Training Continues & NYC Marathon Part I

Since coming back from Fairlie I completed another couple of training pushes. On Sunday I headed out for 20 km and again completed this distance in less than 90 minutes even with tough conditions with a strong southerly blowing making the return home tough. Yesterday I went out for just over 22km, a new longest push. It was good weather conditions, quite cool, but I had problems with my technique. It took almost 1 3/4 hours with an average speed of 12.8 km/hr. As I think about training for the full marathon distance I need to do longer and longer sessions to build up my strength and endurance. This will involve taking distances to 30km plus and being in the chair beyond 2 hours.

Over the next few posts I am going to describe the marathon from leaving the hotel in the pitch dark through to the finish in central park. Having done the marathon in 2015 I still have pretty good memories of the event and the route. The day of the marathon starts early, especially for disabled athletes as they are the first off the start line. In 2015 the first Sunday in November was the 1st November. As we left the hotel at about 4:30am we were greeted by Halloween revellers; vampires, ghosts and all sorts of monsters in all sorts of condition. The transport to the start line is by bus, with all the "wheelies" travelling together they managed to organise buses with virtually no seats. We waited on the bus for what seemed like an age, I think we were waiting for the ok to proceed from the police. There is a lot of security around the race. On the bus I seem to be the oldest competitor with the other athletes looking very professional. I talk to a bloke from Norway who is doing the marathon after having had some time off from competing in pushrim races.

Verrazzano Narrows Bridge

The bus trip doesn't seem to take that long, even in New York there isn't too much traffic in the early hours of Sunday morning. The bus takes us to the start line at Fort Wadsworth on the Staten Island side of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. At the assembly area for wheelchair athletes you are reunited with your racing chair. You are given the opportunity to use the loo and then you are marshalled to the start line. The Verrazzano bridge is massive, it is over 4km long and 70 metres off the Hudson River and has two road decks with 13 traffic lanes. The start line is at the beginning of bridge so athletes immediately face a climb of about 50 metres of elevation in the first 2 km of the race. Any sort of climb is difficult in a racing pushrim wheelchair as you only have the one gear governed by your pushrim diameter. Once you crest the top of the bridge you have an express ride (50-60 km/hr) down to Bay Ridge and onto Brooklyn.