Wife Mother Runner NYC Marathon Archives

How I Prepared for the NYC Marathon

November 4, 2018

November 1 is here and that also means that very soon around this first weekend in November, the NYC marathon is run. A year ago today I was preparing for the start of the NYC Marathon. Last year I made a last minute decision to head down to NYC for Marathon Friday and visit the Pavilion and see the finish line. This was a good decision because I got a better lay of the land and the subway system.

This exact day last year I was on the train once again to check in to my hotel, go to the expo and have dinner with my friend Linda Ambard. It was the day before the race and I wanted to make sure I knew where I was going, what time I had to be there and where my family would be able to see me.

A year ago today, I was getting butterflies because the NYC marathon is an entirely new set of logistics for me! A year ago, I was trained. I had fought a bit with my training schedule but was able to manage a safe increase in mileage to be able to fit in a 20 mile run prior to the marathon taper.

Knowing my family was going to be there to cheer me on and see me in three places along the race course meant the world to me. And our friend Lyla’s dad was also coming to cheer me on. That also meant the world to me. Bill also knew how to get around so that was very helpful to my family as well!

What Am I Preparing for This Year?

Right now I am training for the 2019 Dopey Challenge. My 5th consecutive, and possibly my last. I can say I am running, but I can’t say that I am training. I should be training, but I have had more life and work/life juggles to manage this year. And with it being such a critical year that I succeed with my business, I had to let some of my training days slip a bit. I am still at a point where I can recover from that lack of diligence and get back to a firm schedule. But I have to also consistently ramp up my mileage to at least get in a 20 mile run.

Where Was I then?

This time last year I was full of nerves and anxiety. But the race was a good focal point for me to set my eyes on a goal. I had always wanted to run the NYC marathon. I still haven’t written about my experience yet, but I will. It was a very important achievement for me. It began with my diagnosis with kidney vasculitis.

I was unhappy a year ago. I felt like I wasn’t working where I needed to be. I wasn’t living my purpose. I was working to please people but I wasn’t happy with what I was trying to make work. I was in a field of work that just wasn’t the right work for me.

Where Am I Now?

I am in a place of determination, curiosity, fervor with my head down, and soaking in as much as I can learn through my eyes, my ears, and by trial and error. I am making great friends and have rekindled relationships with old friends.

I am so grateful to the help I have received from my dear friend Claudia. She has been in the business for a very long time and I have known her for several years. She has taught me some valuable lessons and exposed me to great opportunities. I will always be grateful for our friendship.

I am also extremely grateful to my family who are helping support my decision to try to be on my own and work as a self-employed blogger and consultant. We have made many sacrifices when I lost my job. But I am working so hard to make my dream a reality. They have been patient when there are nights that I work late because I am figuring something out, or because I am on a conference call.

I appreciate them but also need to remember that they are more important than work. Sometimes I am so deep in learning something new that time gets away from me and I realized that I didn’t get to have family time with them. And that’s when I feel extremely guilty. I hope they understand and learn work ethic from me. But I also need to show them a good example of work life balance. I’m working on it. It’s a critical time for me to make a good name for myself and deliver to my clients.

I’m Moving Forward and Not Looking Backwards

Even though my running/training needs some work, I have been getting out for a run, but I’m not getting enough long runs. When I did my 7 mile long run I felt amazing. I need to get another long run in as soon as I can. I also noticed that when I stopped work to get my run done, I felt less guilty about making time for myself. So it just needs to fit back into my life again like it did before. I need to stop and take time out for me and my family.

One Week Later

November 17, 2017

One week ago Sunday I was in NYC running the NYC marathon. It was my first time running this event and it won’t be my last! I have a lot of memories to share about this race and will do so in a series of posts throughout the week.

Highlights

Today I want to share with you my highlights and thoughts that have occurred since the race.

Enjoy ALL of it. From visiting the pavilion and the finish line area prior to the race, to the energy in the city, the expo, the pasta party, and the meet ups with friends.

