Running for the second half of my life: November 4, 2018: The TCS New York City Marathon

The New York City Marathon is always held on the first Sunday of November, which coincides with the end of Daylight Savings Time; thus all of the participants get an extra hour of rest! I had set the alarm for 5 am, but I awoke at 4 am and didn't really get back to sleep. I dreamt about running too fast because the great New York City band The Ramones were playing along the route:

"Rock-Rock-Rockaway Beach, Rock-Rock-Rockaway Beach,
Rock-Rock-Rockaway Beach, we can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach."

Hmmm.

My name on the wall at the Expo

I got up around 4:50 am and began to get ready. I enjoyed a cup of hotel room coffee and light breakfast of cereal with almond milk. We were in the subway station shortly after 6 am, but had to wait awhile for the #1 local, arriving around 6:30 am. We reached the South Ferry station at 7:00 am, 30 minutes ahead of my official time to board the ferry. There was a large crowd of excited runners, and Bonnie and I enjoyed soaking in the atmosphere. We were onto the next ferry by 7:20 am, taking a wonderful 30 minute trip across the harbor. Despite the thousands of runners on the ferry, it was remarkably quiet. Many of us took photos of the Statue of Liberty as we sailed past. We had a NYPD boat escort across the harbor. It was a beautiful morning, hardly a cloud in the sky, about 50 degrees F, and no wind at all! As we swarmed into the terminal, I said goodbye to Bonnie, and headed up the steps to the exit. I found myself following a woman dressed in a tiger outfit, with her tail behind her. I thought that wasn't such a great idea for a costume, considering that I was trying not to step on her tail as I climbed the steps.

Waiting for the subway, and then on the #1 line heading south

Statue of Liberty; police escort for the ferry

Waiting 30 minutes or more for the bus

Here was the first surprise of the day: there was a very long line to the busses. Fortunately we must have all listened to the advice to stay calm with regard to the logistics. There was no complaining to be heard while we inched our way forward. A few men ran outside of the line, but perhaps they were wave 1 runners. It must have taken at least 30 minutes before we reached the street where the buses would arrive. i just remembered the advice from Rogue Running, "Just be patient, if someone pushes ahead of you, let them go ahead, everyone will get there. Races are lost at this stage!" Finally a long line of buses arrived. I was the last person onto a bus and was glad not to have to wait, but ended up standing for 30 minutes or more as the bus inched its way through the streets of Staten Island. When we finally reached the starting village, and cleared security, we had a 15 minutes walk to the green start village, 2 full hours from the time that we got onto the ferry in lower Manhattan. The women's race had already begun, but we heard the cannon shot as the men's race and wave 1 began at 9:52 am. I tried to check the progress of the women's race, but the local cellphone service was overwhelmed. In any case I had just enough time to use a port-a-potty, get a free bagel, stretch a little, make sure my shoes were tied just right, then walked to corral A, Green wave 3.

From the Green Wave starting village

We seemed to wait only a moment, when the gate opened and we surged onto the bridge. Now the energy of the runners was really high! The music was playing

"Roadrunner, roadrunner;

Fifty thousand watts of power;

Going faster miles per hour;

With the radio on..."

The atmosphere was definitely not conducive to getting into a mind-set of starting slowly and conservatively! I tried not to burn any extra energy waiting for the start, energy that I knew that I would desperately need in 2, 3 or 4 hours.

10 minutes before the start, standing on the approach to the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge

One of the runners in wave 3 sang a beautiful rendition of "America the Beautiful". Then we surged closer to the line, and the announcer gave instructions for starting, "On your mark" and then an enormous cannon boom sounded followed immediately by its reverberation sounded! Just as I had heard on the televised broadcast, the sounds of Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" started on cue. Within a minute I crossed the starting mat!

My goal for the race was to finish in 4:30, running a slight negative split. I had memorized the following splits: 5K in 33 - 34 minutes, 10K in 66 - 67 min, 13.1 miles in 2:17, and 20 miles in 3:27. I intended to use intervals of 4:30 running, 30 seconds walking, and/or walking through water stops.

