Brightwood Lights

Hard to believe that the BIG RACE was two and a half months ago. I know this is a WAY delayed race report, but I wanted to post it anyway:

We drove up to New York City on Saturday, November 5, and arrived in the early afternoon, as incident-free as can be expected with 3 young children. Mom & Dad and KK & Mike were all assembled at the hotel, so we quickly checked in and boarded the last round of charter buses heading for the Expo at Javits Convention Center in Manhattan.

If you’ve never been to a race expo, you’re not really missing out. Besides picking up your number and race packet (often including your finisher’s t-shirt), you have the opportunity to sample an endless quantity of power bars, gels, and drinks while wandering through countless racks of running shoes, apparel, and other gear. In between, officials from other races press brochures and promotional material into your hands. The cynic in me doesn’t relish being required to attend a marketing/promotional session; the runner in me has to admit that there is a unique air of excitement and enthusiasm for running not found in many (any?) other venues.

Anyway, we spent the rest of the afternoon doing some sight seeing, though Andreas and Maria (and thus Caleb and I) did not last quite as long as the others. After an early night at the hotel and an extra hour of sleep (thank you, end of Daylight Savings time!), KK, Dad, and I arose at 4:30 AM to catch the buses to Staten Island.

About 47,000 people run the NYC marathon each year, and the race takes place in all five boroughs of NYC. (Before this trip, I could not have named all five.) The logistics of shutting down major roads and bridges throughout the city are, I’m sure, insane; it also means that the morning is a long one for most participants.

The “staging area” is Fort Wadsworth, which is on the eastern side of the island. Runners take buses or ferries at designated times to arrive at the fort by about 7 AM, which is when the Verrazano Bridge between Staten Island and Brooklyn closed to traffic. We were split into three different colors (blue, orange, and green) and three different “waves,” starting at 9:40, 10:10, and 10:40 AM. Within each wave, we were further subdivided into “corrals.” Dad was in the first wave, I was in the second, and KK was in the third.

During our many hours at the fort, we were fed coffee & bagels (courtesy of Dunkin Donuts), Power Bars and Gels, water, hot tea and hot chocolate, and Gatorade. We came prepared for the chill of sitting outside for so many hours, but the weather was gorgeous this year and made staying warm relatively easy. Conversation, food, and race preparations passed the time quickly, and before we knew it, it was time to find our respective UPS trucks, which would take our bags to the finish line for us.

Around 10:15, after months and months of training and anticipation and one final rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, I began the race. We began at the base of the Verrazano Bridge, which meant that we were packed in and running elbow to elbow even more than one normally is at the start of a big race. My first mile was thus much slower than my intended pace, but I overcompensated and ran my second much too fast. After that, I settled into a decent pace through Brooklyn and Queens. I slowed a bit coming across the Queensboro Bridge and then decided to start walking through the water stations in Manhattan. Still, I felt energized by the AMAZING crowd support.

Honestly, it was astonishing to see that so many people would stand along the side of the road and scream, clap, high-five, and otherwise cheer on the never-ending stream of spandex and dri-fit clad runners. The only place no one was cheering was on the bridges, and only because they were closed to non-runners.

I continued to feel strong as we passed into the Bronx and then back into Manhattan, but the hardest two miles for me were around 23 and 24, where we gradually ran uphill along Central Park for what seemed an eternity. Finally, we came around the southern edge of the park, passed through Columbus Circle, and entered the Park for the final stretch. I felt strong during my last 1.2 miles, and crossing the finish line was an amazing feeling.

Then came the worst part of the race: shuffling to our UPS vans to pick up the bags. We were not supposed to sit or stop unless we needed medical attention, so we continued walking. . . and walking. . . and walking. Mine happened to be the second to last truck, which meant that I walked about .6 miles- an eternity when all you want to do is get off your feet! After grabbing my belongings and changing out of my sweaty clothes, I again started walking. . . and walking. . . and walking.

We had arranged to meet just north of Columbus Circle, but because of where I exited the Park and road closures, I ended up walking (shuffling) almost 2 miles to meet up with Mike, Caleb, and Simona. All of that took close to an hour, and unfortunately, my chip had a glitch, so my mile 26 and finish times were not recorded. This meant that those tracking me didn’t know if I had finished. . . or collapsed at the end. Thankfully, I found them (courtesy of the highly visible German flags) shortly before they called the emergency number for missing runners!

In the end, it took about 2.5 weeks for the NYC Road Runners club (which administers the race) to determine my accurate finish time (via video recording of the finish line). The delay was a bit agonizing, especially because I didn’t stop my watch at the finish and so didn’t really know my final time. I am grateful to the NYCRR , though, for being so professional and thorough in resolving such glitches. In the end, my time was 3:41:33- not a PR (personal record), but my second fastest marathon and well under my hoped-for goal of 3:45. I was thrilled with the entire experience: the weather, the crowds, the city, the course, my effort, and my time.

We finished off the weekend with Sunday morning brunch with a dear old friend, Leslie, whose dad completed residency with my dad in Chicago in the early 1980s. We lived in the same building then, and our families have kept in touch over the years. I hadn’t seen Leslie since high school, so it was wonderful to reconnect!

