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<span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Sorry in advance for the length! I know I enjoy reading RR's so hopefully you can work your way through this jungle...</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">So – where to start with NYC? I’ll give a quick recap of each day and then get into the gory race details.</span></span><br><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><b>Fri</b> – Arrived and went to the Expo where I got to meet Deena Kastor (very cool) and Amy Palmeiro-Winters (featured in RW this month – I passed her about 4 miles in at Boston this year – very impressive woman!). Afterwards I had lunch with my buddy Dav and then we went to Niketown to get a free technical LiveStrong shirt handed to us by Lance Armstrong. I couldn’t pin Lance down to commit to a time goal for Sunday though I did offer him the chance to run with me targeting a 2:45. After letting Lance shake my hand, we went to enjoy the taping of Conan O’Brien with Jerry Seinfeld and Big Papi (David Ortiz for those not baseball-inclined). A great first day in NYC, to say the least.</span></span><br><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><b>Sat</b> – Dave and I went into the city to meet with <b>RunninginNYC, PTom, LLPRBerg</b> to watch the Olympic Trials. The race itself was fantastic – very exciting to see these guys duking it out. Of course, the excitement was tempered by the news of Ryan Shay’s death during the race…I’d followed his career since he won the NCAA 10,000 meters while at Notre Dame (my SiL was there at the same time). At the 2004 Trials, I met his girlfriend in the hotel fitness center when he was on the short list of guys who could make the team and I’ve always rooted for him. His death really was a shock – I’ve been in marathons where other people have died, but I suppose I assumed that those people either had a medical problem, or had undertrained or overhydrated or something and their deaths never really hit home like his did. It was a real downer. Anyway – I hung out at Maria’s house that afternoon before connecting with some other folks (including the lovely <b>Theia</b>, Greek Goddess of Hotness) for pasta that night. I stayed with another friend Tom at the Waldorf (discounted rate – sweet!) that night and got a good night’s sleep.</span></span><br><br><span style="font-size:medium;"><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><b>Sun</b> – We woke up bright and early, feeling good and raring to go. Met up with Maria and Larry and the 4 of us hung out together in the Athlete’s Village, which was a lot of fun. Turns out the highlight of the day was getting to be the first one in a porta potty – I christened it with a most successful visit which I took as a good sign for the race.</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">As I went to the Green start area, I ran into some friends that were also doing the race. It was good to see them and wish them well. My corral in the Green start was to be the 2nd off – 2 minutes after the cannon. I was a little bummed as I thought this would give Lance Armstrong a 2 minute headstart on me, but since I never heard for sure what his goal was I didn’t care as much about that as I did about not getting caught in the crowd. Turns out the start was fine – with minimal weaving and dodging, I ran the first uphill mile just over 7:00 and the second (downhill) mile in 5:58 – my first sub 6 mile in a marathon ever! With my goal being 6:18 pace (for a 2:45) that felt about right. Mile 3 was a little quick – 6:08 – but then I settled in to a nice pace of between 6:10-6:20 for the next several miles.</span></span><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">(My watch battery died overnight so I lost all my splits – I’m going by memory)</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">The weather was perfect – sunny and cool, slight breeze, ideal to me. I had on a singlet and shorts and stashed my gloves in my waistband after 1-2 miles. I was feeling good and loose – the pace was right where I wanted to be and I felt comfortable. I didn’t get whipped into a frenzy by the excitement of the crowd – I felt very controlled. I do a good job of taking a race mile by mile – in fact, I forget the last mile almost as soon as it’s over so I don’t really recall when there were hilly parts or when something interesting happened. I just locked into my pace, rolled on the downhills, relaxed on the uphills, and went through half right on target at 1:22:36. I took gels at ~5.5 and mile 11, I was careful with water and Gatorade (but not too much) at almost every water stop, I shook my arms out frequently and in general I felt confident that I could maintain that pace and had a gear or two left.</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Two interesting stories during the first 14-15 miles:</span></span>
<ul><li><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">At one point I was coming up to pass a guy on my right. Just before I got there, a 3rd guy dodged in between us, knocking me off my line. This hacked me off so as I passed the both of them I said “Dude, you have the whole effing road!” Well, the guy I was not talking to thought I was speaking to him and asked me that. I said “No I’m talking to THAT dumbass” but I was already 3-4 feet in front of him. Not hearing me and still thinking I was talking to him AND calling him a dumbass, he threatened to “Knock me right the eff out!” So I turn around and yell “I said I was not talking to you!” and then took off down the road so he couldn’t decide to clock me from behind anyway. Kind of a classic “Only in NYC” moment.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">At mile 14, Peter Reid (multiple winner of IM Hawaii) jumps in to pace a friend. I said hello and then overheard him tell his friend that Lance had rolled through about 45 seconds before we came through. So I knew I was close!