What an experience.
And what a tough course.
I didn’t hit my goal. I didn’t get a PR. And somehow, I’m not even a little disappointed.
I knew going into the New York City Marathon that 4:22 was an aggressive goal. But based on how well my training had gone, I wanted to give it a real shot.
The hills got me.
I trained better for this marathon than I had for any of my previous four, but my regular training routes simply didn’t prepare me for how relentless the rolling hills of New York would feel over 26.2 miles.
My longest training run had been 20 miles. Somewhere around mile 18 yesterday, I realized 4:22 was gone.
So I adjusted the goal:
Beat my marathon PR of 4:33.
A little later, I had to let that one go too.
At that point, the goal became very simple:
Finish. And finish under five hours.
4:54:59.
Goal changed twice. Race finished. Zero disappointment.
In fact, this may have been the best marathon experience I’ve had so far.
The moments I’ll remember forever
There were so many emotional moments during this marathon that I know I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
The most emotional one came almost at the very end — around mile 26.
Sweta and I both thought we weren’t going to see each other.
The roads were blocked. There were people everywhere. We were trying to talk on the phone, but neither of us could really hear anything.
She could see me.
I couldn’t see her.
She kept screaming for me to look back, but I couldn’t hear her.
And then something amazing happened.
The crowd around her joined in.
A whole group of strangers started yelling my name to get my attention.
Eventually, someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around.
And there she was.
I went over to her and we hugged and cried.
At that point it had very little to do with running a marathon anymore.
We were just incredibly happy that somehow, in all that chaos, we had found each other.
My kids
My kids planned to see me at miles 8, 17 and 25.
At mile 8, they saw me.
They yelled and tried to get my attention.
I never saw or heard them.
That broke my heart a little. They had traveled all the way down there to see me, were standing right there cheering for me, and I ran straight past them without even realizing it.
Thankfully, we more than made up for it at miles 17 and 25.
In fact, after seeing me at mile 25, they ran to the finish line so they could see me cross it too.
Seeing them there meant everything.
And I absolutely loved their posters.
Borrowing motivation from New York
There were times late in the race when I was exhausted and walking, usually after another uphill.
And I discovered something rather funny.
Instead of silently trying to motivate myself, I would move toward the spectators and literally tell them what I needed them to tell me.
“Tell me I didn’t come this far to walk.”
“Tell me I didn’t train all these months to walk.”
“Tell me I’m not allowed to walk.”
New York delivered.
Complete strangers would start shouting at me.
They cheered.
They yelled at me.
They told me to move.
And somehow, I would start running again.
The strange part was that even after being reduced to walking on some of those hills, once I borrowed that energy from the crowd I was sometimes able to get myself right back near my marathon pace.
When my own motivation was running low, I borrowed some from New York.
That is something I will never forget.
RunBuddy came along for all 26.2 miles
And then there was my little experiment called RunBuddy.
I had 18 friends and family members connected to me throughout the race.
It worked a little like the official Rally experience — except for me, it was better because it was personal.
I never really felt alone.
Sometimes my friends told me to suck it up and pick up the pace.
Sometimes they told me it was okay to slow down.
Sometimes they reminded me of Lord Hanuman.
And sometimes they simply teased me:
“Anyone can walk. The point is to run.”
😂
But RunBuddy became more than just friends cheering me on.
I relied on it during the race to tell me where the next water station was.
I used it to check my pace.
It told me whether I was ahead or behind.
And eventually it helped me understand when chasing 4:22 was no longer realistic — and later when it was time to stop chasing the PR as well.
That was exactly what I had hoped RunBuddy would become.
Not just a pace calculator.
Not just a tracking app.
A way to feel like the people I cared about were actually running the marathon with me.
The best one yet
No PR.
No 4:22.
No perfect race.
And still, without a doubt, the best marathon experience I’ve had so far.
The course humbled me.
The crowds carried me.
My family found me when I needed them.
My friends stayed with me for all 26.2 miles.
And I crossed the finish line in 4:54:59 with a ridiculous amount of gratitude.
If you’d like to see more from the day, here are my NYC Marathon photos.
Boston is done.
New York is done.
Now on to the next one…
assuming another marathon lottery decides to pick me. 😄