New York City Marathon

I made it!  All 26.2 miles in the icy cold 40 degree temperatures in spite of the accompanying 40 mile per hour wind.  It was brutally cold the whole way.  We had to hang out at the start line for close to 4 hours too, which was probably the coldest part.  I had on a heavy sweatshirt that I bought at the 99 Cent Store in Queens, but it wasn't enough.  I was still freezing.  I did ditch that right after I crossed the bridge, but later on wished that I still had it.  At one point I picked up a heavy scarf that another runner had discarded, and wrapped that around my neck for a while.  I was ok until about mile 20 or so when suddenly the cold became nearly unbearable.  But a really thoughtful Team In Training coach happened along and asked how I was doing.  When I told him how cold I was, he gave me a spare long sleeved T-shirt that he had.  That saved the day for me.

It was a really nice run in spite of the icy cold conditions though.  It was amazing to see thousands of people in front of me and thousands behind me.  I was in the middle of a crowd for the entire race.  There were over 50,000 runners and there was no half marathon.  All 50,000 ran the full marathon.  We ran through all of the boroughs and finished in Central Park.  It was actually getting dark when we finished, yet my wave started around 10:30 in the morning. 

The walk back to my hotel was about 3 miles and I was really tired.  But they gave us really nice fleece lined ponchos and I was totally wrapped up in that.  At the desk in my hotel I had to arrange for transportation to the airport for the next morning, and nearly collapsed while working on that transaction.  I barely made it to the elevator and was leaning over clinging to the hand rail hoping to not faint before I reached the 14th floor.  I did manage to remain standing but threw myself onto the floor as soon as I opened the door to my room.  I think that was the most exhausted I have ever been after a marathon.  But it was worth it! 

NYC Marathon Finish

The greatest part was knowing I raised $4000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society to fund needed cancer research. Finding a cure is the real finish line!