4:30 am woke up
5:00 am transit to Central Park
6:15 am registration and Team for Kids warm up
7:30 am START
8:30 am conquered Central Park's Harlem Hill and 6 miles
9:20 am rain drizzles our course with 9 more miles to go
11-11:30 am 20 miles - mission accomplished!
LoAnn and I still managed to stand once we arrived home so we thought a picture (above) was necessary to document this momentous occasion. Both of us have yet to run this far continously so to have it under our belt was quite a confidence builder. 26.2, piece of cake! ha.
Here are a few words from LoAnn of her 20 miles experience:
Today, my roommate, Yen, and I awoke in the wee hours (4:30am) of the morning for the 20 mile NYRR marathon training run in Central Park. We were early enough to spend some quality subway time with our fellow New York Party-goers, who were on their ways home from the bars and clubs. I love New York City!
We ran one 6-mile loop, two 5-mile loops, and one 4-mile loop. This was my first "race-like" experience ever, and by far the farthest number of miles I have ever run at once. I managed to run the entire length, stopping only once to pee and a couple times for water. In the end, I finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, giving me an average of 10 minutes per mile. The goal of 26.2 miles is much closer to a reality after today.
The run got challenging after the 12th mile. After all, the farthest I've managed to run prior to today was around 13 miles. But running amongst my team mates, all wearing their bright green TEAM FOR KIDS jerseys, and having my coaches cheering me along was enough inspiration to keep me going. Also, even though it wasn't the Marathon, we had a decent crowd of people - regular Saturday morning Central Park visitors - cheering us on. It was great! I had to laugh when one of them yelled, "on Marathon day, there's gonna be about a million more of us doing this, so get used to us!"
And I realized, this is wonderful thing about running the NYC Marathon. I've spoken with many experienced marathon runners (naturally, as we don't have much else to do during our long runs) who unanimously agree that the New York Marathon is the best to run, and all because of the millions of New Yorkers who come out to show their support. Today, I heard one woman state, "the NYC marathon is the best sporting event EVER to participate in! Better than the Olympics... better than the Superbowl!" Ha ha, I don't know if most would go so far as to agree with that, but you get the idea.
If you are in the area on November 4th, 2007, I really really encourage you to come out and watch! It's a lot of fun! I watched the marathoners last year and it was a great motivator. Again, thanks for all of your support. I couldn't keep going on without it!
Unfornately Jac was out of town and of course Nini is in Cali. We missed them on the course, but wish them HAPPY TRAINING!
We ran one 6-mile loop, two 5-mile loops, and one 4-mile loop. This was my first "race-like" experience ever, and by far the farthest number of miles I have ever run at once. I managed to run the entire length, stopping only once to pee and a couple times for water. In the end, I finished in about 3 hours and 40 minutes, giving me an average of 10 minutes per mile. The goal of 26.2 miles is much closer to a reality after today.
The run got challenging after the 12th mile. After all, the farthest I've managed to run prior to today was around 13 miles. But running amongst my team mates, all wearing their bright green TEAM FOR KIDS jerseys, and having my coaches cheering me along was enough inspiration to keep me going. Also, even though it wasn't the Marathon, we had a decent crowd of people - regular Saturday morning Central Park visitors - cheering us on. It was great! I had to laugh when one of them yelled, "on Marathon day, there's gonna be about a million more of us doing this, so get used to us!"
And I realized, this is wonderful thing about running the NYC Marathon. I've spoken with many experienced marathon runners (naturally, as we don't have much else to do during our long runs) who unanimously agree that the New York Marathon is the best to run, and all because of the millions of New Yorkers who come out to show their support. Today, I heard one woman state, "the NYC marathon is the best sporting event EVER to participate in! Better than the Olympics... better than the Superbowl!" Ha ha, I don't know if most would go so far as to agree with that, but you get the idea.
If you are in the area on November 4th, 2007, I really really encourage you to come out and watch! It's a lot of fun! I watched the marathoners last year and it was a great motivator. Again, thanks for all of your support. I couldn't keep going on without it!
