A#1 Top OF The Heap!!!
Skinnyhead runs the NYC Marathon
If you haven't heard by now our own Skinnyhead, aka Pat Kelleher sucessfully ran the NY Marathon last weekend. He broke 4 hours too, with enough time left over to make a two minute egg. The Official time was 3:58:28.Here is Skinnyheads accounts of his wonderful accomplishment.
I'm gonna wrap this up and thank you all once again, my friends. The whole
experience ranks in my Top-10 All Time. The day was close to perfect in all
respects. Accomplishing the goal (sub 4:00:00) was the cherry on top.
I
am on my third day of recovery and feel good enough to go back to the gym (but
didn't yet). I used my experience from 2004 to train smarter and to pay better
attention to my diet. AB, if you're still training for that distance event I
found that a key thing for endurance is to train your body to burn fat once
you've run out of glycogen (carbs). The way to do that is to just gradually push
yourself past your limit during the training period. You can PM me for
details.
As I said before I ran, you guys and gals were definitely a
factor. I thought about the people who were pulling for me often during the
marathon and the BTB family was right there when I needed you.
The race
itself was a very manageable 4 hours (to quote Michael Kay) mostly because I
paced myself from the start. As a matter of fact, my first 4 miles were my
slowest. Mostly because I got crammed into a pack of runners who went out slower
than I would have. But rather than try to weave around all the other runners (a
mistake I made in 2004) I let myself start out slowly, saving some gas in the
tank for later. I wasn't really sure if that's how it would work. But it seemed
to have had that effect. So while my overall average mile was a 9:06, my first 4
were average to 9:50. And as a matter of fact, as I got to the last 2 miles and
thought I needed to kick it up a bit to make the sub-4 hr. mark I ran averages
around 7:50. 
I started the race wearing my Yankee hat, figuring I could
just toss it if I got too warm at any point. (I was running in a sleeveless mesh
shirt and shorts. Most people were wearing layers...huh???!) But the Yankee cap
stayed with me. I swear I barely broke a sweat for the first 15 miles. For that
reason I just cruised past the Gatorade and water stations at every mile,
managing to pass dozens of people each time.
"Hitting the Wall" is when
your body runs out of fuel to burn, like I talked about before. In 2004 I hit
the wall hard at the 20th mile. It was exactly where my training took me, and
that's why this year I was so determined to do it differently. All the horror
stories about "hitting the wall" are real. There is no worse feeling. It is the
ultimate "Oh $h!t!" moment when you realize your body wants to quit and you
still have 6+ miles to go. So this year, when I got to mile 20 and felt alright
I was psyched. At Mile 20 you are in the Bronx (my hometown). The crowd in the
Bronx is a little subdued. So I took off my Yankee cap and started waving it at
the crowd, yellin , "BRONX!!! YANKEES!!!...." anything tho get the crowd going.
When I hit Mile #22 I was waiting to see if I was going to hit the wall. My
longest run in training was 22 miles. But I felt alright and got even more
psyched. So now I was like a lunatic for the rest of the Marathon, waving my
Yankee cap at the crowd, yelling , "New York, Baby!!! New York!!!" I was getting
a little tired of all the applause for all the European competitors. This is New
Freakin' York!!! Let's hear it!!!
The crowd was great. They always are.
Wifehead came down to see me, but somehow missed me on 1st Avenue. We were able
to
meet up on 5th Ave, before Central Park and it was a boost that I needed for
the last 4 miles.
As I ran the last few miles in the park I felt fatigue
start to creep in. But I shook it off and increased my pace. In my mind it would
very possibly be my last time doing this. So I wanted to hold nothing back. I
virtually sprinted the last 300 yards, finishing with a minute and a half to
spare to get to 4 hours.
So thank you all for indulging me here. It means
a lot to me. That Marathon became my life for 6 months leading up to it. Now it
is done and I have great memories and great stories to tell about it. When the
pictures go up on the NYC Marathon website I will let you know.