Great report as always Lily. And despite having just run one 2 weeks earlier, and all the issues you ran into, you still beat me by 50 seconds.

I was stalking you & saw the late-race splits and thought "she's not going to be happy with this". And I mentioned it to someone else, he commented that you always make the best of your situation. And of course when you first posted afterwards, you were positively joyful. How could you not be, running 26.2 miles through NYC & soaking up every minute of it. From personal experience I now have new respect for your famous pacing strategy. You once said something like "why would you want to start the race running easy when your body wants to run hard, then finish the race running hard when your body wants to run easy?". Too logical! But after I finished beating myself up about my pacing in Detroit, I looked back & realized that race was the most fun I've had, and I did it Lily style.

I've heard from a lot of people Brooklyn crowd support was the best your welcome marathon runners

 "why would you want to start the race running easy when your body wants to run hard, then finish the race running hard when your body wants to run easy?"... Lily style.

Good quote Dave.

You have huge success ( BQ-30, then BQ-20 two weeks later, that is huge success to me) running your own way despite what everybody says you should do. You should be damn proud of that. Arguing is nice and all, but you prove your point with hard facts.

Congrats !!!  Glad you had such a great race and family vacation.  Your RR are so inspiring.  Are you still going to Cancun next month?  Don't think you will need the sleeves, tights or sunglasses.  Maybe it will be cooler in the evening, but it sure was hot last week when we were there. Good Luck !!!

Jerry, thanks! I will be in Cancun on Dec. 5th and I'm hoping to run the HM there on the 6th. The marathon would take too much out of me. The start will be at 4pm, so the sun will be going down, but it will still be very hot. It will certainly be a shock for my body!

B-Plus, now that I've done both Boston and NYC, I can say that for me (because my bus shuttle was a later one), both marathons have similar logistics to get to the start and it is not that bad at all, if you are well prepared for it (dress well and have some food/drinks with you). Time goes by quickly. Thanks for your words! Go Canada!

Eric and Dave,  thank you for humoring a stubborn runner like myself. What you both wrote has to be among the nicest things ever said about my running. It made me happy. :-)

Toronto, I wish we could have gotten together while in NY, but with the family, it was difficult to coordinate things. I'm sure it was a bit of the same for you. I was wondering: you think tall guys like yourself were affected more by the wind than short people like myself who could hide in the mass? :-) Though I remember being on the bridge and letting a scream out when I was literally pushed about two feet by the wind, like a ghost had pushed me hard. That was weird. Thanks for your comment!

Kristin, you live in a beautiful city. Thank you so much for sharing it with us and also for your kind words!

sapf,  thank you! Definitely do your hometown marathon! It's the kind of race where even if you don't do great due to lack of training, you can enjoy yourself the whole way (if you're healthy and uninjured, of course).

bluesky, Julie, Dave, OOTB, music_girl and Amy,  thank you, guys, for taking the time to read my RR. It means a lot to me.

Jay, haha! Thanks! Honestly, I think that walking 6 miles would have felt as hard physically as shuffling through the end. And mentally, it would have been worse. I only did what felt easiest at the time.

Mitch, thank you so much! I hope we can meet also, because you are one of my heroes. To me, you are the definition of someone with courage. I'm glad that I know you. :-) Detroit sounds like a great race, we never know. :-)

Ric,  thanks! I didn't know you had run NYCM before. I don't know anyone who has done the race and did not enjoy it somehow. It's not necessarily one we'd do again, because of the difficult course, but it is a great experience.

Mike, thank you! New York City is definitely different from Boston and I love Boston equally, but for different reasons. I can understand why some people, like yourself, do not like NYC. It's a different world there for sure.

Phil, thank you! We are two delicate flowers, I guess. :-) Only one more week of taper for you, hang in there, you're doing great!

Scotty, thank you! I don't love everyone in my family, but I'm lucky that the core of it is so loving and beautiful to me.

fourouta5, thank you for your comment! Yes, my granddaughter is adorable (she looks like her mom, not like me :-)) and my SIL is definitely like a sister to me. I know it sounds corny, but I am blessed when it comes to family.

Marj, Damaris, Jack, bozy, PADRunner, thank you all so much!

Ginny, thank you! The Raynaud wasn't really a problem, but having wool gloves probably helped a lot. Like I mentioned, I did have very blue lips when I finished, I don't know if it had anything to do with it. It was sunny and the temperature rose a bit and I'm sure people wearing shorts were comfortable, but for me, I never felt that I was overheating. The day before it was raining and windy and I walked around town with a jacket, gloves and a scarf and I can say that I was definitely uncomfortable.

Randy and Andrea, thank you, guys!

LTH, you know, I felt a bit guilty at the start knowing that I was not going to treat this race seriously, but then I thought: "hey, darn it, if LTH can do it in Boston, then there's nothing wrong with me doing it in NYC." It doesn't always have to be a representation of what we can do as racers, sometimes it's ok if it's just a representation of how much we love running.

Rick, wasn't it odd that a stranger would recognize me like that? He's not even someone I had interacted much at all with in the past. He said he recognized me because of my Newton shoes. Uh?  Anyway, meeting him was nice, but it felt odd as well in some way. You WILL run NYC soon and you will kill that course, I have no doubt, in the most fashionable way. Not dressed like an onion, like I was. lol... Thank you so much for your comment!

onemile, thank you for your kind words and your support! I am in awe of your speed and I'm so glad to have you on the forum. You represent our gender well, not only with speed, but with intelligence as well.

Finally, I have a few corrections to make: I mentioned turning on a few streets and I think I had them wrong after reading TORONTO's RR. In truth, I didn't really study the course, as the chances of my being first runner in a race are usually very slim.  I just follow the mass without looking at the names of the streets (though in much smaller marathons, I do memorize the course). Also, I wrote that I was in the top 4% in my gender group and it is not true. I asked my SO to calculate for me and there is a reason I balance the books in this family, he is calculator challenged.  The 4% he gave me was bothering me, because it didn't seem right. After calculating myself, I realized it is actually 5.something%, so not as good. I'll have to correct that in my next race.

Thanks, everyone!

Saw your post in the dailies yesterday. Be careful Lily. I can count the number of times I've felt faint in my life on one hand [if we're allowed to discount college years]. So when it has happened it causes alarm. I've had a few vertigo issues but thankfully have'nt returned. I know I can feel faint when I work out and stand up too quickly. Hoping it was nothing but something to monitor. Take care.

Oh, and congrats on another BQ.

We already have a sirdizzy over on RW, we don't need a female version here, so stop being dizzy - as if you listen to us anyway.

That was more like a travelogue than a race report. I'd seen the drop off in your pace while I was tracking you during the race and didn't know  what was happening. Nice to know it was planned and not something going wrong other than that cramp.