Done with Marathons....for the year
I've completed Chicago, New York City and CIM since my last post and my knees felt fine. The thing that slowed me down was my legs, the quads in particular. The physical therapists at Radius really helped. Taping both knees and still wearing the brace on my left knee helped as well.
Chicago was perfect. The weather was 40-50 degrees and I wore a long sleeve shirt under my Wonder-woman shirt. I didn't need the gloves after 10 miles but I'm glad I kept the long sleeve shirt as it was windy toward the end. It started at 8am a little after dawn and I was able to take the metro to the start and after the finish. I did walk after mile 22 but I was giving myself a little slack knowing I had 2 more marathons to go and this was just for "fun". I had a nice visit my cousin and a Japanese friend of my mother's. The food in Chicago was delicious as well especially the deep dish pizza. The course is out and back north, west and south, starting and ending in Grant Park. Probably because of the therapy I was getting on my legs, I was able to spend the next day walking around for 4 hours at a museum and flew home the 2nd day without any issues with my legs. I would do this marathon again given a chance. Also a little bonus was the story about how someone tried to rob marathon runners on their way to the marathon at 6am on one of the trains and being accosted by a runner.
New York was more difficult than I anticipated. The course is great, there are spectators everywhere. (Maybe a little too much as they really crowded in through Brooklyn to the point where we had to walk almost single file to get through.) This was the largest marathon I've participated in with 53,000 runners. This meant you were never alone and there were always runners within arm's reach in all directions. I had to be careful not to get elbowed by people passing me. The two things working against this marathon was the late start (and therefore late finish.) The hunger during the run gets a little wonky since you run through lunch not finish near it. I finished at 3:30pm; I feel for the slower runners (and there are plenty in this race) that finish around 6pm with no lunch. The other thing is the death march to get out of Central Park. The reunion spot was 1.5 miles from the finish line and it took me 1.5 hours to get there. That was because of the crowd of runners walking like zombies and then when we left the park, the crowd of spectators blocking the path looking for their loved ones. After that I had to walk another half a mile to get to my hotel. My friends came with me to New York so there was no down time after the run. I walked for 6 hours at MOMA on Monday after the race. Then we continued to walk everyday to other events. My legs were in great pain on Tuesday night and I was really glad I had my own room to fall asleep early and not socialize. We averaged 9 miles a day for 3 days after the race. Still I felt OK going home on the plane on Thursday and I got to meet up with my daughter and her boyfriend. New York was hillier than I expected and it got a little warm (mostly because it was a late start). I will probably never do this again because of the late start and the death march at the end.
CIM was supposed to be my BQ run this year but I gave up on that when I saw how I performed in the last 2 marathons. Running 3 marathons in 2 months did not make me faster but just made me tired. To top it off, this was the warmest CIM I've run and ended up discarding gloves and arm warmers early. It was also very humid and my back still has sweat scars 10 days out. I was hoping to get 4:30 but only did 4:40; still I was secretly happy to see I beat the younger folks in my training groups even the ones that bested me on those Wed. morning runs.
So here are the results for this year:
Chicago was perfect. The weather was 40-50 degrees and I wore a long sleeve shirt under my Wonder-woman shirt. I didn't need the gloves after 10 miles but I'm glad I kept the long sleeve shirt as it was windy toward the end. It started at 8am a little after dawn and I was able to take the metro to the start and after the finish. I did walk after mile 22 but I was giving myself a little slack knowing I had 2 more marathons to go and this was just for "fun". I had a nice visit my cousin and a Japanese friend of my mother's. The food in Chicago was delicious as well especially the deep dish pizza. The course is out and back north, west and south, starting and ending in Grant Park. Probably because of the therapy I was getting on my legs, I was able to spend the next day walking around for 4 hours at a museum and flew home the 2nd day without any issues with my legs. I would do this marathon again given a chance. Also a little bonus was the story about how someone tried to rob marathon runners on their way to the marathon at 6am on one of the trains and being accosted by a runner.
New York was more difficult than I anticipated. The course is great, there are spectators everywhere. (Maybe a little too much as they really crowded in through Brooklyn to the point where we had to walk almost single file to get through.) This was the largest marathon I've participated in with 53,000 runners. This meant you were never alone and there were always runners within arm's reach in all directions. I had to be careful not to get elbowed by people passing me. The two things working against this marathon was the late start (and therefore late finish.) The hunger during the run gets a little wonky since you run through lunch not finish near it. I finished at 3:30pm; I feel for the slower runners (and there are plenty in this race) that finish around 6pm with no lunch. The other thing is the death march to get out of Central Park. The reunion spot was 1.5 miles from the finish line and it took me 1.5 hours to get there. That was because of the crowd of runners walking like zombies and then when we left the park, the crowd of spectators blocking the path looking for their loved ones. After that I had to walk another half a mile to get to my hotel. My friends came with me to New York so there was no down time after the run. I walked for 6 hours at MOMA on Monday after the race. Then we continued to walk everyday to other events. My legs were in great pain on Tuesday night and I was really glad I had my own room to fall asleep early and not socialize. We averaged 9 miles a day for 3 days after the race. Still I felt OK going home on the plane on Thursday and I got to meet up with my daughter and her boyfriend. New York was hillier than I expected and it got a little warm (mostly because it was a late start). I will probably never do this again because of the late start and the death march at the end.
CIM was supposed to be my BQ run this year but I gave up on that when I saw how I performed in the last 2 marathons. Running 3 marathons in 2 months did not make me faster but just made me tired. To top it off, this was the warmest CIM I've run and ended up discarding gloves and arm warmers early. It was also very humid and my back still has sweat scars 10 days out. I was hoping to get 4:30 but only did 4:40; still I was secretly happy to see I beat the younger folks in my training groups even the ones that bested me on those Wed. morning runs.
So here are the results for this year:
- LA - 4:39:45
- Tunnel - 4:44:18
- Chicago - 4:45:55
- NYC - 4:49:04
- CIM - 4:40:45
Who knew my fastest was LA where I stopped to talk to a reporter and took selfies along the way! I just got more and more tired as I went along. I ended up walking a little and going to the porta-potty in all but the Tunnel.
The most well supported was the Tunnel with water and gels. The most fun was LA. The perfect conditions was Chicago. The one most anticipated was NYC. (Taylor Swift's song "Welcome to New York" started playing on my headphones right when I got off the Verrazzano bridge into Brooklyn.)
I told my family my marathons days were over. I have secretly already registered for next year's CIM.
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