Success Stories
Linda's Marathon Dream continued...
So now came the new car and we were back on track with training, we had to make up for some lost day so off we went again, as marathon time grew closer I became more confident that she can complete the race, the only problems she might have is the bridges so I kept her in the trails on rolling hills doing a couple 15 miles before the marathon. I had no doubt now that she will not finish, I was 100% sure. Now it’s only up to her on how long, she was never a fast runner and lot of slow twitch muscle fibers so I trained her to take advantage of it and pace herself.
After a long grueling summer and part of fall, marathon day was here. She had the full experience of the Marathon expo and bus to the start of the race, it was an experience I can imagine for her, being in the same place with 35,000 athletes, I waited for her and walked her to the start of the race and stayed back with her, I know that I was injured and I could not run as fast as I wanted so I decided to share that experience with her. There were several final pointers that I gave to her at the start and then came the national anthem with the firing of the cannon that rocked the bridge.
It was a long slow start seeing that we were at the back of the pack, after a while I gave her and hug and wish her good luck ,my final words was that I will be waiting at the finish, and off I went.
I finished around 3:44:51 it was a difficult race for me , at mile 13 my ankle could not move ,but here I had another problem, my sister was visiting for vacation and have not seen her for 10 years so I could not drop out so I continued running in pain. My sister and Sandra were right of the Queensborough Bridge and I was able to see them and get some photos, they had a great time watching the race and then went to central park south to see me as I pass by there.
I made my way to the finish and then waited for Linda, I had given her around 6 hours to finish, I know it was going to be tough for her because of the crowd of runners on the road. Well I waited and waited in front of her UPS baggage truck but she was no where to be seen, it was now just pass six hours and I was getting worried so I waited a while before I decide to walk to the finish line. While walking to the finish line I saw her and it was the greatest feeling for me to see her finished the race, all the hard work had paid off tears flowed from her eyes but in the end she got her dream crossing the finish line of NEW YORK CITY MARATHON 2004 and a medal
Good job Linda.
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