Race Report: NYC Marathon

Well, at least I officially have a World Marathon Major race under my belt. Besides that and fundraising for a great cause, I think that's the only bright spots to this race. Sadly, I set my Personal Worst aka the Reverse PR, eclipsing my 2016 Honolulu Marathon by about 45sec. Safe to say, it wasn't a great day out on the course for me.

I'm glad it's the last race of my season (I've since decided to axe the HITS Palm Springs 70.3 idea) and I can take some stress/pressure of not training off. It'll be good to relax the body a bit, focus on strength, flexibility and maybe trying to lose some body fat. Who knows. It'll be thoughts to ponder for another post...

Race Details:
New York City, New York
Run: 26.2mi, point to point

Race Summary:
Before I breakdown my race, I wanna touch on something that kind of frustrated me. The logistics for getting to the start line of this race are pretty ridiculous. I joked that I had to take a car, a plane then a train, boat and bus just to walk to the starting line. Obviously, coming from across the country, it's a no brainer that I'd be flying here. But since the bus transportation option from Manhattan was sold out, I had to choose the Staten Island Ferry. And that was ferry terminal was such a mess race morning. So many people packed into that terminal and everyone cramming and pushing to get on the boat. Luckily I got a seat. But you get off the boat and then have to walk thru the food court and stand in another long line just to get on a bus to Fort Wadsworth. All in all, I left the hotel at 7am and didn't even get into the race waiting area until 10:35am. I joked with my bus buddy that it takes a marathon to get to the marathon start line. At least I had enough time to hit the potty and get to my corral before my wave start. Some other folks on the bus were not so lucky...

Those first 3 miles are really as advertised. I mean, we rode the Verrazano Bridge for the Bike Tour in May, but running up that bad boy was a rough way to start. Similar to the SF 2nd Half start, I focused on telling myself to go slow, don't kill your race right here, all the people passing you will get owned by you later. And as the story always goes, I definitely passed a lot of those people later in the race. So success there.

The next stretch of miles through Brooklyn and Queens were comfortable. I made sure not to push it too hard remembering that I wanted to run this race and not hit the wall. I was trying to negative split it to see if that would hurt less (spoiler alert, I'm not sure it did, but I felt better throughout the race). But coming off that first bridge and running through Brooklyn was really awesome because of the crowds. And this would be a theme throughout. The people of NY really lined the streets and cheered on thousands of random strangers. It's pretty amazing and uplighting to feel all that energy!

The next major stretch of note came at mile 15 on the Queensboro Bridge. That was the 2nd stretch of elevation via a bridge. That one actually felt painful. Again, I didn't walk and I'm proud of that, but it was definitely a slow trudge. After you get off that bridge though, it's nice to again have a giant crowd cheering and kinda giving you that mental pick me up to keep going and keep the momentum.

I kept it together for a couple more miles, but mile 19 was where I started walking thru aid stations. I hadn't hit the wall per se, but I knew that the real race was going to start and I felt like I needed a chance to get some energy. The last 10K is always where the battle is going to be both mentally, physically and in terms of finishing time. And it def was a battle. Particularly because the last hill into Central Park was killer. I was so hopeful that I could use my training, my negative splitting and all my will power to push thru the last 10-8K to a sub 4:30 time. That didn't happen. The hill was real and the pain and fatigue was even more real. I was trudging up it at a pace faster than many (likely those who passed me in the first miles), but I couldn't achieve the much faster splits that I wanted.

In what seemed like an eternity, I kept pushing up the hill, along the park and finally thru Central Park to the finish line! It was about 1.5 miles but it felt longer than the entire marathon. It literally felt like an eternity. Fatigue was setting in hard, I wanted to walk, the pains in my feet and knees just kept getting worse and worse. But finally I did it! I crossed the line, I grabbed my medal and tried to shove some pretzels, water and banana into my body as I waddled thru the finisher area. And despite knowing I set a personal worst, I still felt accomplished that I did this bucket list race!

A note about finishing a marathon and the moments after. You feel terrible. You're horribly sore. And then they make you walk forever to get all your post race things and get out to some place where you can get transportation home. It's terrible. They should definitely make it easier so athletes can choose to just get out and go rest somewhere. Or maybe that's why they offer a VIP area... Exit early... for a fee $$$

Oh a quick note about my fueling plan: I had a strategy and it worked! My plan was to eat a Honey Stinger gel about every 35-45 minutes and take the Salt Stick pills every 30 minutes. That plus keeping a heart rate in the 160s helped me avoid the wall! So I was definitely happy about that!

