It’s me again! You’ve been with me from the beginning on and now I would like to share an experience of a lifetime - the day of my first marathon. Yes, I made it to the finish line!
For those of you who don’t have time to further read here is a quick summary of the marathon day in pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/TmVGQHVaRyRwQk169
And for the rest, who want to know more details, keep reading . . . mile by mile . . .
Mile 0: Standing at Verrazano Bridge was one of the first wow – moments. True, it was a long wait since we had to arrive at Staten Island at 6.30am and the race didn’t start until 10.20am. Time passes by quickly when you have around 43000 people from 65 countries to talk to. A man who looked totally normal turned out to be a super-runner in disguise. He said that he has done 256 marathons, which left quite an impression on me. Close to 10am all runners from Wave 3 were asked to approach the start line. You could feel the excitement rising! Standing at the start line literally felt like “the Beginning of the End”. The End of 4 months of training - the Beginning of what turned out to be the most memorable, painful yet fun 26.2 miles of my life. The view of Manhattan on the left, the water on the right, the sea of people in front, and Sinatra’s song “New York” in the background made it really a wow-moment.
Mile 1: Verrazano Bridge – amazing view.
Mile 2- 3: The first few miles in Brooklyn can be described only with two words “Viva Mexico!”. Mexican flags, super laud music, people with national Mexican costumes … the first sign of a laud party! You could see runners from different countries (mostly European) stopping to take pictures of the colorful Mexican scenery!
Mile 4-7: The adrenaline was hitting hard and according to my watch, I was going faster than I should have been. I was flying through the course, discovering the Kenyan in me, against my coach’s warning not to give in to the cheering crowd.
Mile 8: I knew people would be waiting for me – Seeing Dida, Tania and Boyan made me happy and I still had energy to laugh as evident by the pictures. I felt a moment of big accomplishment outrunning the Eifel Tower that a poor French guy was carrying on his back ;) (see picture link above).
Mile 9-12: I felt in love with Brooklyn. The streets were packed with people who were there to support all runners, some of them with inspirational posters, others with funny ones and it truly felt like this was a special day of the year for this borough. The bands playing, the gospel choir singing and the sea of runners hand-dancing under the melody of UMCA’s song, made this part of the Marathon quite charming.
Mile 13: Pulaski Bridge –entering Queens! Half way done- it felt like mile 13 came so quickly (adrenalin does miracles for you, indeed!). A runner with a prosthetic leg was making his way on the bridge and all runners started applauding! It was truly an inspiring moment!
Mile 14-15: Two miles in Queens that felt quick. The only thing I remember about Queens was the advertisement that says GOOD BUY FEAR and the excitement of going into Queensboro Bridge…
Mile 16th: Needless to say the view of Manhattan from Queensboro Bridge was breathtaking. Almost one mile–long bridge; it was the longest distance without any cheering, so it was quiet! I remember running next to a man from Holland, who was so stunned by the view that he started talking how great New York is and then kept asking questions and I found myself telling my life story to a Hollander. Then I started losing my breath from all the talking and I realized that chatting during a marathon is probably not a good idea, so I left the Hollander in my dust:).
Mile 17th: Finally home! Entering Manhattan and the crowd cheering was a true Manhattan greeting: crazy and very loud!
Mile 18th: Seeing mentor Rob, Darren, Gwen and other TNT members going mental the moment they spotted me was priceless. It was a big surprise to see them and I could see on their faces they were quite surprised to see me too, still running. I wish I could capture that moment.
Mile 19th. OK . That was really hard. I started feeling cramps in my legs like I’ve never felt before. I knew someone would be waiting for me on 120th street but at the time mile 20 felt so far away. I remember trying to eat an energy gel but somehow it took forever to swallow it. And then salvation came. Paige was her name - Paige, a friend I met at TNT, with here megaphone, screaming my name came to the rescue. She started running with me. I must have looked in a bad shape and probably running quite slowly since she was able to keep up with me while carrying her jacket, backpack, megaphone and a few more items. She was a running “emergency kit”, asking me if I needed any medicine or something to eat (sorry out of donuts she said…). I remember her telling me that it was snowing in Beijing ( hu???) and trying to convince me that I was not the last one. The one question I found energy to ask was “Could you turn and see if there are people behind me?”.
