My #TCSNYC Marathon Day! Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today….

Nothing, and I mean nothing, really prepared me for how awesome this experience would be!  Everyone I knew who had done this run always stated with how amazing the race was (even the elites I know said this).  My expectations were high and they were surpassed!  From the amazing crowds, to the inspirational athletes, to the incredible volunteers, to the seamless race kit pickup (they have clearly done this gig before), to the 5 boroughs….simply WOW!  Caution (this will be a rather long read) and spoiler alert (it will be a whole lot about running and not so much about running well) 😉

I ended up at the start line in the best possible condition considering that I only got 72 limpy kilometers on the road the past month after my leg went on strike trying to take care of the adductor strain.  I had tried to maintain fitness, but it just didn’t make up for missing peaking and the 220K that I should have gotten in.  Based on my last pre-marathon run, I was left with desperate hoping that my last sessions at Maritime Chiropractic for physio with Monica & electro-acupuncture with Bridget would do the trick. 

Highlights prior to the marathon:

Expo:  This was so well organized.  Race kit pick-up was definitely the calm before the mayhem of the expo but managed to get some cool gear I really didn’t need, but really really wanted!  A shout out to Aftershokz’s excellent customer service…they came through in a pinch. #customerforlife  Even if I ended up not turning on the music…I didn’t need or want the distraction after all!

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Carb loading: Coach said to start carb-loading on the Friday and the mac n’ cheese pancakes did the trick! Who knew this lovely delight existed?  I know, at first thought, it doesn’t sound that appealing. It may need to become a staple from now on😋

Start village & warm up: Despite getting up at ugly o’clock and the super long wait in athlete’s village here’s my list of random thanks and learnings:

• Love to Barry for walking with me to the 5:30AM bus❤️
• Buoyed by all the positive pre-race messages….THANK-YOU !
• Comforted by my lists!!
• Robax heating pads are not only great for therapeutic use, but it’s perfect body warmer when sitting on cold hard ground.
• TP in the portajohns (as they say in the US) NEVER ran out! How did they do that?
• A well-oiled organized volunteer machine
• Awe and admiration for all the AWDs (athletes with disabilities) as I saw them prep right in front of me
• Runners have the weirdest warm up gear🤪 #DidYourMotherSeeYouBeforeYouLeftToday?

The next 4 sections are structured around Coach’s race plan & themes. Chunking it like this really helps me stay organized and on track especially with an unpredictable body!

13K in Staten Island & Brooklyn: Gratitude for the Health to Live these Race Moments!  

What a start!  I was in Wave 2 and as we were being corralled, we could hear and see the Wave 1 start.  To hear the introduction of the pros, the national anthem, 🎶New York – New York🎶 and have the white and blue “ticker tape” fall all over us got me excited and teary (it would not be the only time that day that happened).  I had been anticipating this moment from the first time I put the thought of me in a marathon together with my cousin Helene 8 years ago and there I was!  I was so excited that I forgot to get nervous 🤪

Coach’s orders to not go faster than 5:40 (based on my “tester runs”) were not hard at all to obey.  The first 10K went much better biomechanically than expected.  The hip was extending, the adductor wasn’t complaining and the run felt smooth.  It was easy to slip into gratitude for health in this section.  I was having a hard time believing that my body was working! I mean, not 4 days prior, I struggled to run without limping.  Electro-acupuncture works, as weird as it feels, check it out next time you have muscles that go on strike!!  Somehow, I got to that start line healed up…SCORE !!

But this was beside the point, Coach wanted me to be grateful for more than what my body was able to do.  I looked for people to talk to, but everybody was so focused, they were definitely in race mode and I wasn’t going to distract them from that.  I focused on being present so I looked to my left and to my right.  I was ON the Verrazano Bridge (how cool was THAT) and began looking for this massive uphill everyone told me about!  OK….folks, lets end the melodrama here:  This was NOT a big deal, and while there is sneaky elevation, nothing really felt like a big hill until well into Central Park after mile 24!  All that speedwork over and back across the old bridge in Halifax must have paid off ….thx Coach Erin😊 

