It was a shivering 42 degrees when I woke race day morning at 6am.. Not your ideal weather to go run 37.5 miles in. But me and my buddy Matt headed into NY City anyway. Now luckily this race didnt start till 8:30 am , so by that time it had warmed up a few degrees already. Normally a Central Park race can attract thousands… BUT not this one.. Not many people looking to torure themselves for 37.5 miles, there was maybe 40 people at this race.
The gun fires and we are off to the races. The race starts with a 1.5 mile out and back, and then you do a 4 mile loop 9X. So we got the first 15 miles or so down with just about no problems… but both of us can feel fatigue is going to start setting in. Matt had just done NYC Marathon 2 weeks prior,, and I had just set my personal best at Ironman Florida 2 weeks prior also… So we were both still a little beaten up.
We get the first 20 under our belt and our time was still on pace to where we wanted it to be. Matt has been experiencing shin splints pretty bad and they just get the best of you when you do something of this magnitude.. So after the 6th loop ( mile 25.5 or so ) he had to call it a day. So now I am stuck doing the last 3 loops ( 12 miles ) all by myself..
Well I can tell you this – THAT WAS NOT FUN AT ALL !!!!! But I made it through and finished the race in 7 hrs and 47 minutes – I was in alot of pain for the next couple of days.. But another race under my belt.
And I live to race another day
Frank Cardia