The Pavilion

I chose to take a train down to the city on Friday to visit the Pavilion and see the finish line. I wasn’t aware of the pavilion until people in the Facebook group I was a part of started sharing what goes on there. Then I checked the days it was open. Since it was closed for Saturday, I knew I had to make a special trip for it. It was my first time running the NYC Marathon so I wanted to soak in as much of it as I could. When I heard that The Pavilion was the place where your name is on the wall, I wanted to to see it there for myself.

The Finish Line

You really should visit the finish line area before you run the race. The reason why I say this is because on race day, depending on the time of day you expect to finish, it could be dark, it will be crowded, and you have to move through it quickly after you complete the race. I enjoyed being at the finish line and visualizing what my finish line experience will feel like. But nothing compares to the actual event. I enjoyed just being there, taking it all in and actually seeing the New York City Marathon, a “major” marathon’s finish line. That was pretty freaking awesome for me.

Accommodations

When I went down to NYC on Saturday for the Expo I arrived at Grand Central Station, checked into the hotel, and left my bag with the concierge. I was staying at the Grand Hyatt New York. This was a perfect location because it is connected to Grand Central Station so for race morning and to get to the expo I just had to hop onto a subway.

NYC Grand Hyatt

The Expo

The Expo was at the Javitts Convention Center. When I arrived I picked up my bib, tried on a shirt for size, picked up my official shirt and then went to the New Balance store where the official race merchandise was being sold. I did well and didn’t purchase everything I wanted at the expo; but I did buy a nice jacket, a glass and a new running belt which was large enough and comfortable enough to carry all of my fuel, battery chargers, phone, ipod and folded up rain poncho.

After I left the New Balance store I went to the main expo floor and checked out the vendors there. I stopped for an autograph from Joan Benoit Samuelson, had Bart Yasso sign my bib, and visited the Achilles booth. Coincidentally, I bumped into Jeff Amell from the Achilles team as well while walking the corridors of the expo hall. We keep running into each other at our races, it’s great! With the weather being questionable, I felt I needed to find a long sleeve shirt just in case it was going to be colder. I found one at a small vendor booth for $20 and picked it up just in case.

Joan Benoit Samuelson

Bart Yasso

Jeff Amell from Achilles

I had some fun with the photo booths and props at some of the vendors and spent about an hour touring the expo floor before leaving to go meet up with my friend Linda Ambard for dinner.

Having been to several marathons, this was by far, the largest I had been to. However, in comparison to Disney I would say the expo at the NYC marathon is double the size.

Linda and I met up at the Olive Garden for the perfect dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with salad and bread sticks. Then Joe Pardo and his wife were meeting us after their dinner and before their show. So we chatted with them on the sidewalks of New York in Times Square on a whim! He didn’t even know the race was going on this weekend and saw my post on Facebook that I was in the city!

Joe, Melissa, me and Linda

After chatting Linda and I ventured downtown to see the 9/11 Memorial while it was dark out and the lights were on in the fountains. It took us a while to get here and eventually we had to take and Uber because the subway train wasn’t coming. So I had my first Uber experience in NYC and Linda and I enjoyed the time together talking and catching up. It was really wonderful to finally sit down and share a meal with her and talk after all these years since we met at the Disney World Marathon in 2014.

If the NYC is going to be your first marathon in the category of majors or even just your first marathon, take it all in. Enjoy the events that take place throughout the entire week leading up to the race and even on Marathon Monday when people visit the Pavilion and wear their NYC Marathon gear and medals around the city. I loved every minute of this event. Even every single mile of those 26.2 miles. I was prepared, I had my cheer squad waiting for me, and the city was one big party despite the weather! I’ll have a great race recap and video for you coming soon!

