Yes, I just started that. I did hahaha. let me back up a bit.

The week was busy and it all geared towards my work-team dinner celebration on Friday, which I was hosting and MCing. It was GREAT fun, or so it seemed 😉 but by the end of Friday I was soooo tired, Saturday I cancelled a few things and tried to do as little as possible. I was about to get up at 3:30 am on Sunday anyway so I might as well get some rest!

Saturday I spent it mostly at home with Juan and Flor, who was sleeping over to run the Dash to the Finish line 5K, it was pouring when she left at 7:20 am. Better Rain Saturday and Sunday! Sorry Flor! I ate my nutella with my pretzel sticks, some pain au chocolat, pasta, 2 huge Gatorades and whatever else I felt like. Carboloading is amazing peeps! With that many carbs, I was ready to pass out by 4 pm! Juan popped in Run for your Life to watch, a tradition of mine, and I couldn’t stay awake. I was in bed by 6, asleep by 6:30pm. I am officially old.

Sunday morning, up at 3:30, had to look for a few things, decide on WHAT to wear. Which was really hard. Everybody freaking out about the wind had me wondering. Should I wear sleeves? Long tights? I decided to go with short tights as usual, my Argentina marathon (soccer really) jersey that I always always have to wear, and the extra: arm warmers, a hat, a fleece headband, gloves, and leg warmers. Who knew? maybe it’d be cold out there.

Got to the bus at 5:15 (we were leaving at 5:30) and most runners were already there, ouch, I need to stop being so Argentinian sometimes getting everywhere at the last minute.I felt so bad. It was just a few of us, but it was fun ride, and it takes so little time to get up there. I have to admit, I missed the ferry ride 😉 it’s such a cool view of the city. Photo op and we were off!

Soon, too soon, we got to the Athletes Village and they almost threw us off the bus. It was SO warm in the bus… it was early too. You can’t wait until the last minute to get there on the buses as they close most bridges and then you can’t get through, but we had the team bus. It’s something the team had been doing for years but I don’t think it’s something I’ll do over next year. People had to wait for too long and it’s too cold there. Not the best idea. If the weather was nicer, it would have been fun to all go together and camp out, but we can do that on the ferry too!

So, I head to the Local Competitive Tent and there’s half a tent. Last year we had a full tent. Oooops. Apparently, because of the high winds, they decided to not put down anything that could fly. good idea. But what if I fly??? ugh, chilly.

Still, we had a million portapotties. amazing.

Patricia gets there and we decided to venture out to check our bags at the UPS trucks. All the trucks are position together so it’s a 5 minutes walk. We walk around a bit and dunkin donuts is handing out the hats, perfect, Patricia had no hat and I really didn’t want to give her mine 😉

They had put this amazing fake plastic hay for people to sit. It had rained a lot the day before so it was a fantastic idea.

We all looked like weirdos as usual!

We went back to the tent and managed to slide in between the table and the back of the tent. There was no wind there but it was still really cold. I think at that point it was better to be in the sun in the open air.

About an hour before our start, they take us to our corrals. We wait there for a bit with Dearon and Keith, from our team. This is Dearon’s first NYCM and it’s quite exciting! check out in the picture below how CLOSE we are to the start line. Inches. Insanity.

So, I unrobe. At the corral, as we have a huge wall on our right, there is no wind, we’re surrounded by nervous men, we are warm. I thought, we’ll be fine! it’s 9:40 and nothing happens. Eventually, by 9:42 we start. I thought the delay was quite strange.

We head into the Verrazano. WOW

WOW.

It was a tornado in there!!! A one way tornado but it was INSANITY. The wind was coming from the left so I went all the way to the right to see if it’d stop, or if other people in the middle would shield me. No. Then it became dangerous because the wind was making me run into the little wall in the right. I moved away from the wall. It was impossible to run in a straight line. There were hats all over the floor, and people’s trash bags and bibs were flapping around like crazy. I wondered if it was equally awful on top.

Because of the lack of GPS sometimes in the bridge and other parts of the course, I always manual lap the miles, using the mile markers. There was no mile marker at 1 or 2. Oooops, I had no idea what was happening but I was seriously crazy with the wind, the uphill, all the clothes I was wearing, the lack of markers and my heart rate was a biiiiit too high.

