just takes off and it is very very hard to hold back. This was a lot faster than my planned 5:30min/km and I tried very hard to hold back while everyone else passed me. I kept thinking in my head "it's okay, you will pass all of these people in the last 10km of the race anyway"- not that my position was really important, but my nature is to be competitive!
We exited the freeway to the cheers of the excited residents of Brooklyn. There were a couple of supporters scattered along this first part (this part was only our corral, you would have to be in a different street entirely to see the other corrals). These supporters were mostly residents of the houses that they were standing in front of. I had been told to expect people to call out my name (which was on my shirt) but when it finally happened it was quite overwhelming. There was a drinks station to start with and the volunteers there were full of energy and screamed out "Go Nick, you got this buddy!" or something similar. This was another moment where the adrenaline kicked in and I needed to be cautious not to increase my pace too much!
After the first 5km we joined back up with the other corrals on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. This is a very wide street and had a large verge in the middle (the subway ran underneath the verge, but it was the width of a tram line basically). Our corral joined up with one of the other corrals on the southern carriageway, the other corral had the northern carriageway to itself. It clicked that I probably could have (and should have) crossed over to the other side as this southern side was very congested again - but I never did.
After the first 3 kilometres I managed to get my pace up to an average of about 5:15min/km which I was quite comfortable with. Time checks were shown at every mile (which I ignored because it made very little sense to me) and at every 5km marker. I ran through the first 5km at about the time I had planned to (mostly because of that very slow first kilometre) and ended up a couple of minutes ahead of where I planned to be at the 10km mark. The markers were still confusing as they were 3 minutes ahead of my "real time" so a little bit of maths was required. I tended to just look at the time on my own watch though as I had started that as I cross the start line myself.
4th Avenue continues for about 6km. It is a straight road with a slight turn towards the end but after 6km my mind started to focus too much on the running and I was certainly ready to change the route! Having said that, there were plenty of things to keep me distracted along the road; crowds building, sometimes 2-3 rows deep and many with signs, sometimes uplifting, occasionally downgrading... and quite often trying (and often succeeding) to put a smile on my face whether it be a few witty words or a nice bit of support.
If I was on the side of the road where people could see my name there were multiple people in a row that kept calling my name and shouting out support. It took a couple of kilometres but I certainly got somewhat fed up with so many people trying to grab my attention. It wasn't that they were deliberately trying to get me to stop and acknowledge them necessarily but there were times where certain things they would say made me feel like I needed to respond ("Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" is a good example of this, which I must have heard at least 15 times in the entire race!).
At various times along 4th Avenue I made my way back towards the middle of the road where the large verge was located and there was a bit of respite from all of the attention. It was also occasionally easier to get a drink at each stop as it was slightly less congested on that side at the drink stations.
Finally after 13km I could see a turn coming up. The crowds were building at this point and were probably 5-8 rows deep in some places at Barclays Centre (which seemed to be a popular gathering spot for the event with bands, stages, TV cameras etc.). The course veered left and then very quickly turned right into Lafayette Avenue for the start of the 13th kilometre.
Lafayette Avenue is a relatively narrow, tree lined street. At this point a bit of shade wasn't as bad as it was on the bridge, but the sun was still quite valuable when you could get out of the buildings and trees. Most of Lafayette was lined with people and at this point it was hard to get away as the middle of the street was still only about 3 metres from where they were yelling and screaming.
We turned again at Bedford Avenue and the crowds almost immediately died off. We were headed into the Jewish Community of Williamsburg. Being a Sunday morning many of the Jewish community were heading off to their places of worship, many of whom seemed to not be entirely impressed that a marathon was being run straight through the middle of their suburb. A number of people, either dressed up in their suits and yarmulkes or top hats or people in plain clothing tried and generally succeeded to cross when there was a very brief gap. There were a couple of times throughout the race where a few people cut it a bit too close (once with a pram as well!) and were given a little bit of feedback by some of the affected runners.
The Jewish influence began to disappear and ethnic supermarkets, delis, bars and alcohol started to become more prevalent. Crowds again began to pick up and especially outside bars and pubs was getting pretty loud and exciting. After averaging about 5:18min/km for the last few kilometres, my 18th and 19th kilometre were around 5:05min/km.
As we approached 20km I could see a few bridges in the distance and got completely lost in relation to where I thought I was on the route, and where I thought I still had to go. In my head I thought: great, this must be the Brooklyn Bridge and we are finally crossing over into Manhattan. When I was thinking straight of course I knew that the Brooklyn Bridge wasn't part of the race, and that we still needed to head into Queens before going over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan!
The idea that I was crossing the Brooklyn Bridge stayed with me up and over what is actually the Pulaski Bridge into Queens. Nothing clicked even when halfway along the Pulaski Bridge we hit the Half Marathon mark which I knew was before the Queensboro Bridge. At this mark I noted my time and doubled it and was on track to complete the marathon in just over 3 hours 40 minutes! This gave me quite a bit of confidence and I was still feeling pretty full of energy so at this point, as I had planned, I tried to tell myself it is time to pick up the pace and get closer to about 5:00 minute kilometres.
