Thursday, November 3, 2011

Final race of 2011 - NYC Marathon

As a write this sitting on our flight during the last leg of our journey to New York, I find myself surprised at the number of runners on the flight and just how much the race is being talked about.  I am definitely feeling the energy from the race and each day I get more and more excited (the cup of coffee I had this morning probably has something to do with my current excitement level).

 It is hard to believe that the race which I signed up for (lottery) 12 months ago, and found out I was accepted 5 months ago, is finally here.  I also can't help but think about the fact that even with addition of more and more trail running in the past few years that I still really enjoy road running.  Case in point, I am running probably the largest and most prestigious marathon in the world, the ING New York City Marathon.  A race that I am pretty sure I will not run again after this year.

Overall however, my excitement level is high and I am looking forward to feeding off the race energy (anyone who has run a big race knows what I am talking about) and having hopefully not just a very enjoyable run but also a PR (shooting for 3:30, this would give me a PR by 20 minutes).  I have had to constantly reassure myself that staying out on the New York Marathon course longer than I planned is not a bad thing should the day not go well for whatever reason.  My runs in the past few weeks have been discouraging at times but I can't help but wonder if this is mostly due to the drop in temperatures and the addition of snow.  I am realizing that 2-3 weeks of tapering after moths of training is not nearly as hard physically as it is mentally.  Despite these elements I did manage to do 3 miles at an 8:30 pace last night if anything to convince myself I still could run at that speed.

This will be my 6th marathon over the past 4 years and my second for 2011 (not counting Crow Pass which is about marathon length but not officially a marathon).  If you wish to track me on race day the beast resource is the marathon website (www.nycmarathon.org).  You can also head over the website and sign up for text messages or download the mobile app, both for a fee.  I will also have some race feeds tied into my Facebook account as well.  My start time is 9:40 AM as I am in the first wave or runners.  My bid number is 21203, or you can look up by last name.  I will plan on doing a post race report some time next week, until then wish me luck!

First run in the snow, October 30 2011

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