This is my third time running the New York City Marathon, have a read of my NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2017 and NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2018 to see how the previous two years have gone. Some highs and some lows in there and more of the same to come in 2019.

The day began with a 4:30am alarm, thankfully, the clocks go back an hour the morning of the NYC Marathon so we get an extra hour in bed. I slept really well, getting just over 8 hours.

I selected the bag drop option and the mid-town bus. I like to do the bag drop so that I can have some fresh stuff to change into at the finish and get the recovery process off to a good start with my protein shake.

I had packed my bag the night before with everything I would need at the start and most of my race clothes. I was heading to the start in my shorts and singlet with an old pair of throw-away jeans and a hoodie to keep me warm along with my new 2019 NYC marathon jacket which would go in the bag just prior to bag drop closing.

I had two pots of porridge, a Clif bar and some SiS Go Energy Electrolyte drink. All of which I would eat/drink in the start village around an hour before the start of the race.

I left the hotel at 5am for the walk from 48th Street & 8th to the midtown library on 42rd Street & 5th. Not too far but I wanted to try and grab a Starbucks coffee on the way. The first few shops were closed and Times Square was empty at that time.

I did find a Starbucks that was just opening up and was already packed with runners all with the same idea. I don’t think the staff were ready for a surge of business at that time of the day.

I did bump into an Instagram friend, @Owen_d_Hughes who I knew was running today but we had not arranged to meet up. It can be a small world at times, bumping into someone you know in a coffee shop in a city with 8.5 million people living there, not to mention the many thousands of visitors.

It was nice chatting with Owen on the way to the bus, our wait wasn’t that long, around 15 minutes and we were on a bus heading out to Staten Island, treated to a stunning sunrise on what was set to be a beautiful and perfect day for running.

We arrived at the start village at 6:30am and had a 3 hour wait until go time. These 3 hours flew by, and having someone to chat with really helped.

I was assigned Orange Corral C in wave 1 but wanted to drop into the Green wave Corral B so I could run with the 3:05 pace group. The volunteers at the corral entrance quite rightly said no at first but in the end, they let me in so that I could run with the pace group. To be honest, I was trying my arm here, I didn’t expect them to let me join a lower corral. Having been assigned to Orange C, I could drop to Green C or any colour coral D and above, not go to a lower number. I know! it is complicated, in future, I will just stick with what I am given and avoid stressing my day any more than I need to.

I was lucky enough to be paced by the super-fast Marie-Ange Brumelot in the 3:05 group. She is a 2:36 marathoner so more than capable of dragging me around with her. Her plan was to pretty much even pace it at 7:03min/mile pace but slow slightly on the hill and recover that time over the miles before and after the hill.

 Mile 1 – 6: 7:31, 6:24, 7:00, 7:07, 7:00, 7:05

The race started off well. I was running in my singlet, sleeves, gloves and Dunkin hat and quickly went from shivering at the start to feeling too hot within 3 miles. The Dunkin hat soon went into the crowd.

The pace felt ok and manageable. I hadn’t run much at this pace due to a calf strain back in May but I did run a half marathon at 6:45min/mile pace in September so I knew I could hold a slightly slower pace for 13.1 miles. Could I hold it for the duration of a marathon? Doubtful but you have to roll the dice and see.

After a quiet first 2 miles on the bridge, we hit Brooklyn and the noise hit us, the crowd support once again was fantastic. Running through Brooklyn is my favourite part of this marathon. The energy through this first 13 miles is on a whole different level to any other race.

Mile 7 – 13: 6:59, 7:04, 7:07, 6:50, 7:14, 6:56, 6:57

This stint went without issue, I was still with the 3:05 pace group dropping in just behind the pacers. My nutrition was going to plan, a SiS Gel every 30 mins and water every 3rd table with a Gatorade from the following table.

I was feeling good but knew it was still very early doors even if I had hit halfway. Let’s face it, most marathons don’t start until you are 20 miles deep. This is certainly true about New York City. Mile 15 to 26 is where all the tough sections are before you even factor in the fatigue of the first half.

I did still feel really warm and my heart rate had been over 160bpm from the start, this seemed high in comparison to previous marathons but my heart rate had been higher than usual since my return from Myanmar 4 weeks ago.

