November 3rd, 2019.It's been two weeks since I started my 26.2 mile journey on Staten Island and crossed the finish line at Central Park in Manhattan, which took me just under six hours. This was my first marathon in 7 years.
I've written a couple posts and shared some photos here and there on social media; and numerous friends have asked, "How was New York?!" And there are just so many ways to describe it and truly capture how special of an experience it was.
I woke up at 4:30 AM Eastern (which translates to 1:30 for my normal body clock) and said a prayer of gratitude for the day, and the health of mind, body and spirit to have the opportunity to run the New York City Marathon 💜
After putting on my race gear and eating part 1 of breakfast, I threw on my loaner sweatshirt and headed out the door to meet Catherine at her hotel in Times Square, where the Team in Training shuttle would pick us up.
We spent about an hour on the bus to Staten Island, calming our nerves and talking about everything from how we were feeling about training, to all our experiences that led up to the day (including triathlon races from the past), and so much we learned we have in common - between going to the same small college in California, moving to the same city shortly afterward and of course so many of the same reasons we discovered and have learned to love running and training for endurance events while honoring survivors and patients through The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
Once we arrived to Staten Island it was c-o-l-d. 30 degrees and I was in shorts. "Do you have something for your legs?" Catherine asked. And here I thought it would be enough to try and trick myself into thinking it was just like being outside in San Francisco on a brisk morning! Except our wait until the start would last 4 hours!
Catherine was kind enough to lend me an extra jacket layer to throw on top of my sweatshirt, while she wore her matching "space pants," so you can see we matched :)
As the sun rose, and our hands finally warmed up (thanks to hand warmers, which I didn't know was a thing), we had part 2 of breakfast... our bagels with peanut butter... and laughed the remaining hours away while avoiding getting trampled by people in the porta potty lines.
Every half hour, we'd hear these abrupt, loud canons fire off, followed by Frank Sinatra, singing "New York, New York" -- and before we knew it, it was time to shed our last layers and take off!
Just a few minutes past 11 o'clock, we parted ways and took on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, en route to Brooklyn.
It was surreal. I was among 55,000+ runners from all over the world, running on a bridge crossing over the Hudson River.
When just a couple weeks prior, I had run along the Golden Gate Bridge over the San Francisco Bay over and over to prepare for this moment.
This was a race that meant so much to me for so many reasons. It was the first marathon I'd trained for in 7 years. It took place on the East Coast where I was born and spent the first 14 years of my life. And through this particular training and preparation experience, I was able to feel the familiarity of pushing past my comfort zone and seeing what's possible when you just go for something big; and I learned new things about myself and the woman I am today.
I took it nice and easy for the first 10 miles through Brooklyn & Queens. I knew it would be a steady incline of hills and made it a point to pace myself and not let my ego or the energy of the crowds fire me up too much and forget my race plan. The only times I stopped to walk was through the water stops and one bio break at mile 8.
Oh, and one other stop to say thank you and snap a pic with the NYPD :)
One thing I intentionally did that worked really well for me was to break up the race into 5 mile increments. From the start, all I told myself was to get to mile 5, strong and steady. Once I reached mile 5, I took a Gu to refuel, and set my sights on mile 10. "Just get to mile 10." I didn't let myself think farther beyond those 5 mile chunks and it made a huge difference. I caught a second wind at mile 15, which gave me confidence I was doing something right. I also didn't need my ear buds or music the entire time and just enjoyed feeling the cadence of my feet tapping the ground, taking in the city's energy.
My dear friend, Leslie, flew out to New York from San Francisco to be part of my cheer squad, along with a few others she knew running the race. And it meant the world to me to see her along the sidelines at ~mile 8 and ~22 💛
I felt like my time in the Bronx just flew by because we were through all the bridges and now it was all about narrowing in on Central Park. By this point the sun was getting ready to set, the crowds grew bigger and I was craving a steak.
I was starting to see more folks walking and there were definitely some sneaky hills throughout the park, so I was extra thankful at that point that I took it slow in the first half and my legs knew what to do to take those hills one step at a time without breaking into a walk.
What was remarkable at this point is that I hadn't hit a wall or suffer through any muscle cramps. In every other marathon and long training run past 15 miles that I had done leading up to this day, it was never a question of if, but when I'd hit the wall. And if you know anything about what this feels like, the challenge is all about how you handle it while it's happening. And for some (wonderful) reason, it helped that I was ready for it but didn't need to brace myself after all. My legs, nutrition and mental state after over 5 and a half hours were golden!
Between mile 24-25, I heard a loud "Maria!!" coming from the sidelines. My first thought was, "who knows me in New York as Maria?!" And it turned out to be a former colleague from my tech startup days, Pete! He had moved to New York a few years ago and was cheering on his girlfriend's 87-year old grandma, who was also running those same 26.2 miles. Truly incredible. I gave him a big hug and kept it moving.
Seeing an unexpected familiar face at that point gave me the surge in my step, and confidence that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.
Mile 26. It was getting dark, but the lights of the finish line were in sight and I could still feel a slight incline under my feet. I pulled out whatever I had left in me and brought my split down by nearly 2 mins per mile for a sprint to the end! I had just finished the New York City Marathon at the age of 35.
This race was never about time, or a personal record for me. It was about raising awareness and funds for an important cause; and to put my time and energy toward something bigger than myself.
It took discipline to train, focus to push through discomfort, but more than anything -- faith, trust & belief in myself to carry me through.
I was required to raise $3,500 this season, and through the generous support of friends, family, customers and colleagues, we raised $4,255. This contributes to the total $1.3 million raised by Team in Training NYC Marathon runners this year, benefiting cancer research & patient care.
To say I feel humbled and elated would be an understatement. The momentum, social media posts, fanfare and hype from the race may have gradually died down over the last couple weeks. But these memories and special moments leading up to this event will forever stay with me.
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