The Gouveia Vineyard on my 16 mile NYC Marathon training run

NYC Marathon 16 Mile Training Run

September 29, 2017

I had been struggling mentally with this run coning up. With a little over a month left until this race I know I need to get in two long training runs to get me up to 20 miles. I prefer to go further than that, but I haven’t had the time dedicated to the training for this race. But I used the Disneyland Half Marathon as upward momentum toward that mileage increase. I didn’t worry too much about the run during the week; but I was waiting for the humid weather to break because I did not want to run another plasma run in the heat. I wanted to enjoy the run. Thankfully the day I ran the humidity was gone.

I had my breakfast, tea, gathered up my fuel for the run, loaded up my iPod with my favorite podcasts and hit the road. I felt really good except for one thing, after mile 1 I really had to go pee. I didn’t want to go in the woods and was hoping to see a port-a-potty somewhere along the way. Eight miles into the run and I still wasn’t able to go. I was going to have to take a detour from my original route and stop home to use the bathroom. I had just 6 miles left to the run after the stop so I chose to modify my route to stay close to home.

Here are the stats of the run:

Nutrition

Breakfast was oatmeal
2 cups of caffeinated tea

Time of day

I began the run at 9:15 a.m.

Weather

It was 70 degrees, cloudless and low humidity with a light breeze

Fuel on the run

I stopped home at mile 9 to use the bathroom and had 5 sips of cola and had a handful of pretzel fish. During the last 6 miles I had several skittles.

Gear

Under Armour running shorts, hot pink sports bra with more support and no clips in the front and a tank top.
Note: these shorts cause me problems with chaffing if I stop and use the bathroom.

Pace

I walked a little on some of the big hills; but maintained my 30/30 for almost the entire run. I had to pause for a few minutes to rescue two stray dogs so I walked a bit with the dogs and traffic around mile 8.5 But then I resumed my run. I had to walk 3/4 mile to take a phone call.

16 mile run splits

Post Run

I felt fine after the run. Drank chocolate milk and had a turkey sandwich. When I finished my run I definitely felt like I ran 16 miles but it wasn’t painful. My tips of my toes were very tender.

The day after the run I had very little soreness so I am feeling confident that i can maintain the training plan I have planned and will do great for the race! I am finally starting to get excited about it. I’ll have to check out the NYC marathon merchandise soon to find something to wear after the race for the train ride home.

18 Weeks Until The NYC Marathon

July 3, 2017

Well, it’s coming closer than I thought! There are just 18 weeks until the NYC marathon! I had to get out on the road and start putting in some miles. We were away last week and I took that time off from working out and running; but was on my feet a lot while walking through the Disney Parks. So while I wasn’t running, I did get some mileage on my feet.

When we returned home from our trip I got back into my video workout routines and started running again. My latest longest distance is now 6.5 miles. It scares me to think that I have to increase that mileage back into the double digits, especially during the summer hours.

I got out on the road Sunday afternoon past noon and it was H-O-T! At that point it was 92 degrees. I made sure to make a water bottle with ice, brought my Dr. Cool cooling cloth and stayed in the shade on the road as much as possible. I used my 30/30 intervals. And if I was getting too warm I poured ice water on my head and my towel and walked an interval longer to be safe.

I was happy with my progress. My speed wasn’t fast; but I wanted the miles to increase from my previous run which was 4 miles on Friday. I don’t feel any affects from running in the heat and my legs feel fine so I’ll continue with my Beach Body workouts to help keep my hamstrings and glutes strong and will hopefully increase the mileage again along with my confidence.

This is the reason why I started my blog in the first place. I wanted to use it as a diary for my running progress and to help me look back on past training to see what worked and what didn’t work. I do recall that with every marathon I begin to increase my mileage for, I always get nervous when I have to get back up to the double digits; but I always do fine. It’s a mental challenge more than anything else.

So with 18 weeks to go, I have no interest in rushing my summer away counting down the weeks; but I will put in my time and I want to have a very strong NYC marathon experience.

NYC marathon training plan - Wife Mother Runner

26 Weeks Until The New York City Marathon

May 1, 2017

I hate bridges!

