My husband Anthony and I are in New York City and we have just run the ING New York City Marathon. It’s been a couple of days since that happened and we still can’t believe that we did it! Yes, we have run all the five boroughs of New York — from Staten Island to Manhattan — in what has been described as the coldest day of the year since March.
Anthony aimed to break his personal record so I knew it was not gonna be a walk in the park for him with me, even as I imagined it to be a romantic way to celebrate our 20th year as husband and wife. He had a different agenda from mine so I psyched myself to be entertained by the sights, sounds, and the people of New York. I armed myself with a camera, an iPod with songs that my children programmed for me complete with their greetings and all. I was determined to enjoy every minute of my run and not be confined to breaking any records or speeding to the finish line. I wanted to smell, feel, and taste New York!
There was a forecast the day before the race that assured us it would be sunny and not cold or rainy, but then again, we are Filipinos and so when Americans say it won’t be cold, we need to take that with a grain of salt. Even though I was armed with throwaway layers, beanies, and gloves, I decided to shed them off too early before the starting line as I didn’t want to be too warm. Well, guess what, I froze!
It was a cold, windy route all throughout the race! Just when I felt my hands were about to disengage from my body and fall off, my running buddy’s friend, who was a Pinay, gave me her gloves when she came to cheer Jo. Jo Pua and I met at the Timex booth and we hit if off well from the start. We decided to run together and planned strategies together while chit-chatting about all sorts of things. We sped off for the 13 miles, which was half of the marathon already as a full marathon or “mary†consisted of 26.2 miles or 42 kilometers. We couldn’t believe we were so fast when we felt so relaxed and we even walked during water station breaks. Unfortunately, I had to let her go ahead because my knee clicked and then I couldn’t run anymore.
The rest of my body was in great shape. I was well hydrated, not hungry at all. My heart was good and no aches or pains anywhere else except my right knee. It was the first time I felt any pain there. I was so sad and frustrated because I had already imagined finishing faster than what I had aimed to do. The battle in such marathons starts with the mind. As soon as I felt frustrated, all of a sudden I felt the cold and then started to feel pity for myself and found myself alone that I started to cry. I then felt weak and almost defeated, but I heard loud shouts that I thought I recognized. When I turned to see who was shouting, I found a group of Filipinos carrying placards while cheering, “Go, Team Pangilinan!†I thought that was such a nice coincidence that they happened to be there for their Pangilinan friends. I went to have a photo with these Pinoys and told them I was in pain. They kept cheering me on, which gave me enough encouragement to move on. Something changed my whole perspective of the race though — it was when I asked who the Pangilinan they were rooting for and they said it was me and Anthony. That realization brought me to tears. I asked them why and how they got there. They said they were following us on Twitter and they were there for us! I couldn’t help crying and it was too much for me to imagine that they had gone all the way there to the race venue and braced the cold for us. It was enough motivation to move on and carry on with the task we had started because people were actually there for us, believing in us and hoping for the best for us.
I left the sidelines a changed person. I focused my thoughts on the names of the people I had written on my bib with specific prayer requests, but my head was now aching from the cold and my nutritional level was low. I knew I had to reach for a banana but the only one available was at a nearby store. Just before I got to the store, a little boy carrying a banana was there to cheer and give food. Again, for me that must have been from heaven. Then, after a few blocks, I heard someone cheer again and it was Anthony’s college friends. They gave me some medicines to arrest my headache and then pretzels to provide me with salt. I then found a running buddy in the name of Steven Gonzalez from Florida who cramped so badly he couldn’t run anymore. Together, we walked the last 13 miles of the marathon and managed to sprint the last 800 meters to the finish line in 6:50 hours.
I am certain that one needs to be half-crazy to even imagine finishing a full mary and I know I would rather be called that than never experiencing something that only very few people in the world get to — run the largest marathon in the world with 70,000 runners this year but with only 50,000 plus making it to the end. It’s a test of endurance, physical fitness, discipline, patience, and focus. The best part of the race would have to be the celebration that meets you at every step of the way, be it from bystanders, cheerleaders, singers, dancers, entertainers, volunteers, medics, water station folks, the porta potty guards, co-runners, and friends and family you leave behind but are all rooting for you. This is the only way to live life and live it to the fullest as a testament of thanks to God who has given the will and the way to live life well. So, it is true that the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Take that step and you might find yourself half-crazy just like me.
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