I didn’t get the chance to be on the upper deck, but TCSNYC still put on a show for us on the lower deck!  Road crews and UPS trucks returning to the start with checked bags were honking and waving at us, as were a couple of officers in NYPD helicopters who were hovering at our level and accompanied us across the bridge.  The crowd was PUMPED!  Oh and another myth busted:  While the view would have been better up top, nobody got peed on from the upper deck.  Who would actually stop, in full view, on that bridge to take a leak anyway?  I still ran from the middle though, wasn’t going to take a chance 🤪

Once we got off the bridge, the crowds began and did not stop until the finish line (except the bridges and the Jewish sector in Brooklyn….more about that later).  New Yorkers LOVE their marathon.  I know I’ve said this about other cities and their marathons and it’s true…but it’s truer with the TCSNYC!  They are nutso about this race to the point where I had to stop looking at my watch there really was way too much to see and smile at, I had found my happy place and pace, kept the teenager grounded and allowed the senior master runner to marvel at what I was actually accomplishing.  

Then the legs started feeling a bit weird and I looked at my watch….almost 10K.  This was much too early for these feelings, but then I realized that I had not successfully run more than 9K in the previous 4 weeks. I came to the realization that while I could celebrate relative good health that day, it was not going to be that miraculous golden day where my body could run a sub 4 hour or a sub 4:15-4:30.  I had managed to heal up (just), but not strengthen enough to sustain at that pace, so I tried recalculating what I could expect and within a couple of minutes, I told myself to stop it.  I decided right there and then that today was going to be about looking for every possible pleasure on this route and to make sure that I will be running across that finish line. I was going to be OK with walking. #runtribe Jody told me to be kind to myself, and I was going to make sure I was!

Time to go through that gratitude list….and I did🥰

12K in Brooklyn 2 & Queen’s: Queen Shalane and Queen Doreen

Coach asked me to channel 2 Queens. The first being Shalane Flanagan with the “Shalane Effect” of her bringing her women-crew along by supporting, nurturing and elevating her tribe. The second being Queen Doreen…now I don’t mind being referred to as a Queen, I do like how it rhymes, and I love this leadership-from-within model.  My tribes exemplify support, elevation and nurturing of each other.  

Before you get to Queens, you pass through a Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn and just as I had read, I had to dodge some of the men dashing through the crowd to cross the street (all of them using the cross walks of course!).  I also noticed the women and the girl-children watching us out of the corner of their eyes.  It was in one of these groups, I spotted my first queen-to-be when one of the girls simply could not resist calling out “Your tutu is SOOOO pretty” to the runher wearing satiny pink tights and a huge flowy tutu. The other women in the group gasped a bit, but this little girl’s mother had a little smile of approval on her face. I loved that regardless of your background…tutus rock and girls will acknowledge you despite the risks. It was time for this queen to bust out:)

Got my boost to get through Queens by keeping each one of my #badassbosslady tribe and their wisdom, encouragement and successes in mind.  I called on my extended #fierceandfearless Love Training More family.  Cradling all of this, I summoned the queen of queens, the Empress Coach Erin.  I kept the spirit of these runhers in my heart as I ran (mostly) through Queens.

By this point in the marathon, I was well into #findingjoy and looking forward to the next section of the plan….and yes I walked over the Queensborough Bridge.  Lots of cool things to see from this bridge, including the runner selfies and a runner picnic….I kid you not!

10K in Manhattan – Bronx: Finding Fierce 

Coming off the bridge I was determined to be running as I knew Barry would be around the 26K mark.  I had heard that there would be lots of people in Manhattan and that I would hear the crowd before I saw it.  I wasn’t prepared for what sounded like a jet engine as I passed under the bridge on to 1st Ave. It was so loud and exciting that I literally bounced along the road and almost missed Barry!  It was great to see him and I stopped for a quick chat and a couple of photos.  His words after a told him that I was walking a lot:  “But you’re doing great!  So what, if you walk the rest of the way.”  Reassurance that I was on the right plan. I wasn’t even looking at my overall pace and time by this point.  This was the boost I needed to run/walk a bit more, continue to soak it all in.

Now to be honest at this point, I was walking too much.  To the point where my back was hurting when I walked.  Running felt better until I’d feel the strain about to strain….so the balance between the 2 continued, but this section was about finding fierce.  Despite all the encouragement from the masses, 1st avenue is too long, and I found my mind questioning whether I’d be able to finish this.  Why was walking hurting so much?  For a runner, walking is supposed to be your rest.  But what are you to do when the backup plan hurts?  

