Embrace the “Celebraish”
2021 NYC Marathon
For the last five years I’ve lived in the city, people have asked me, “Have you run the NYC marathon?” When I answered no, I had a small inkling people didn’t think I was a real marathon runner or even a real New Yorker for that matter. I felt fake. Anytime I heard the famous “New York, New York” song lyrics, “If I can make it here I can make it anywhere,” well for me that meant finishing the NYC marathon!
In 2019, I set out to qualify for the marathon entering the New York Road Runners 9+1 Program, which consists of signing up for nine NYRR sponsored races and one volunteer at one NYRR sponsored event. Once you finished all of those events, you then qualify to enter into the marathon without having to fundraise or qualify with time. I highly recommend any New Yorker who’s interested in NYC marathon to qualify this way. Not only are these races very organized, but the races are good training for the marathon. After finishing the program I was able to sign up for the race and had an entry for the 2020 50th NYC Marathon! Well 2020 had other ideas and the marathon was cancelled, but I was able to defer to 2021.
Previous marathons I’ve trained for I usually had a three month training block and had multiple long distance runs of 18+ mile runs. For NYC though I had only a 6 week training schedule and my longest run was 14 miles. And then two weeks before the race I had pain on the top part of my left ankle. Thanks to my physical therapy at Finish Line PT, I was able to find some relief for the ankle and they gave me confidence I could race. However I was also told I shouldn’t expect to have a personal best, especially on a “hilly/bridge-y” course like NYC marathon.
After two years of waiting to finally run this marathon, I was at the Staten Island starting line in Corral A orange, the first wave! The people in my corral were talking about running sub three hour marathon times and qualifying for Boston. As someone who just had a warm up with slight pain still in the ankle, I felt hearing this chatter was such a tease. A couple of weeks ago I would’ve felt right at home in this corral, but at this time I felt out of place. It’s normal to doubt yourself before a race and especially when you have family and friends watching you on the course, or on the app. You can create a lot of unnecessary pressure for yourself. Marathons are a celebration of how far you’ve come. When life had other plans, you kept at it and now you’re at the starting line with 25,000 like minded people with the whole city celebrating with you. The marathon’s too short for negative thoughts. Embrace the “celebraish!”
Getting pumped in the first wave!
With the sound of a deafening artillery canon that was only 50 feet away from our corral, the NYC marathon commenced! I quickly ran up the Verazzano Bridge with these fast runners at a 6:00/mile pace. Realizing this was way too fast, I stepped it back a few clicks at a 6:30/mile pace as I approached the crest of the bridge and ignored the fact that lots of fast runners were passing me. Although running 6:30 meant I was going against the wishes of my physical therapist and my coach of attempting a personal record of 2 hours and 50 minutes, it was comfortable. I might’ve been feeling good because of the adrenaline or because I was running on my home turf of Brooklyn, but sometimes the best practice is “going by feel.” While running through the Brooklyn stretch, I found myself pacing with two runners wearing NYPD jerseys. Anytime they received cheers it felt like I was getting cheers too. Around Clinton Hill though, the NYPD runners were losing the 6:30 pace and I continued past them and their cheers. I still felt positive and when I got to the half marathon mark on the Pulaski Bridge, I noticed I ran my fastest half marathon… but in a marathon!
The next borough in the run was Queens, which is nice and flat but I needed to conserve some energy in order run up the Queensboro Bridge, the other “big hill” of the NYC Marathon. Still feeling good, I was able to keep that 6:30ish pace up the bridge and as the GPS signal gave inaccurate pace times I couldn’t help but appreciate how nice it was to run on the bridge with no traffic and passing over Roosevelt Island, where my girlfriend Kerry lives. Kerry was running the marathon too, her first one! If I could choose between running the marathon or cheering Kerry on for her marathon, I would choose running it… you kidding me? Of course I would rather cheer her on! I was amazed how disciplined she was with her training, and how she was able to train with her busy work schedule as a nurse and having time to be with (and care for) me. She deserved to have a great race today. “I hope I can see her finish today,” I thought.
After passing over Roosevelt Island, I did some “Kerry Kicks” sprints down the bridge and heading up north on 1st Avenue in Manhattan. Each side of 1st Avenue was crowded with lots of great energy. As a result, I started running a 6:20/mile pace, and found myself pacing with another NYPD runner, getting his cheers too. Knowing my parents were watching the race from Manhattan, I was starting to look for them, but even though I heard what sounded like “go Larry” I couldn’t see them. They later showed me photos of me looking confused.
Who said “Larry?”
When I got to the Bronx section of the marathon, I started to slow down a little. I went back up to a 6:30 pace, but when I crossed the last bridge of the course into Manhattan my legs felt tired and I started running at a 6:40-50 pace. At around mile 23, I saw my physical therapist, Emmi, who was cleverly positioned at the bottom portion of the last big hill. After seeing Emmi, I still felt awful physically, (no offense, Emmi!) but mentally I felt a little more hopeful that I could finish this race. The last three miles were the toughest miles I’ve ever run for a marathon.
Final “Stretch” Short Film
My legs were powerless at this point and that was because of my limited training. Even though I was running 7 minute miles at this point, I was still on pace to have a personal record, just not running a sub 2 hour 50 min, which I hoped I’d run to be in the “over 10 minute bracket” for Boston Marathon Qualification. My stomach was also in pain because I didn’t train on the Gatorade Endurance drink, the main electrolyte drink for the marathon, and it didn’t sit well. Nevertheless, I wanted to finish as fast as I could for the person I love the most Kerry, and give myself a chance to see her finish.
I’m finished, at the finish line.
2:50:13! I was a little upset I was that close to breaking 2:50:00, but at least it makes the goal to go sub 2:50:00 feel easier. I thought I’d feel happy with a PR and finally finishing the NYC Marathon, but because of having no leg power and feeling nauseous, I felt miserable. I took a long walk to the medical tent and the doctors in the tent treated me right away. They gave me some anti-nausea medication and now it was just my legs not working properly. I met my family soon after leaving the medical tent and we walked to an Italian restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, the first neighborhood in NYC I lived in. As I was eating lunch with family, I kept thinking about Kerry and how I’d be able to see her finish. It felt bad not being in the moment with family, but at this moment in time the person I was most concerned about was Kerry. I asked my brother, Doug, about her tracking and we were able to determine when she would finish.
After lunch Mom, Dad, and my brother Wyatt were going to start their journey back to New Hampshire, and Doug and I were going to try to catch Kerry. We would try to see her as she ran down 59th Street, the street on the south side of Central Park. Within 10 minutes of waiting, we caught a glimpse of Kerry running the same steady pace she ran for the entire marathon, and we cheered her on! I was so happy for her. We soon got a notification she finished the race. Kerry was now a marathoner! Kerry has so much potential, even when she has accomplished so much already.
Kerry’s Official NYC Marathon Results: https://results.nyrr.org/event/M2021/result/17765
Larry’s Official NYC Marathon Results: https://results.nyrr.org/runner/1444/result/M2021
