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).
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.