I was heading up the Verrazano-Narrows bridge, taking care not to run too fast. I had aimed for a 12 minute first mile. As runner after runner passed me on the bridge, I remembered the Rogue Running advice "If people aren't passing you on the bridge, you're going too fast." I settled in behind a couple at an appropriate pace: the woman was wearing a purple shirt with the slogan "Pancreatic cancer is tough. I'm tougher."

Looking over the harbor toward Manhattan, it was a beautiful day to run! How fortunate I was to win the NYC marathon AND the weather lottery this year! Several people jumped onto the raised walkway to take photos, but I just kept slowly running, all business.

At 4-1/2 minutes, my watch signaled for a walk break. I was on the far left but runners were passing on the side on the raised walkway, so I couldn't find an option to get out of the way. I just kept running at a very easy pace. That was going to be a pattern for most of the race. The 4:20 pacers starting in corral B passed me, followed by the 4:25 pacers. That's OK, I wasn't planning to keep up with them, aiming for a 4:30 finish. At 9-1/2 minutes we had spread out a bit. I looked behind me, and felt I could safely take a 30 second walk break. Shortly afterwards, we were near the top of the bridge, as my watch sounded 11:30 for mile 1, but the mile 1 sign came up about 30 seconds later, so I was probably right on track.

Now we were heading downhill toward Brooklyn. I could still see the beautiful towers of lower Manhattan to the left, and Brooklyn up ahead seemed forested along the coastline. As we came off the bridge, I was just gliding along very easily, yet my watch was reading sub-10 min / mile. As we came off the bridge, we saw a large sign "Welcome to Brooklyn!" Those of us in the green wave took a slightly different route from the other two waves, staying on the highway while we saw the other runners came off the upper level of the bridge to our left. Then I saw a familiar red jersey: "Thanks Atlanta Track Club @silversue" And it was Sue Landa! I called her name and gave her a quick hug as we ran together for most of the next several miles. At that moment I said "This is probably the only time that I'll get to run New York, so I'm looking for a great experience."

The crowds in Brooklyn were enthusiastic, just as advertised! What a blast! The runners were equally enthusiastic, exchanging high-fives with the children lining the route. Mile 3 came up quickly, followed by the 5K mark, which I crossed exactly at 33 minutes on my watch: "Nailed it!"

Now I settled in to just run at an easy pace, finding my rhythm. In some places it was convenient to take the walk breaks when the watch sounded, in other places it was a bit narrow and I just kept running. I did slow down or walk through most of the water stops, accepting a cup of Gatorade, even though I was carrying a bottle of Nuun in a 23 oz SmartWater bottle and another 16 oz on my water belt. Sue and I were "leapfrogging" a bit with my walk breaks, but she seemed to be running well. At the 10K mark, I registered 1:05:30, a little fast! (Aiming for 66 - 67 minutes)

Before getting ahead of Sue around mile 8, I had amended my thinking on future New York City marathons, as I said "These crowds are incredible, I can see coming back again, in a few years start entering the lottery again!"

After mile 8, we turned from 4th avenue onto famous Bedford Avenue, with more enthusiastic and cheering crowds. and then at mile 10, it began to get quieter. Ah, this is the famous Hasidic neighborhood of Williamsburg. I saw a few men dressed in black on the sidewalks, some going about their business seemingly oblivious to the runners, but others were watching us. None were cheering, but hopefully they enjoyed seeing the parade of runners. There were a few other people on the streets in western dress who were cheering, and even a group of women who may have been Hasidic by their conservative dress but were also watching us. On the right side of the street, a side advertised Moishe's Hatters.

We ran a few miles along Bedford Avenue, during which the crowds of spectators gradually increased again. Around mile 12, we made several turns, and I noticed a sign that seemed specifically for the marathon "Caution sharp left turn slow down. I had never before seen that in a race, but then realized that was for the wheelchair races moving at 20 - 25 miles per hour. Hay bales provided some padding, probably protecting from some hazardous steel behind the bales, which fortunately all seemed intact.