I have 26 weeks until the New York City marathon and I have felt a little nervous about it lately. I am not nervous about running a marathon, I’ve done that several times before. I am most nervous about running over the first bridge, the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge! I hate bridges! I saw some photos with people running across the bridge and some are running in the middle. I think that is where I need to be, in the middle so I can’t see below me.

My New York City Marathon Training Plan

I am also nervous about training for the New York City Marathon. I have to go back to the beginning of my racing days and when I trained for my first marathon. I took it seriously. I have to stick to my schedule.

Training officially begins on June 3 with a 6 mile run. I will follow the Jeff Galloway training plan that I followed when I trained for my first Disney marathon. This program works well for me. I have been training with a 30/30 interval and that seems to get me through the miles with no injury and little pain.

My intention this Spring and Summer is to only run races that are going to support my training plan. I want to run for fun right now without a fixed schedule before I am on a more rigid plan. I have been cross training with weights and my beach body video library of exercises to help strengthen my glutes, hamstrings and quads. I think that is going to be important to keep me healthy and strong for this race.

This race is a serious race for me. There won’t be character stops like there are at the Disney World marathon, so I hope to achieve a decent finish time. My best marathon finish time to date is 5 hours and 40 minutes. I don’t anticipate I will have that great of a finish time; but I’d like to get anything under 6 hours.

What Have I Been Up To?

February 6, 2016

It’s been a little less than a month since the Dopey Challenge was over and I’m still getting out and enjoying my time on the roads. Some days I have been choosing to walk rather than run. Part of it is because I was fighting off a cold. I typically don’t care and just run through it; but I figured what do I have to prove? Why not just walk and enjoy the time out there?

We have been having the strangest weather. One weekend it will be 50 degrees and everything has a hint of Spring on it; then we will get a snow squal and everything is coated with white; only to melt a day later. Then the following weekend we will have a snow storm dump 12 inches on it – 7 days later 50 degrees and all the snow is gone. We are now on the colder trend of weather and the talk is that there will be more snow coming this week.

On Thursday I went for a walk. I planned on getting in at least 4 miles. The weather forecasters kept changing their forecast throughout the day from what was to be a potential 1″ dusting for our area to a much more significant snow. I knew something was up when I was out on my walk because all of the geese were in the fields gathering up food. I took a detour from my usual walk and went into a cornfield and followed it back into a section I have never walked before. I wanted to mix things up a little bit. I was enjoying my Laugh or Go Crazy podcast and felt like I was getting some soul healing that I was needing.

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The following day the kids had a snow day. I worked all day and then around 4:30 I needed to get out of the house and run. The roads were plowed and the kids were playing in the snow. I was antsy for my fresh air fix. Although it was slippery in spots I really enjoyed my time on the road. It was just before the sun set and the views were spectacular!

A first for me – I took a picture without make up on!

So what am I up to race-wise? I have been averaging between 3-6 mile runs but need to get in a little bit of a longer run to prepare for the runDisney Princess Half Marathon weekend Glass Slipper Challenge I am running with Mandy. I was planning to do the Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon in Washington D.C. in March but am going to pass on that since it is a long drive for a half marathon. I was going to turn it into a family trip; but we want to spend more time in the city and enjoy the sights. The runDisney Star Wars Dark Side Challenge is taking place in April so I will run that with Diana and Mandy and it takes place during our family vacation to Disney.

I haven’t made decisions yet for my other race plans. Since I am passing on the D.C. race, I will run the Chicago Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon because I was given the bib by Team Chocolate Milk. I wasn’t sure that I was going to want to run that race again; but I loved Chicago and had a great time with Susana Cruz so I hope we can hook up again and maybe I can encourage some of my other friends to run this race also.

I did toss my hat into the ring for the sweepstakes for the New York City Marathon. So now I wait to hear if that is going to fall into my plans for “not running a Fall marathon”. If that does turn up as a Yes then I have some thinking to do. I believe it also falls on the same weekend as the runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon. So I may defer for the following year if I do get into NYC. Again, time will tell.

So that’s what I have been up to lately.

Tag: NYC Marathon