Giving Thanks: 2016 TCS New York City Marathon Reflection.

Every year, on this Thanksgiving Day, I always wake up with some reflection on what I went through and what I envision for the year ahead. For me, this holiday feels more like New Years than the actual New Year’s Day. And of course, my reflection these last several years involves running. I can’t reflect on my year and running without addressing the TCS New York City Marathon. For me, this race has always been more than just training, making it to the finish line, or making it to the starting line healthy. It has always been about the coming together of people from all walks of life celebrating. What exactly are they celebrating? That answer comes from the individuals themselves. For me, it is celebrating another year of successes and failures that contributes to the trajectory of my growth. Runners from every race, young and old, from every parts of the globe, running through the city I was born. 

It’s not the easiest marathon course. I realized that after running a BQ in Chicago. In fact, I appreciated the complexities of this course more after running it a third time, and after 10 marathons.  The training that I had leading up to the TCS New York City marathon, was certainly not the correct one for me to perform at my best. Although I did get some insight on how to best train myself for a marathon, it does help to have a good understanding of the course before going in.  That includes looking at elevation charts, where the twists and turns were, and adequate preparation for race day nutrition: before, during, and after.

 

Nutrition: For the best carb-load, see Jed at Bar Toto in Brooklyn! They make a delicious Pappardelle al Pesto!

That last point became very apparent for my 11^th marathon; I bought some bagels the night to carry with me during my trip to Staten Island the next morning. What is normally a 45-minute trip from where I live to the Staten Island side of the Ferry turned into 2 hours and add another hour to make it to the Start Village due to traffic! The bagels were stale so I threw them away. I consumed only had the banana and Muscle Milk I had with me that morning.  Cutting it close to making the first wave, I was still able to go through my usual pre-race routine of emptying out (with my breakfast usually not fully digested yet, but this time not much of a breakfast) and get motivated with familiar faces I see at the start.

Start line motivation with Central Park Track Club (CPTC)

The Training:

Just 4 weeks after my Chicago BQ, it was clear I was not recovered and I knew it. The membership to my spa was expired and I wasn’t ready to spend the 6-month membership dues yet. So my massage regimen was limited to a discounted 90-minute massage with a new massage therapist the night before that I bought with a one-time payment. She still did a great job but it was clear she was unfamiliar with how to deal with my previous hamstring issues I had told her about. She chose to focus on previously ignored muscle groups (my quads and my neck) since they had tightness that I never really addressed with my previous massage therapist. I was accustomed to trigger point therapy that went directly for my knots both from every day activity and marathon training. Loosening up these areas was certainly painful (the feel good massage pain of course) but I don’t think it did me much good for the marathon.

Always appreciate words of wisdom from these experienced marathoners, Delgado and Roland!

Two weeks of recovery running after Chicago as the soreness slowly went away day by day. By the third week I was doing the rack workouts with Central Park Track Club (CPTC) and the 6 mile Thursday night tempo. Both workouts, for the most part, were completed at pre-Chicago training paces with some struggle towards the end. I knew NYC wasn’t going to be pretty but at least I could finish with a respectable time. I did what I had to do in Chicago and the burden of qualifying for Boston was finally lifted. This was my victory lap. Just go and have fun.

The Race:

I started the race, basically, at the same pace and even faster for the first half of the marathon. On this third time around, I was familiar with the relatively flat portion along 4^th Avenue in Brooklyn that had me pacing at 6:40 minute per mile up till I hit Flatbush Avenue. I was running it as if I was still in Chicago: same rhythm, and impressively, only a little bit more energy from the crowd. That tells you a lot about how great the Chicago crowds were.  

“What are your shooting for?” the runner next to me asked with a European accent.

I knew I was going to fast. I had no real goal and I knew I wasn’t full recovered. “I’m just having fun… no real goals.” I replied. And then he sped off on a solid 6:30 pace. I was still holding my pace conscious that I would have a tough time later in the race. But why not! Why not test my body to the limit and see when the eventual struggle would happen.

Cheers from various friends, neighbors, former and current teammates as well as the many strangers yelling my name as they read my name bib, kept me motivated.

“Great job, David, you are keeping a good pace. Just keep running up this hill and maintain.” Said one of the pacers as we ran along the inclines and declines of Bedford Avenue.

“Thank you!” my robotic reply I was accustomed to yelling every time I heard someone read my name bib. But as the pacer passed me, “Justin, what’s up man!” I met him at the North Avenue Mile back in June and seen him regularly at CPTC track workouts along the East River. He had the 3 hour pace group rhythmically following him as he spoke motivating chants and encouraging words through various parts of the course.