Mile 20: The surprise was huge! Seeing so many people cheering for me was unbelievable- surprise visit from Martin, Eli, Doug, Divita, Mark,Tania, Bobo and Lian, made me feel so special. I remember the feeling of being disoriented, stunned but really happy. I also remember my attempt to bend my knees and stretch my legs, which was unsuccessful and painful!
Mile 21: Hello Bronx! I tried picturing the running map and visualized where Bronx was on the map. I remember thinking “wow, that’s a lot of mileage, I should be really tired by now!” And I was –very much so. I stopped for a minute to grab one of the massage sticks people were giving on the street- that helped a bit. There was a huge TV screen that was showing all the runners and I saw myself there too. That was a nice touch!
Mile 22: Surprise! Paige + a few TNT members + Tania & Bobo - That gave me a second Wind!
Mile 23: Back in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue and there I saw Angel! No, not a flying one from Heaven just Angel. Seeing Angel was such a nice surprise. He started jogging along with me, making a good effort to convince me that the end was not far and if I made it so far I will make it till the end.
I was soo tired at this point, I remember saying “It hurts soo bad” but Angel gave me a pad on the back, saying “Davai Galya, you can do it!”.A genuine encounter that made me happy. Half a mile later, Coach Steve jumped in front of me from nowhere. He should be lucky he was not hit by the 5 mile/hour traffic. With a smile on his face, as always, he said that was my day and I had to keep running just 2 more miles. He was by my side until we reached Central Park making sure that I was OK. I think I also saw Coach Ramon right before entering Central Park (who ran the marathon the same day), cheering from the street side but it could have been a vision from the physical exhaustion.
Mile 24: Another surprise came. I saw a colleague of mine from Paris who was visiting the office during the week -Renaud . A high-five from him was quite helpful in engaging my mind in analyzing the following problem: there were 43 000 runners, 2 million people cheering along 26.2 miles, so I started pondering what the probability was of meeting somebody who, as far as I knew, was supposed to be flying back to France at the same time. This turned out to be a very good mental exercise and I vaguely remember getting some numerical answer for the problem above but more importantly that mental exercise helped me ignore the terrible pain I was feeling everywhere in my body.
Mile 25: I could almost smell the finish line. Right before I exited the Park, Coach Pete appeared from nowhere and started running with me for a few meters, telling me something about a sign marked One Mile Left…
Mile 26: Madness, people around Columbus Circle were going crazy, the loudest crowd ever and in the middle of this madness I saw more familiar faces- Poly and Ted. I was stunned to see them. Later, I found out that this was strategically coordinated with modern mobile technology. . .It was so much fun seeing them, I even had to turn back after I passed them just to make sure it was real.
And there it was, just right around the corner – THE FINISH LINE!
After mile 26.2: Marathon Monday- such a nice day! I was not able to make it to the office. I could not even stand on my feet or sit, or move in any way. The one thing I was able to do, was to be in my pajamas and wear my (gold) medal reading the New York Times Marathon edition. I was hoping to see my name next to the elite runners. The best time was 2 hours and 15 min and it took me only 2 hours and 216 minutes to cross the finish line.
The Moral of the Story: An athlete was not born. Five and a half hours of running are not even close to a sport achievement (think about it, if I was on an airplane, I would have been in London for this time). However, what happened was that I was able to push limits and reach two goals – finish the marathon and raise funds for cancer research, both of which sounded almost impossible few months ago. The moral of the story is that when people come together, dreams are realized. I would like to thank you all for supporting me and supporting the LLS’s mission to wipe out blood cancer. I truly believe that it’s not a question of IF but a question of WHEN we will find a cure. I cannot thank you enough for your support and donations and for taking time off your busy schedules. I hope your support for the fight against cancer will not stop with my marathon. If I can run a marathon, anyone can do it and I cannot think of a better place to start than Team in Training. TNT has chapters almost in any state in the USA. If you sign up for TNT I guarantee, you’ll have an experience of a lifetime and I will be the first one to support you. If you would like to do the NYC marathon next year, apply now: http://www.nycmarathon.org/
The lottery applications are accepted now (it worked for me, so you might be the next lottery winner) and then sign for TNT but even if you don’t win the lottery you can still be a part of TNT. More info here: http://www.teamintraining.org/
This e-mail became way too long (after 26.2 miles, your perception of long does change a little bit).
And don’t forget – donations are accepted until Nov 14th. Funds raised up to date: $2,466!
THANK YOU for being a part of my journey, supporting the charity I believe in and making my first marathon unforgettable! I am out (for now), but keep checking the web/your e-mail, I’ll be back…soon!
