NYC Marathon 2007

This was the big weekend of the year. All told, this is the 3rd marathon I've been to in the last 4 weekends and the 4th marathon I've been to this year, which could potentially be a record for a person who has never actually run a marathon. I hit all the big ones, starting with the Queen Marathon, Boston, back in April. Nothing will compare to running the last ten miles with Andy and crossing the finish line without a number. Last month it was Baltimore, followed by the ING Amsterdam Marathon, and culminated this weekend with the ING NYC Marathon, one of my favorite events in the world. Sara Spears and I got into the city with time to spare, and headed to Columbus Circle to watch runners make their way back into the Park with less than half a mile to go. Barf and Tim Parker joined up with us and we spotted Ben come through (72nd overall, 2:37:09) and then magically spotted Chris Grubic (3:02:28) followed closely by Mike Zero (3:02:45). It's really amazing what you guys were able to put together, Mike Zero on a long run of 15 miles in the last few months especially.

Our girl Christine was poised for a great race today, all her training and recent race results indicated that a sub 2:45 race was well within her reach. Her early splits were dead-on, averaging 6:21 at the half (1:23:30). Then we got nervous because her next 5km split was considerably off pace, and then I didn't receive another update. I spoke with Chrissie after the race and she indicated that around mile 7 she had severe stomach cramps. She maintained her composure and her pace through the halfway point, but after that the problem was getting worse and she knew she did the smart thing by pulling up at mile 17. Her legs were and are still good, and by not continuing to race, she should be able to recover over the next few days and be able to race again soon.

Other notables were Lance Armstrong, who ran a 2:46:43, which is I think right about what I said I felt he was capable of (2:45). He ran a really smart race, if you want to see his 5km splits here you go:

20:01-20:07-19:46-19:33-(1:23:41)-39:13(10km)-19:20-19:47

That's how you run a race, and he negative split that junk. Katie Holmes, who wore headphones, ran almost 5:30. The women's winner was a surprise to me, world record holder Paula Radcliffe (GBR) and on the men's side it was Martin Lel.

In other racing, Kim Warren ran up at the Run Through the Grapevine 8k XC race and the new mom did totally awesome, running 49:36 for the most challenging 8k XC race I've ever done. Kyle was slated to run down at the College Park Cares 10k in CP, but I haven't seen results yet for that. On Saturday I did a race at Holmdel Park in NJ, site of the cross country championships for high school. A very tough course, I would say there is more rhythm there than at Hereford, so by virtue it is an easier course, but not by much. My time of 18:51 was 1 second better than I ran there last year, so I was pleased. Sara Spears ran really well and my friend Kootman, (Holmdel PR 16:40) expecting to go 24 minutes, ran 20:30 or something. Great weekend of racing all around.

So I sent out an email this morning, I think I'm going to send out kind of a little digest each Monday with the weekend's race results, if any, races coming up, if any, and then the weekly schedule. This week we'll do Monday at FHR, Wednesday from my house/Canton Square, Thursday from Alex's on South Hanover St, and probably Sunday for a "long run" in the morning at Patapsco. Since I still have not shake my injury, I am going to build into things really slowly, for the next few weeks looking to run just around 7 minute pace and this weekend's long run won't really be that long.