Over 5,000

More people keep coming to the site!! Over 5,000 people have now viewed beatingryanreynolds.com. I think my goal in the beginning was to hit 1,000. Thanks to everyone out there!!

I miss running

So they say I should take 2 weeks off before starting to run again. sniff, sniff!!!

Going to DC this weekend and not taking any workout clothes with me...that's a first but what the hell. It's not like I am going to go for a walk or something. even if I do, my converse shoes and chip and pepper jeans are good enough for that.

Have a great weekend
tim

nuun tablets

Hi all.
So one of the things that I did differently this time around had to do with my hydration. I would usually drink a lot of gatorade or water leading up to the race. In my previous three marathons, I would get pretty bad muscle cramps around mile 21 or 22 and have to push myself even harder through the finish line. A couple marathons, I even had to walk a little.

This time, I knew sodium was going to be key. When I went to the expo, I saw these little nuun tablets:The guy selling them said they have a lot more sodium that regular gatorade and only have 8 calories and little to no sugar. So, trying these made sense. Since I was in the tapering phase I needed to make sure I didn't gain weight. Plus, Gatorade wasn't needed because my body would have used all of that sugar way before the race.

I started taking these 3 days before the race in all of my normal water drinks. Then I took a 20 oz bottle of water to the marathon and used Nuun as my pre-race hydration.

During the race, I experienced none of the muscle cramping that had previously happened to me. I am not sure if it was these Nuun tablets, or the additional GUs that I took that helped with this. All I know is that everything that I did seemed to work. So I have to give credit where credit is due.

Plus, overall, the Nuun tabs make boring water taste a little better.

The last 6.2 miles!!!

Only 6.2 miles to go and 68 minutes to finish under Ryan's time.

Here's my splits for 20 through 22.
20 through 21 - 8:34 pace
21 through 22 - 8:50 pace.

Starting to slow down a bit but remembered some advice here that helped a ton.

• This is from my friend Michael Haskell - You can definitely do this. It's 40 to 50 minutes of true pain vs having to look back and say "what if..." I didn't want to have any regrets as I was so close.
  
• Try to look for some people that you definitely don't want to beat you and start passing them. Everyone is tired at this point but there are people in the crowd that you just HAVE to beat. One of them passed me at mile 20. This gentleman was wearing a singlet and A SPEEDO!!! Not sure if anyone else saw him but I could not finish BEHIND him if you know what I mean. I passed him at mile 22.

At mile 21, I started to look at my Garmin watch often. I looked once and it read 21.1 miles...looked down again...21.23 miles...once again...21.34 miles. It was then I decided that this watch was no f'ing good at this point. I thought about throwing it into the crowd too but came to my senses...I took it off and shoved it into my racing belt.

Side note...it's a racing belt...not a fanny pack. Fanny packs are worn by people at the Oklahoma state fair with cotton candy in one hand and a funnel cake in the other. Anyone that runs 26.2 is wearing a racing belt....umm...sorry Oklahoma.

I also looked down at my left hand where I wrote "IZZY" on my knuckles. It helped me get through the tough part of the race. IZZY is the father of a new friend of mine that I met through Team Fox and he is courageously battling Parkinson's as we speak. I hope that with everyone's hard work, we can all find a cure soon.

Now I'm at mile 22 and getting ever so close to the TEAM FOX cheering section and around the corner from there, Central Park. I had a mini Snickers bar at this point. LOVED IT!!!! I also was stopping at the water stops, walking, chugging a gatorade and dumping three cups on water on my head...that felt amazing!!

My family would be at that TEAM FOX section so I knew I had to pull myself together. Mile 22 to 23 was my slowest at that point at 9:16 but my form was good...well at least to me. As I approached TEAM FOX, I saw my family wearing my beatingryanreynolds.com t-shirts and they were going nuts...jumping and yelling!! I thought about stopping but I wasn't sure if I could get moving again after that. My one regret is not stopping to say hello to Michael with everything he has been doing. But, I really had to keep moving at that point.

After I passed them, I wondered how far I would have to run before I was out of their sight and could slow down again. Mile 23 to 24 was at 9:25 but at that point I only had 2.2 miles left and I was certain I would beat Ryan at this point.

Now I was in the park and my quads were screaming!!! It actually was easier to run up the hills then down them. Down hills are especially hard on your quads as you are basically stopping your body with every foot strike. I continued with the gatorade chugging and water dumping at every stop. This is where I grabbed the Twizzlers...YUMMY!!! Mile 24 to 25 was at 9:17 so I sped up from the previous mile.

Now I was running on central park south and coming towards the end of my journey. As I was running, I heard loud screams and cow bells from the crowds. It was my wife yelling her head off with all of our friends. They had run all over the city to see me and now they were cheering me on at the end. I stopped, did a little wave and bowed to them.

The Central Park South stretch is not really that long but it seems to go on forever when you are finishing. Mile 25 to 26 was at 9:11 so once again faster than the last mile.