Then it was time to cross the Pulaski Bridge, as we left Brooklyn to enter Queens. I looked at my watch as I passed the mile 13 marker. 2:17 and change, yet I was aiming to get to 13.1 in 2:17. I had imperceptibly slowed over the last several miles. But I held back from speeding up, as I was determined to maintain pace discipline through the third quarter of the race.

The Pulaski bridge was higher and longer than I had expected, but of course this was just another hill by Atlanta standards. I ran past quite a few people who had slowed to a walk. On the bridge, a young man wearing what appeared to be a Hasidic black hat jumped up on the platform alongside the bridge to take a selfie. Other than the hat, he was wearing the usual running clothes.

We entered Queens, with plenty of enthusiastic crowds, but I mostly remember making several turns in this area. Then suddenly we were running up the approach to the Queensboro Bridge. As warned, everything became very quiet. There were just the sounds of thousands of feet on the bridge, and the occasional bus passing overhead on an upper deck. That was a pretty tough uphill section.

And now, my left knee began to ache. What?! That wasn't a problem in the months of training! My watch showed that I was running 15 min/mile pace. Surely that wasn't right, it must be the metal of the bridge interfering with the signal. But when we reached the official clock for mile 16 (I started 51 minutes after the wave 1 men) it looked like I had just run a 13 minute mile. After a long mile, we began heading downhill. Quite a few runners were stopped and stretching, a few others took photos. Many others were passing me. Then we headed downhill just a short distance and I started to hear the crowds cheering ahead.

Making a U-turn off of the bridge, and then a left turn, we were on 1st Avenue. As promised, we enjoyed incredible crowd support in this section, with people several rows deep. I knew that a former graduate student from my lab would be watching but I wasn't sure from which side of the road. I decided to stay to the left. Unfortunately my knee was hurting pretty badly, but I tried to stick with the plan: only walk every 5 minutes, and through water stops. At least I kept moving, more or less in the mid 11 min/mile range. I had heard that 1st avenue was downhill as we would run north, but to me it seemed to be rolling hills.

Recent doctoral student Jessica Hurtak,
now a postdoctoral associate at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center,
made this great periodic table-themed sign!
She snapped my photo on First Avenue, below

There were great bands throughout the race, including in this section. At one point a band was playing:

"Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like a room without a roof,

Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth,

Because I'm happy, clap along if you know what happiness is to you,

Because I'm happy, clap along if you feel like that's what you want to do!"

Did everyone start running just a little bit faster?!

As we ran north approaching Harlem, the crowds thinned out a bit, but also encroached into the street. The blue tape was flexible, so naturally as people looked down the street at approaching runners, they would step forward if the person in front of them did so, etc. etc. At one point, a policeman realized that and was trying to get the crowds to move back, but as we ran north the route became fairly narrow.

Then ahead, I saw the Willis Avenue bridge. And it was another hill! Struggling quite a bit at this stage, I took an extra walk break. Then we were in the Bronx. To our left was a series of tables advertising Biofreeze. I decided to pull over, squeezed a big squirt of green gel into my hand and rubbed it my sore knee, then another squirt onto my calf, and at least one more squirt all over the lower left leg. I muttered "I had hoped that I wouldn't need to stop here." But the volunteer said "that's what we're here for!" and I remembered to smile and thank him.

I could feel the cooling numbness on my skin but I'm not sure that it got down into the muscles. And now I had to be very careful not to rub my eyes or any other sensitive areas! After about 5 minutes, I made another 30 second stop, to do some leg swings, hoping that would ease the soreness. Again I'm not sure if it made a difference, but I resumed running. When I was moving at what I considered was an easy pace, I was passing people, then I would take a walk break, then repeat. There was a section in the Bronx where we were running northbound and I could see the runners ahead running southbound, separated by just a block. What a temptation to cut the course at that point! But I didn't want to become the lead article in the next release of "Marathon Investigation"! I noticed at mile 20 my elapsed time was 3:37. Was that what I was trying for? Was it 3:17, 3:27, 3:37?

