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New York Marathon 2003 by
Doug Paterson
Last summer, I
decided to run the New York Marathon with one of my good friends. I had always
wanted to run a marathon and doing so also gave me a good opportunity to raise
awareness of CRY and some much needed sponsorship money, (something that I had
been meaning to do for a while, as my brother had died of sudden cardiac death
in 2002 whilst playing football and CRY has been a tremendous source of advice
and support for my family).
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I
arrived in New York on the Friday night two days before the race and
although this didn't allow me much time to acclimatise it turned out to have
a beneficial impact as jet lag meant that waking up at 5 30am on race day
was relatively easy. The coach pick up was right next to my hotel so I was
still half asleep during the 45 minute journey down to Staten Island,
however on arrival at the starting area I soon woke up, as the atmosphere
was incredible, there were bands playing live music, numerous stalls
providing free gifts, food and energy drinks and a real buzz about the place
which made the couple of hours before the start a thoroughly enjoyable
experience.
 We were
rounded up for the start of the race about twenty minutes early, which was a
fairly claustrophobic and tense period of time ended by the thundering blast
of an air horn. Unsurprisingly, given the fact that over 30 000 people were
running the race, the first two miles were a bit congested and incredibly
slow, however this worked out pretty well for me as it served as a valuable
warm up and also helped to delay the inevitable i.e. me hitting the wall.
After the congestion cleared up the run turned into a thoroughly
entertaining affair, the crowds were tremendous, incredibly vocal and
supportive and there were live bands every half mile or so and ‘high
fives’ all round
The buzz
generated by the crowds and the music meant that running the first 10 miles
or so was well-nigh effortless and I actually began to believe that the
whole thing was going to be far easier than expected. However, around mile
twelve reality started to kick in and I quickly began to realise that this
‘buzz’ was not going to carry me through the whole race. From mile 12 to
about mile 19 the run got progressively more difficult but I was still
making good time and knew that if I kept running I would manage to beat the
3 hour 30min target I had set myself (and more importantly beat P-Diddy, the
New York rapper who was also running the race for charity). However, from
mile 20 onwards I really began
to struggle, each mile took longer and longer to complete and as I noticed
more and more people pulling up with fatigue and cramp I began to wonder
whether or not I would finish. For that last stage of the race I really just
shut off everything around me, so much so that I totally missed my friends
in the crowd, despite the fact that they were screaming my name, apparently
only a few yards away from me as I ran past.
During
the last mile or so through Central Park the only thing going through my
mind was to keep on running, I knew from experience that my legs would cramp
up the second I stopped so I really focussed on maintaining my momentum,
which I realised was vital if I was to finish at all. I finally shuffled
across the finish line in a time of 3 hours 24 mins (comfortably ahead of P-Diddy)
and despite an unparalleled sense of exhaustion felt a real sense of
achievement and elation through completing the event.
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