Pre Marathon Reflections

NEW YORK, BABY!

Well, I had every intention of doing a monthly blog in the lead up to the marathon and clearly, I've been a complete slacker. Its now the eve of the New York Marathon and here I am, writing this post the day before the race - whoops!

I still can't believe we are actually in New York! It feels very surreal and up until this morning, I had almost forgotten we were here to do a running race. The tourists must be having a lot of fun! 

We are also very lucky to have our friend Jo here with us as support crew. Not only is she good company but she's also a massage therapist. Smartest idea ever. Hashtag winning (love you Jo Jo)!

We've spent the last couple of days wandering around the city, including a visit to Times Square, Whole Foods and of course, the amazing M&M store. We posed for photos at the expo and even made it onto the TCS New York City Marathon social media pages (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). See? Sometimes it pays to be an idiot.

 

I've never really had the desire to run a marathon but I always said that if I ever did one, it would be New York. Talk about a dream come true. Many people have asked me if I have a time goal in mind for the race. I definitely have a goal of having a good time! Teresa and I will aim to run around 6 minutes per kilometre but who knows what can happen over 42km. I really want to enjoy this race and plan to take a lot of photos. Having fun will be the ultimate goal and I have no doubt we will tick that box!

If you want to track us, you can download the TCS New York Marathon app. For more info, visit http://www.tcsnycmarathon.org/race-day/mobile-app-and-runner-tracking. Look for Teresa Boyce and Belinda Fong. Our wave starts at 10:30am New York time.

I want to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone for helping me get to this race. There is no way in the world I could have done this without all the support. To everyone who came to our trivia night, donated prizes and money directly to our charity (Team for Kids), bought energy bars, Monte Carlos, spring rolls, those who baked food for us to sell and anyone who has invested any sort of interest in this ridiculous idea over the last 20 weeks! I am so grateful that I never had to do a long run on my own, so if you were one of the lucky suckers who I roped into coming with me on a long run, you deserve the biggest medal ever. It made a massive difference, trust me!

Thank you to Owain Matthews for writing me a kick-ass running program and providing endless support when I needed it; Northside Runners (www.northsiderunners.com.au) for fuelling me up with my training and race day nutrition, shoes and running gear; Funkita swimwear for kitting me out during my recovery swims; Bare Blends (www.bareblends.com.au) for the pre and post training recovery fuel and lastly, to Teresa Boyce (www.thehealthwhisperer.com.au) who decided to make the trip over with me. I would not and could not do this without you.

One more sleep - it's on, like Fong! New York Marathon, HERE WE COME!