Saturday, November 17th, 8:00 a.m.
Thank you Alan Tam for taking all of these photos.
Denie, Julien, and Carol
Carol Buonanno, my personal pacer for the whole 60K.
Notice the bag of pretzels in my right hand.
I held onto them for a few miles, hoping my stomach would
tolerate them. Never happened.
I always figured I would run an ultra someday. I just didn't think it would happen so soon. The circumstances were right, however. The NYC Marathon had been canceled because of Hurricane Sandy, and I was still in reasonable shape for a long run. And Carol had been promising to run the entire race with me. How could I say no?
I picked up my bib at the NYRR office. It's such a small race that everyone is able to pick up their race bibs at the office the day of the race. The weather conditions seemed ideal. I was anxious to get started. My plan was to go out slow, slow, slow. The last thing I wanted happening was having to walk because of starting off too quickly. The starting area was very relaxed compared to regular NYRR races. No corrals and plenty of space to move around.
The horn sounded and we proceeded to do a quick 1/2 mile out and back up East Drive. Then, it would be 9 clockwise 4-mile loops. I felt like I was doing a comfortable pace and enjoying the conversation with Carol, but I couldn't seem to get into a rhythm. Denie and Julien met us for a couple of loops. Those ended up being my fastest loops of the day. Early in the race, I saw a lot of people I knew along the course. There were volunteers at Engineer's Gate and on the west side. Also, the RUN-NYC group was doing their workout in the opposite direction, and it was great to see all of them.
I ate my 2 GUs within the first few loops of the race, and I was still hungry. That worried me a little because I've never had to eat real food in a race. When I tried to eat some pretzels during the race, I couldn't swallow because I was nauseous. I had to survive on the flat Coke and Gatorade provided at the aid stations. The Coke was a lifesaver.
After completing 5 loops, I started feeling a cramp coming in my right hip flexor and in my left, upper hamstring. Before the race started, I thought cramps would be the one thing that might prevent me from finishing this race. I tried to consciously stay relaxed and slowed the pace down a little. The 6th and 7th loop were probably the toughest. From the 5th loop on, I stopped at both fluid stations, grabbed Coke or Gatorade, and walked until I drank an entire cup. During these two loops, there were a couple of occasions where I thought about how many miles I had run. Thank goodness there weren't any mile markers. Otherwise, I would have constantly been thinking about all the miles I still had remaining. Instead, I just focused on how many loops I had left.
Once I reached the 8th loop, I knew I would be able to finish. I started thinking about my position in the race and my modest goal of finishing under 5 hours 35 minutes (approximately 9:00/mile). I was feeling good considering how far I had already run. At this point, I was very appreciative of all the volunteers along the course. The people at Engineer's Gate were particularly vocal. I actually sped up on my last loop because I felt OK and was anxious to complete the race. I crossed the finish line very satisfied with my time.
One of my other goals for the race was to finish without too much effort so that I would have the energy to make the drive to Philadelphia that afternoon in order to cheer for friends running the marathon the next day. Goals accomplished! Thank you to all the volunteers and supporters along the race course. Thank you to Julien and Denie for keeping me company for a couple of loops. And a HUGE thanks to Carol for running the entire race with me, especially since she probably could have finished much higher. She was the fourth overall woman in the race.
Official finish time: 5 hours 22 minutes 47 seconds (8:40/mile). 34th place overall. 4th in age division.
2nd 4-mile loop: 34:38
3rd loop: 32:18
4th loop: 32:27
5th loop: 34:45
6th loop: 34:51
7th loop: 36:27
8th loop: 35:53
9th loop: 33:48