They slowly slipped away as my pace would seesaw between 6:50 and 7:00 min/mile. “Great job, David. You’re on pace to break 3 hours!” yelled Sean from North Brooklyn Runners (NBR) as I snatched the Gatorade from his hand at Mile 12. That one stuck! “Yes. I am going too fast. But I feel good and if I can only hold this pace.” I thought to myself.

Hunger pains to starvation by Mile 18

That thought was challenged when I hit the Ed Koch Queensboro/59^th Street Bridge. I can feel the energy burn throughout my body as I worked hard to maintain that pace on the incline. The 3:05 group came and went but not without Omar, who I met at the Long Island marathon back in 2015, saying to me, “You have to listen to your body, Dave. It’s one thing to stay with the pace group but if your body is telling you to take it easy, you can’t risk the injuries!” He was right as I slipped to 7:30 min/mile.  But I still had something in me as I exited the bridge and locked into form on the First Avenue straightaway.

By then I was spent. My body was going through rhythmic motion with my mind losing complete control. I managed to get the pace back to 7:15 min/mile but I was running on fumes. The bridge took whatever nutritional energy I had and the carb reserves completely out of my system. I was running purely on muscular reflexes from months of training. The collapse was inevitable! But when would it happen? My stomach was growling in agony as I could feel my pace further dropping. As I continued up First Avenue, the Gatorade, water, and gels I was taking was not enough.  I NEEDED FOOD!

The collapse was soon to come. I can see a man distributing orange slices as I passed mile 18. My mind, completely ignoring what my body was doing, focused on him. As I struggled to reach for the man to grab some oranges, 29-time New York City marathon legend and fellow CPTC teammate, Alan Ruben, tapped me on the boom-boom and at that instant I came to a complete stop. The feelings of both validation and failure rushed through my body as I walked up to the man for 3 orange slices.

The Collapse:

It was over. I had pulled the plug on the race in the interest of self-preservation. The marathon wasn’t over though, I still had 8 more miles and I wanted the medal. Walking would take too long. And as it turns out, the oranges made the hunger pains worse. The low pH from the oranges combined with my bubbling stomach acids only activated my chronic reflux disease into higher than normal levels to add to my starvation. I resolved to apply the walk-run method I learned from my friend Jerry back in my first marathon in New Jersey,  6 and a half years ago.

Relentless push through Willis Avenue 
Bridge with nothing in the tank.

“C’MON DAVID!! KEEP IT MOVING!! YOU GOT THIS!! NO WALKING!! KEEP PUSHING!” That person didn’t sound like she was reading my name bib. Man she had power in her voice. I looked up and it was another CPTC teammate, Cynthia, posted at the Willis Avenue Bridge, probably going hoarse cheering for people she knew. “Damn, maybe I should stop walking!” I thought to myself as I was perplexed by how loud her cheers were.

Lucky for me, as I entered the Bronx, just around the corner was an older lady with a lovely display of cookies, pretzels, potato chips and coconut water near mile 20.

“Please, I’m starving. I have to stop and eat!” as I ran to the table.

“Sure. Do what you need to do,” she replied.

I sat there and watched teammate after teammate, runner after runner, pass me as I was munching down on food. Some of my familiars were shouting for me to keep going. But I shook my head, “NO!” as I continued to fill my stomach. After about 10 minutes, “Thank you so much for the food. I didn’t eat a good enough breakfast and I ran Chicago just 4 weeks ago. My body didn’t fully recover.”

“No problem.” She was surprised at how much I ate, as she went to refill her bowls with an awkward look n her face. “I’ve done that too in my day: running both Chicago and New York within the same month. I know how you feel.”

“Thank you,” as I regained my rhythm and ran off. Slow and steady, feeling refreshed and realizing that this marathon was going by fast. Mile 21 already and it was anything but boring.

The Community:

Christian celebrates a marathon PR! 

I've seen more recognizable faces and interactions with strangers than I ever have. High five for Kaitlin, high-five Alice, shook the hand of the little guy that gave me a water bottle in Harlem. And excitement as I noticed more cookies just past mile 23!

“David, what are you doing? Don’t eat cookies! You need to go! Finish strong!” I looked at Judith like she wasn’t making any sense. Clearly my brain felt that eating chocolate covered graham cookies was more important than finishing the race. I ate a couple, and grabbed a handful for my trip down Fifth Avenue. 

A flurry of high-fives from CPTC as I entered Engineer’s Gate, I was feeling good. And no hamstring issues for what looked like the 2^nd marathon in a row.  Or so it seemed. After my routine water and Gatorade sips at the mile 25 water stop, a spectator crossing the road interrupted my rhythm. We clutch each other to prevent us from both tripping as my weak hamstring locked up for yet another marathon.  Another complete and painful stop. I stretch and shake my leg as the claps began when I proceeded to regain my run that carried me to the finish.

