TCS New York City Marathon

Here's how it went.

Training and race prep

I aimed to complete an 18-week training block, mostly because this is what everyone says you should do. Based on lots of time online, I felt like my plan had to have a peak week of at least 50 miles.

I also hoped to do some base building leading into the plan, but ended up not doing much. I felt burnt out from preparing for the United NYC Half, so I just ran enough to get through my scheduled 9+1 races.

Once the training block began, I used Runna to build my marathon plan. It was not for me. I had to fiddle with too many controls to get good weekly mileage, it ramped up the paces and mileage very quickly, and reacted very extremely when I tried scheduling some easier weeks for planned vacations in the block. I switched to Hanson's beginner plan, which checked a lot of boxes for me. It had great mileage (peaking at 57 a week), a reasonable ramp, and fit in conveniently with the vacations I had. Hanson's also comes with an accompanying book that explained how the plan was structured, which I found pretty convincing and a great reference as I went through training.

After switching, my adherence to the plan was very good. I pretty much did all 6 runs a week and stuck to the prescribed paces. I did make some minor adjustments, but they were very intentional and in line with the ideas in the book. I really think Hanson's did a great job of taking me from ~25 miles a week to a 57.5 peak week. I also did some strength work, but stopped around the start of September once training got hard.

I was mostly healthy, but always worried about some minor leg issue. The first few weeks started with some quad pain. This gave way to something that felt like shin splints in my right leg. These completely went away once I switched shoes, at which point I started feeling some soreness in my right ankle. The worst was a legitimate left Achilles injury after my final long run, probably since I took that one a little fast. I went to physical therapy, did the prescribed exercises, and showed up healthy on race day.

I did less running than planned during the taper because of the injury. A few days out, I started to carb load according to Featherstone's recommendation. It suggested 550 grams of carbs per day for the three days leading up to the race. I did it, but it was gross.

Race day

I started race day with a great poop. I had a bagel, banana, and serving of Skratch carb mix for breakfast. It took almost three hours from my apartment to the start village. There was some waiting to get onto the ferry to Staten Island, and the buses from the terminal to the village took a long time. I had my second bagel on the ride over.

As an aside, I think Nike really stole the show with the ad placements all over the city. My favorite was a wrapped ferry they parked in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Nike ferry

Since getting to the village took so long, we didn't really get that much time until the Wave 5 corrals opened. It was just enough time to use the portapotties, get undressed, and stretch. I slammed a Red Bull on the walk over to the corrals.

I stressed myself out a lot in the corral looking for the pacer, but they just entered ~5 minutes later than we did. I took a regular gel in the start about five minutes before the start. The corrals collapsed and we walked over to the start line.

Race

sunny start
reasonable up the bridge
fast down
vibes were good though
heart rate was high (adrenaline, caffeine, heat)
dense as fook
through Brooklyn was fine, though we were consistently closer to 10 minute splits
4th ave all blended together
sun was in full force, heart rate was high
Achilles maybe felt a little tight
Took water with my gels
really tried to stick to the pacers shoulder, this felt fine
I was probably putting in too much effort for this early
I really hated the crowds
Claustrophobic, could not focus on myself
able to breath a bit in south Williamsburg
finished my first bottle here
Bedford got crowded again
knew where I was
but felt weird, so dense
thighs were starting to feel sore
I was a little suspicious, but wanted to try running through it
Through McCarren, station was sticky
On Manhattan was the first time I knew something was really wrong
kept on going, took some early nutrition before Pulaski
queens got progressively worse, really struggled to keep with the pacer
at the aid station before the bridge, could not catch up
Stopped on bridge to stretch my thighs, the cramping was real
walked up the bridge, jogged down
hit the med tent, got a massage and biofreeze
Gatorade and salt
Once I started walking, it was pretty bad. My legs were fried
slowly started jogging, and had to walk again after a short time
thighs kept on seizing, hamstrings started going too, and calves would spasm if I landed in a certain way
walk/ran all the way up first ave
More salt, banana, and med tents
Struggled into Bronx, just in lots of pain
took lots of Gatorade
Still followed the gel plan
leaving Bronx, I started to jog at my easy pace
my legs were still really bad, but not seizing in the same way anymore
Able to maintain a very slow pace
landing weird was dangerous, almost fell multiple times
got some biofreeze
walked through the last aid station, decided I needed to run until the end
maintained a very slow pace, really toeing the line
the pain was probably 8/10, I just had to be very mindful
CP was my favorite crowd
good energy, and I had space to breathe
two miles went by quick
turned onto cp south
pain ratcheted up, didn't actually think I could keep on going without a break
turning back in was excruciating
fully expected to collapse in the park
seeing the finish really revitalized me
made it across

Post-race

Long ass walk, probably a good thing
legs calmed down a bit