Galya
For those of you who don’t have time to further read here is a quick summary of the marathon day in pictures:
https://goo.gl/photos/TmVGQHVaRyRwQk169
And for the rest, who want to know more details, keep reading . . . mile by mile . . .
Mile 0: Standing at Verrazano Bridge was one of the first wow – moments. True, it was a long wait since we had to arrive at Staten Island at 6.30am and the race didn’t start until 10.20am. Time passes by quickly when you have around 43000 people from 65 countries to talk to. A man who looked totally normal turned out to be a super-runner in disguise. He said that he has done 256 marathons, which left quite an impression on me. Close to 10am all runners from Wave 3 were asked to approach the start line. You could feel the excitement rising! Standing at the start line literally felt like “the Beginning of the End”. The End of 4 months of training - the Beginning of what turned out to be the most memorable, painful yet fun 26.2 miles of my life. The view of Manhattan on the left, the water on the right, the sea of people in front, and Sinatra’s song “New York” in the background made it really a wow-moment.
Mile 1: Verrazano Bridge – amazing view.
Mile 2- 3: The first few miles in Brooklyn can be described only with two words “Viva Mexico!”. Mexican flags, super laud music, people with national Mexican costumes … the first sign of a laud party! You could see runners from different countries (mostly European) stopping to take pictures of the colorful Mexican scenery!
Mile 4-7: The adrenaline was hitting hard and according to my watch, I was going faster than I should have been. I was flying through the course, discovering the Kenyan in me, against my coach’s warning not to give in to the cheering crowd.
Mile 8: I knew people would be waiting for me – Seeing Dida, Tania and Boyan made me happy and I still had energy to laugh as evident by the pictures. I felt a moment of big accomplishment outrunning the Eifel Tower that a poor French guy was carrying on his back ;) (see picture link above).
Mile 9-12: I felt in love with Brooklyn. The streets were packed with people who were there to support all runners, some of them with inspirational posters, others with funny ones and it truly felt like this was a special day of the year for this borough. The bands playing, the gospel choir singing and the sea of runners hand-dancing under the melody of UMCA’s song, made this part of the Marathon quite charming.
Mile 13: Pulaski Bridge –entering Queens! Half way done- it felt like mile 13 came so quickly (adrenalin does miracles for you, indeed!). A runner with a prosthetic leg was making his way on the bridge and all runners started applauding! It was truly an inspiring moment!
Mile 14-15: Two miles in Queens that felt quick. The only thing I remember about Queens was the advertisement that says GOOD BUY FEAR and the excitement of going into Queensboro Bridge…
Mile 16th: Needless to say the view of Manhattan from Queensboro Bridge was breathtaking. Almost one mile–long bridge; it was the longest distance without any cheering, so it was quiet! I remember running next to a man from Holland, who was so stunned by the view that he started talking how great New York is and then kept asking questions and I found myself telling my life story to a Hollander. Then I started losing my breath from all the talking and I realized that chatting during a marathon is probably not a good idea, so I left the Hollander in my dust:).
Mile 17th: Finally home! Entering Manhattan and the crowd cheering was a true Manhattan greeting: crazy and very loud!
Mile 18th: Seeing mentor Rob, Darren, Gwen and other TNT members going mental the moment they spotted me was priceless. It was a big surprise to see them and I could see on their faces they were quite surprised to see me too, still running. I wish I could capture that moment.
Mile 19th. OK . That was really hard. I started feeling cramps in my legs like I’ve never felt before. I knew someone would be waiting for me on 120th street but at the time mile 20 felt so far away. I remember trying to eat an energy gel but somehow it took forever to swallow it. And then salvation came. Paige was her name - Paige, a friend I met at TNT, with here megaphone, screaming my name came to the rescue. She started running with me. I must have looked in a bad shape and probably running quite slowly since she was able to keep up with me while carrying her jacket, backpack, megaphone and a few more items. She was a running “emergency kit”, asking me if I needed any medicine or something to eat (sorry out of donuts she said…). I remember her telling me that it was snowing in Beijing ( hu???) and trying to convince me that I was not the last one. The one question I found energy to ask was “Could you turn and see if there are people behind me?”.
Mile 20: The surprise was huge! Seeing so many people cheering for me was unbelievable- surprise visit from Martin, Eli, Doug, Divita, Mark,Tania, Bobo and Lian, made me feel so special. I remember the feeling of being disoriented, stunned but really happy. I also remember my attempt to bend my knees and stretch my legs, which was unsuccessful and painful!