My medal was secured! My time was respectable! A picture with Christian and a hug from Amy and this race was over! I just wanted to move on and get myself mentally ready for the Virgin Money London Marathon in April 2017. I couldn’t be disappointed because I had expected this to happen. However, I was pleased with seeing so many more recognizable faces along the course.  If anything, this race proved to me that I am definitely more connected with the NYC runner community, than ever before. There wasn’t a moment on the course where I didn’t hear my name and was able to distinguish from strangers reading my name bib to familiar voices from people I knew. From Felipe’s cheers in Long Island City, the CPTC and NBR friends at various spots along the course, to the interactions with friends and strangers that ran with me. Not to mention the endless high-fives from the kids in all five boroughs. I can’t express enough how enjoyable it is to run the largest marathon in the world in another record-breaking year. It made my 3 hours 35 minutes and 52 seconds of running feel much faster. That alone was certainly enough for me to be thankful for! 

Staying in Rhythm: A BQ at the Chicago Marathon

Another chapter closes! No words can describe the emotions that rushed through me as I approached that finish line. As I write this, I am still in disbelief. Years of training, this was something that I knew was totally impossible for me. I was convinced it was impossible when I took on my first steps into the running world back in the winter of 2009.  If you had told me then that I would one day qualify for the Boston Marathon I would have laughed in your face.  “Impossible! Those people are freaks,“ would have been and was my response. And here I am, almost 8 years later, one of those freaks.

But am I a freak? It’s not really freakish. Some have made it much quicker than I have. And some have started before me and still pursue it. I didn’t set it as a goal for myself until the day of the bombings back in April 2013. And from there progress was slow. I needed help. I joined the North Brooklyn Runners: Learned proper form with this group. Later joined the Central Park Track Club: learned to balance intense speed workouts with focused recovery for important races. Throw in some physical therapy for injury recovery and massages for injury prevention, and the puzzle was solved. Ten tries that took me through New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Lehigh, Long Island, Rockland State Park, twice through the 5 boroughs of New York City, and finally Chicago.

Ah Chicago! The great streets of Chicago! If you watch the news enough, you would think it was worse than a Middle East War Zone. But it is the most beautiful city I’ve ever seen within the United States. Clean streets, beautifully tall buildings, pristine waters with river walk, and a marathon that uniquely allows the runner to be in full control of his or her own effort. No surprises, no significant hills! Just you, the flat road, and the training regimen you put in prior to reaching the starting line.

The starting line! It was all business! I was on that Michael Phelps game face ish! Central Park Track Club singlet: CHECK! Central Park Half Tights for newfound easier running: CHECK! Bibs, name bibs, back bibs, safety pins: CHECK! Shit – I forgot my SPI-Belt back in New York! Thanks to my friend, the great Daphnie Sicre, for coming through in the clutch and letting me borrow her extra FlipBelt (that actually worked better for me than SpI-Belts). My only means of storing GU’s and salt tablets. Oh yes… I forgot salt tablets in New York too. So flashback to Saturday as I scurry around town looking for a GNC Wellness store that carried Endurolytes.

“Are you sure you want to take that for a marathon, man? It’s known to dehydrate people,” says the clerk.

“I’ve taken it in my previous marathons and plenty of runners have recommended it to me,” I replied.

“Well we don’t carry it. Sorry. Here’s some GU’s instead.”

Ok it’s not the end of the world. I’ve trained all summer without them. Not good to do anything new for the marathon, right? It was about 10 minutes later, as I left the store, I thought to myself, “Wait a minute, did he say dehydrate?” It was that moment the light bulb went off in my head. “I don’t need salt tablets!” I confidently thought out loud to myself.

Daphnie happy about her marathon PR

So I’m back at the starting line with 4 GU’s in Daphnie’s Flipbelt and zero salt tablets. Every previous marathon that my hamstring failed on me, I had taken salt tablets. Why didn’t anyone tell me this? This had to be the reason for my chronic hamstring issues. Let’s see how this race goes without them. With no time to use the bathroom, I made the 7:20 A.M. cut-off for corral B start. Let’s do this! Time to get busy! And from the start I got into rhythm.

There’s not really much I can say about my race. I was extremely focused. I stayed in rhythm. All I kept thinking was what a fellow CPTC friend once told me: “Don’t do anything stupid!” Thank you Felipe for the great advice. But of course I did something stupid… started too fast. I was super focused and the adrenaline was high. The plan was to start off at 7:20 minute per mile pace, then hit 7:10 about a third of the way into the race, then throw some kick and hit and hold 7 after mile 20. My anxiety had me at a comfortable 7:00 from the very beginning. Plus I still had to go to the bathroom, which I eventually did when I saw the port-a-potties at mile 4.5. I may have lost a minute but it was well worth it to relieve myself. And it wasn’t hard for me to get back into rhythm.

