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