The Quick and Dirty Race Recap, 2011 edition.

At the Expo with my amazing head cheerleader!

Hi everyone! After one of the craziest, best days of my life, I am still in NYC with a few things to do before I head home. Thus, I don't have time now to tell the whole story of my marathon weekend. Instead, I offer a bit of a teaser: some highlights from the race itself.

Start- Mile 2: At the start, I was very happy to meet up with my college friend Kim. Kim and I have been training in close proximity to one another for months, but have never managed to do any of it together. Kim was planning to run a bit slower than me, and was assigned to a corral a bit behind mine, but I decided to go to her corral so we could start together. I think this was a good decision. It made the start even more fun and exciting, and kept me from going out too fast. By midway through mile 2 though, I could tell that I was pushing Kim to go too fast and I was ready to step it up a bit, so we high-fived and separated.

Mile 3-Mile 8: Somewhere in here (I think it was around 4), I started experiencing some, to use my coach's words, "gut issues." I will not go into detail because you do not want to know, but it was unpleasant and I knew I had to make a restroom stop. I kept putting it off because the lines were crazy long. Finally, in mile 7, I decided to just suck it up and wait. Unfortunately, the stop did little to calm the problem. At mile 8, I was met by my boyfriend Andrew and my friend Tracy. It was SO great to see them! By that point, I had not eaten anything because I was worried that my Sport Beans would upset my stomach. Fortunately, I had given Andrew a bag of pretzels to carry, so I took some of those.

Mile 9- Mile 19: My stomach troubles persisted throughout the race, but they were worst through about mile 15. All in all, I think I made at least 6 bathroom stops, most of them during these 10 miles. The bad news was that this put my goal of finishing under 5 hours out of reach pretty early. The good news is that I started finding banks of port-a-johns with shorter lines. By keeping my eyes out for the shortest waits, I avoided losing too much time. All in all, I think the pit stops probably cost me about 30 minutes over the course of the race.

One unexpected advantage of the frequent stops is that they helped me keep my pace down. My biggest fear going into this race was going out too fast and running out of energy mid-way through. Turns out, I didn't need to worry about that at all. By mile 19, I was well off pace for my original goal, but I could not believe how strong I still felt. Around mile 19, I saw Andrew again, along with my friend Matt, which gave me another great boost of energy.

Miles 20-22: At mile 20, we made a very quick trip through the Bronx. This was probably my favorite part of the whole race. The people in the Bronx know how to cheer and how to play great music! If it were up to me, they would get more of the race. We moved into Harlem for miles 21 and 22, and there was great energy there too. Just before mile 23, I saw Andrew and Matt for the last time before the finish. By this point, I had re-set my goal to 5:30 and I was right on pace to get there, so I didn't stop for long!

Miles 23-26.2: Going into mile 23, I still felt okay, but I was ready to be done. Thankfully, we moved into Central Park, where the energy was intense and inspiring. It felt like one long finish line. At mile 25, I sped up, racing for the 5:30 finishing time. When I hit the 26 marker, my watch was somewhere around 5:28. I sprinted for the finish. Sadly, I just missed it- I crossed at 5:31:05. Almost immediately, though, a fellow runner tapped me on the shoulder and said "That was an impressive sprint you just did." If I did not already have an amazing boyfriend, I might have kissed him.

Postrace: The journey through the finish area was absolute mayhem. There were so many people that we quickly formed a huge traffic jam and it took close to an hour to get out of the park. Then, after an unfortunate wrong-turn that resulted in an 8-block detour, I joined Andrew and Matt at a diner for the most delicious plate of pasta I have ever tasted. After that, I went to St. Lydia's and finally met the people I was running for! It was an amazing night and I promise I will say more about it later.

All in all,  I had an amazing day. In 2010, I survived a marathon. In 2011, I ran one, and I actually enjoyed it! Thanks for your many, many kind messages yesterday. I will write more soon!