And that’s basically it folks, I held 7:00 minutes per mile ish (give or take) for about 20 miles in rhythmic fashion. I hit every water stop in rhythmic fashion. One cup of Gatorade (maybe 2 in later miles) 5 cups of water splashed on my body (take a sip from one of those cups to further dilute the salt from the Gatorade). Moisture maintained in my muscles, no hamstring strains until mile 20, plenty of electrolyte replenishment and staying in solid, disciplined rhythm.

Staying in rhythm. Chicago 2016

I knew I had a cushion at mile 20. I could slow down and run 8 minute pace and still hit a Boston qualifier. So I did just that.  The 3:05 pace group that caught me at mile 16 slowly ran further and further away. The 3:10 pace group finally caught me at mile 24, yet it didn’t phase me. I stayed in rhythm, see-sawing back and forth between 7:30 and 8:00 minutes per mile. Nothing else going through my mind, only hoping for enough energy for that late race kick I knew I was capable of.  The conscious decision to run at a slower pace in later miles provided relief and prevented my strained hamstring from pulling and failing into that gunshot pain I was accustomed to in previous marathons. All the pain went into my stronger hips courtesy of the 8 physical therapy sessions I underwent in the weeks leading up to Chicago. I could feel the burn along my sides as my hamstrings were thanking me. With each passing mile, I knew I was still at Boston Qualifying Performance. It would have been ideal if I executed a negative split but I listened to my body and made the proper adjustments in the right timing. But that would have been stupid to kick after mile 20 and risk re-injuring my hamstring.

Mile 25 and the struggle became real. I locked into form and used every ounce of energy I could to maintain that 8.  The signs were coming at me to my right: 1 mile to go, 800 m, 400m, 300m, the hill at 200m and the home stretch straightaway to the finish. The same emotion that overwhelmed me when I first broke 4 hours in Los Angeles almost produced tears of joy as I approached the Chicago Finish Line. Yet no tears since my body had used every last bit of fluid to keep my muscles lubricated. No strains, no pulls, no injuries! And it was a Boston Qualifying Performance. FINALLY!! I receive my medal and the first person to randomly congratulate me is Danie Matusik from Michigan who has been a Facebook friend and active participant in the runners’ blogs these past couple of years. Her running adventures are an inspiration and I’m glad to have finally met her in person.

So what was the magic formula that got me into Boston? It’s different for everyone. You have to find your own rhythm. Not just on the course but the training before the marathon. For me it was less running mileage, more speed work, and staying consistent and disciplined. Regular massages and more physical therapy allowed me to be fully recovered for race day! Most of all: don’t do anything stupid! Only YOU can define what is stupid and what isn’t. It’s an interesting puzzle to solve. And it is just that: a puzzle! But once you find your rhythm and solve this puzzle, it’s certainly a tremendous weight lifted off of your shoulders. 

The lovely Lisneida and I both celebrating marathon PR's after the race! 

Thank you to the American Cancer Society's Illinois Chapter for Team Determination for allowing me to raise funds for their cause and provide guaranteed entry into the 2016 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

http://main.acsevents.org/goto/chicago2016dfanfan

Winter Hibernation and Recovery

My winter running season is officially over upon conclusion of the 2016 United Airlines New York City Half. It was a learning experience to say the least. The words, "less is more" became more meaningful than any other time in all my years of running. If I'm going to have a strong Fall season, then shifting gears and getting the right balance of intense training and recovery is essential. 

Tight security and a cold 1st day of Spring #unitednychalf

This winter saw me take more frequent rest than in recent years. This aggravating hamstring has been a problem I can't seem to shake. I did a 17 day rest after the New Year (only running Joe Kleinerman at a slower pace), another 17 day rest after the cancelled Fred Lebow, and every other day workout with only high intensity once a week and at least 3 days rest before a race. It helped in allowing my legs to be fresh for all out racing but the post race hamstring pain would pretty much erase several days of healing time. 

It's colder out so it takes longer for your legs to warm up. Pushing the limits to reach my race pace to a sustained level probably caused some of the injured muscle fibers to abruptly undo any healing progress I made thus far. So after running races that sustained my fitness level (only PR at Washington Heights 5K at 19:03), another rest is in order. 

 

I'd say one more week of no running after a 1:29:58 performance at the United Airlines NYC Half. My teammates were great with motivating me to push through during the race. So many inspirational stories, such grit and determination. Mentally I'm at a state where I know I can do better. And Spring, my favorite time to build up my miles and speed is now upon us. As my relentless pursuit continues, the next stop: 2016 Airbnb Brooklyn Half. That's 2 months of honest preparation to give the best performance of my life! 

Bib #1090 at the United NYC Half Experience

Central Park Track Club Teammates: Felipe (Chile), Shane (Aussie), and I warming up at Whitehall Terminal before we celebrate our finish. #globalcitizens