NYC Marathon Long Training Run #1

I turn 48 years old in 12 days, and today I ran the farthest I have run in that entire awesome nearly half-century: 16 miles. It was the ING New York City Marathon Long Training Run No. 1, and if you want to know exactly how big that marathon is, then just consider that they had an entire event today with race bib and volunteers and fluid stations and pace leaders and everything -- for a non-scored, noncompetitive training run only. I have to tell you that I felt HONORED to be in the midst of other NYC Marathon entrants, many of whom have zoomed the five boroughs plenty before. Within that 16 miles, I ran a 2:10 Half Marathon, which tops that 2:26.01 Nike Half that I hobbled through less than one week ago. I finished the 16 miles in a little over 3 hours. I was staying with the 10-minute pace groups the whole way.

Here is how it worked. One full loop around Central Park is 6 miles. So it was one full loop, followed by the "Lower 5" loop (102nd Street Transverse and below), which brings it to 11 total miles, followed by another Lower 5 loop (16 miles total)...and then a "Middle 4" loop (102nd Street Transverse to 72nd Street Transverse) for those who wanted to go the full 20 miles that the NY Road Runners accommodated today. My Team for Kids teammates all were instructed to run 16 miles today as part of our ongoing program (which is fabulous coaching to have, a huge benefit from raising funds for a great charity!).

Today I was definitely wearing the Nano Red the whole way as it was a training run, and I had it on Shuffle and right away FREE BIRD by Lynyrd Skynrd comes on. I have to point out here that, to me, FREE BIRD remains the greatest jam song in history. No debate. Case closed. It is a 9:10 song on my iPod. So I am running that first mile with the guitars perfectly matching my stride, and as it ends, my pace group reaches the first mile. We were doing a 9:10! So what did I do? I hit rewind, and I listened to FREE BIRD for the second mile. This time it beat my mile by a little bit. I rewound again, and listened to FREE BIRD for the third mile. I had a system going. I was thinking about what it would take to run 16 miles, and beyond that, 26.2 miles. I decided that I had a way to take care of the first 6-mile loop by just playing FREE BIRD over and over and over and over, and believe it or not, I did that for the entire first loop, and I did a 10K in just a little over an hour, which was beautiful because I expected that to run 16 miles I was going to drop to a pace in the 11-minute range. THANK YOU, LYNRYRD SKYNYRD!!! FREE BIRD FOREVER.

Now we're on to the second loop, and I was amazed at how great I felt after having run the Nike Half from Central Park through Times Square down to Battery Park just six days earlier. On top of everything, I have to say that my lower back is still very much in pain, so I ran these first two loops in a great deal of piercing pain that I was blocking out every step of the way, again thanks to FREE BIRD and whatever I could find in my mind. Today was mind over matter. The NYC Marathon will be the same thing. Thank you to everyone who commented on my Nike Half blog with that kind of advice, too.

After the second loop, I was around the start area, and I dashed over to the baggage claim nearby to drop off my fuel belt. It was really weighing me down, even though some of the fluid was gone. Not many people used them on this day, and I should not have brought mine. There were fluid stations regularly, and that was good enough. So I set out on the third loop sans belt, and I felt lighter. I saw a work colleague/TFK teammate who said she was going to bail at that point, and I decided I was going to keep on going. I got into no-man's land after the Half Marathon point, and it felt so good. Like I said, it was just a kickass day. I was running hills, everything. I had to walk a little here and there in the 15th mile, and I can see where my pace started to slow at that point. They did such a great job with the pace groups. I was always able to catch up to them."

There are two very, very, very, very special Central Park bystanders today who I have to seriously thank: Buford and Joy. They are 7-year-old English Bulldogs. It was the bottom of the loop, and I saw them, and I immediately bailed off of the course and said to the woman walking them, "Oh, I HAVE to pet your bullies! They are exactly what I need right now!!!" I can't tell you how much that meant to me. You may not known Winthorpe, but he is the English Bulldog I always wanted, and now he is 11 and he lives with my sons back in St. Louis. Whenever I see my boys, I always get to see Winthorpe, too. I love English Bulldogs. I love them so much. Whenever I see them, I stop and pet them, no matter what or when or where. Those two 7-year-old bullies just REVIVED me at that point, I can't really explain it. It put a big smile on my face, and I raced on for the last 2 miles feeling absolutely great. That's what pets can do for us (and us for them), as if you needed more proof. Here's a pic of Winthorpe:

At the finish line, they had bagels, bananas, and Powerbar gels like crazy. In fact, one of the volunteers stuffed my bag with dozens and dozens of them. I must have 70 or 80 gels. I am set for the year.   Anyway, that's an example of how all-out they go for a training run when it comes to the NYC Marathon. And it was a BEAUTIFUL day on top of everything -- in the 60s much of the time!

For the first time, I went beyond HOPE and moved to CERTAINTY that I can finish the NYC Marathon. I have never run this far in my life and I felt really good. I am not miserable right now, although I have to make a run for ALEVE now, as the people in the Medical Tent told me to get anti-inflam for my back, and to interchange it with Advil or Motrin...Aleve, then Advil, then Aleve, etc. And they told me NOT to ice my back, but to use the heating pad when I sleep. I want to knock the back injury out of the park by one week from today.

Today was AWESOME. After all of this, I went to Best Buy in Chelsea and bought a new pair of iPod headphones because mine didn't survive all those FREE BIRD plays and the 16 miles. Then I walked right into an incredible street festival and ate chicken kabobs, grilled corn on the cob, a corn dog, bought an Ecuador-made shirt and had a blast. What a day! I am feeling so good about being a marathoner. And yes, I am saying it loud and proud today: I AM A MARATHONER!!!!! You can do anything you want in life; all you have to do is set a goal and make it your passion and JUST DO IT!!!

Big love,

Mark