Track and Field Blogs - Luke Humphrey

I haven't blogged in a long time, letting my repsonsibilites lag. But, I haven't had a whole lot to talk about. In any case, I was a partcipant in the NYC marathon this past weekend and this is a condensed version of 2:18:38 of a hard run.

ING NYC Marathon

This year was my first real marathon in over two years, and what blew me away is how interested people were in this race. As many know, I was barely able to walk going into the 2007 Olympic Trials and the only reason I went was, well, it was the Olympic Trials. Upon my return to Michigan from the ING NYC Marathon, I was bombarded with congratulatory emails and requests for details of how it went. And, when Peggy asked me to share, I could only be happy to oblige. Hopefully, this story is interesting, but more importantly educational in the fact that elite athletes go through the same feelings as every other runner out there.

Coming into this race, I was ready, no doubt about it. My fitness was the best it had ever been and I thought there was no way I would walk away without a personal best. On Sunday, November 2, 2008, I toed the line with some of the greatest marathoners ever. True, some are in the twilight of their careers, but they are still legends. They are still the best. The weather was cool, almost cold, sunny, and breezy. Of course, the wind was in our face for most of the race. However, I was calm and ready. I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t nervous.

We blasted off to the ringing of cannon fire, but quickly fell into a very pedestrian pace. Granted, we were running up the side of the Verrenzano Bridge, but when we came through the first mile in 5:55 (goal pace was 5:03), we were a touch slow. The second mile was down the bridge and we came through two miles in 10:53. From there, a decent sized group took off and I ran the next mile in 4:59, but alone. The fourth mile was a repeat of the third, and by 20 minutes of racing, in a race of 40,000 people, I was alone in every sense of the word. This ended up being my race mistake. I had a choice to make, and I chose the wrong one. Instead of staying with the lead group, I chose to back off. Now, if I would have stayed in the group, I would have realized that everybody had settled down within the next couple miles and I would have been in the race that I wanted. Instead, I panicked and thought they were way too fast. So, from 4 miles to 26, I was left to fend for myself. It was hard because even by 10 miles I felt like I was running too hard. Maybe if I would have stuck with that second group, things would have felt a little easier. We'll never know and it's hard to speculate.

I ground it out the best I could. With the wind in my face and no shelter, I just ran. At halfway, I was 1:07:32 and nobody in front or back. Listening to the crowd cheering, there were only cheers when I went by. I didn’t hear anything from people behind me and heard nothing in front of me. At 25k I saw my last mile split and it repulsed me, so I stopped looking at my watch and thought- just focus on people. I saw a small figure at about 17 miles, way off in the distance. That was my goal. I caught them within a mile. At 19 miles, I saw Kevin, who told me the next guy was Jim Carney. Again, I caught him within the next few minutes. This process repeated itself a couple more times as I weaved through the Bronx and back into Manhattan. When I hit 23 miles, my thoughts couldn’t keep me together any longer. I was too tired to be tough. I just wanted it to be over. I thought about retiring from running, getting a full time job, moving away, maybe just disappearing to the Montana countryside. Amazingly, I was still passing people. At 40k, I passed Hendrick Ramalla. When I did, I thought, “Oh no, I made a move to fast! He’s going to outkick me.” I laugh now at the thought of two turtles battling it out down the finish stretch. Could you imagine how painful that would have been to see?

Making my left hand turn into the park, I saw it -the giant finish banner that would finally bring me peace. I tried to resemble a runner as I made my way home, but at that point, you have no pride. Your only thought is survival and luckily I did. Crossing the line met me face to face with Mary Wittenberg, the President of NYRR and race director. She gave me a hug and said, “Fantastic job, Luke! I think you were 10^th (actually 11^th). It was a tough day today.” I think I grunted my approval and my man Sam G. pulled me out of the finish area so I could get some dry clothes on.

So, in the end, it was no grand re entrance onto the world marathon stage. On the other hand- I was 11^th in the biggest marathon in the world. You can’t exactly complain about that. Behind were faster guys. Some Olympians had enough and dropped out. I guess that makes me feel better. It is hard though, because you train so hard to not have things go perfectly. But, what I did learn was that you control your destiny. If you want to do great things, then it is up to you to put yourself in position. It’s not just the training, but executing everything down to the smallest details, having faith, and just letting go of outside perceptions. So, another learning experience. At 27 I sometimes feel like I am over the hill, when in reality, I am a young marathoner with 6 marathons under my belt - 4 being under 2:19 and 2 being 2:15. I haven't nailed it yet, but I guess that's why we keep trying.