NYC Marathon Race Report

By: Matt Piccarello 

2018 NYC Marathon 

Before the Duke City Half, it had been over a year since I raced in a Duke’s jersey. Injuries sidelined my attempt to run the NYC marathon last year, so I went all in on cycling. With no more deferments available, I resolved to give getting to the start line this year my best shot. Spoiler alert: I did it!

I’ve wanted to race the NYC marathon since high school. Key word, race. I always said I didn’t want to just run it. Of course, I’d rather not have to deal with injuries and have a 12-16 week buildup of 80+ miles a week but I’ve learned that whether I run 5:50 or 6:50 miles, I can still “race” the marathon by running as fast as I possibly can on the day. I think I did that. As with my first marathon, I found the pounding on my feet the hardest thing. Running a marathon well requires a lot of time on your feet in training. I ran one week over 26 miles in my abbreviated buildup. 

The NYC thon lived up to the experience. People lined the course the entire way. You couldn’t have slapped the smile off my face the first 5 miles. I had friends and family out on the course cheering. Friends I hadn’t seen since high school. I ran right past the street my dad grew up on in Brooklyn where I used to go as a kid to visit my grandparents. I knew I was in for a painful last 5-6 miles and, no surprise, I was right. It’s almost worse at mile 15 when you can feel the pain start to creep in and it doesn’t hurt so bad yet, but you know it’s going to in about 20 mins.

A TON of friends, family, and total stranger support on 1st Avenue got me past 20 miles. While I’d gotten past the mental hurdle of “can I even do this?” at that point, the struggle now was how hard can I push to limit my time losses and still get under 3 hours? I think I came through the half in 1:25:xx As I discovered when I finished (I know I’m not the first runner to experience this) my feet were literally bleeding. 2:59:18. A PR? No. But I was pretty damn pleased none the less. 

I think I actually ran my last 6 miles faster than when I ran my PR. I kept pretty even splits through 20 miles given the slight elevation changes with the bridges. Unlike my first thon I didn’t walk a step. I’m not gonna lie, I got a little emotional when I crossed the finish line. I think it was 3 years ago when I first seriously thought about making running NYC a reality instead of just “some day.” I wasn’t sure I could actually run 26.2 miles/3 hours until a 2:30 trail run 3 weeks ago.

I’m enjoying the new challenge of bike racing, but I don’t plan to let running go. I’ll try and do some shorter races in the meantime though to keep me motivated. I hope to see you all out on the roads again soon.