We took a few streets through Queens and I had finally realised that this was not Manhattan... As I had mentally thought I was headed over that bridge and onto 1st Avenue in Manhattan I was rather keen to actually get to that point physically so do not actually remember too much of Queens - it is only 3km of Queens anyway! I do have video of what I think was Queens below though:
Queensboro Bridge is a little bit of a nightmare! It is the second steepest and second highest point of the course and the curve of the roof above you makes it seem like the ascent never ends, even when you start the decent! Living close to and often training in the hills in Adelaide I felt pretty confident going uphill and I evidently passed quite a few people on the bridge. This was a bit of a confidence and energy booster as it made me feel like I was clearly in a good state compared to others at this point of the race. Having said that, other than the first kilometre, according to my GPS record the 3 kilometres on the bridge were my slowest kilometres of the race, even for some reason when going back down the other side of the bridge into Manhattan (5:30min/km, 5:20min/km and 5:34min/km).
I am quite surprised about that last kilometre of the bridge being the slowest of the race, but I could put this down to either the GPS messing up (as there were tonnes of people waiting at the other end of the bridge and at the start to 1st Avenue, as well as the start of some very tall New York buildings!) or it could be that I told my self that I needed to slow down at this point as I knew there was an adrenaline rush coming (that's what many course guides or race videos tell you about this point in the race).
At the time I was actually very underwhelmed with the entrance to Manhattan. Everything I read or watched told me that at the exit to the bridge I would be greeted with the loudest cheers I had ever heard. In actual fact, from what I remember not a single person was cheering on that turn despite the 8 deep crowd... it was very odd.
As I looped back under the bridge the length of 1st Avenue became apparent and the noise started to pick up again. At this point I was getting rather excited - I knew Mum and Dad were tracking my position and I knew that they were standing on 82nd Street (we entered at 59th Street). The next 4 kilometres were very quick (about 5:00min/km each) - after my slowest 3 kilometres this goes to show just how much not only Mum and Dad's support affected my running, but everyone tracking me at home affected my run - the support was amazing and definitely helped keep me in a good place mentally which clearly helps me physically.
I was very excited along this stretch. Mum and Dad (and the rest of the support crew which included Roger Rasheed and families of other runners in our group) couldn't have known up to this point just how I was looking or feeling. I wanted to prove to them that while my pace was good, I was still in a great place and could carry on until the end of the race.
I passed the drinks station at the 17th Mile and knew 82nd Street was coming up. I tried my best to get to the left hand side where they were standing, I did have to dodge a couple of "slow" runners to get there. There was no way I was going to be able to tell where they are by listening out for my name to be called - the rest of the crowd which was still 3-5 rows deep were yelling and screaming at me already!
Luckily Dad had brought his Crows scarf and waved it madly over the fence as he saw me coming. Mum was screaming in front of him as well. Half of me wanted to stop and chat, but the other half said if you do that you'll never start again. So I gave them a quick smile (trying to make it look like I wasn't in any pain at all - which I wasn't!) and high fived Mum, Dad then Roger as I passed. That was it, I had passed them. My left hand was actually pretty sore from connecting with at least one of the high fives - my hand must have been a lot colder than I thought it was.
Mum made the comment later on that my hand was soaking wet as well. While I was likely to be sweaty what she didn't realise was that as I had just had a drink of water and Gatorade at the preceding drink station it was pretty likely that half of each of the 3 or 4 cups that I had picked up were all over my hands and all over my shirt. It isn't that easy to grab a cup (in my left hand specifically) while running/jogging then try to get the entire contents of that cup (sometimes filled to the brim) without spilling any of it all down my front!
1st Avenue is very, very long and starts to get pretty monotonous. Worse still, I knew that whatever distance we covered north of 59th Street we would be covering again on the way back down 5th Avenue on the other side. I tried not to let that thought enter my mind and just looked forward to a bit of variance in the course at the end of 1st Avenue.
There were plenty of people gathered almost all the way up to the Willis Avenue Bridge at the top of 1st Avenue. My pace of about 5:00min/km was maintained for the entire length except for the last kilometre up 1st Avenue.
As I entered the Bronx at the 32nd kilometre I started to worry that I was about to hit the wall. Almost every guide to marathon running and advice that I had been given or overheard told me that you will almost certainly hit the wall (which means suddenly feeling absolutely terrible) at about the 33-36km mark. Fittingly, the theme of the celebrations in the Bronx were "we are here to get you through the wall".
That theme and constant announcements from various DJ's over their stages that they were there to keep you moving actually didn't help me. I found it pretty frustrating as I hadn't yet hit the wall and the fact that they were reminding me that this was the place it was going to happen started to get into my head a little bit.
My legs started hurting/feeling a little bit tight towards the end of 1st Avenue, especially as I went over the Willis Avenue Bridge (a slight, but obvious incline at that point). While I still ended up passing quite a number of people on that bridge, I certainly felt that the legs weren't as fresh as they had been for the first half of the marathon.
