So it’s all over. And what a day it was. I’m physically and mentally exhausted.

To finish at 4:01:22 brought such mixed emotions. I mean seriously… ONE lousy minute!

But as my friend Delina said – that is a ‘stop and tie a shoe lace’ amount of time. And when I reviewed my TomTom this evening it turns out that with all the weaving and dodging along the route added up to almost an extra mile of running. Meaning that if I’d been able to run the entire route on the blue line I’d have finished in 3:55.

It’s not quite that simple as I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the GPS and weaving and dodging comes with running these types of marathons. Any one of a million changes in circumstances might have made the difference.

But there are a couple of things I do know for sure…. I gave everything I had out there and more. There is nothing I would change and I am proud of my effort.

I missed my start wave, which could have thrown me. But I turned it into a great experience… being the first person to cross the start line onto an empty Verazzano Bridge in Wave 3.

I smiled the entire way (though by the end it looked more like a grimace). I high fived all the kids. I patted people on the back as I past them. I thanked all the volunteers. I thought of you guys and how proud I was going to be when I crossed that finish line in under 4 hours. I ran into the headwind and pretended I was sucking it all up like a jet engine and pushing it out the other side.

And when I realised at mile 20 that I had lost some time, I dug deep, shut out the sound of my screaming body, and ran as fast as I could. It may not have looked much like a sprint, but it sure felt like a sprint… a six mile sprint up the long slow incline of 5th Avenue. I have never ever pushed myself so hard in my life.

So when I crossed that finish line, yes there were tears. But there were going to be tears anyway. And by the time I met Leontine & Owen for a body warming cup of coffee I was ready to celebrate the achievement of not just running a marathon but all the achievements – physical, mental, spiritual, financial – that got me to this point.

It’s been one hell of a ride. Thanks for sharing it with me.

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