BTW, I did not take this screenshot at 12:19 am on race day □ Brilliant!Īfter getting our packets, we pitter-pattered around for a bit before bee-lining back to our home base to shower and change clothes before our Friday night outing…HAMILTON! Volunteers were there to answer questions before you even knew you had them, everything was laid out in a completely logical order, and they even had a designated station in which you could try on a shirt to make sure you got the right size. The expo was other-worldy in terms of size and organization. We made our way to the nearby station without a hitch, got off on our stop, and voila – public transportation savants! I personally LOVE utilizing any available public transport in new cities and am always impressed be its efficiency while also disappointed Denver falls so short. I always prefer to visit expos two days out from a race should the option be there, and we figured it would be a good way to get to know the subway system. We arrived at JFK at 1:00 pm on Friday afternoon, cabbed to our Air BnB on the Upper East Side, and immediately made our way to the expo. Sleepy airplane selfie! We’re on our way! I can’t fully describe why this was such a good taper other than I felt either calm or pumped up all week, and it was a great respite from constant anxiety or nervousness. Every time I thought about running 26.2 miles during taper, I felt fired up but not antsy, ready but not over-trained. I was sleeping well every night (8+ hours easily), I wasn’t fidgety due to decreased activity, and I generally felt calm and confident about race day. That said, I also had the best taper week I’ve ever had. It helped that we’d never been to New York before and had a variety of other plans made that I was looking forward to. My only nerves were surrounding logistics and getting there when it came to the race, all I felt was pure bubbly anticipation. Certainly more excited than I ever have before a marathon. In the days leading up to race weekend, I felt so excited. Hmm…maybe there could be more to NYC after all. There was, however, one little sparkle in my eye when it came to potential outcomes: three weeks before the race, I ran the Denver Rock ‘n’ Roll Half-Marathon (following a seven mile “warm-up”) in 1:38, and it felt…easy. Plus, as previously mentioned, I wanted to have fun and enjoy the day – which I felt primped and ready to achieve. So, when asked what my goals were and what my estimated finish would be, I truly had no idea! That’s what I told everyone who asked, including Adam, and it was the absolute truth. My fitness felt decent, but I didn’t really have much indication as to how that would translate in the race. Coupled with dry needling every other week, I had started to feel much more like my old running self – which was a welcome change. The all-encompassing leg fatigue I had been experiencing for nearly the whole year was subsiding, and generally I felt more durable when I ran. It was tedious and inconvenient…but it worked. Every other day, I was spending 30ish minutes going through a variety of glute activation exercises, strengthening moves and general pelvis alignment stuff. I saw a PT after the Grand Traverse for my never-ending glute/hamstring/quad fatigue, and a quick assessment landed me with a multitude of butt strengtheners to do. I should also mention that I spent the eight weeks before NYC actually doing the little things. Granted, this wasn’t the ideal training season that I have experienced in the past, but considering the timing, it felt adequate enough. I got in three 20+ milers, a small handful of speed workouts, and averaged between 50-60 miles per week. I recovered for a week from GT and then slowly transitioned into bread-and-butter marathon training. To touch briefly on training, I went into the race with a roughly eight week training cycle following the Grand Traverse. NYC was about fundraising, training the best I could, and treating race day like the big ol’ party it promised to be. Not to mention my last marathon was Boston 2016, and despite a near-perfect training cycle and a PR, my memory of that race has left a long-lasting bad taste in my mouth. I was doing the race as a means of raising money for a great organization, it would be a short training cycle, and…it was THE New York City Marathon! It’s been a bucket list race for me for years, and I wanted to enjoy and relish my experience rather than have it tarnished by time goal pressure or suffering. When I first registered for the New York City Marathon, I knew that my first and foremost goal would be to have fun.
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