Goals for the New York Marathon:
Most important - come out of the event injury free and ready (after a short recovery period) to step back into Dopey Training.
A Goal: Sub 4:30
B Goal: Sub 4:45
C Goal: Sub 5:00
Nutrition: Banana & bagel with peanut butter and a small cup of coffee pre-race. 3 shot bloks 20 minutes prior to race, then three more at the 3 mile marker. From there I am transitioning to fruit bars, one every 3 miles. Going to bring one extra pack of shot bloks in case I feel I need to trade out with three shot blocks = one fruit bar. Plus water and gatorade/powerade at each water station.
Interval plan and pacing: I will stick with my 4:00/:30 right from the start. Planning to run out from the back of my corral for a little extra elbow room to feel better about doing intervals around (I am assuming) a lot of constant runners. I will be focused on 10:00 minute miles, but do plan to start out a little slow and not get to caught up in the hype at the beginning or the back side of the first bridge towards the end of mile one. If I am smart and consistent I think I can maintain 10:00’s and the will get me in under my A-goal. But ask me again at like mile 17 and we will have to see what I think!
Ever since my ankle injury (which was 2018-19) I have struggled with the Marathon. The last three have all been over 5 hours. But this training period has gone very well and I believe 4:30 is doable. My nutrition plan is set, my interval plan is set and my outfit is set. I even went to Walmart and bought some tossable clothes to stay warm during the long morning wait. The last piece is how I will carry everything. I have multiple hydration vests and backpacks and one running belt. I don’t like the vest or backpack unless really necessary during an ultra or trail race, so that leave the running belt. But I may use a fanny pack I got at work. I did a couple long runs and tried it out I think it works better than my old running belt.
So I am running out of the Blue wave in corral 3 at around 10:20am. And I have a much too early ferry ride over to Staten Island. I blame runDisney for this. When I first saw the available Ferry times I grab the earliest I could…. This is long before I learned I would be starting at 10:20am! I am bring my phone and a light charger so it is ready to go at the start. I plan to get there early, find a good place to chill out, spread out my space blanket and relax (as best I can). I will make it work.
Bottom line on this is I will likely not get the chance to run the New York Marathon again so I am going to enjoy the experience and give it my best effort. I feel ready - a bit nervous - but ready. Thanks for reading!