Map and Stats Plot:

Heart Rate Zones:

The chart tells the story that I lived this marathon in Zone 4. In fact, I was pretty much only in Zone 5 for the very end where I tried my hardest to make a push to get under 4:30. That didn't happen... It's interesting that I was probably in Zone 3 for the uphill/downhill part of the Verrazano Bridge which is mile 0-3 of the race. I'd have to guess that was either a mistake or that my HR actually went down as I was going downhill. Very interesting...

Race Charts:
Course Reported Finish:

Welp... There goes a personal worst aka the Reverse PR... I'm so awesome right? :(

Run:

Well the Garmin was all kinds of off and haywire, likely due to all the runners trying to ping satellites as well as various trouble areas for signals like the bridges and running between tons of high buildings. Alas, it shows the summary that my HR was high on average and my pace was slow on average. But the one thing it shows is that my actual moving time was 2 minutes faster than my finish. That's because there was a fire in some apartment building at Mile 18. So the race was literally stopped for 2+ minutes so that a fire truck could get to that building. Definitely lost some time and momentum there, but overall didn't change much... I guess it could've helped me avoid setting a new Reverse PR... LOL

Pics:

Obligatory Times Square photo

Zombie Times Square photo after the red eye flight

Various expo photos

Did a little bit of sight seeing on Saturday

Carb loading dinner!

Shots from the morning ferry ride

Therapy dogs right outside the race corrals

This race was packed! 51,000 runners!

Me telling the volunteer how to take a photo with my iPhone turned into hilarious candid

A good, normal photo at the finish line

Totally happy with pizza and beer post race :D

Eating all the donuts the next morning

Hanging with Angela and recapping our races and pain points the next day!

Views from the floor level at the CTF NY office! They're even better higher up!

Like this :D

A Medal Monday shot with the Brooklyn Bridge!

The Race That Never Was

Well, the biggest race of the 2017 calendar turned out to be the biggest NON-race of the last decade. Everything was setup to be epic:
-No Kim in the race to overshadow this showdown with a podium
-The first time that Dave and I have ever been in the same age group and (relatively) healthy
-Flat bike (good for Josh) and flat run (good for Dave's recently healed achilles)
-McGregor-Mayweather inspired, self-designed gear by Amanda
-The biggest little city known for partying, good food and good jazz

Alas, thanks to (literally) an act of God (aka massive thunderstorm) plus (supposed) future storms (the day was really nice in the French Quarter), the race never happened. It was sadly called after just an hour into the storm. Many racers were disappointed, particularly as things seemingly cleared up by 9am, but none were more disappointed than Dave and I as well as our wonderful spectators Kim and Amanda.

The Battle In The Bayou, as it was dubbed, was going to be an entertaining, hilarious and epic showdown of 2 triathlon lovers who don't usually taste podium success. Oh well... maybe sometime in 5 years we will find an epic venue to have a rematch!

Writers Note: to add insult to disappointment, the big bad Ironman corporation decided that adequate compensation to racers was $100 towards a future race. That's about 1/3 the price of the race itself and doesn't take into account any compensation for racers getting to the venue and getting gear (specifically bikes) to the start line. A lot of folks were out a lot of money and it's a shame that this big corporation that makes tons off these races they put on all over the country couldn't compensate us a little bit better for canceling the race. Might make you think a little harder about doing races across the country in potentially dangerous times of year for the region of the race... or maybe even make you think twice about racing with Ironman in general...

The race was cancelled, biggest bummer ever!!! It was going to be an entertaining showdown for sure! And our spectators had some sweet shirts! Alas... The race that never was...

The thunderstorm was loud and ferocious, but seemed to settle within minutes of the race director calling off the race

I mean since the podium was there and we all tied for 1st, it was kind of a win LOL

No race, might as well get to eating...

Race cancelled, time to eat and drink!

And drink...

And of course... BEIGNETS!!!

Blue Nile, one of several Jazz spots we stumbled into

A Talk With Another Champ

I haven't done a non-race report post in a while. Life has been hectic and busy work wise which means the little time I had remaining was either spent training or spending quality time with my girlfriend Amanda, my family or whatever friends I have left who have stuck with me.

