Bret

2023 New York City Marathon - this was kind of a mixed bag for me.   I had intended to run this as a pacer with Richie and his employee Johnny to get them under 4 hours.   Similar to Berlin a few weeks ago, I expected to go out easy with a pace around 9:30 and begin lowering average pace over the course and enjoy their company.   Also, I did not feel all that great having a stomach bug yesterday and I did not want to push hard and end up with more aches and pains leading up to Tokyo in March.  

Unfortunely those plans evaporated almost immediately.   We started the race on the lower level of the bridge, which I think I have only done one time - and we met up with a friend of Richie's who was running at the starting area - and her plan was to run with us; and so the coordination of running with 4 runners became a little more complex.   Being on the second level of the bridge, caused problems with the Garmin GPS - so I was uncertain if the effort was accurate when we came through the mile at 10:30.   At that point, I think I looked over and back and suddenly noticed Richie and the others had dropped back about 7 yards.  I caught his eye, and he gave me the thumbs-up that they were good and could see me.  So I slowed down but at this point we were on the downside of the bridge and gauging my effort was tricky - I was really just floating and allowing gravity to carry the pace without pushing it.   Unfortunately, when I looked back again, I could not see them at all.   I slowed almost to a stop and still could not locate them.   At this point I thought I would just run easy and hope they would rejoin...but it never happened.   By the time I got to 3 miles I was conflicted - but decided to run at an easy to moderate training pace as long as I could keep my HR in the 140's for the early part of the course - but I would give up the effort for now to try to have the group rejoin.

The GPS on the Garmin seemed to right itself in the middle miles - lining up fairly well with the mile markers with the autolap feature and it was showing me running 8 minute pace.  So, then of course I started thinking, well maybe if 8 min pace is easy, and the day is nice, I wouldn't mind pivoting to running 3:30.    Things seemed to proceed well along those lines until we climbed over the 59th street bridge and my HR went up to 160 and the GPS got wonky and was nearly a half mile short and got progressively off from that point onward.  

I tried to dial down my effort on 1st Ave - and still my pace was in the 7:30 range - but I could feel the bright sunshine dehydrating me despite my best efforts to keep things under control.   Perhaps the stomach bug from yesterday was the primary culprit - but this course is very exposed for almost the whole race - and even though everyone said the weather was great (52 at the start with no wind) the sun was a factor.  Anyway - as I crossed the bridge out of the Bronx - I began to have cramping in my leg muscles - and having experienced that in the past and having tried to run through them with little success - I decided to convert the last 4 miles to a walk/run.   So I went from an average pace of about 8:17 at mile 14 and 8:23 at mile 20 to a finishing average of 8:56 - the last 4 mile at 10 min plus pace.  

But on the brighter side of things - I completed my 13th NYC Marathon - ran under 4 hours; got to spend time with my daughter in Brooklyn and she came out to support me with her friends at the 12 mile mark and then at the finish.  Richie was able to get in just under 4 hours and though Johnny was not as fast, he did PR with a 4:17.   They were not upset with me getting away from them early on and we enjoyed each other's company back at the hotel with a great meal from room service.   So although the race did not go as intended or expected - it was just one more in the memory book of marathons and overall a nice way to spend the first weekend in November in New York for another year.

AM - about 1.5 miles very early in NYC before my flight home.  I had dropped my phone before the start yesterday and the screen was smashed and needed to be replaced.  Fortunately NYC has a 24 hour Apple Store - and though the process was lengthy to get Applecare confirmed to approve the repair (3 hours) and I had problems restoring the backup on the hotel wifi, I was able to run to the store at 4:45 am and have them assist me in getting it restored.   And I kept my run streak alive - legs were not all that bad.

AM - easy run on the trail with Dan and his dog Rosie.   Finn has some type of injury where he yelps when he jumps up on to the couch or the bed - and he guards his right front leg.  It happened over the weekend that he started showing these symptoms - and since I was away, it could not have been from me running him too much.   He's kind of a baby when it comes to aches and pains, so we will keep an eye on him and give him a few days rest before letting him run again.   

Had a very nice jog on the trail which was groomed and the fields were all low cut and dead from the freezes we had last week, so the soft terrain and light pace were just right for the post marathon recovery effort week.   Ran in the Kinvaras and had very little discomfort in the achilles and though the legs were sore to start, they were not really too bad for the remainder of the miles - I think it is key that we kept it very easy at 10+ min pace and I will try to do that over the next several days.

AM - 3.5 miles again on the trail, same as yesterday but this time with both dogs.   Continued recovery effort post-marathon. 

AM - 3 miles with Dan and Finn in the neighborhood, slightly earlier ahead of an early morning work committment in the office.  Running very easy to allow for recovery from the marathon on Sunday.  Felt fine, but noticing post run mild achiness throughout the day - so I will continue to take it easy and keep the volume low and the effort slow for a bit. 

AM - 3 miles with Dan and Finn at Milton HS - faster pace, but still easy recovery effort. 

AM - 5.25 miles with Dan and Finn in the rain.