NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 3, 2002

Marla Runyan

MARLA RUNYAN: Actually, I had a lot of fun out there. I really enjoyed it until about 24 miles, but actually it was a great experience to have, and all that crowd support. I love that. It was so motivating I was running and I wanted to say, "thank you," it's great running through New York. It, surprisingly, didn't feel as long as I thought it would have seemed like. It was going by pretty quickly. I felt very good, even through 11 miles, 14 miles. I felt really good. I think the pace was conservative and probably ideal for me, probably maybe a little slow for some of the faster girls. But I like the initial pace and I ended up running a negative split, so that's very good, I think.

MARLA RUNYAN: I think it did make it a lot easier because I have run road races where it's basically, everybody is out there like Philadelphia's half marathon and some other local races. And I sometimes find it -- I don't want to say annoying, but sometimes it becomes annoying with men around you because their stride and their cadence is so different, and also to have this course, for me, especially and not being able to distinguish a lot of the times, even male from female in a pack, or at a distance, so I wouldn't really know -- I won't be able to keep track of my competitors. I remember coming off, when I was on First Avenue and I caught back onto the pack. I started -- at that point I was on the back end of that pack. I started to count how many girls were there, to get an idea of what position I was. I think there was 8 at that point. And had the men been there, I wouldn't have been able to do that.

MARLA RUNYAN: I think the cyclists worked great. They did an excellent job notifying me of the times on the clocks. He basically read the cumulative times that were displayed on each mile marker, and he notified me of turns coming up and the status of the pack. For example, if there was anyone who broken away. He basically said, "the pack is intact," to let me know that there wasn't someone out of my view. He didn't actually talk all that much. He only spoke when we came across the mile markers for the clocks, and we had some trouble -- I had some trouble, I should say, at the fluid stations. I missed my 12-mile fluid. And I had a hard time getting just the regular water off the side of the road. I don't think I got fluid until -- I did get my water at -- I didn't get water until 8 miles, which I didn't want that to happen. But I had trouble getting those cups off the side of the road. I kept missing them and I think my cyclist behind me was a little concerned I wasn't getting my fluids. But I never really felt at a deficit for fluids. I don't think it had any effect on the race. I did get my spots at 16 and 20, and I think I got a couple of waters along the way, water at 22, and I don't think I drank after that. It did work out in the end, but it was something that I definitely have to practice.

MARLA RUNYAN: I had no trouble with the road surface. There are some rough spots out there, just kind of run right through them. Your feet are not on the ground very long. You just jump over them.

MARLA RUNYAN: I had no idea about the fall until Matt told me when I finished, or later on about the fall after the bridge. I was about, I guess, ten seconds back from that pack. So, when I came off the bridge, I was alone I didn't --

MARLA RUNYAN: I think I was probably running very even splits and I think they were surging. I think they played -- they were very conservative early on and I think it was their pace that was picking up. I think I was pretty steady. I don't have my mile splits, but the second half I was probably running closer to 535s, 534s per mile, or thereabouts. And I think I just got into a rhythm and I stayed there. And they started to pull away right before the bridge, and on the bridge but I didn't want to take that bridge hard, the Queensboro Bridge, I knew that that could be devastating if you try to run up that too hard. But I ended up catching the pack again on First Avenue, finally. But I wasn't there very long because they surged again on the second bridge. I just kind of kept my pace steady.

MARLA RUNYAN: I am not quite sure of the question.

MARLA RUNYAN: I think not just for me, but I think if we look around and look at the accomplishments of last year, Margaret, Lornah Kiplagat, I mean, these athletes, and I know them as people as well as athletes, and they are great individuals. They are great people. They are great role models, and they are committed to their running. They are committed, like any athlete in anywhere in the world, maybe even more so because they want to get up to that level, just like I do. There are great American distance runners who have made lifestyle changes and strong commitments to their running. I think their accomplishments should be well recognized and I think that there are some up-and-comers that we are going to see, I think as a result of more Americans today running well, finishing up higher and higher, closer to the top runners. It's going to inspire the younger kids, I think.

MARLA RUNYAN: Yes, I knew that was the lead pack. I think, I did pass one runner along the way, Milena Glusac and maybe one other runner. It's all a blur. I do know that basically, the cyclist who was going giving me the cues -- the officials said it would be perfectly legal for him to vocalize the number of runners ahead of me, or to give me visual information ahead of me, or to basically tell me if the pack was broken or intact. As I caught back on, he said the pack was intact. Basically, just letting me know that no one had broken away, in case anyone was out of my view.