But as I lay here, ice on legs and chugging down a protein recovery shake, I decided to write about a recent LA Tri Club event that I attended. The event was an opportunity to run and then sit and talk with Chrissie Wellington. For those that don't know, Chrissie is a 4 time Ironman World Champion (2007-2009, 2011) and is undefeated at the Ironman distance in her pro career. Basically, she's pretty epic and kind of a beast!

(photo credit: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3qjz81)

In fact, I googled her to read more and found this snapshot of her pro racing career just to show the awesomeness.

(photo credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrissie_Wellington)

In short, she's pretty damn fast and pretty damn good. So naturally, being able to hear her talk might be something worth attending, especially when it's free (thanks LATC!). And well, I wasn't disappointed.

The run itself wasn't much to write home about. There was a wide range of skills for this event, so the run was pretty slow and easy, almost like a shakeout/recovery run. Then we popped in for a quick yoga session to wait for non-runners to join the talk. So finally, we get to the talk.

In short, she mostly covered her motivations for triathlon and her subsequent motivations for stepping away. To summarize her motivations, my takeaway was that she was looking for a physical challenge when initially getting into the sport. She was a good runner, someone suggested she try out and she did well and got stuck with it early on. When she started doing a few more races and found out she was exceptionally good, she made the risky decision to pursue a pro career and the rest was history.

Her continued motivations as a pro seemed to revolve around pushing her limits, testing herself and trying to be the very best that she could at the sport she gave her life to. It's something obviously risky when you compare that to the security of a cookie cutter job. But she showed that with hard work, dedication and focused coaching/training/nutrition/etc, you really can be great when you put your mind and body into something.

Finally, she elaborated on why she stepped away. Part of her motivations were family and building on other parts of her life (like her desire to promote sport and international development), but also because she had completed her perfect race in regaining the Ironman World Champion title in 2011. But in this sense, her perfect race was not a race in which she had no challenges and was able to master every facet of racing. In fact, her "perfect race" was about how imperfect the race ended up being, but how she fought through those imperfections to bring out the very best in herself AND claim the title. There's a lot of articles on what exactly she dealt with, but she highlighted 3 main ones: a recent bike accident, some illnesses and a little bit of self doubt before and during the race. So for her, that was her idea of a perfect race and one she could probably never top. And so after a year of reflection and time away, she decided to retire and pursue other aspects of her life.

But a big takeaway was motivation. She didn't focus on telling us how we could be better triathletes or how we could ace our next race (some of the many things that Macca talked to us about a few years ago). For that, she said that the book, a coach and countless other articles could help with. But she wanted to talk with us about motivation and the why of triathlon. Ultimately, her takeaway is to pursue what makes you happy and pursue it with all of her being.

It was a message heard loud and clear by yours truly. As I lay here after my final long run before NYC Marathon (which is before IM 70.3 NOLA aka Battle in the Bayou), I definitely wonder how many more long distance races I'll do. The desire to go long is definitely not there. Marathon training for the last couple races has been tough. It wears on me. I only do it because I know the miles are necessary to cross the finish line. But I don't enjoy it. I do, however, enjoy the thrill of toeing the line, specifically at these big races. And maybe that's where my motivation lies. Maybe I need to hit a couple more milestone races (like Tokyo, Chicago, London, Paris) and then stick to the distances that I do love: the 70.3 distance and the half marathon distance. These are distances I can get excited about training for and I think that's where my future career will lie. But who knows, my motivation ebbs and flows just like everyone else. And maybe some bouts of FOMO will convince me to make many more appearances at the long distance stuff and someday even toe the line at another Ironman. Only time will tell...

Until then, the fun takeaway from the talk was that someone asked her what she thought about after crossing the line in 2011 as the Ironman World Champion once again. And her response was epic: "I just thought about beer and when can someone get me one!" Tons of laughs in the crowd and a response held very close to my heart, as well as some of my Honey Stinger Picnic family members haha

Not only did we get to meet her, but she signed her new book for us too. And while most folks wanted her to address their name with her signature, I asked her to just write a motivational message for me that I can look to whenever I open the book. And that's what she wrote:

"Never stop believing in all you can achieve"

Thanks so much Chrissie and thanks LATC and TriFit gym for hosting the event!