As I hit mile 26, I could see the finish line in the distance. I saw the clock and I knew that I would get under 3:40:00 so I soaked it in and finished by waving to the crowd. Some people sprint it out but it didn't make a difference if I finished in 3:38:46 or 3:38:02... As I was crossing the finish line, I gave the photographers a big thumbs up...hopefully I'll have a great finisher photo.

At the finish line, you get your medal and a food/water pack with more carbs. I chugged more gatorade and ate the almonds...I wanted nothing to do with the bagel, apple or anything else.

My official time was 3:38:45 and I did beat Ryan Reynolds by over 11 minutes. I also beat my previous best marathon time by 30 minutes and my other NYC marathon time by 40 minutes.

I think that after all of the donations are in, I should be over $30,000 raised for MJFF. Amazing. Thanks to everyone for their advice, support, encouragement and donations. It's been a great 6 months and I have met a lot of amazing people over this time. Hopefully with all that MJFF and Team Fox are doing, we can find a cure quickly!!

Time for bed. Tim

13.1 Through 20 miles!!

Still feeling very good at this point and we were getting very close to the Queensboro bridge into Manhattan at this point. My wife, family, friends and Team Fox would be waiting for me on the other side of the bridge. Oh, and Ryan e mailed me on Saturday night to let me know that he would be at 63rd and 1st Ave. I was looking forward to a mountain of cheers from everyone as we stepped into Manhattan for the first time in the race.

As we approached mile 14, I could sense that I was getting a little tired. Vero, the little train that could, kept up the pace and we still motored along at an 8:00 to 8:15 pace. The Queensboro bridge was right in front of us getting closer with every step. Once we got on the other side, it would only be about 10 miles to the finish.

When we hit the base of the bridge, I kept my gaze right in front of my feet so as to not look up at the hill we were about to run. Up the bridge, it is a little over 3/4 of a mile and it feels every bit of it. Once you get to the top, it is a sharp decline and you can once again let gravity take over. As you near the bottom, you can hear the roar of the Manhattan crowd as they see all of the marathoners run into the city. You make a sharp left turn and head towards 1st Ave. It was at this point that I decided to lose the beatingryanreynolds.com t-shirt and go straight up TEAM FOX for the rest of the race!! I pulled the shirt over my head, rolled it into a ball and whipped it into the crowd. Some random, tall guy caught it and realized he was holding a soaked singlet with Ryan Reynolds on it. I could see the disgust in his eyes...was it the sweat or Ryan's image??? Strangely, this was comedic to me and it gave me a lift.

As we rounded the corner onto 1st ave at 60th street, I started looking for Ryan. He said he would be on the right side. I had a hat on so it covered the glorious baldness of my head. As we got to 64th street, I figured that we missed him. What I didn't know was that my wife and friends had decided to go to 63rd and 1st on the left side to see if they could see Ryan too. So, in the end, I missed everyone there. Not a big deal as I would see them later in the race.

At 73rd and 1st along the left side, I saw a good friend. Michelle Trilli. It was nice to see her cheering. I asked her to bring a banana but I didn't stop. I wondered to myself how long she held that banana and if she just decided to eat it at one point or throw it....hopefully she didn't throw the peel on the race course...Since I didn't hear of any race accidents involving said banana, I'm sure she disposed of it properly.

The crowd gave me a lift as we continued up 1st ave. We also knew that there was a TEAM FOX cheering station at 97th and 1st. Vero was a little ahead of me but that only motivated me to catch up before we hit the cheering area.

That was around mile 18 to 18.5. Now I was started to get tired but at mile 19, I was at 2:33:36 and had 76 minutes to run the last 7.2 to beat Ryan's time. I felt that if I didn't completely crash and burn that I would do it. This for me is where the true race started.

Vero was still keeping her pace. So I had to let her run her race as she had a PR on the line. Didn't want to hold her back. The last thing she did was give me her energy jellybeans. This was very gracious of her and I must have looked shitty. I definitely got a lift from the them. Not sure if it were the actual jellybeans or the fact that Vero gave them up that did that. Either way I was happy.

Note to self though...eat the jellybeans or GU or pretty much anything ONLY when you are close to the Water/Gatorade stops. Otherwise, they turn to paste.

My pace was still pretty good between 19 and 20. I ran that mile at 8:43 which was still right under Ryan's total marathon pace. So, I didn't lose anything that mile...felt really good about that.

With 6.2 miles left, the race was getting more difficult with each step. This is where I had to rely on the advice and words of encouragement from everyone who supported me over the last 6 months...

The first 13.1 miles!!

Have to say that the weather was perfect for the entire race. 50 to 57 degrees and the clouds hung around pretty much the entire race.

When the gun went off, Vero and I started with a nice pace and started weaving in and out of runners. We were going at a nice controlled pace of about 8:15. Our strategy was to run by feel and we felt great. We hit the top of the Verrazano bridge and headed down towards Brooklyn. We let gravity pace our speed and we were running under an 8 minute pace. For down hills this was OK. Along the sides of the bridge, you could see all of the men who hydrated way too much before the race, they were all pissing over the side. I'd have hated to be the people on the lower level of the bridge because the wind was blowing across us.