We left the Bronx via the Madison Avenue bridge. Someone held up a sign reading "Last Damn Bridge!" Thank goodness that bridge was flat! As we re-entered Manhattan, I noticed that we were at 138th street, and I knew Bonnie was waiting at Marcus Garvey park at 124th street. 14 blocks to Bonnie! That kept me going, as the blocks quickly ticked down. Around 126th street, I took a walk break, because I was determined to run when I saw Bonnie. And then I made a right turn. I stayed to the left side, scanning the crowd ahead for Bonnie in her pink hoodie. We saw each other at the same time: I heard Bonnie shouting "Frank! Frank!" as I shouted "Bonnie! Bonnie!" waving my hands in the air so that she could see me. I ran past shouting "Oh, the pain!!"

Bonnie caught my photo in the 22nd mile

Turning the corner, there was the mile 22 sign. I was really hurting now. I started thinking about my father, 13 years deceased. I began saying in my mind "Dad, be proud of me, Dad, be proud of me." Again and again. I know my father was always proud of me, I don't know why that thought came. The mind goes to some strange places after mile 20 in the marathon. I don't really believe in the afterlife, but I suppose I was channeling my father. Did someone once say, "There are no atheists after mile 20 in the marathon"?

Bonnie's family was waiting
for me at mile 26!

A woman held up a sign "Pain is French for bread" and I laughed at that one. I saw the 23 mile sign, around 110th street, had to go all the way to 59th street! But I could see the green expanse of Central Park to my right. I started thinking about my grandparents, everything that they went through during World War II in Europe, at least my pain was nothing compared to that. The crowds were cheering, but all of the runners were silent, unlike our boisterousness in Brooklyn three hours earlier. And I started running a little faster. At 90th street, we turned into Central Park. After the mile 24 sign, I started thinking about Han Choi. He ran the 2014 marathon. At the time, he said it was the toughest thing he had ever done, because he didn't train for it. Then Han got pancreatic cancer and 3-1/2 years later he was gone. My pain is nothing compared to that.

At mile 25 sign, I remembered coach Carl's advice to think of laps around the track. 5 laps remaining, I can do this. Fight fight fight! And I suddenly accelerated, passing people left and right in the last part of the park. Was that the woman in the tiger outfit that I was passing? She was still holding her tail to keep other runners from stepping on it. Turning onto 59th street (Central Park South), running running running, staying to the left, looking for Bonnie's sister and parents near the intersection with 7th Avenue. I never did see them although they were screaming, but their cheers were drowned out by the pain in my legs. Running running running, trying to beat 4:48, I thought I was going to better that time by a minute or two, until I got into the park again, and there was no mile 26 marker anywhere in sight.

Running running running, finally there was the mile 26 marker, and I was past 4:46 on my watch. Oooh, I'm not going to make it, or maybe? Running running running where is the finish line? Running past the first grandstand, up a hill, and a slight left turn, "Shalane's turn" and there was the finish line, thankfully with the timing mat in front of the finish sign. Over the first mat, then kept pushing over the second mat to make sure I really finished, remembering Meb Keflezighi last year collapsing over the second mat: 4:48:33 on my watch.

Within a minute, I checked my phone to see a flood of messages of best wishes, mid-run photos, and congratulations. Will told me the official time, 4:48:23. I missed a personal best by 11 seconds! But what I was really looking for was the great experience that I had, absolutely superb!

There was a long walk ahead, during which we received our medals, a warming sheet, and a food box. The apple was the most delicious ever! Downing a bottle of water and then a bottle of Gatorade revived much of my energy, as we continued walking through the park. Still the parade of walkers was extremely quiet. I wanted to shout, "We just finished the New York City Marathon!!!!" but either I didn't have the energy or didn't want to disrupt the decorum. Finally we made our way around to the exit where they were handing out blue ponchos. Amazingly my legs weren't too sore. I was even able to make it down the stairs in the subway, two stops from 72nd to 96th Street, up the stairs in the station, proudly making sure my medal was showing outside of the poncho, to the hotel, up the stairs and to the room!

Although my time wasn't quite what I had hoped for, this was definitely the first marathon where I didn't feel beaten up afterwards. In fact I was even able to jog around a little bit on Monday. Thank goodness for all of the training, to prepare myself for this challenge!