Elena

Marathon morning

I woke up at 2am – couldn’t sleep any longer because of all the excitement. Was just laying down in bed till 4am trying to rest. The taxi was booked at 5am and the driver arrived on time. I remember how I was struggling to choose a top – between racing singlet of the team and a t-shirt with my name on it. At the last minute I put the t-shirt thinking it’ll help me on the start if it’s cold.

There were many buses taking runners from New Jersey to the start village. I got on one of the earliest and at around 6am I was already at the Staten Island making my way through security.

The yoga mat which I took to be able to lay down while waiting didn’t make it – security officer asked me to leave it as it wasn’t allowed. We all walked to the start village divided by colors into areas – pink, orange and blue.

While everyone was waiting for their wave start many runners were sitting on the ground, some took plastic bags and ponchos and even small blankets to keep them warm.

I found a seat and had breakfast – a piece of bagel with banana. Was dreaming about hot coffee that many people had, but decided to stay away from caffeine.

My feet were freezing – would be nice to have extra socks while waiting, maybe gloves too, and something to lay down on.

They started to call wave two around 9:05am – I was waiting for the last call to stay off my feet for longer, then did “a quick warm up” by jogging to the start of pink wave located on the lower level of the bridge. Had a chance to use a restroom last time before runners started moving towards the start. We listened to the national anthem and famous Frank Sinatra’s song about New York.

First half of the marathon

They say “save the energy for the second half of the marathon” – and it was exactly the opposite of what I did in the first 13 miles. I was excited and curious to see if I can “make it” by running as close as possible to 9 minute mile to finish in four hours.

By mile ten my heart rate was already in orange (“threshold”) zone and the pace dropped to 9:30 min/mile but I was still full of optimism till “the bridge”.

Mile 15 – Queensboro bridge

I watched many videos saying that Queensboro bridge is a “heartbreak hill” of New York City Marathon and it is indeed so. It felt like an endless uphill that takes the best out of you. It took me 10:30 to run it and when it was done I tried to pick up the pace. The watch started showing the red zone and I started feeling unwell. I honestly still don’t know if it was my mind creating those sensations out of fear or it was too much of an effort. It felt like I couldn’t breathe, and for a second I thought I’m going to pass out. I felt a cramp in my foot, started walking to recover and dropped the pace after.

Last six miles

They say the last six miles is where the race starts. It is indeed incredibly challenging to run after “hitting the wall”. All I remember I tried to do run walk run and walking took the most part of it. Every time I tried to run – I couldn’t last long enough and every time that I switched to walking I felt the pain. I was very fatigued, didn’t want any gels (couldn’t take any more sugar) and felt defeated.

One Last Mile

They say the last mile is always the hardest. And it wasn’t the case on that day. I remember a thought “It’s just a mile! You can do this!” and it made me start running. It seemed as if I was running very slow but it didn’t matter, it gave me the feeling of gaining my mental strength back. I finished strong with the time 4:34:37 which was almost 40 minutes faster than my previous marathon time.