That sounds rough. I guess with 50,000 or however many people run that race, it's hard to not get swallowed up in whatever the crowd is doing. You put in a ton of work, I woulld think with a less crowded course, you would do a lot better. How far in miles was the 40 blocks? I'm so not a big city person.
Hard to say. I'm gonna guess I walked somewhere between 2 - 2.5 miles. Not so bad on any other day...
Great race report Rick. You have a much better memory for what you were feeling mid-race than I do. By the time I'm finished, I just remember a few general impressions. It was a good read. I'm sorry it didn't go the way it should have, given the incredible work you've done this year. I really hope your next one will repay all the dedication. The huge crowd would have freaked me out. I get irritated just running through a few hundred runners at the start. That kind of mob would unnerve me. re: the long walk. I can understand not wanting do the stairs. In Boston I took the subway and it was not fun going down the stairs and then up the other end. But I wasn't likely to find a taxi in the conditions.
Great race report Rick. You have a much better memory for what you were feeling mid-race than I do. By the time I'm finished, I just remember a few general impressions. It was a good read. I'm sorry it didn't go the way it should have, given the incredible work you've done this year. I really hope your next one will repay all the dedication. The huge crowd would have freaked me out. I get irritated just running through a few hundred runners at the start. That kind of mob would unnerve me.
re: the long walk. I can understand not wanting do the stairs. In Boston I took the subway and it was not fun going down the stairs and then up the other end. But I wasn't likely to find a taxi in the conditions.
Actually, a lot of it came back to me overnight. I woke up and just started typing like crazy. It took a few hours after that to put it all in order.
Thank you. Mega events generally don't bother me. I'd rather do one of those than run in isolation. That said I am in no way complaining about NYC. It is a great event with superb organization, and definitely a must do if it is in within one's means.
Near the end.
Runs4Sanity
Awesome job LRB!!!!
Curious though, did you squirt the entire gel into your mouth?
*Do It For Yourself, Do It Because They Said It Was Impossible, Do It Because They Said You Were Incapable*
PRs
5k - 24:15 (7:49 min/mile pace)
10k - 51:47 (8:16 min/mile pace)
15k -1:18:09 (8:24 min/mile pace)
13.1 - 1:53:12 (8:39 min/mile pace)
26:2 - 4:14:55 (9:44 min/mile)
Awesome job LRB!!!! Curious though, did you squirt the entire gel into your mouth?
Do you ever stray away from the gutter or do you keep a section of it in the trunk of your car? How else are you supposed to eat it?
Super B****
Congrats! Any marathon you finish is better than the one you don't, especially when you didn't cheat yourself out of getting the most that you could from it.
Re: the mysterious horde of runners -- didn't your course recon tell you that the upper and lower levels of the bridge converge at some point??
As for walking 44 blocks immediately post-race... no. Just no. I mean, I hobbled down the subway stairs because I live a little farther than 44 blocks away but there HAVE to be some handicap-accessible stations with elevators somewhere around there! I suppose the trick would be finding elevators that are actually functioning, because, you know, MTA.
chasing the impossible
because i never shut up ... i blog
Yes, but I thought it was at mile 8!
Everything was so close that I ended up walking everywhere...well, relatively speaking. The expo was like a mile and a half and a restaurant, Quantum Leap, was like 1.7. Those walks timed out at around 25 and 30 minutes respectively. I caught a cab up to Harlem and back and other than that, I didn't really need a subway.
I think I thought that walking was good for me, so I kept going.
First, thanks for the report. It's just great.
We all know the effort you put into this race prep, and that is worthy of all my praise.
Race day, well you wanted NYCM, and you got it! All of it
GPS screwing up really is hard. I know we're supposed to rely on effort and all, but easier said than done.
The huge crowd. Ouch! I thought Boston was bad, but what you're describing is worse.
Through all that, you gave it all you had until the end. We had a talk in the dailies about DNFing, but quitting is more than that (to me). You didn't quit on this one and race wise, as we can see in your (awesome) pic, you raced it to the end.
All respect from me, sir, and hopefully you'll keep going and on a different day, on a different course, I'm sure you have that PR and NYCMQ in you.
😂 my mind wasn't in the gutter, seriously. I squirt a little, then drink some water, repeat til all gone. I've never imagined squirting the entire package all at once 🤢
Seriously, no dirty thoughts was ever in my mind 🤞
Are we there, yet?
Well that's about as different from one of my ultras as you could possibly get. Sounds like you did the best you could given what the race threw at you. I've made that post race walk in the opposite direction while sight-seeing. That's a long way to go after running a marathon. Thanks for the detailed report. I was following your progress for most of the race and it looked like you were doing well with the pacing based on the live tracking.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Yes indeed marathons are hard. Those nutjobs who run them are not kidding. And this one just sounds annoying AF. The only mega-race I have to compare is Boston. And while for the first couple miles it is impossible to run a pace other than what everyone else around you was running, I didn’t find it too bad after that. Seems like not the case with this one. And yes, navigating the aid stations was something of an adventure at Boston, but apparently it was just that much worse at NYC. I guess there’s an extra 10k runners out there; that’ll magnify everything that sucks about crowds.
Your training was otherworldly. I was in awe, we haven’t seen anything like this from you in some time. I sort of wished you had decided to just run IMM, because you would have crushed it. But you don’t do to many of these, so I’m glad you were able to add NYC to your resume. Sounds like a brutal race overall, but I am guessing you have no regrets. All you can control once you get to the starting line is your effort. And you certainly gave all of that. So I heartily commend you for a job well done, poncho boy.
Dave
The mile splits from Strava provide a much better overall picture without the splits being lapped:
01-8:32 Verrazano Narrows Bridge
02-7:49
03-7:47
04-8:06
05-7:46
06-7:37
07-7:30
08-7:39
09-7:49
10-7:27
11-7:49 Williamsburg Bridge
12-7:30
13-7:39
14-7:48 Pulaski Bridge
15-8:25 Queensboro Bridge Beginning
16-9:44 Queensboro Bridge continued
17-7:33
18-7-16
19-7:36
20-7:45 Willis Ave Bridge
21-7:50 Madison Ave Bridge
22-7:58
23-7:47
24-8:06
25-7:51
26-7:45
😂 my mind wasn't in the gutter, seriously. I squirt a little, then drink some water, repeat til all gone. I've never imagined squirting the entire package all at once 🤢 Seriously, no dirty thoughts was ever in my mind 🤞
Well, I was instructed to eat it all at once, not sip on it like a Pepsi. I don't even know if I could do that! You'd basically be carrying it in that case. How many do you sip during a marathon.
Indeed. Without knowing my goal, one could've assumed I was on point throughout.