One final but very important note: I could not have achieved this without Caleb’s tremendous support. During the many months of training, he took on an extra childcare burden while I mapped out, planned for, and executed my many, many training runs. He sacrificed his own sleep, time, and work-out time to let me focus on this, and I’m extremely grateful. I’ve promised him a break from marathoning, so I’ll be focusing on some shorter runs for the next few years. But come 2014 or 2015, I hope to be taking on the London Marathon. Let’s see if I stick to it!

I am sitting down to eat lunch, nervously wiggling my toes and trying to still the butterflies in my stomach and the adrenaline racing through my body. I haven’t been this nervous about a race since my track and cross-country days in high school.

It has been a LONG road to get here, beginning with submitting an entry to the lottery back in 2009. On April 3, 2010, my suspicion that I was pregnant was confirmed; a mere 4 days later, on April 7, I found out that I was one of the lucky lottery winners and had a slot for the 2010 NYC marathon. Obviously that wasn’t going to happen. After deferring my entry, I spent over a year telling people, “I don’t know where I’ll be living after Caleb graduates, but I know for sure I’ll be in NYC on Sunday, November 6, 2011!”

Then, in late January of this year, about 6.5 weeks after Maria’s birth, I began running again. Miles were slow and felt long, but by mid-summer, I had shed all but the last few pounds of baby weight and was ready to start training in earnest.

I used an official training plan this time (Hal Higdon’s Intermediate II), with some slight modifications, so my training kicked off on July 10. Since then, I have completed runs in Germany, Georgia, Alabama, DC, Virginia, and Maryland, logging 556.5 miles in heat, rain, wind, dark, cold, humidity, and more. I have trained harder for this race than for any in a long time.

And now, two days before the race, I am READY. Ready to run my heart out. Ready to run a PR, but also ready for the fact that it just may not be my day. Ready to take a 5 AM bus to Staten Island. Ready to spend 3 hours pre-race with Dad and KK hanging out in the cold. Ready to have fun. Ready to hurt. Ready to run 26.2 miles through the streets of New York City.

See you at the finish.

Last week, Simona was nearly expelled from Kindergarten.

What? Sweet Simona, kicked out of school within the first month?

Yes. Back in early September, we received a letter from the city school board that three of her immunizations were not up to date and that she would need to be fully vaccinated by September 12 in order to continue attending school. We thought she current on all shots, but the school office insisted she was not.
So we quickly found a doctor and scheduled appointments for her and Maria (9 month check up). Fortunately, the doctor and the nurse both confirmed that she was fully compliant with all CDC-recommended immunization schedules and didn’t charge us for the visit. (Glad Maria had an appointment, too, so it was not a total waste of time!) The nurse also offered to upload the records to a system that can be accessed by city agencies, including the City Schools.
After two more trips to the school front office, I was told that that should take care of it.

And then I got home after a long morning of wrangling three children at the dentist’s office, complete with the bad news of cavities, only to find a message telling me that Simona was out of compliance and that, for the sake of her and the other students’ health and safety, she would need to be expelled. After a few frantic phone calls to the school and to her doctor (and to Caleb, in tears!), we finally found out what the problem was.

The school had incorrectly entered her date of birth to show that she was born on 12/06/06 instead of 06/12/06. Meaning that she would not have been born yet when she received several of the vaccines. (Also meaning that she would not be old enough to be in Kindergarten yet, I might add. . .) The computer was generating an automatic “non-compliant” message. After reassuring the secretary that I was sure Simona was born in June and that yes, I do have the birth certificate to prove it, she believed me and corrected the date, oh-so-graciously not requiring me to bring in the birth certificate (which they already have on file anyway!). Problem instantly solved.

Phew. Education and future preserved; expulsion from Kindergarten avoided.

Do you remember that old joke about the “see food” diet? (If not, please ask your local 11 year old. I’m sure he/she can fill you in.)

Well, I’ve decided to try my own version: the C-food diet.

My motivation stems from the fact that Maria is approaching 10 months old, and I still feel like I look like I am 4 months pregnant. According to the scale,* I am back to my “pre-pregnancy” weight. And my clothes mostly all fit, but somehow 3 pregnancies changes a body’s shape enough that some don’t sit quite right anymore. Anyway, I still feel like there’s work to do. Probably ab-toning would be a good place to start, but with marathon training in high gear, I have no extra time to devote to (additional) exercising.

So modifying the diet it is. This is a diet I made up myself, and it’s simple. There’s only one rule: I cannot eat any food that begins with a “C” unless it previously has been alive. So carrots are in, while cookies are out. Chicken is ok, but chocolate and cream (whipped, ice, etc.), unfortunately, are a no-no. Cheese is forbidden, but celery or cranberries are approved. And so on.

I’m allowing myself the exception of not being too particular when I am eating something someone else has prepared (go ahead and throw that cheese on your lasagna, and then invite me over!) just to keep it from becoming a burden on myself or others. The goal here is simplicity!

The NYC Marathon is on November 6, so I will try to adhere to this diet until the race is over. I’ll reassess the situation at that point; until then, don’t expect to find me chomping on chalupas or chowing on chips anytime soon!

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(*Note: we do not own a scale, so this is according to one that I stepped on when I was touring a local gym.)