As soon as we get off the bridge, I am HOT. Like hot hot and I can’t run. I had overdressed, crap! Luckily, my friend Flor was going to be at 3.5, so I had warned her I’d throw things her way. I took my jacket and made ball with the hat, arm warmers, headband, and gloves. Ugh, I was so so annoyed at all of it. I was basically back to my same old outfit, minus the leg warmers that were too messy to take off. I am really not willing to stop.

I saw Flor, she was screaming there with her husband Karl, and gave her the stuff. So happy I saw them! One more mile and I’d see Juan!!!! Do I have anything else I can shed?? stooopid leg warmers that I usually love! I was still hot, ugh. how are people running in jackets and long tights? all incomprehensible to me! There’s Juan!!! (see? I have stuff in my right hand to get rid off!)

I had all I needed with me, my gels and phone in my fitletic double pouch. So I kept going. But, I noticed something right away, and it didn’t change… WHERE ARE THE CROWDS??? Seriously? where was everyone??? All my friends were there waiting for me (and probably left as soon as I went by!) but this is NOT NYCM without the crazy huge loud noisy fun cheerers!!!!! It was a bit sad. If you haven’t done NYCM before, I am sure it was fine. This was my 6th in a row and it felt EMPTY. turns out everybody I talked to (that wasn’t a NYCM virgin) agreed. it was a bit sad. Anyway, what can do you? it was miserably cold for everybody to stand there. I actually still felt hot but I knew everyone spectating would be freezing. Thank you so so so so so much to everyone cheering, it was worth DOUBLE karma points!

I kept checking myself and I felt good. As for my pace, I had no idea what was happening. My GPS lost signal in the tornado, and by the time I had GPS, I was more than a mile behind. The whole time I had no idea exactly in what mile I was or what pace I was doing. I made sure I was feeling ok and tried to keep it conservative. Brooklyn and Fourth Avenue was gone in a minute. The whole race I had that whole sense that the race was getting away from me. Every two seconds I’d look up and another 2-3 miles were gone. I had no idea how that kept happening, that had never happened to me before. The race, even though slow, went waaaay too fast. I saw Dimitri and Maggie in Lafayette. Those early blocks in Lafayette are some of my favorites of the whole race, the red and yellow high trees, the brownstones, the crowds, WONDERFUL.

Then I was in Williamsburg, which was waaay lonely (and even more without my staple Michelle on south 2nd, she just moved to LA!), went by so fast too. Soon I was in the Pulaski, ooops a could of minutes behind what I thought I’d be, why? no idea. I felt great, relaxed. I didn’t even remember the wind from the Verrazano anymore. Then, a turn here, a turn there, I saw Adrianne and all the Whippets and there I was at the base of the Queensboro. Way too soon. I felt like I had just started. That tornado must have shaken something inside my head out of place.

It was quiet as usual, and OMG there was the wind again!!! I had totally forgotten about it! Only this time, it was coming from the right. Will it make me fly onto the East River? Would that be possible?? OMG crazy wind again and soon I had crested it without even noticing!!! The downhill was as fast as usual, and the wind was gone as fast too, but something was missing… the roar. Where is the roar??? I step down off the bridge and the little crowd was so quiet. WTF? This was one of the many times I had to raise my arms up and down to make people scream and ask for attention, little needy me, but come one, it’ll help you warm up!!

I get onto First Avenue and there’s a bit more people here, but nothing like the last 6 years. Oh well, I’ll take it. I kept taking my gels, but I really needed to pee. This had NEVER happened to me before. It was weird, I guess I wasn’t sweating as much as usual or something. I decided I wouldn’t stop. I also wasn’t sure I could run AND pee. Luckily, it didn’t come to that.

I saw Stephanie in the 80s somewhere, and I looked for Ivy, Kettia and Khris and nothing. But Juan would be on 120th, so yey, easy enough. There he was, with Maria too! I blew more kisses 😉 I just love that man so much, freezing there to death!