MARLA RUNYAN: I definitely don't want -- definitely know I will do another marathon because it takes time to learn something every time, and there's two things I learned today about this race, but that I would do differently next time: This is kind of -- it is a little story. Basically, I have a very light weight pair of inserts that go into my racing flats and it's a compressible, almost like -- not a foam -- made by a podiatrist, orthotics, but very, very light weight. They do compress, and I had worn those like for workouts only. I figured they were fine. I figured, "oh, great, I just broke them in." They were going to be great for the marathon. When I got to New York and pulled them out of my shoe, they were paper-thin. I was like, "oh, man. This is not good." So the next time around, I would have a fresh pair of those for the race, definitely. And the second thing I think is major factor of the marathon is the status of your quadriceps and your main muscles, because they tend to tear and break down over distance I noticed, and so obviously that's a factor. That was even more after factor for me today than like respiratory or aerobic strength. Was more muscular fatigue from running faster.

MARLA RUNYAN: I think I won't do anything different in terms of tactics. If I was running a marathon again, of course, it would be a completely different race, different competitors, different day, and I might be in a different level of fitness, so my tactics on other day could be different. But I was real pleased with the tactics today. I had to run smart. I wanted a negative split. I just, I had to run my race. I couldn't get too caught up and die at the end. I wanted to finish, maintain pace and be strong at the finish.

MARLA RUNYAN: Preparation was pretty good because I had the training that I kind of thought was conservative. But as Matt kept telling me, he was like, "if you don't get to the starting line in one piece, it doesn't matter what training you have done. It doesn't matter how impressive your training log looks." It would be better to run more impressive race than brag about this workout or that workout. I hold true to that. I believe that at some point, I mean, at some level of conservatism is actually better. You can overdo it easy, but I do think for preparing, I think the long run is key and muscular and quad strength is key in addition to everything else we do to train but those two factors, I think are important because if I had more strength in my legs today, I would have been able to finish a little bit stronger.

MARLA RUNYAN: I will definitely be back on the track next year and looking to run at the U.S. National Championships probably 5000, and also the World Championships in Paris, probably 5000. I think that road and track can't compliment each other if they are done right. There a lot of differences but at the same time the strength you get from the roads can improve your track performances and the speed and the accuracy of the track can improve your road performances. So, I think it's a careful balance and you just I really -- I am going to have to prioritize my running goals for the year and decide where to focus. I am not sure at this point what that's going to be.

MARLA RUNYAN: I was, as if I was -- I wrote down it's funny, because I wrote down a goal of sub 2:28 and a fifth place finish, and I did it. I had a dream that I was going to run 2:27, but I was off pace. But so I guess, yes, finishing fifth in this field, especially, was, I thought, a long shot. Obviously, we saw a lot of strange things happen out there, but I guess that's the marathon. It's just completely unpredictable, so I am more excited about fifth than the 2:27:10, however, just the 2:26:59 even sounds better. But I am pleased all the way around. I don't know . It couldn't have been much better. I know that Esther Kiplagat was 10 seconds ahead of me, she was only 10 seconds ahead of me, but I didn't see her. I didn't know she was that close, which was a little unfortunate. However, I don't think I would have done anything about it, because coming up Central Park South, which is a hill, by the way, I was running very hard as I could, and I don't know if me being able to see her would have made a difference. I was just looking for that finish line.

MARLA RUNYAN: Yeah. Last week, I went to a school in the Bronx, it's like the Institute of Special Education. It's a school for -- it's mostly kids with visual impairments that are there. It's a residential -- I went there and I couldn't believe their excitement and enthusiasm about meeting me and just the things they told me and how inspired they are, and a lot of them ran today with a track club, and it was really almost emotional because I guess I just -- I just don't realize that sometimes I am so focused on my training. Living in Eugene, Oregon, kind of being a distance from a lot of the media and kind of doing my own thing, I don't realize that aspect of it. But I think I had kind of a feel, like if I keep focusing on running well, everything else falls into place.

MARLA RUNYAN: I heard my name a lot out there. I even heard a Martha, someone got a little off. I am like, I don't think there's a Martha in this race. But I mean, especially at like, 22 miles there was a lady. She was practically in the street. She said, "I saw you on TV. You go, girl." So it was awesome to have that. It was really great to have that support. Of course, running in New York City and to be an American too, goes right along with that.

MARLA RUNYAN: No, we easily could have in the first half because it was conservative enough, but, no, I am surprise d -- you don't see anybody talking, everyone was pretty quiet. In the beginning of the race, I almost wanted to say something to Sonia, but I thought, I better not talk. I better save my energy. There wasn't any talking going on.

MARLA RUNYAN: Is that the girl in the green?

MARLA RUNYAN: I think what happened, she is the one that was ahead of me and in the path and little bit to my left. And she looked over her shoulder and clipped the heel of the runner ahead of her, and she was really stumbling, like she was going to fall down. She stumbled like right into my path. It really was not a big deal. She recovered, it didn't affect my race at all. I just tried to avoid running into her because she was kind of falling, but she regained herself and was back in the pack. I think something as small as that in such a long race was not that significant.

MARLA RUNYAN: Great. That's great.