The run-up to the NYC marathon

Sorry for the delay - had a pretty hectic week since returning to the UK. In this post, I'll cover the few days before the marathon. My girlfriend (Idoia) and I arrived in NY on Wednesday afternoon, with a rough plan which consisted of a few days shopping before the marathon, the marathon (Sunday), suffer like hell on Monday, before flying out on Monday night, suffering Deep Vein Thrombosis on the way home!

First day there we hit an outlet store about an hour outside of NYC - pretty disappointing, but still managed to pick up some stuff. Main problem as far as I was concerned was my legs felt a bit tired that evening, which didn't bode well for the sight-seeing we'd planned the following day!

On the Friday, we'd pre-booked tickets on the first ferry out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. The trip down to the ferry was a good reconnaissance of the route I'd have to take the morning of the marathon. Statue of Liberty was pretty cool, if not a bit smaller than I'd imagined. Views back to Manhatten were probably the most impressive thing though. We actually skipped Ellis Island - I'm sure I've had family pass through there, but we'd a fair bit of sightseeing planned for the day and it got cut.

Arrived back at downtown Manhatten and checked out the financial district + Ground Zero. Walked up to Chinatown and grabbed some lunch there which was pretty tasty - absolutely huge portions as well! Rest of the afternoon we ambled up 5th \ 6th Avenues, checking out the different districts \ shops \ etc. on the way.

We finally ended up at the convention centre where I had to register - we'd initially planned on this being a quick in\out job but the place was absolutely massive! Idoia signed up for the International Friendship Run the following morning (I already had an automatic entry). Spent absolutely ages there and just went back to the hotel afterwards. Legs were pretty tired so made the decision to do as little as possible after the IFR in the morning.

The IFR is a 4km run held for international runners (and family, friends, etc.) on the day before the race. It goes from the UN to Central Park, mainly down 6th Avenue, which was pretty cool. Traffic was stopped (though it seemed like life went on as usual). Lots of fancy dress and generally a good atmosphere.

Runners were encouraged to run with their compatriots, but with Idoia running with me, it was always going to be a tough one whether to run with the Irish or the Spanish :P Either way, we just ran together, soaked up the atmosphere and the surroundings. The finish line in Central Park was under the 26 Mile banner.

The rest of the afternoon was spent in or around the hotel - Idoia went off to the MoMA and I just rested my legs and started to get nervous about the following morning.

More about that in the next post.

Prior to the

The morning after...

Pretty stiff this morning, but thought I'd be a lot worse. Calves and groin are the worst, but I'm up and about. Plan is to do a few hours of last minute shopping / sightseeing in NY before catching an overnight flight tonight back to the UK.

Just looking at the provisional splits on the website - as I knew, very good first half, after which my 5km split times start going out to about 40 mins! Anyhow, who cares - I'm delighted to have finished.

I see the (lottery) entries for the 2010 marathon are opening today - if any of you are interested. I'd highly recommend it, if you're lucky enough to get a place.

Thanks again for all the comments and texts. Will write a proper race report when I get back to UK.

Quick update

Completed the NYC marathon earlier in 5hrs 3m 30s (by my timing). Will update again when I get back with more details.

Thanks for the support!

Not long now...

Lying in the hotel, pretty nervous. Legs are a bit tired from all the walking of the last few days. Done the "fun run" this morning, pretty cool running through the streets of Manhatten. Oh well...

If (and I doubt it) anyone wants to follow realtime progress tomorrow, then my number is 56341 - pop that into the website somewhere and it should give you an update.

W6KW#2 - Tempo Run

Six weeks to go to the marathon on Sunday - definitely starting to get a bit nervous. Tonights run called for

• 1 mile easy
• 5 miles medium tempo (9m 28s per mile)

As usual, I didn't follow that! It was a struggle to get out in the first place, but got out around 10pm and took the first km easy enough. I knew I'd "only" 10km to do, which would have been a fair bit a year ago, but these days I'd consider it my "comfortable" distance - I can keep an intense effort up for this distance, without suffering like I do in the longer runs staying focused.

I picked the pace up over the next few km's and was feeling good - I was considering pushing for a 5km pb, but decided against it about 4km in and eased off a bit. Thankfully the run up to around 6km was out of town (given it was after 10km on a Friday night and the students seem to be back in Cambridge for the new term).

Running through town was actually a bit tough - I usually find it a bit easier as there's generally people milling around, stuff happening, etc., compared to the quieter roads I start off on. However, tonight went the opposite way - too many people, drunk, on phones (and hence not looking where they're going), spilling out onto the road, being cheered on by muppets, etc., etc.!

So like I say, the last two miles were tough but thankfully kept the pace up and finished up doing 10.12km in 56m 36s (5m 36s per km) - for anyone that's been following this blog for a bit might realise that's easily a new (unofficial) PB. Not sure what my previous PB was (official or unofficial) but I'm happy to say this comfortably beats it - I crossed the 10km mark according to ST in 55m 54s - I definitely think a 55 minute 10k is on the cards at some stage.

W7KW#3 - Long Run

Plan for last weekends run called for 13 miles at my marathon pace + 15s per mile (approx 10m 25s or 6m 31s per km). For various reasons, I didn't get a chance to go out for a run until this evening, which isn't really good enough, but that's life.

I'd been out for a cycle at lunch as well, but was determined to get at least 10 miles in this evening, ideally beating my 1hr 50m non-stop run last week and \ or it's 11.25 mile distance. Ideally, I'd run the full 13 miles or at least 20km if possible.

Set off deliberately slow to try and achieve these aims and thankfully did. Really started to struggle (mentally more than physically) after 40 mins or so. Really tried to play mind games with myself to spur myself on - the one I settled on was splitting the run into 3 x 40 minute chunks:

1. first "easy" one - knew I could easily do the time \ distance - absolutely no challenge
2. second "tough" one - tough in the sense it's be the most boring section. It starts getting tougher, but been there, done it all before.
3. third "goal" one - the last 40 mins which was where the sessions goals are - getting used to being on the feet for a long time.

Made it into the final section and was starting to get tired, despite the slower pace. Started counting down the minutes and eventually got to my previous time PB - though still a bit of distance wise. Figured at this point I still was good for the full distance (or at least the 20km), but bang on the 2hr mark I lost all energy (or was it willpower).

Still, quite happy with the run. Ran through some nice areas of Cambridge that I hadn't seen before - Claire College in particular, very nice at night. Can't find a pic online but I'll defo be going that way again.

Overall done 18.57km in 2hrs 01m (avg. 6m 31s per km - bang on target).

W7KW#2 - Tempo Run

The plan called for 10 miles at PMP (projected marathon pace) which is 10m 13s per mile. I got back from work a bit late and was a bit hungry, so a 1hr 40m run didn't really appeal, so I left the house thinking I'd give it a go and see how I got on.

Set off at a pretty fast pace, initially aiming to do two miles fast, followed by an easy mile and repeat as necessary. First two miles went great, averaging 8m 56s for the distance. Dropped back the pace a bit, but still took 9m 32s for the next mile before upping it again.

Mile four was pretty tough (9m 01s) and I finally cracked half way though mile five - I came to a darkish section and just decided to stop. It's a bit disappointing, but still happy enough with the run up to that (7.43km in 42m 27s - 9m 9s per mile).

A brief walk and I cracked on again. This time the aim was to keep the pace up and decide when I got close to home whether to extend the run a bit. In the end, I settled for a 10.09km run (which got me to my doorstep) in 58m 05s - another sub 1hr 10k! Garmin reckoned I crossed the 10km point at 57m 36s, so don't think it's quite a PB but very close.