 

Then off to the Willis, the little loop around the Bronx, there was some wind on those poor volunteers in the water stop. Gosh I felt so bad for them! I was just happy about the wind as i was still hot, stoooopid leg warmers.

I come around Marcus Gravey Park, and I knew Juan was on 109. I didn’t see anyone else I was supposed to see on the stretch!!! I see Juan, more kisses obviously, I have no idea where I picked up that ocd about blowing kisses.

And I was fine. On the ninja hill I was fine. I really felt strong the whole way and now I was almost ready to blow it all out and burst onto the park!! Since I had gone out easy and kept it easy, I felt had nothing at stake and no reason to blow up my legs. At 23 I felt brand new and ready to sprint. Weirdo.

People were walking right and left. The hill on 5th avenue kinda sucks for everybody else.

I got to the park. Things changed a bit there. I went crazy. I knew I didn’t have anyone to see there, until the last block in CP South (Daphne!) so I kinda focused on my running. Then I figured, who knows if I’ll keep my streak going (this was my sixth NYCM in a row) next year and maybe I won’t do it, so wow, this is amazing, I better enjoy every second, pufff, two seconds later, I am out of the park again. This race went WAAAAAY TOO fast. It’s so easy when you can relax and run easy. Which is so weird, right? I didn’t see Daphne, I made a right and I was in Columbus Circle and it was over. SO EASY AND PAINLESS. wow, what a strange woman I am. I just finihed! see?

and a picture with my new shiny medal: NYCM #6 in a row!

Why did I train, really? I finished in 3:48:18. Last year, with zero training, I did 3:49!!! and this year in Boston, ALSO NO TRAINING, 3:49 as well. Seriously WTF.

 

I did have a strange moment on the first miles when I realized I didn’t care to go hard. I just never have that competitive side and it’s tough to do it in a marathon. I have a 3:27 PR that I knew I wasn’t going to break today, so why bother? I set out to enjoy the race and have some fun. I also think it’s tough to do a marathon when you’re not fully invested, so I did what I couldn’t to just stay invested: FUN.

 

My splits are a bit messy. I haven’t done the math yet but it looks like I didn’t negative split.  AT all. I’ll worry about this later. IF I DO. I really felt so strong in the last 2-3 miles that I am not sure I’ll care to see what I did. Plus, it’s too much math.

I walked like a year to my bag, got it, walked out, found Juan with a lot of warm clothes for me (and none for himself!!!) and I couldn’t wait to hug him again and start the fun. We just hate being apart even if for a few hours. we’re the cheeeeesiest.

If I do it again next year I’d definitely pick NO BAGAGGE. I wish I had this year! There were portapotties right at the finish and I finally peed!! I held that in for 12 miles!!! YUK.

We walked west, it was about 12:30 and we saw a bus on Columbus, we managed to speed up and catch it, towards the Dashing Whippets party in a pub in times square.

Soon we got to the Perfect Pint, we had the whole third floor and a lot of my team mates were already there. I pretended to eat my burger. I hate eating after a marathon but if I didn’t Juan would yell. My life is tough. I managed to eat most of it but the fries were definitely delicious.

And just like that, I decided I stopped stinking all over and go home to shower and undress, finally.

Another marathon season over. Not really a great race, but I really didn’t feel there was nothing in there for me. So strange. Patricia, my training partner, went onto a 3:34 even though she was sick earlier in the week and had not much left at the end. Amazing job. I wonder why I don’t push like that. I know I don’t have the competitive edge everybody else has but I wonder why. I am actually considering not doing a marathon in 2015. And yes, skipping NYCM15. It feels like treason. I hate to cut my streak. But I just don’t want to do the long runs anymore. Or something. Something is definitely not in the marathon for me and I don’t want to push myself to keep pushing myself. But not doing NYCM just feels strange. I need to find a way around this. Any ideas?

Got home (had too much to do so I worked Monday!) to the New York Times. If you didn’t get yours, post below your exact finish time and last name and I’ll take a pic for you!

Monday morning, just like every Monday after the Marathon, I attend the NYRR Charity Breakfast, and I ate so much… Then,the rest of the day, alfajores and donuts. I am not even pretending that I need real food for a few days. How was your marathon? Did you spectate? thoughts?