the rundown: nyc marathon edition

It’s back! This edition of the Rundown tries to capture that moment when runners “hit the wall” in the 2006 NYC Marathon. (The Rundown is like this blog-carnival roundup I started last year, then got bored with and gave up).

Flygirl writes about how she fought to come in under four hours.

Back in my home borough, to finish what I had started. I had no doubt in my mind at that point mile 23!! not much longer to go!!I was going to finish. It was now just a matter if it would be under 4 hours, and it was going to be very close at this point!! …

At this point, I knew every single hill in this park, I knew what to expect when…the crowds were screaming my name (so glad I had my name on my shirt!!) and knowing I didn’t have much further to go…I picked up the pace and as I mentioned before-left everything I had out on the course.

Runner 26 says she was “achy and, quite honestly, ready to be done. But … I was able to maintain my steady pace and the miles clipped by. Running through Central Park was indescribable. The beautiful fall trees and the fan-lined road was enough to make anyone dig down deep. Emerging from the park, I found a second wind. There was no stopping me now.”

With a few miles to go, Alvina worried that the marathon was going to be too easy:

I mean, it was hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be. I remembered the quote Amy and Bryan had sent me from Jimmy Dugan: “It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.” In fact, I was a little disappointed. I wanted it to be hard, I wanted it to be great.

But then, with 4 miles to go, it hit me. My left knee. Sharp, stabbing pain. Ouch. I felt that each step was tearing something. Of course, I immediately regretted thinking what I had thought before, that it wasn’t hard enough. I wanted it to be “easy” again. I started limp a little, trying to keep my left leg as straight as possible.

But I kept going, thinking about professional athletes who play through pain. I could make it 4 miles with a hurt knee. I had less than 4 miles left, I wasn’t going to give up.

She finished in 4:48:59.

Snehal hit the wall at mile 24.

This is where your will is tested. Runners are gasping for air, they’re stopped or walking, nobody is running their pace up this hill. I slow down, but my feet keep moving. I think about the support that my friends and family have shown me and that I might get to see them at the top of the hill.

But Snehal kept pushing and finished in 4:08:24. “I don’t think words can do justice to the way I feel,” Snehal wrote afterwards. “The cramps and pain are all worth the trouble.”

Sue Bella slowed as she passed Marcus Garvey Park after sliding on an orange peel. But she found inspiration in another runner:

Then, another miracle occurred. A woman who I had met earlier, the one who told me her breast cancer story, appeared on my right. “Hey, it’s you!” She smiled at me, and gave me a thumbs up. It seemed like she was gone in an instant, but her appearance did one thing. For a minute I had forgotten about my ankle and I had resumed my shuffling along, albeit a little more slowly, but at least I was moving forward.

So that’s how I did it. I shuffled and kept going.

Morrissey thought about quitting but didn’t:

Over the Q-boro bridge was excruciating because I was still recovering from my right hamstring and had to put the pressure on my left foot, which was unfortunate because of my left ankle. Granted, I know I should never think this way, but I was really ready to give up. I was angry, upset, pissed and just mad at myself on how this could’ve happened and what I could’ve done to prevent this. However, I can’t give up that easily. I knew my friends were waiting for me throughout miles 16-21, TRD on 19 … and my parents on 23. I’m just not ready to let them down or let myself down. I was like “f-ck this shit, f-ck the goal time, I’m gonna finish this race”. That’s basically what I did.

K. Todd Storch said the crowds propelled him to a strong finish. “It really felt like the entire NYC population was there for the last 1000 yards,” he writes. “I must of heard my name yelled 50 times coming towards the finish line.”

Benjamin Wagner ran with his girlfriend Abbi:

The pads of my feet felt as though they’d been beaten with hammers. My right hip felt as though it was dislocated. My left knee felt worse than my right. Still, my legs moved me forward as if on autopilot. Dusk fell in half-light on the falling leaves, and the crowd pushed us on. I raised a fist every time someone shouted out my name. “C’mon Benjamin Wagner Dot Com!” Sometimes (“I get it! I’ll go to the web site!”), I even smiled.

Naomi on the Move says her iPod helped her push through. “My favorite running song, Life is a Highway came on, as did Christina Aguilera’s ‘Fighter,’ and I knew I was going to make it,” she writes.

Erine A. Gray didn’t let a hamstring injury stop him from running a 3:30

“I don’t know how I made it to the end,” writes Rebelprince26. “I mean, I just kept going. I knew I had to finish. When I hit 26 miles I took off and sprinted until the end. When I crossed the finish line, I felt like I was going to fall down.”

But Beast felt good enough after his race to bike several loops of Prospect Park! Yikes.

He didn’t make it in under four hours like he hopes, but says, “I f**king finished. I ran a marathon. I feel like I can do anything now. That’s a fantastic feeling.”

Race reports to come: “Sister Smile“, Sempre Libera, Josh Morphew, Fashionably Late, Scott Long, Anders Bergman, H-Monkey, Sara, P/O and Resa. BAD BLOGGERS!

Also, Cahn has several race reports in Norwegian. And my own report is here.