After the Verrazano, we were now in Brooklyn and there were a ton of people cheering us on. Someone yelled "You look great"!!! I thought to myself, did they know this was a 26.2 mile race and we were at mile 3??? Whatever...Vero and I were running a 7:30 to 8:00 minute pace...definitely faster than I had trained but I felt amazing...wasn't sure if it would last but what the hell. If I could knock out some miles under my 8:18 pace, it would give me some cushion.

We were stopping at most of the water stops for either gatorade or water. We would grab our drink and put it down while we were running. Everytime I did this, it seemed that I would swallow some air and spend the next 10 to 20 strides burping...not a great feeling. But, I digress.

We ran past the Team Fox cheering section just after mile 7. Great seeing everyone and it kept us running strong!

Vero and I were knocking out the miles, one after another around 8:00 pace at this point. At mile 9, we were still under an 8:00 pace for the marathon. Felt really strong.

My race strategy was to consume a GU packet every thirty minutes to keep my energy up. The first five would not have caffeine and the last two would. I also planned to eat something later in the race to be determined by what people were passing out.

Vero had a ton of people out for her in Brooklyn as that's where she lives. This was great as it seems that people were always handing her treats for fuel. You could see by the look on their faces that they were pumped to see her. And she was pumped that they were there to cheer her on!!!

At mile 12, I decided it was time to take my salt packet to try and avoid muscle cramps later in the race. I opened the tiny McDonalds salt packet and emptied it into my mouth...delicious!!! Quickly grabbed a gatorade to wash it down.

The halfway point was on the Pulaski bridge in Queens. I looked down at my watch and we ran it in 1:44:56. I missed my half marathon PB by 30 seconds. Not sure if this pace was good or bad but we kept cranking out the miles. At this point, I was 10 minutes ahead of Ryan's pace and I was happy to leave half of the race behind me.

The marathon...Pre-Race.

What an amazing day yesterday was. I'm going to give you some insight into the day and how it progressed.

Pre-Race
I was a little nervous the night before because of the time change so I called for a 4:30 wakeup call from the Hotel and set 3 alarms on my iphone. They had a little sign on the nightstand to tell us to remember that the clocks would go back an hour just after 2:00 AM. The one thing about that is...THEY SHOULD HAVE TOLD THE FRONT DESK PEOPLE ABOUT IT!!! My wake up call came at 3:30 AM!!!! I guess it's better than not calling at all but I had to sit around for an hour and a half before going to the Team Fox bus.

Took the Team Fox bus to Staten Island for the start. Nothing really eventful here. Took about an hour to get there and I was headed up to to the Orange section to be with my starting group.
First thing that I did was get some Dunkin Donuts coffee to facilitate getting lighter for the race if you know what I mean. Then about 2 hours before the start I ate my pre-race meal of two kashi waffles, peanut butter, banana and honey. It was all going smoothly at this point other than the getting lighter part. So, I walked around the area for a little bit and shazam!!! I was running for the port-o-john...

NOW I WAS READY TO RACE!! Well, only after going pee about 4 more times...I guess I was nervous.

NOW I WAS READY TO RACE!! I met up with Veronique from Team Fox. She was my running partner and we both run about the same pace. I've never run a marathon with someone but I knew that it was going to be beneficial to both of us. More on this later.

The race villages were full of people from all over the world. Tons of Europeans mostly dominated by the Italian contingency. Also a lot of runners from Japan and other parts of Asia. That's how you know how big this race is. I've run the Marine Corp and Pittsburgh marathons and it's a lot less international than NYC marathon.

At around 8:30, we headed up to the corrals as they were going to be closed at 9:05 and you would have to run with the 10:00 start time instead of the 9:40 start time if you weren't in there. As soon as the corrals were closed, there were a number of people that didn't make it...now this is the fun part...they all were now climbing over the 6 ft fence to make it in. Some were graceful...others not as much. All I could think about at this point was that these runners could have thrown all of the training out of the window by getting injured climbing the fences at the start. At about 9:15, the corrals were set and we all moved forward to the starting line.

I was getting nervous but also excited because I knew how hard I trained over the last 6 months and that with the NYC crowd, I would have a ton of adrenaline flowing through my body. I also knew that in under 4 hours, the world would know whether I beat Ryan's time or not.

With that...the national anthem began...the gun sounded ...and we were off!!!

Quick update

Well, I wanted to take today to do a recap of the marathon but my computer is messed up and taking a while to process. You'd think that it ran a marathon yesterday!!

This week, I'll give a full update on the marathon and also a revised "Celebrity Beatdown" List... I beat Alanis Morissette, Anthony Edwards, Ed Norton and Tara Costa yesterday as well as Sarah Palin and Will Ferrell amongst others from their previous marathons.

stay tuned.
I'm gonna nap

3:38:46!!!!

I did it!!! Beat ryan's time by over 11 minutes. Now I am celebrating with my wife and family with a margarita at Rosa mexicana!!!

Have a good night.