Throughout the Bronx there were a few drinks stations but also a station sponsored by BioFreeze (which I think is much like DeepHeat). The BioFreeze station looked interesting but I am unsure how the product could be so good that it would be worth stopping, sitting/lying down and getting treatment at this stage of the race.
The Bronx was scattered with a few people out to support however it was not at the same volume as 1st Avenue or much of Brooklyn had been. The Bronx did contain probably to most amount of twists and turns of the course which at this stage was pretty good to keep me distracted from everything else.
I crossed back over to Manhattan on the Madison Avenue Bridge and turned the corner into 5th Avenue for what in my mind and plan/tactics was the last hurdle of the race. The next 5 kilometres were pretty consistent but at a pace of about 5:18min/km which was slower than I was hoping for. Strangely one of the kilometres amongst this slower section was 4:58min/km.
At one point down 5th Avenue I looked at my pace on my watch and it was telling me 6:30min/km. This caused huge games to be played by my mind as I physically felt like I was running at around 5:30min/km - or faster (which I evidently was doing). I thought that perhaps I have hit some sort of wall and my legs just aren't moving as well any more. I can't remember exactly when I had these thoughts but there are a couple of kilometres that I ran 15-25 seconds faster which could be attributed to me trying to push that supposed 6:30min/km pace back up to something more promising. In actual fact, these kilometres were more like 5:10min/km - 5:20min/km but the GPS was playing up horribly!
5th Avenue takes a small detour just north east of Central Park around Marcus Garvey Memorial Park. After this detour it is back to the monotonous straight Avenue and at this point I started counting down the street numbers, knowing that somewhere around 90th Street (where I would also enter Central Park) Mum and Dad would again be waiting to cheer me on.
119th Street, 110th Street, 100th Street, 95th Street - these streets take a lot longer than I hoped to run through but eventually I saw the familiar Crows scarf being waved on the left hand side. There were quite a few people in this spot, there was also a large video screen which was displaying the "cheer cards" that people could send to runners through the Marathon App. I noted to myself that I would check out that screen after passing Dad.
I only saw Dad on the fence (as Mum was evidently standing a bit further back to get a shot from above - see the below video and enjoy her scream of excitement which I do not recall hearing despite all of that effort!). The problem with Dad standing at this position on my left hand side however was that the course to a right hand turn into the park and at this stage I was not in the mood to make a quick decision to veer off to the left to give him another high five. Instead I gave him what I think was a smile and waved and then veered off to the right (straight past the screen which I completely forgot about) and into Central Park.
Many guides of the race had stated that Central Park can be one of the hardest parts of the race. It undulates quite a bit and at this point your legs will notice every little incline and descent. I can't say that that was completely true in my experience, however I can certainly say that I do not really remember much about travelling through Central Park!
What I do remember is that it was lined with people almost the entire way. Wherever it was possible to get a spot to watch the runners there were people there watching. I took in as much of the support from strangers as I could and found myself running close to the side of the road to get that support on board to take me to the finish line.
I decided at the 25 Mile drink station that I would (for the first time in the race) not take a drink - instead I ran straight through and continued running. I figured that at this point my legs would appreciate the constant pace more than my body would actually be able to take on the electrolytes and a tiny bit of hydration to achieve any benefit.
I tried my best towards the end of Central Park to push the pace, I felt like I had a bit left in the tank but just needed to get the legs moving faster. In my 41st kilometre I managed to get my pace back up to 5:07min/km ready for a "sprint finish" in the last kilometre. I was cautious of not increasing my pace too early, but at the same time I thought "what the hell, I made it this far, it can't be that much further".
Back onto 59th Street along the Southern side of Central Park and there were large crowds again. They were less energetic and a little quieter than they had been in other places throughout the race (that or something was affecting my hearing - which wouldn't be surprising at that point I guess). I could see the other end of Central Park where we turned back in and headed towards the finish line. I was pretty confident I could push my legs to the limit and make it to the finish line.
About half way along 59th Street I saw Scott again. Rightly or wrongly - being of a competitive nature this gave me an extra bit of strength in the legs and I pushed hard to catch up with him. As I passed him I gave him a pat on the back (in hindsight that tap was a little more like a hard punch to the shoulder which I didn't mean to do) and tried to encourage him to get to that finish line. What I couldn't see was that he wasn't in a great way and he told me later he had had some sort of foot injury (possibly a fracture!) since about 25kms!
As I noted above, passing Scott did give me a bit of energy so I rounded the next corner at a pretty quick pace and headed into the final straight!
We had run this final straight on the Friday before so I was reasonably confident there wasn't far to go (there was further to go then I thought/hoped!). I looked at my watch and realised that I was very close to being under 3 hours 40 minutes. I was determined to be under that time so pushed just that little bit harder. I passed the Australian Flag with a little smile (or grimace) on my face and could see the finish line.
Finally after 3 hours 39 minutes and 49 seconds I crossed that line with my hands in the air!
Nick
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