Cue the race nails. At one point I felt my nail polish and was reminded of my race nail story: LTM warrior being the storm in the big apple!  It was time to not panic and to find fierce.  Coach predicted this and said to hang in there and get to the second last bridge.  I called on the general, I used the crowd, I replenished my spirit, I marveled at the AWDs I came across and thought #noexcuses Redmond, #nevergiveup ….it all came down to #suckitupbuttercup as this was getting this done despite my injury.

I then gave myself the goal to run more during the last 10 K….and I did. 

I loved the Bronx!  I loved the grittiness, the people, the rap. It was so different than the other boroughs.  As I came off the second last bridge, there was a group of saucy teenagers (saucy teenagers feed my spirit…I am a junior high teacher at heart!) One of the girls yelled out “YOU are AMAZING”, so I called back out to her that she was amazing.  Well you know she wouldn’t let that go and came back with a “No gurl YOU are AMAZING” .  And you all know that I couldn’t let that go…. anyway, that went on a couple of more times and the crowd around me had a good laugh.

Thank-you #saucyteenagers…. you propelled me through the Bronx, I flew over that last bridge, or at least in my head I did🤪 And you prepared me for the last section of Coach Erin’s plan.

7.2K plus in Manhattan: Fearless Teenager Celebration of Me

My watch buzzed before I got to the last bridge. By this time, I knew I was running long (but not as long as others I know…. Right Paula !) While Coach told me I could let the teenager out in this section, but even the teenager knew that I still had to be careful.  However, it was time to get a bit delusional.  The jazzy tones of Harlem were surrounding me, the crowds were still hyped and at points I felt like I was flying in my sluggy kind of way.  Looking at the race photos later, I didn’t realize how much I was favouring my injured side, even if I felt like I was running straight….what a sight !

I still continued to take advantage of every water stop.  Oh BTW, but I rocked my nutrition and hydration plan.  I mean if I wasn’t focused on time, I was not going to screw up on hydration and nutrition this time 😂

Once again, I was told to brace myself for the 5^th Ave uphill…I never really found it but hello hills in the Park! Under normal circumstances, I would have loved the up and down of the park hills.  This felt like home, but as you all know by now, adductors don’t like the downhills, so I walked a bit more.  There’s a funny picture of me holding my back during one of these walks…and it was clearly one of those moments where I was wishing this was over. 

But, weirdly, I really didn’t want it to end. The park was so beautiful, and the spectators were ever-present and encouraging. It is so hard to describe how special this made me feel and then all of a sudden, I hear my name being called out and it’s Meaghan!  I knew she was in town, but what were the chances to see her along the course….clearly 100%  So I went over for a chat, and to whinge a bit (because I could).  She gave me a quick pep talk, a kick in the pants and sent me on my way.  Thx Meaghan❤️

I continued my saunter until I saw the 800m sign in the distance and then it became about me checking one of the goals off the list: I picked up the speed and ran across that finish line with a pumped arm in the air and #eff-yea …. for Coach….and for me.

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Epilogue:

While it wasn’t an eff-yea for a #marathonmiracle, it was an eff-yea for #marathonjoy !  I now have a marathon finish time that starts with a “5”.  I’ve never done that before and I guess it rounds out the ones I have that start with a “3” and a “4” 😂 Despite this, I’ve never had a marathon that went by so quickly.  Time literally flew and every time my watch buzzed for a new segment of the race plan, it took me by surprise. This marathon, for me, was a success….BUT it wasn’t over.  It took me an hour and over 5K to get out of the finish zone an back to the hotel.  This was the beginning of the post-marathon achy legs where I began to despise every stop light….only because it was so hard to start moving again 🤪

Time to celebrate !

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…AND time to give thanks to you for having stuck through and read this, to my #runtribe (those Cheer Cards were great :)), to the supporters of our running community (family, friends, colleagues & health professionals: I know we drive you crazy yet you put up with us), to my Empress Coach Erin (your patience and skill to get this Queen through this marathon cycle makes me want to be a better runner and feel that I could possibly do another one😂) and to my husband Barry (am blessed to have a partner who understands this craziness and still loves me❤️).

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Well that’s it for this training cycle, it was a bit of a challenge to blog to this extent about this marathon journey but looking back on this…. #noregrets too !