RACE REPORT: New York City Marathon

Submitted by: Derek Hurdle

First off, let me reiterate the comments of John about the support of this running group. Not living in Rocky Mount means interactions with the group are few and far between-but let me tell you I can feel the support from this group all the way in Greenville. So here is NYC from my perspective.

It all started with a 5:30 Ferry Ride to Staten Island with a bunch of runners and some interesting characters coming in from the night before(it was Halloween after all). Then there was the 3 hour wait in the runner’s village with John and I layered in throw-away sweats and trash bags. We laid there for 3 hours talking race strategy and trying to figure out if we could manage to poop something out before the “Johns” got too busy and nasty.

Finally it was time to line up at the starting lines with a view of the Verrazano Bridge, a whole bunch of confidence and of course some jitters we listened as they announced the lineup of professional runners and then we heard the starting gun which was followed by Ole Blue Eyes himself(never been so jacked to hear Sinatra).

Mile 1 was what I thought it would be, a straight incline that takes a toll on even the most experienced hill runner (I learned you can do all the hill repeats you want but there is no replicating the real deal). Mile 1 was also super crowded this was no surprise, John and I talked all weekend how the first mile would be slow but that we would take it slow and not try to make it up in one shot. We broke the first mile at a frantic 7:45..30 seconds off our race pace BUT good considering what we had been through . Well, lets just say John Batchelor was a beast on November 1st and there was no holding him back. I spent mile 2 chasing John, I thought if I would slow down so would John, that didn’t work. We broke mile 2(which was downhill) at a 6:40 pace…we just made up that first mile in ONLY mile 2! We then calmed down and ran the rest of Brooklyn(first 13 miles) at about a 7:10 pace.

As we reached Queens and the halfway point I felt different then any other race. My Quads. were fatigued and had been so for many miles. My plantar fasciitis and right ankle (previous injuries) were screaming. John and I continued to talk-we stayed positive I told him how good he looked(without his shirt….I mean running) and he tells me the same. Of course, in my mind it was becoming clear that I might make 3:10 today but its going to be much tougher than it was last time, because today is not my best day.

The Queensboro Bridge at Mile 16 leads you into Manhattan…this bridge is ridiculous and lead us to a mile split at 15 of 7:57. The downhill was much the same as our first bridge experience, a sprint to make up time, despite my better judgment. Internally I was battling between telling John to slow down to conserve energy or letting him go because he looked so strong and I didn’t want to hold him back. I choose the latter. We had trained together, we had talked about this race since June and I was gonna run it with him as long as I could.

Entering 1st avenue in Manhattan was amazing, the crowd support off that bridge was incredible and we made up that bridge easy (mile 16 7:02, mile 18 6:54). Our splits looked good, John looked strong but my quads were on fire. But I was almost to mile 20 maybe I can hang on I am still on pace for under 3:10. About the same time a lot of things happened-I guess we call it the wall. I have experienced the wall before and it was usually all mental this time it was physical too. In an evil twist put in by the organizers of this event no doubt-Another bridge-Willis Avenue bridge happens to be ahead, John is pulling away and for the first time today I felt like I was not keeping up, and the gradual incline of 1st avenue and the earlier bridges has made my quads reaching an all time-pain(so much I no longer was concentrating on my foot issues) and to top it off I glanced at my Garmin-the mileage lets me know that I am going to have to run much FURTHER than 26.2 miles (meaning I needed to pick up the pace EVEN faster).

I got to the top of the Willis Avenue bridge and all that came crashing on me-John had gotten too far ahead to wish him luck, so I stopped against the bridge and stretched my quads. Miles 20-22 were about 7:30’s and I remember even thinking near 22 if my watch and the race distance had matched up I may still have a shot. It was at that point I again noticed the variance in the distance, the burn in my quads., and maybe some pitty I felt for myself and the last 4 miles would just be about finishing. Retrospectively I know mentally I could have done a little better (I walked through the last 4 water stops) but I also remember the physical struggle I felt between 22-23.

A new muscle pain came in the form of cramps in my left calve- which just happened to happen at the mile point in the race where the tv camera man followed me the entire mile on a golf car. I took a GU shot at 23 and believe it or not no more cramps, maybe I should have done that a mile or 2 ago? That last 4 miles was through beautiful Central park but was no walk in the park and I hated being there (7:50, 8:38, 8:32, 8:36).

So I crossed the finish line with a time 7 minutes later than I wanted and a lot of questions. What if I had not stopped and stretched that first time, maybe I would not have stopped at all? What if I had stuck to my game plan and not tried to make up so much time and energy from the bridges, maybe my thighs would have not gotten to that point? Was that wall real or just in my head? What if I had taken caffeine GU’s more frequently like John did? Speaking of John, what if he didn’t realize the distance variance and never made Boston?

Of course he did, and that’s what this marathon was all about, it was the reason we picked such an aggressive training plan instead of leisurely enjoying the NYC experience. The reason I got up at 5 AM in Greenville every day since June because I knew he was doing the same in Richmond.

So while I am left questioning what went wrong for me in NYC, there are a couple of things I know for sure. First, this marathon is not like any other and I recommend all of you do it at least once. Second I have to come to peace with the fact that I lost 3 minutes or so in central park because of self-pity on not being able to reach a PR-this is really hard for someone with OCD. Third while we didn’t execute our game plan and run tangent lines both John and I were faster than our times by probably 2 minutes (so John probably had 3:08 stuff in him that day) given the extra distance. Lastly and most apparent is that no bridge or over paced mile , no smorgasbord of slower runners blocking the road, and no matter how hard I tried to steady the pace…on November 1, 2009 there was no stopping John.