Mile 14 – 21: 7:01, 7:52, 7:56, 7:36, 7:28, 8:51, 9:23, 8:18

During mile 14 I began to feel sick and dizzy, I made it to mile 15 and the foot of the Queensboro Bridge and was sick. I don’t know what caused it, I hadn’t tried anything new pre-race or during the race but the sickness didn’t go away. I was sick on and off for the next 7 miles, causing my pace to drop and I lost touch with the pace group.

Once I was running by myself and not feeling good at all, it was hard to pace the remaining miles. I knew I couldn’t hold the 7:03/mi pace so I wanted to try and run 7:30/mi pace but even that was looking a step too far.

I knew my wife and daughter were waiting at mile 17, which gave me a boost as I was running up 1st Ave I was counting the streets down and then I couldn’t see them and passed by. That was a new low, having built myself up knowing I would see familiar faces and some love & support to then not getting it hit me hard.

It was a mental battle now as much as a physical one. The sickness had really affected my pace and negative thoughts were starting to come in, could I even finish the race in this state? what if the medical team see me being sick and pull me out?

I decided to make sure that no matter what, I would run through each water station / medical team so that they only see me running and not being ill.

Mile 22 – 26.2: 8:18, 8:28, 8:23, 7:52, 7:52, 6:47

At mile 22 I was sick for the final time. A small win but as each mile passed I grew in confidence although still not feeling well. Mile 23 passed without issue and I knew the next mile contained the last hill and my family at the top so I plodded up there and to be honest, it didn’t feel hard at all at that pace. One small win for running a lot slower than you planned. Once again, I missed my family but they said they did spot me this time. Missing them this time didn’t affect me as much, now I just wanted to get to the finish line and get the job done.

Once in the park, my pace picked up. I saw that I was on for around 3:22 – 3:23 at the current pace. To help the mental battle, I set a target of running 1 min per mile faster and to try and get in under 3:20. Knowing that anything under 3:35 would give me my 3rd quickest marathon anyway but I wanted to get under 3:20 again.

When I turned off Central Park South and back into the park, I was running flat out, well flat out for someone with 26 miles in their legs. I often find when I am running hard late on in a race, feeling the full fatigue of the miles ran before, my head rocks back a little. Clearly, the strength draining from the body and neck… Something clearly demonstrated in this photo. Either that or I am running carrying an imaginary pizza box. I was certainly dreaming of pizza that’s for sure.

Crossing the line in 3:18.37, under my new target of 3:20 and actually just 55 seconds slower than the 2018 race despite all the issues between 15 – 22 miles.

I didn’t feel good at the finish and felt gutted that I had missed out on my goal of 3:05 but I felt good about finishing another marathon. It is no small task running a marathon so any finish is something to be proud of.

I must have been feeling bad as I walked all the way out of the park without picking up my medal, goodie bag or bag drop bag. I got to the 85th street exit and realised. Those who have run New York City will know, the walk from the finish to the exit is LONG!!!! and the 85th street exit is the furthest exit point, a full 1.2 miles from the finish line.

Back I went, all the way to the finish line to collect my medal and goodies.

Clocking up an extra 3.6 miles on top of the 26.2 is not something I would recommend but it did help keep the legs moving. At least I did get that medal in the end.

Brief roundup:

So, my 11th marathon and the 3rd fastest of the lot. Something to be happy about right? I can’t help but feel disappointed with the race result having set myself a goal of running 3:05, a time that would not even be troubling a PB and then falling so short of it.

I left 5 days before writing this update so that I could write it with a clear mind and less emotion. Someone once told me to leave it 72 hours before reflecting or making any decisions post-race.

The 5 days post-race have given me time to think more about why this wasn’t such a bad race. Yes, it was my 3rd fastest but other key points to take from this one. I did not give up when things went so wrong when being ill. I was able to refocus on a new goal and push to achieve that in the end. The calf held up and felt perfectly fine for the full distance. On that note, my training was massively affected by the calf injury. 21 weeks before race day I started this marathon training block by running the first 1 mile run after 12 weeks out with the injury. I went from running 1 mile in week one to running 40+ mile weeks from week 15.

In effect, I ran this marathon with just 6 weeks of proper marathon training. To have even been thinking of running a 3:05 marathon with less than 600 miles of running in 7 months was always going to be a challenge.

I am happy to have completed my third New York City marathon and to have clocked my 2nd and 3rd fastest marathons on this course. A course that is not flat and fast.

Same again in 2020? the 50th-anniversary race…… quite possibily.

2020 Update: Well the plan was to run NYC again in 2020 but we all know what happened in 2020.