[Fredslist] My Marathon Day-

[Craig Bruck]

On Sunday Nov 4th I ran my 6th marathon and 4th NYC marathon. It was an 
exciting and very eventful day. I was hoping to beat my time from last year 
of 3:42 and also needed to catch a train from to Newport, RI at 3pm to go to 
my friend’s wedding.  

 

I started my day on the Staten Island Ferry and sat outside on a crisp sunny 
morning and enjoyed the beautiful views heading over to Staten Island. 
Before I knew it I was heading to the starting line at the end of the 
Verrazano Bridge. 

 

I started the race very strong, coming out of the gate doing a 7:55 minute 
mile on the bridge, followed by 7 minute mile. After that I eased into a 
comfortable pace. From my first step of the race my shin felt very tight and 
I thought I had a shin splint issue which had never happened to me. I 
actually kept thinking to myself that there is no way I can run 26 miles if 
this pain continues. The pain unfortunately never went away, but I had other 
issues to take my mind off of the shin pain. At mile 7 I started to get a 
blister under my big toe. This was the first time I’d gotten a blister on a 
long run and I couldn’t figure out why, since I was wearing the same shoes 
and socks as always. I thought I might have to stop at a medic tent to get 
it wrapped up, but I figured I’d run as far as I could before I really 
needed to stop. Even though my shin wasn’t feeling right and having a 
blister, I kept running pretty fast and was hoping that I’d make it to the 
end in record time.

 

A few minutes later while I was enjoying my run through Brooklyn I had 
another set back. At mile 8 I had just passed BAM in Brooklyn and made a 
right turn on to Lafayette St.  At this point the race was very crowded, so 
I didn’t see a girl crossing in front of me with her bicycle behind her. I 
ended up running over her bike and flipping over busting up my hands and 
knees. I immediately got up and continued running, but I lost some of my 
important tools for the race- 2 gels, my water bottle and my chapstick. I 
was very angry for a few minutes, but I got over it eventually and kept 
running my race. I almost turned around to go crazy on the girl, but I 
figured I was better off just running fast and getting back to Manhattan as 
fast as possible. I wasn’t sure if the gods were telling me that this wasn’t 
my day to be running and that I should just get on the train to go to my 
friend’s wedding, but since I knew Fred and all of Gotham were seeing my 
times, I had no choice, but to keep pushing on.

 

After those early bumps in the road, I continued to run at a good pace till 
I got to mile 18. That’s when my legs started to slow on me. I ended up 
running a 3:44, which was about 2 minutes slower than I did the year before. 
I was very happy to finish and I made my train and my wedding. I look 
forward to next year’s race and I bet Gotham will have even more runners 
next time. I’ll be more than happy to chat with anyone who might be 
interested in running.


Thanks for all your support!