Marathon Madness

First, the results!
We both came in under our overall goal of 4 hrs. YAY :) However, Matt made his 'reach' goals as well. I barley missed my 'reach' goals, but that is a very, very small bit of disappointment on an otherwise awesome accomplishment!

Just arrived on Staten Island, looking back at Manhattan

The first wave of 'amateur' runners going over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge as seen from the starting villages, where the rest of use are waiting for our start wave.

Matt's Results
Marathon Time: 3:43:39 (his 'reach' goal was between 3:30 - 3:45)
Pace: 8:33 avg mile
Place: 8,773 (which means nothing unless you know there were 50,000+ runners, making Matt in the top 18% - 20%)

Matt running

Matt crossing the finish line

Matt's official finish photo - with eyes closed :(

Carissa's Results
Marathon Time: 3:57:29 (my 'reach' goal was to be closer to 3:50)
Pace: 9:04 avg mile (my 'reach' goal was to come in under a 9-minute mile)
Place: 14,393 (top 28% - 30%)

Before, while waiting in the starting corrals

At the start, waiting for the "Mark, Set, Go!"

Running - in my toe shoes :)

Crossing the finish line

My official finish photo :)

(We will actually buy these photos, just haven't gotten around to it yet :))

Matt and I both really enjoyed running in the marathon, even though it was a struggle to make my legs walk the next day - it was more of a stiff-legged hobble ;) We are thinking of running in another one around 2015. Everyone we talked to said we would get the 'marathon bug' but we didn't believe them. I guess they were right!

Getting There
As some of you know, we were 'in the middle of the action' of the LAX shooting on Friday morning. Our flight was set to leave out of Terminal 3 at 8:10AM. When we got to the airport, our flight was delayed due to weather in the Northeast, and our flight was not scheduled to leave until 10:30AM. So, when the shooter came into LAX Terminal 3 around 9:20AM, we were there.

We were sitting in the terminal passing time when we saw people running with shoes in hand (having just come through security). I remember thinking and saying, "Wow. Guess those people are really late for their flight." However, then I thought that makes no sense as all of the flights in our terminal were headed to the Northeast and were delayed. Then one of them shouted, "He has a ...." and I heard "...bomb." At the same time, I saw others in the terminal starting to realize what was going on, and in a slow-motion wave getting up and running. (I realize that "slow-motion wave" may sound unrealistic. But, anyone who has been in a traumatic situation - and I have been in about 2 others in my life time - knows what I am talking about. While things are happening in real-time, time seems to slow down as you take it all in.)

So, now Matt and I are grabbing our stuff and starting to run in the direction that others are running in. At this time, I still think we are running from a bomb, and I remember thinking, "There's no way we are going to be able to outrun a bomb." So, then I turn to Matt and say, "We are going to get blown up." Matt doesn't remember me saying this. However, it could be that I merely mouthed it or whispered it when I thought I was actually speaking, or that Matt was concentrating on running. Either way, this was my reality.

Since I realized I couldn't outrun a bomb, I slowed down and stopped for a minute. The rest of the crowd, including Matt, slowed to a stop as well. I don't know why we all slowed down at once, but it was definitely weird as everyone stopped running, basically to assess the situation. At that time, we all heard "pop pop pop" and started running again. I (and some others) ran to the end of the terminal, which was a dead end. I was debating whether it would be smart to try and hide behind a chair, when someone slammed open the door to the tarmac and we all bolted out the door.

Once on the tarmac, we all tried to stay under the gates/ramps and other structures - basically trying to stay out of site of any windows. During this time, Matt tried to be 'super Matt' and go back into the terminal to get some stuff that we dropped while running out. I was in too much shock to say, "No. That's stupid!" And of course, for the whole 3 minutes he was gone I was mad at myself for letting him go back, especially since the stuff we dropped was just some granola bars!! However, he made it safely back out - thank God! We were on the tarmac for about 15-20 minutes, and people kept streaming/running out of the terminals. Finally, we had word that the shooter was secured and several buses came over to evacuate us to a secure part of the airport, where we stayed for 4.5 hours.

Matt's back (on the right) made it into the Huffington Post slideshow about the shooting

All the other stranded passengers with us in the evacuation area

We managed to get a flight out Friday night at 11:45PM. However, our checked luggage was part of the official crime scene and wouldn't be released for a few days. So when we landed in NYC on Saturday morning at 8AM, we were without anything but the clothes we had on. Thus, started a 'marathon day' of shopping for underwear, change of clothes and brand new, unbroken-in running gear. Luckily, we both had a good run even with all of this craziness that proceeded it.

While this is my account and was a scary setback for us, I don't want to discount the fact that this was a tragic event where one life was lost and others were injured. We had a whole new perspective after being a part (even tangentially) of this event.

NYC Fun and Marathon Celebrations
Our original NYC weekend plans included hitting all (or at least most) of our favorite NYC places. Even though we lost a day or so, we managed to hit a few of our favorites and some new places.

On Saturday, we had plans to meet up with our friends, Trish and Whitney, for a play. We managed to make the play (in the middle of running around trying to find new clothes and running gear), and it was a much needed respite. The play, No Man's Land, with Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Billy Crudup, was witty and entertaining. We very much enjoyed it :)

Sunday after the marathon, Matt and I headed over to Stout to meet up with Trish and Whitney for a few celebration drinks. (Stout was one of our 'go-to' places for sports watching while living in NYC - centrally located, good drink and food selection, lots of TVs and lots of room - a rarity in NYC). It was good to celebrate our marathon success with friends :) After a few toasts, we were ready to retire... pretty tired after running 26.2 miles :)

Outside of Stout in our cool ponchos that were provided at the finish line

After getting back to the hotel and showering up, we got a bit of a second wind and went down to the hotel bar for more celebration drinks and dinner.

Celebrating at the hotel bar

Monday we met back up with Trish for lunch at FLIP, a fun, tasty burger place nestled inside Bloomingdale's with good food and a pretty darn good chocolate shake (a shake is something we always said we would eat/drink after marathoning). Then we went by CRUMBS, my very favorite cupcake place, to get a Black and White Cookie (the best one in NYC and also something we said we would eat after marathoning). Before heading back to our hotel to get ready for dinner, we hit PJ Clarke's (another one of our favorite NYC hangouts) for a beer.

Our "official" marathon celebration was at Del Posto, a Mario Batali et al concept, which is also where we celebrated our 5-year anniversary. You know how sometimes a special place doesn't hold up to the initial impression you had of it the first time you went?? Well, this was not the case with Del Posto - it may have even been better the second time! The food is phenomenal, the service is excellent and the experience is very intimate and romantic. Also, I told our server of my gluten intolerance and they made everything gluten-free for me (incl bread, appetizers, pastas, mains and desserts) while also making the original gluten-containing menu item for Matt. So great! AND, Jimmy Fallon was sitting two tables down from us, which made us feel pretty cool ;)

After dinner, we had post-dinner drinks at The Campbell Apartment, another one of our favorite NYC places :)


All in all, a crazy but special weekend :)