New York City Marathon Race Report

Thank you to everyone who sponsored, supported and tracked me on my New York City marathon run.

I had the most incredible day, from an early start in deepest Brooklyn, catching the bus, subway, ferry and bus to Staten Island, running over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at the start, with Lower Manhattan to our left in the morning sunlight; seeing my family three times at miles 9, 18 and 23, and my friends Philip and Jashiki and their home-made posters outside their apartment building on Fifth Ave (although sadly missing my friends Amy and Matt and Andy with their equally super posters because, D'Oh!, I was looking on the wrong side of the road); running past community choirs, steel bands and massive sound systems as we ran through Brooklyn, up into Queens, over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, where, after the noise and excitement of Long Island City, an eerie quiet descends and all you can hear is the sound of other runners’ shoes striking the ground, and breathing. We ran up First Ave through Manhattan all the way to the Bronx, across into Harlem, and back down Fifth Avenue past the museums to a glorious finish in Central Park. In fact it didn’t feel that glorious as the actual finish was UPHILL, which seemed rather uncalled for, but I could still just about appreciate the sumptuousness of the autumn leaves.

London has good crowd support but New York is something else. I had my name on my vest, and all the way along the route people shouted out to me: ‘Rebecca, you look AWESOME!’; ‘Rebecca, you got this!’ and ‘Good Job, Rebecca!’.  I was all high fiving little kids, and even after I’d finished and was hobbling along Columbus Ave to meet my family, people were coming up to me to say ‘Congratulations!’ and ‘Great Job!’. In those hours of warmth and community it was impossible to imagine that only a few days later an orange nightmare would engulf this great nation.

Thanks to your support I’ve raised over £2500 to help Médecins sans Frontières in their essential and incredibly brave work providing medical care to people around the world affected by conflict and disasters.  My fundraising page is open until the end of the year, so if you’d like to support me please do – my page is here.

Edinburgh Marathon Race Report

Sunday 25th May dawned grey and rainy in Edinburgh.  I was in my pen at the marathon start on Regent Road for 10am, sporting an City of Edinburgh Council bin bag to ward off the cold and drizzle, looking good.   The announcer kept the nervous runners entertained by rambling on about a couple of runners who'd just got married, and a SMURRRRRF who was running (two SMURRRRRFS who'd just got married would have been better).  My mission: to come in under 3 hours 50 minutes, which would count as a 'Good for Age' time (yes, I know I am already Good for Age) and get me a place in next year's London Marathon.

We set off just after 10, and I was cheered by the sight of Mr Keenan and the junior Keenans at the start. At first we ran through the city and out.  I did my usual thing of focusing on what I had left to do rather than what I'd already done. After the first few miles I could already tell myself 'this is nothing that you haven't run before' (that was true, due to my unerring knack for getting lost I'd run 24 miles and a couple of 22 milers in training).   There was a nice friendly spirit among the runners. Unlike London, the runners were mostly dedicated club runners, and there were hardly any interesting costumes to observe, but the upside of this was that I didn't have to waste precious energy and mileage running round wombles, human fridges and comedy fruit.   I had what felt like a disaster at the start in that my Garmin watch wasn't working, but this turned out to be a good thing, in that I just ran at what felt like a fastish pace on my little legs and managed to keep on going, and going, and going.

The course goes out to Portobello and then on to Musselburgh, where it starts a loop that goes from mile 10 to mile 18 then back to mile 26, the finish at Musselburgh Racecourse. Parts of the route were lovely, running along the sea front with clumps of local supporters and at one point a brass band with their notes carried away on the sea breeze. Other stretches were not so good, just the runners and the open road for miles, with no spectators. The out part of the out and back is tough, seeing runners coming towards you on the other side of the road who are already miles ahead of you.  I did get to see the leaders though, which is pretty awe-inspiring.  The first 13 miles felt ok and I seemed on course for time. Things got tougher in the second half.  The mid section was a slog, and after about mile 18 I had no confidence in my pace.  I felt as if I were going very slowly. Only the fact that I was keeping up with other runners in my group and even overtaking some of them kept me going. In the last few miles I knew I was ahead of schedule and just had to not fall over or conk out by the side of the road.  When things got really hard I told myself two things:  Dig Deep, which is what Mandy told me in our training sessions, and Think of Helen, who ran and raced both before and after her diagnosis, and during gruelling treatment.   If I could summon up just a hundredth of her courage and determination I knew I could do it.

The sun came out at about mile 6 (was it?) and shone on us for much of the course, and then at about mile 24 the skies darkened and it absolutely chucked it down.  Thankfully this did not deter the spectators and for the last couple of miles the roads were lined with supporters cheering us on and shouting out 'Come on Rebecca!' (not just randomly, I had my name on my top).  At mile 26 the course takes a sharp left into the Racecourse.   Wonderfully, Mr Keenan and the girls were there at the finish - I called out to Jamie, 'What's my time?' and he shouted: 'You've got three minutes - go on and do it!'.  Spurred on afresh, I raced for the finish, and crossed the line with the clock showing 3:52:27.  I had no idea whether I'd got my time or not.  I felt so emotional I wanted to hug the junior squaddies lining the finish area, and burst into tears. "I've just run a marathon!" I felt like telling them.  Well, Dur ...

I was standing about in the finish area waiting for Jamie and the girls to come find me when I got a text from EMF: 'Congratulations Rebecca: Your provisional time is 3:43:47'.  I'd done it!  And knocked 16 minutes off my personal best from 2013.  I still feel emotional thinking about it.  I really could not have done it without the support from my friends and family, and I'm so grateful not only for your donations to my fundraising but for all your interest and encouragement during my training.

I was very glad to be able to run in Helen's memory for the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge and Sarcoma UK.  Arthur Rank wrote a nice piece on their website about my run, which includes a link to my fundraising page, for anyone who's not yet contributed and would like to.