</span></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Shortly after mile 15, you go up the Queensboro Bridge. This bridge really zapped me for some reason. It was a lot of effort to get up that hill, and I took a gel on the downside. I was hoping to feel great and start stomping on it up First Ave, but I came off the bridge feeling sluggish. Here, the pace dropped to 6:30 despite the effort level going up. All up First Ave, I had to work hard to run 6:30 when I’d been working less to run 6:10’s just 10 minutes before. I saw Bob & Theia at around mile 17 or so, giving them a little gun show and kissing my left python (pathetic I know). I kept hoping I was just going through a bad patch and the gel might kick in. It never did – I held 6:30 pace through about 19, mile 20 dropped to a 6:53, and then it was downhill from there. I could feel it slipping away and my legs started getting crampy despite what I thought was good hydrating. Mile 21 was around 8:30, 22 was something like 9:20, 23 and 24 were around the same, 25 as 10:00 (yikes!), and 26 was 9:20 (I know – a stirring comeback!). I blame my comeback on mile 26 on <b>solarpowered</b> – Larry or Maria had told me she would be there on CP South with a sign so I wanted to try and look semi-decent but I never saw her (and I think Lora was there too?). I do recall someone yelling my name at mile 26 but I was just ready to be off the course at that point. I ended up crossing in 3:03:01 – and 18 minute positive split on a perfect day. Disappointing to say the least!</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">I’m really not pleased with the result – Boston’s weather really sucked so I didn’t get a chance to get after it there, Air Force was a great surprise result for me this year so I’m pleased with my 2:48 PR, but I’d been building to NYC since finishing in Boston. In hindsight, I think I just did too many pacing gigs leading up to NYC and didn’t have the zip I needed…I think my fitness was good enough to run 2:45 (certainly on an easier course, at least) but I needed a bunch of things to go right and not all of them did (can’t complain about weather and crowds though – those were perfect). I felt great through the half so I don’t THINK the pace was more than I could handle – it just turned out to be more than I could handle on that day on that course. NYC might be like Boston in that it’s a course I need to run a few more times to understand it better to know when to push it, when to let the hills slow you down, etc. I know Boston a lot better – and it’s only 24 weeks away…a few easy weeks, and then it’s time to saddle up and start training for Boston!</span></span>
<ul><li><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">At one point I was coming up to pass a guy on my right. Just before I got there, a 3rd guy dodged in between us, knocking me off my line. This hacked me off so as I passed the both of them I said “Dude, you have the whole effing road!” Well, the guy I was not talking to thought I was speaking to him and asked me that. I said “No I’m talking to THAT dumbass” but I was already 3-4 feet in front of him. Not hearing me and still thinking I was talking to him AND calling him a dumbass, he threatened to “Knock me right the eff out!” So I turn around and yell “I said I was not talking to you!” and then took off down the road so he couldn’t decide to clock me from behind anyway. Kind of a classic “Only in NYC” moment.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">At mile 14, Peter Reid (multiple winner of IM Hawaii) jumps in to pace a friend. I said hello and then overheard him tell his friend that Lance had rolled through about 45 seconds before we came through. So I knew I was close!</span></span></li>
</ul><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">Shortly after mile 15, you go up the Queensboro Bridge. This bridge really zapped me for some reason. It was a lot of effort to get up that hill, and I took a gel on the downside. I was hoping to feel great and start stomping on it up First Ave, but I came off the bridge feeling sluggish. Here, the pace dropped to 6:30 despite the effort level going up. All up First Ave, I had to work hard to run 6:30 when I’d been working less to run 6:10’s just 10 minutes before. I saw Bob & Theia at around mile 17 or so, giving them a little gun show and kissing my left python (pathetic I know). I kept hoping I was just going through a bad patch and the gel might kick in. It never did – I held 6:30 pace through about 19, mile 20 dropped to a 6:53, and then it was downhill from there. I could feel it slipping away and my legs started getting crampy despite what I thought was good hydrating. Mile 21 was around 8:30, 22 was something like 9:20, 23 and 24 were around the same, 25 as 10:00 (yikes!), and 26 was 9:20 (I know – a stirring comeback!). I blame my comeback on mile 26 on <b>solarpowered</b> – Larry or Maria had told me she would be there on CP South with a sign so I wanted to try and look semi-decent but I never saw her (and I think Lora was there too?). I do recall someone yelling my name at mile 26 but I was just ready to be off the course at that point. I ended up crossing in 3:03:01 – and 18 minute positive split on a perfect day. Disappointing to say the least!</span></span><br><br><span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-size:medium;">I’m really not pleased with the result – Boston’s weather really sucked so I didn’t get a chance to get after it there, Air Force was a great surprise result for me this year so I’m pleased with my 2:48 PR, but I’d been building to NYC since finishing in Boston. In hindsight, I think I just did too many pacing gigs leading up to NYC and didn’t have the zip I needed…I think my fitness was good enough to run 2:45 (certainly on an easier course, at least) but I needed a bunch of things to go right and not all of them did (can’t complain about weather and crowds though – those were perfect). I felt great through the half so I don’t THINK the pace was more than I could handle – it just turned out to be more than I could handle on that day on that course. NYC might be like Boston in that it’s a course I need to run a few more times to understand it better to know when to push it, when to let the hills slow you down, etc. I know Boston a lot better – and it’s only 24 weeks away…a few easy weeks, and then it’s time to saddle up and start training for Boston!</span></span>