Mile 21: Hello Bronx! I tried picturing the running map and visualized where Bronx was on the map. I remember thinking “wow, that’s a lot of mileage, I should be really tired by now!” And I was –very much so. I stopped for a minute to grab one of the massage sticks people were giving on the street- that helped a bit. There was a huge TV screen that was showing all the runners and I saw myself there too. That was a nice touch!
Mile 22: Surprise! Paige + a few TNT members + Tania & Bobo - That gave me a second Wind!
Mile 23: Back in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue and there I saw Angel! No, not a flying one from Heaven just Angel. Seeing Angel was such a nice surprise. He started jogging along with me, making a good effort to convince me that the end was not far and if I made it so far I will make it till the end.
I was soo tired at this point, I remember saying “It hurts soo bad” but Angel gave me a pad on the back, saying “Davai Galya, you can do it!”.A genuine encounter that made me happy. Half a mile later, Coach Steve jumped in front of me from nowhere. He should be lucky he was not hit by the 5 mile/hour traffic. With a smile on his face, as always, he said that was my day and I had to keep running just 2 more miles. He was by my side until we reached Central Park making sure that I was OK. I think I also saw Coach Ramon right before entering Central Park (who ran the marathon the same day), cheering from the street side but it could have been a vision from the physical exhaustion.
Mile 24: Another surprise came. I saw a colleague of mine from Paris who was visiting the office during the week -Renaud . A high-five from him was quite helpful in engaging my mind in analyzing the following problem: there were 43 000 runners, 2 million people cheering along 26.2 miles, so I started pondering what the probability was of meeting somebody who, as far as I knew, was supposed to be flying back to France at the same time. This turned out to be a very good mental exercise and I vaguely remember getting some numerical answer for the problem above but more importantly that mental exercise helped me ignore the terrible pain I was feeling everywhere in my body.
Mile 25: I could almost smell the finish line. Right before I exited the Park, Coach Pete appeared from nowhere and started running with me for a few meters, telling me something about a sign marked One Mile Left…
Mile 26: Madness, people around Columbus Circle were going crazy, the loudest crowd ever and in the middle of this madness I saw more familiar faces- Poly and Ted. I was stunned to see them. Later, I found out that this was strategically coordinated with modern mobile technology. . .It was so much fun seeing them, I even had to turn back after I passed them just to make sure it was real.
And there it was, just right around the corner – THE FINISH LINE!
After mile 26.2: Marathon Monday- such a nice day! I was not able to make it to the office. I could not even stand on my feet or sit, or move in any way. The one thing I was able to do, was to be in my pajamas and wear my (gold) medal reading the New York Times Marathon edition. I was hoping to see my name next to the elite runners. The best time was 2 hours and 15 min and it took me only 2 hours and 216 minutes to cross the finish line.
The Moral of the Story: An athlete was not born. Five and a half hours of running are not even close to a sport achievement (think about it, if I was on an airplane, I would have been in London for this time). However, what happened was that I was able to push limits and reach two goals – finish the marathon and raise funds for cancer research, both of which sounded almost impossible few months ago. The moral of the story is that when people come together, dreams are realized. I would like to thank you all for supporting me and supporting the LLS’s mission to wipe out blood cancer. I truly believe that it’s not a question of IF but a question of WHEN we will find a cure. I cannot thank you enough for your support and donations and for taking time off your busy schedules. I hope your support for the fight against cancer will not stop with my marathon. If I can run a marathon, anyone can do it and I cannot think of a better place to start than Team in Training. TNT has chapters almost in any state in the USA. If you sign up for TNT I guarantee, you’ll have an experience of a lifetime and I will be the first one to support you. If you would like to do the NYC marathon next year, apply now: http://www.nycmarathon.org/
The lottery applications are accepted now (it worked for me, so you might be the next lottery winner) and then sign for TNT but even if you don’t win the lottery you can still be a part of TNT. More info here: http://www.teamintraining.org/
This e-mail became way too long (after 26.2 miles, your perception of long does change a little bit).
And don’t forget – donations are accepted until Nov 14th. Funds raised up to date: $2,466!
THANK YOU for being a part of my journey, supporting the charity I believe in and making my first marathon unforgettable! I am out (for now), but keep checking the web/your e-mail, I’ll be back…soon!
Galya
