2021 New York City Marathon - This race was not on my radar two weeks ago - but Richie who I have known now for nearly 20 years and have run literally all over the world with in races and training runs reached out to me as a long time donor for Team for Kids and offered me a spot in the event along with several other of his friends who were running as well. He's very generous and keeps people connected and over the years from time to time, he's gotten either me or my daughter into the race (which is difficult to do under the lottery system). He's also very sentimental and wants get folks together to enjoy the race weekend. Some years it is his old high school cross country team friends and other years it is coworkers or friends from his neighborhood.
This year was particularly special because one of Richie's old high school runner teammates, Anthony - who I got to meet and run a few times with, tragically was killed in a cycling accident late this summer. Richie was very close to him, and his family who live in Pennsylvania. At the funeral, Anthony's son, Danny who is a senior at UVA and a very good runner in his own right - told Richie that he wanted to run a marathon in his Dad's memory. So Richie had a part in making that happen at NY this year.
We all met on Saturday evening for a big family style dinner at an Italian restaurant in NYC and I got to meet Danny and to reconnect with Richie's old high school friends, several of whom I have run with in the past - but who were not running this year. It was the nice to meet Danny - talk to him about his dad and to connect with a few other new participants in this year's event.
Because of Richie's long time donor status, he was invited to a shakeout run with Meb Keflezighi - on Friday morning before the race. We've each met and talked to Meb before, but because of the small group who were invited to the shakeout run, Richie got to spend some time talking to Meb - and the even exchanged phone numbers. Turns out Meb moved to the Tampa area where Richie is located.
On the morning of the race as we were exiting the Team for Kids tent, Meb who had given a short speech to the runners a little earlier, walked over to Richie calling him by name, to wish him good luck in the race - which prompted Richie to introduce everyone to Meb including Danny - and he told Meb the story of Danny and of the loss of his father. Meb was so moved by the story - he leaned in for a hug with Danny and told him that when he was running today, to think of his dad and how proud he would be. You could not have scripted it better - and certainly you could have orchestrated that meeting, but it was completely unplanned and so authentic - and emotional.
Danny had a great day - and ran 2:58 in his debut marathon. Yes, I am certain that his dad would have been very proud.
Anyway....My race - which was less important in my view, was decent, with a little trouble in the second half due to dehydration. Richie and I tried to run with each other. And we were feeling very good at about 7:50 pace for the first half - some miles faster than that, some a bit slower. We enjoyed the scene over the bridge and the crowds in Brooklyn. The day was cool at the start, but there was bright sunshine.
My youngest daughter lives in Brooklyn now, and the race course literally goes along the cross street (Bedford) to her apartment just about mile 11. My middle daughter from Boston, travelled down and they were assembled to cheer for us as we got to her neighborhood. Richie deposited a hooded sweatshirt with them, as they were planning to hop on the subway and meet us at the finish.
Shortly after we arrived at the halfway mark, my heart-rate shot up to 168 going over the Pulaski Bridge and I got concerned, and told Richie I needed to back off the pace a bit. We slowed to a little over 8 min pace, and then as we started up the 59th Street Bridge at mile 15 - we fist bumped and he took off - hoping to run a BQ which we were slightly slower than he needed at that point.
My pace up 1st Avenue was around 8:15 to 8:20 but when I got to mile 20 and the Willis Ave Bridge, my HR hit 170 and I think that's when I started having trouble with leg cramps. Dehydration perhaps from the bright sunshine, and not taking in enough fluids on the cool day, resulted in leg spasms that would cause me to stop and walk to keep the cramps from locking up. The last 10k was pretty much stop and start running/walking to manage the cramping. Not very enjoyable. But I persevered and made it across the finish for the 11th time in NYC.
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