JumpSTARTRUNNING

THE LONG RUN

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Keep Moving Forward & Transform Through Life

TRANSFORMATIONAL THOUGHTS:

Hello Reader,

"In case there is a loss in cabin pressure...please make sure to secure your own oxygen mask before assisting others."

I'm happy to report there was no loss of cabin pressure on either of my flights. For the past two weeks, I have metaphorically had my "mask" on while recovering from the race, election and being slightly under the weather.

How was the race? For the dirty details, please continue reading. If you want to see clips from the actual race, these were from my phone at the start and finish. I made a four minute video with a few pics at the end. (one segment you will see smoke - the start cannon went off - unbeknownst to many including me!)

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In my almost twenty five years of running, I've NEVER had my phone during a race. I can say that I'm glad I had it for this marathon, but I probably won't ever do that again.

At the end of the finish line video, you can vaguely hear someone shouting "Nicole, Nicole"! I barely heard it, and turned to see this - the woman in the purple is Rosy Spraker - a 261 Fearless coach from DC, who just ran a 3:37 marathon this year at age 60! I tried to shout back to her, but it was a pretty pathetic effort of "Rosy!" Her presence was a gift to me in those final steps.

I'm grateful it was such a beautiful day, an amazing weekend, and an unbelievable honor to run for 261 Fearless (see below) while simply being able to experience the joy of running this iconic race.

By the way, NYC just set the record for largest marathon in history (Berlin had previous record) with 55,646 finishers and there were close to 165,000 applications to run.

One more thing: this race had 24,731 women finish the marathon - the highest ever. When Kathrine Switzer ran (and WON) this race in 1974 - THERE WERE NINE WOMEN WHO FINISHED.

The "oldest" woman to finish the marathon in 1974 was 39. This year, there were six OCTOGENARIAN women who finished!

It's never to late to start, and you can keep going for those finish lines like Judith Som, 82, who was the oldest woman to finish: https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/07/sport/nyc-marathon-oldest-female-finisher-spt-intl/index.html​

Keep moving forward my friends, one step at a time.

Coach Nicole

PRE-RACE/RACE

The day before the race, Team 261 Fearless had the privilege of experiencing the New York Athletic Club for our Celebration Brunch.

Right before I went in, I had the good fortune of connecting with my amazing first boss from Arizona! She and her husband were kind enough to cheer me on at the finish line and snap this photo - sadly, I didn't hear Judd screaming for me until they sent me the video after the race!

After the brunch, I headed to the expo to pick up my bib - there was only an hour left and most people were gone. No lines and lots of photo ops!

***If you are looking for post race photos (including NY pizza) they are in the video above :)

With regard to the actual race - I went out a little too fast, and tried to stay around 10 minute miles for the rest. I had Maurten gels every four miles, no gatorade, and my stomach was fine. No water on the course until mile 3. I had too much water at the start, so I pulled off for a NYC porta potty experience at mile 10.

I'll say this - even though I was "taking it easy" this race, I was significantly challenged and am not sure I could have gone much faster. Lots of work to do in the next several months for Boston!

POST-RACE/NEXT DAY

I walked to meet each of my friends at their hotels the next morning, and I was pretty sore. I came home and took a nap, and decided to hit the 9/11 museum for the afternoon.

There was one more "marathon" my legs needed to navigate to get home:

One last important part of the trip was a quick train ride to see my good friend Bob, whom I've known for years from the Gray Institute. Yes, I was thrilled to see him and his stretching cage - which I put to good use. Thank you Bob for the blessing of friendship.

I arrived home late Tuesday night after the marathon. When I woke up the following morning, this was the scene. In hindsight, I should have done snow angels to decrease the soreness in my legs. It was over 70 degrees in NY when Bob and I had lunch the day before...

TREADMILL TUESDAY

I actually recorded this one week after getting home from the marathon. You need to stick around till the end when I answer the question - "Would you run the NYC marathon again?"

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KATHRINE SWITZER AND 261 FEARLESS:

Thank you again for helping me attain my fundraising goal for this worthy cause, and for allowing me to fulfill a dream of running the largest marathon in the world.

I have since removed my oxygen mask, and am working on exactly what Kathrine said - doing my part to help women's running and keep this thing going. We are just getting started...

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If you (or someone you know) are interested in learning more about JSR Coaching/Injury or Performance Consult - hit reply, and we'll have a chat!

Let me know if you have any questions or requests for topics in these emails. Thank you so much for reading, and forward to your running friends as well!

jumpstartrunning@gmail.com
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