This upcoming Sunday, November 7th, 2021, is the NYC Marathon and it has been a long time coming. I ran the marathon in 2018 and when I heard that the 2020 marathon was going to be the 50th anniversary of the race, I knew I wanted to be a part of it. At the time I worked for the organization that plans the marathon called New York Road Runners. NYRR has a 9+1 program where you run 9 races and volunteer at one to earn automatic entry to the following year’s marathon (but you still have to pay the fee to actually get into the race). In December 2018, when I got my job with Desus and Mero and left NYRR, I signed up for as many races as I could so they would be free, which ended up being 5 races. I only had to pay for 4 more and volunteer once to complete the 9+1 program. As 2020 started, like so many people, I was excited for all that the new year and decade would bring. If nothing else happened that year, I thought at least I had one big goal that I wanted to achieve. The year ended up being a surprisingly uneventful one compared to the one I had planned since so many big events were cancelled due to COVID.
As 2021 started, I was keeping my eye on the NYRR social media because I was curious to see what the plan was for the marathon. As vaccines were announced, I was hoping that was good news for the 50th marathon. Finally, on May 19th, I received my email inviting me to sign up for the marathon. I emailed my boss to make sure I could have the day off since we started working on Sundays, and, thankfully, she gave me the go ahead. On June 8th, I waited in a brief virtual queue until I finally entered the site for registration and quickly entered my information.
A big thing for me when I have trained for my past 2 marathons was being involved with a charitable organization so that I was doing something for the betterment of others alongside working on something good for myself. This year was no different, so on June 28th, I signed up for Team in Training (TNT) which is an organization that raises money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Since I already had an entry into the marathon, my fundraising goal was $1,000. Compared to my previous TNT experiences, where I had to raise $3,000 plus and surpassed each goal, I felt confident that I would fundraise enough and I did!
This training season has been so different from my usual ones. I used to say that I would never be able to train for a marathon by myself. I have always stuck to the TNT group runs and training program. For the last NYC Marathon, I would meet my teammates at Prospect Park every Saturday. It was during these runs where I learned how to run with 3+1 intervals, which means we would run for 3 minutes and then walk 1 minute the entire length of each of our runs.
While I was involved with TNT this year and tried to keep to the mileage that was suggested on the calendar in the Sixcycle app, each long run I’ve completed has been done by myself mostly on a Monday or Tuesday since those have been my “weekends.” I always thought I would need someone to keep me accountable, but I think just the idea that a marathon feels impossible without training was enough to get me out there each week. I learned that although I would dread the start of the run, by a few miles in, I would get into a stride and my body would feel comfortable in the 3+1 intervals – like I was kind of having fun! I felt that between miles 6 and 13, I was in my sweet spot – probably the closest I’ve felt to a runners high.
Three weeks ago, I ran my longest run which was 18 miles. Overall I felt ok while I ran, but afterwards, I felt so achy and overwhelmed that I became nauseated. I was supposed to have brunch with my two friends, Megan and Anita, and I had to cancel on them because it was too much to handle for the day. I drank water, rolled out my muscles, iced, and took a LONG nap (nearly 3 hours!!) and then I felt a little better. It made me nervous about how race day would make me feel. Thankfully since then, I’ve had 8, 9, and 12 mile runs that have relieved my panic. On all of those runs, similar to this whole training season, I didn’t want to start, but then as I finished my first mile over the Queensboro Bridge, I got into a rhythm. My playlist had a good beat and I took one mile at a time. I’m not fast – I’m SO slow compared to my friends who’ve also run the marathon – but I’m steady. I keep going and I feel really proud of myself for completing each run.
Now, I’m 5 days away from the race. Today, I ran 8 miles over the 59th St Bridge, over to Central park and ran the 5 mile loop. As I made my way to the lower west side of the park, I saw the gates being placed and the marathon tents being constructed and I felt really emotional. I ended the mileage by running through the finish line. After all these months and solo miles, I cannot believe that marathon week has finally arrived.
On race day, my only real goal is that I finish the race and feel pretty good that evening afterward. I would like to beat my last marathon which was completed in 5 hours and 54 minutes. So, if I could shave off 4 minutes, that would be ideal, but I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. I know that no matter what, I worked really hard for months to train properly, raised over $1000 for LLS, and followed through on my goal from 2018. Third time is truly the charm – 3 years after running the New York Streets, I’ll have finished my third marathon – something young me would have never predicted!
Sending you all lots of love,
Alanna
every so often... 
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