This was the race I had been training all Fall for. After slogging through a marathon last year, I realized to be successful at this distance you really have to train hard! That I did and it paid off. At 30, this would be my first "real marathon." The goal going in was to qualify for Boston (3:10:59 or better), but as the race got going, I knew I could do a little better. I started in the second wave at 10am and had a great starting position (2nd row). The canon went off and I got out comfortably and was in 2nd place until we caught the first wave at mile 3! This is where the fun began; dodging and elbowing my way through the joggers that had gotten into wave 1 somehow or another. It wasn't bad until about mile 8 when the road narrowed to 2 lanes and the easy 6:25's turned into hard fought 6:45's. I hung near the curb and would break through people occasionally, giving them a "coming through" warning, but oft times having to just bust through the iPod wearers. This took a lot of energy out of me that I didn't notice until about mile 15 (I PR'd at the half in 1:25:40). By about mile 18 I was hurting and decided to just control it and get home without blowing up as I was pretty safe for a Boston Qualifier. The hills over the last 5 miles were very tough, but I soldiered through and made it home with plenty of time to spare (3:04:29). A great day in NYC!
More info available at: http://patprice.com/running/races/reports/20091101NYCMarathon.htm
