Weely Wrap-up: An Overview of the Marathon

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect out of my first post-marathon week, either physically or mentally. The fact is, I spent eighteen weeks working up to this one very day, and within the blink of an eye - it was over. All the time and energy and effort that I had put in; all the sweat; all the hours I spent on long runs and at the track and doing hill repeats - they all culminated in this one epic thing that was over in a matter of hours. When Monday came and I woke up - stiff and aching and somewhat hungover - it was all over. I had accomplished something that I had set out to do, and did it well. But what comes next?

I guess I can equate it to a wedding day - there are months of planning and preparation, all for a day that will come and go like any other one, only with a big party and smaller bank account. And when you wake up the next day (also probably somewhat hungover - or really hungover if it's a Robinson wedding), you have the rest of your life to look forward to with whoever it is laying next to you (hopefully it's the person you married and if it's not, you might just want to go back to sleep and hope that you're dreaming), whereas on Monday morning all I had was a sore body and blank training slate.

It's confession time, friends. I'll admit it, I was disappointed that I didn't hit my A goal. Not disappointed to the point of being sorry for myself, but disappointed enough in that I came thisclose to it, and just couldn't quite reach it. And listen, I am extremely happy with my performance and for the fact that I qualified for Boston in my very first marathon. There are many people out there who struggle for years to BQ before they get it, and some runners that never do, and I was good enough to do it on the first attempt. I get that. However, it still doesn't take away from the fact that I had an A goal, and that I failed to reach that A goal - and that's disappointing. To be within sight of a sub-3:30 but miss it by literally seconds is tough, but it also proves that my fitness was where it needed to be. I didn't fail because of a lack of training - I failed because of poor time management and not being able to hold a steady pace in the second half, which are all things that I can correct.

Look, this is in no way a "woe is me" post, and I'm not trying to humble-brag, but if I'm going to be honest with myself about the marathon, I might as well be 100% honest. When you set goals for yourself, you generally hope to achieve those goals, regardless of what those goals may seem to be to other people.

Now, on the other side of that, I am elated in qualifying for Boston, because I do know that it is something lots of runners struggle to do and that many runners never do. In achieving that goal I did something truly special. And I also know how hard it was - because it was not easy, I can assure you that. No matter how many long runs you go on, or how many track workouts you do, or how many hills you repeat, nothing can prepare you for what it's like to race a marathon. Notice I didn't say "run a marathon" - I used the word "race" because, if you are trying to BQ that is exactly what you are doing. You are not out there "just to finish" - you are out there to accomplish something. You might not be racing the person next to you or the other hundreds of people in your age group, but you sure as hell are racing against the clock.

Running New York City was a lot harder than I thought it would be, both mentally and physically. The physical stress is obvious - the toll it takes on your mind maybe isn't so much so. Obviously our legs are going to ache and your feet are going to be sore and your muscles are going to be tight, yet those are all things that you can prepare for during training. But if you aren't all there mentally, if you haven't prepared yourself for the mind games that you will be put through, when you hit that wall it might not be so easy to get over it. And while the physical training that you do leading up to a marathon is important, it is also training you for the mental side of things as well. Getting through those long runs, even when you don't feel up to it; pushing through those 1600 repeats; running in the heat or the rain or in the dark; those are all things that you need to do in order to know that you can do it. That when the time comes - whether it's on First Avenue or Fifth, the Willis Avenue Bridge or rounding Marcus Garvey Park - you know that you have done harder things before and that you can do this.

There are a lot of things that I can take away from my experience running New York, both good and bad. I know that my fitness was where it needed to be, but that I need to incorporate far more race-pace runs into my training plan. While my body was prepared to run 26.2 miles, it wasn't adequately prepared to run 26.2 miles at the pace that I needed it to. My nutrition was good, but not perfect - after my first gel I had to rely on a last minute PowerBar that I had picked up at the athlete's village because of stomach issues. Had I not had that PowerBar, who knows what could have happened. While I never truly "hit the wall" physically, the mental side of the race was something that I wasn't fully prepared for and made the last part infinitely more challenging than I expected.

Even though I am running Philly next weekend, I am not "racing" it. And it's not a physically thing, either - mentally I just don't think I could put myself through it again, at least not this close together. There is a reason most elite runners only run two - maybe three - marathons each year, and it's not just because of the physical stress. As much as running a marathon can be fun, that is what I am hoping for out of Philly. I want to go down, enjoy the course and the people and the day. I don't want to worry about pace or time or have to focus so much on one thing that I totally miss what's around me. I want to experience the day like I never did in New York because I never allowed myself to fully experience it. I was too focused on what I needed to get done.

As hard and as tough as the New York City Marathon was, I wouldn't take it back for a second. I ran the race that I needed to run, and even though I wasn't 100% successful in the goals that I had laid out for myself, I understand that those goals were extremely far-reaching for a first-time marathon. Those were the goals that I set for myself and I think coming so close to achieving all of them proves that they were attainable. Would I have been happy having set lower goals and achieving all of them, but knowing that I could have done more? Probably not, which means that, in the future, I need to keep setting those goals and understanding that, even if I don't reach every one of them, I can still be successful.

Also, I didn't sh*t myself, so really, everyone was a winner that day.