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NYC Marathon and Olympic Trials – Part 2

What a weekend of running! Beginning Saturday morning at 6:30AM, my weekend went something like this (with a little bit of Elizabeth and Charlie time thrown in here and there):

Wake up
Eat
Watch running (Olympic Marathon Trials)
Run
Eat
Run
Eat
Sleep
Wake up
Eat
Watch running (NYC Marathon)
Eat
Run
Eat
Sleep

Phew!

Starting from the beginning, watching the Olympic Marathon Trials was awesome! It was really exciting to go out there and be a part of it. I went up with Ron and we watched with my friend Jonathan and Marcellus, a guy we met while we were up there. Marcellus is in town from Virginia and ran the marathon today.

The sad news, as you probably heard is that one runner, Ryan Shay, collapsed and died at about mile 5.5. It’s so sad. The results of the initial autopsy were inconclusive , but the news reports are saying that he had an enlarged heart and presumably, his death was somehow related to that. It’s amazing – he was probably in the best shape of his life and had no idea that there was something serious going on with his ticker. For obvious and good reason, they didn’t say anything at the Trials, so I had no idea until much later in the day after I got back from my run and checked my voicemail. It really shook me when I heard the news – I was so pumped from watching the trials and thinking about how great U.S. distance running is right now, that to hear such tragic news was deflating. I’ve been fixated by the news coverage of his death. Such a tragedy… And knowing that he died definitely makes me think a little differently about the Trials, but while we were there, we had a great time. We saw the runners pass us five times and not far from where we were watching there was a big screen showing the race live, so we were able to follow it the whole time. It was stunning to see how fast these guys were running and, for the most part, looking pretty comfortable throwing down sub-5:00 miles!

This is the lead pack at about mile 14:

Here’s Brian Sell (eventual third place winner) a little behind the lead pack at mile 14; this is my favorite picture that I took yesterday:

Here’s Ryan Hall at about mile 20 – he made his break at about mile 17 and already had over a minute on the pack by this point (the picture at the top of this post is Hall as he’s finishing – obviously not taken by me!):

After the Trials, I changed into my running clothes and took the train up to the George Washington Bridge to do my run. My plan was to run 25-26 miles in the morning and then, after resting a little bit at home, going back out for another 9-10 miles. I did my early run on the trails in the Palisades and had another great run up there. It was a nice fall day – cool, cloudy and some wind, and thankfully, dry. This time I stayed on the Long Path and ran to the State Line Lookout nearly at the northern end of the Long Path and then turned around and came back the same way. There is a little cafe at the State Line Lookout where I bought a bottle of water, which saved me from running out of water like the other week. On my way back, I saw a couple deer – as I was running down the trail, there was one standing in the middle of trail watching me approach. She (I think) waited until was 30-40 feet away before bounding off to the side to watch me pass.I as passed her, I noticed one watching me from the woods on the opposite side of the trail. It was pretty cool to see. I ended up doing about 26 miles in 3:50. I felt great for the first three hours and, even when I started “feeling it” during the last hour, I still felt like I was running pretty strong and keeping my pace. After my run, I came home and had a couple hours to try to take in some calories and sit on the couch before I had to get dressed again and head out for my second run.

Run #2 last night was tougher. I didn’t get off my butt until close to 7 and since it was pitch-black dark outside and there was some exciting college football to watch on TV, I decided to go to the gym and run on the treadmill. It was a good choice – the treadmill was softer on my joints than the pavement would have been and the football was pretty good. It also forced me to run at a consistent pace. I wanted to do that run a little faster than a 9:00/mile pace and that’s essentially what I did. The first three or so miles felt pretty good, then I muscled through to mile five before pausing the treadmill to walk for a minute or two around the gym. I got back on the treadmill, ran another two miles, walked another minute or so and then finished up my nine miles and just about wept with joy to be done! It was a tough day of running, but I pushed through it – walking when I needed to (but only after running about 31 miles on the day). Also, I pretty much nailed my nutrition and feel comfortable that my fueling plan for the JFK will carrying me through at least 35-40 miles (after that, I’ll keep my fingers crossed, but who knows what’s going to happen!)

This morning I got up, had some breakfast and went out to Park Slope (near mile 7 of the marathon course) to meet up with some friends to watch the marathon. I was feeling a little gimpy and sore – especially in my hips and feet – and I got a little tired being on my feet all morning to watch the marathon, but in general, I recovered well from yesterday’s effort. I’ll keep my fingers crossed that I still feel this good tomorrow!

It was exciting to be out on the marathon course and see the elite runners go flying by. Here’s Paula Radcliff and Gete Wami as they passed mile 7:

Radcliff was looking great and, along with Wami, had already had opened up a nice little lead on the rest of the pack by the time she passed us. When I heard she won, I was very impressed that she had been able to hold her lead for that long. We also saw the elite men come by (in a much bigger pack at that point) and hung out there until pretty much the very last runner passed by. We saw all shapes and sizes, runners, walkers, very serious athletes and people in costumes. Here’s a little artsy picture I took from the water station at mile 7; I think it came out nice:

I finished up my weekend of running with a slow, easy 3 mile run around the West Village this evening. Less than two weeks now…

Running – November 3
Run #1
Distance: 26 miles
Time: 3:50
Average heart rate: 148
Course: GW Bridge/Palisades (Long Path)
Conditions: Overcast, 50’s, windy

Run #2
Distance: 9 miles
Time: 1:20
Average heart rate: 141
Treadmill run

Run – November 4
Distance: 3 miles
Time: 25 minutes
Average heart rate: 132
Course: West Village
Conditions: Clouds, low 50’s