1,000 Miles for Chase: Nov. 3

It's in the books! What an incredible weekend culminated with 26.2 blustery miles on Sunday. The crowds were fantastic, especially in Brooklyn and on 1st Ave. coming off the Queensboro Bridge. In addition to the multitude of bands, posters, kids giving high fives, etc., I was inspired by someone yelling out "Race4Chase!" on 1st Ave. just after mile 16 and by Ellie and Shea who were cheering my on from Central Park South at mile 25. (BTW, does anyone know who the 1st Ave Race4Chaser might be? My runner bib covered the Race4Chase text so the person recognized my shirt just from Chase's picture).

There were many fantastic sites on the course. I saw quite a few blind runners assisted by the Achilles Guides; a guy who calls himself Dr. Dribble who was bouncing two basketballs alternatively with each stride (and he can't change careers given the Dr. Dribble tattoo on his back); a guy celebrating his Mexican heritage by sprinting ahead and stopping to high-five spectators about a million times--he could probably run a 2:30 marathon if he put his mind to it; a female spectator in the Bronx pushing some huge cart across the street, causing me and about five other runners to stutter-step around her to the boos of her neighbors; and a guy wearing a Boston Strong t-shirt carrying a big American flag on a pole the entire 26.2.

The race went really well. I had planned to run the first 6 miles at or just below 9 mins/mi, but as occurs in most races it was impossible to roll back the adrenaline and I ended up running 8:30's over this stretch. Amazingly, I felt very comfortable at this pace all the way to mile 24. I didn't hit the wall there, but the 8:30 pace did start to hurt a little more as I was running up the incline on 5th Ave. I dialed the pace back to 9-9:20 over the last two miles. I wanted to push it a little, but I also knew I had some work to do to reunite with everyone after the race and I didn't wan't the tank to be completely empty upon crossing the finish line. Overall I was thrilled to go so deep into the marathon at a steady pace. Per the ingnycmarathon.org runner tracking data, my 5K splits were:

5K - 26:13
10K - 26:37
15K - 26:12
20K - 26:27
25K - 26:38
30K - 25:57
35K - 26:30
40K - 26:44
last 2K+ - 13:04
Total time - 3:44:22

Unfortunately I wasn't able to meet up with Steve, Becky or Brian Mora after the race. The logistics of NYC on race day are impossible--after the finish runners have to walk nearly a mile to exit the park on the west side in the 70's, and I had to get back to East 66th to meet Ellie, Shea and my sister at a friend's apartment. I was able to hop in a cab at 75th and Amsterdam but the cabbie had to go all the way to 145th in the Bronx to get back to the east side of Manhattan. By the time I got to the apartment, showered and relaxed a little, it was too late to hit the town, as our whole crew had work/school on Monday. I was able to share a few nice texts with Becky--hopefully we'll get to celebrate in the quiet confines of Monroe before too long.

It was a whirlwind weekend of planning, carbo-loading and a little sight-seeing. The pre-race logistics worked out really well--I was able to fight the urge to dive into the city, going back to the hotel room after a visit to the 9/11 Memorial and a late lunch on Sat. I'm clearly going to have to the get the Bresna-girls into running because they spent my down time shopping in Soho. I also was raring to go Sun morning at 5am, and was on the 6:30am Staten Is. Ferry on my way to the starting line. Then it was a bus ride to Fort Wadsworth, the staging area, followed by about 2 hours of waiting, port-a-potty usage and assembling in the runners corrals. I kinda felt like I had 2 legs of a weird transportation-related triathlon down by the time the marathon started. No complaints mind you--it's actually quite amazing how the organizers can send off 40,000 runners over the course of an hour.

I have been plowing through myriad Facebook posts, emails and texts from so many people rooting me on. Thank you so much for your support. I though a lot about Chase and the Race4Chase team during the run. I was really worried about faltering in the race but Chase's spirit and all the support from Race4Chasers kept me going strong. I knew a few of you were tracking my progress and it was a real lift staying on pace and knowing that I wasn't letting you down.

Here are a few pics from the weekend: