2018 TCS New York Marathon - Pre Race

NEW YORK MARATHON SERIES (1/5 parts)

Thursday 1 November

I arrived at my hotel in New York in the evening on Thursday the 1^st of November after a long commute of planes and trains that started at 6am in Adelaide the same day. I met up with Mum and Dad and had a meal and walked through Times Square before heading back towards the hotel and to bed.

Friday 2 November

I didn’t get the best sleep any night that I was in New York. On Friday morning we had a Roger Rasheed Sports Foundation team run at 8:30am and comments were made that I looked absolutely wrecked (and I felt that way too!).

We went for about a 5km run through Central Park and past the Marathon finish which were both very cool. It was a rather warm and humid morning and I started to feel a bit unwell about 4km in and had to sit away from the group for some air while everyone chatted after the jog. It was not the best confidence booster for the marathon in 2 sleep's time!

Part of the Roger Rasheed Sports Foundation 2018 group

We had some breakfast with Roger and another Australian group also there for the marathon. My stomach started to feel a bit better following some healthy food, but was still a bit concerning.

Mum, Dad and I walked to the Marathon Expo at Javits Center following breakfast to go and pick up my race number, shirt and other information. The Expo was impressive and finally picking up my race number made everything very real. The Expo also included a massive New Balance store (with marathon branded clothing for sale at the prices that you would expect plus more) as well as a whole showroom floor full of all sort of different stalls which of course were mostly running/fitness related.

The Expo was located next to the “High Line” so we walked about halfway down that before slowly making our way back to the hotel for a catch up with Roger Rasheed and the team at 4:00pm.

After a brief chat with the team I went up to the room for a much needed nap before again joining the rest of the team for dinner and "Donna Summer the Musical" on Broadway that night.

Saturday 3 November

After about 30,000 steps coupled with jet lag on the Friday, the plan was to have a very slow Saturday (which is recommended prior to the marathon anyway). Originally I planned to sit on a hop-on hop-off bus for the day but ended up just getting up late and starting our day with a large breakfast with Mum and Dad at about 10:45am (when we finally got in somewhere, it seems this was every runner’s plan for the day).

Again I felt sick and I put it down to having eaten a banana as soon as I got up both mornings. Whether this was the actual cause or not is questionable but I decided I wouldn’t risk it on Sunday morning. After 2 plates of pancakes about an hour later I was feeling a little better but not entirely. I decided I would head back to the hotel and just put my feet up for the day, maybe go for a swim. Mum and Dad did a little bit of shopping.

I lay in bed, put the TV on and 4 hours later woke up with Mum and Dad back in the room and the TV still on. A much needed sleep and I was pretty well ready to go.

We headed out for a 5:30pm dinner with the team at an Italian restaurant just off of Times Square called Carmine’s. This was part of the tour package and was a huge meal (plates of food just kept coming out onto the table). I wish I could have eaten more but was nervous about my stomach. In the end that was probably a good thing as it stopped me from overindulging.

Roger gave us a motivational/calming speech (which if anything probably got me more excited about the following day than anything else had to this point!) and just told us to enjoy the experience. We headed off for an early night (and expected a generally sleepless night) before the big race day!

Nick

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