New York Marathon Report, pictures and Thank You's

[thePinkDreamMachine]

Thank You to everyone who kindly sponsored my mum in the New York marathon early this month.

We exceeded the target and mum ran a storming 4hr36 marathon raising £1297.90 for CYSTIC FIBROSIS TRUST.

Addiscombe members alone donated over £250!!!! to that we are most grateful.

See the two race report below:
One printed in Exeter local paper and also . (mums a local celebrity)
And also Oliver Holt from the mirror (i think), beautiful article, ‘Running the New York marathon restored my faith in humanity

many thanks Chloe x

[img]http://i38.tinypic.com/35849wy.jpg[/img] and [img]http://i33.tinypic.com/1zzidjq.jpg[/img]


New York, New York!
6 November 2008 Sixty is the new 40 so they say - well, so those approaching 60 say - and Brenda Thomas, 59, of Pennysylvania, Exeter has marked her impending milestone by running her first marathon - the New York Marathon, writes Lee Glanville.

Brenda has run with the Women's Running Network for many years and has completed countless half marathons and Grizzly cub runs but she had no desire to step up the distance. She said:"I was happy running halfs as I could do that and enjoy it without suffering any injuries.I was worried that if I started hammering out the miles I would pick up an injury and then not be able to run while recovering."

But this year she hatched a plan along with daughter Chloe, 24, to run the big one - the New York Marathon. Chloe qualified for a place but Brenda got a charity place through pledging to raise money for Cystic Fibrosis and then the training started.

Her training went without a hitch but Chloe wasn't so lucky, being knocked off her bike on her way to work one morning in London. Luckily her bike helmet (smashed) and laptop (in a rucksack) saved her from breakages but she suffered badly from bruising and her beloved pink bike was a write off. Running of any sort, let alone marathon running, was out of the question.

However, Chloe is nothing if not determined and she completed the Dartmoor half a couple of weeks ago in around 1.43 - and that was on a run for 10 minutes, walk for one basis throughout to see how she would get on. She decided to run in New York - at Brenda's pace - promising to give up if it became painful.She also had another reason to get to NY - to be fitted and pick up a new custom made pink bike!

The big trip finally dawned - they were in NYC in time to take part in the two mile International Friendship run on Saturday and attend the runners' pasta party. Brenda said: "It was fantastic. The whole thing was superbly organised. Everyone was talking to each other during the run and it was amazing that the organisers could cater so well for 40,000 plus at the party!"

The marathon itself went well. "All that training paid off. I didn't hit the wall and completed in 4.36.10, the 164th woman in my age group (out of 442), and adjusted for my age it equated to 3.26. It was pretty tough at the end though, the last 2k in Central Park took me 16 minutes!

Every borough we went through there were choirs on the church steps singing, bands playing and people on microphones saying things like "Welcome to Brooklyn!"

"Everyone was so friendly. Chloe ran with me, and was getting the crowd to cheer me on. Afterwards everyone was walking round in their tinfoil with the medals and everywhere we went everyone was congratulating us. It really was something to cross the finish line together."

"We did a lot of site seeing as well as shopping - we had a meal at Grand Central Station, went up the Empire State Building and went to the Museum of Modern Art. And the night of the marathon we had dinner with members of the Geoff Thomas foundation, Chloe having met some of them at The Cycle Show in London where she ordered her bike. It was great trip."

And is she going to run another? She says no. "When you run, people always ask if you have run the London Marathon. Well, now I can say I have run the New York Marathon. I don't need to do another!"

[url]http://www.exmouthherald.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=SMHonline&category=SportAthletics&itemid=DEED06%20Nov%202008%2014:51:39:670&tBrand=SMHonline&tCategory=search%20<http://www.exmouthherald.co.uk/search/story.aspx?brand=SMHonline&amp;category=SportAthletics&amp;itemid=DEED06%20Nov%202008%2014:51:39:670&amp;tBrand=SMHonline&amp;tCategory=search>[/url]

Oliver Holt
Running the New York marathon restored my faith in humanity
By Oliver Holt 5/11/2008

I went to a sporting event on Sunday where a million supporters didn't cheer for anyone. They cheered for everyone.
They shouted loudly for two winners. And even louder for 38,998 losers.
They didn't want anyone to win. They wanted everyone to win.
They weren't rooting for a guy because he was wearing a red kit instead of a blue kit.
They didn't boo anyone or cheer anyone's mistake or hope that they fell by the wayside.
Their allegiance was not to a town or a team or a country but to a mass of humanity pounding their streets on a gloriously crisp blue-sky autumn day.
I admit it: maybe I'm mistyeyed about it because I ran in the New York Marathon last weekend.
And apart from playing on the losing side in the Macclesfield and District Sunday League second division cup final at Congleton Town 25 years ago, it's the closest I'll get to a form of sporting achievement. But when I was running through the crowds in Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan and the Bronx, I finally got it.
I finally understood why more than 39,000 people wanted to put themselves through varying degrees of pain for more than 26 miles.
Sure, it felt good to raise some money for the Geoff Thomas Foundation. The former Crystal Palace player, who has battled leukaemia, was not a remarkable footballer but he is a remarkable man.
KINDNESS And sure, it felt good to overcome what in my sheltered life counts for a bit of physical discomfort. It felt good to keep on going to the finish line.
But that was a minor part of it. Because to run on Sunday was also to be a witness to a startling act of random mass generosity.
That was what was affirming about being part of the marathon: to see man's humanity to man.
To see strangers willing on strangers. To see a thousand small acts of kindness from the start to the end.
From the residents who spilled out on to Fourth
Avenue in Brooklyn holding out paper tissues for the runners to mop their brows or blow their noses.
From the traffic cop on Central Park South who stopped directing the cars and the cabs to urge on a runner who had started to wobble and weave with exhaustion.
From the man who stood on Fifth Avenue, at the foot of the last long climb, holding a placard that said "Pain is Temporary, Pride is 4Ever".
From the teenage rapper who stood alone on a bridge in Queens with his boom box and his microphone firing out his staccato lyrics to keep runners going as they neared the Queensboro Bridge.
From the Hasidim who came out on to the porch of their house in Brooklyn wearing their black hats and their long beards and applauded as the runners passed by.
From the hundreds of street bands who belted out Keep On Running and Eye of the Tiger and all sorts of music that kept you going, from the choirs, the Grateful Dead tribute band, and the orchestras.
And from the spectators I saw kneeling by a runner who had collapsed in the gutter on the edge of Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem a few miles from the finish, trying to comfort him in his distress.
"Don't try to get up, sir," they were saying to him as I passed, one spectator cradling him in her arms. "Help is coming." These acts of kindness, this cheering, this encouragement, happened everywhere.
Not just in the affluent Upper West Side or from among the bars on First Avenue or in deprived Bedford-Stuyvesant. But everywhere. For a few hours, and I hope longer, it stripped away cynicism and negativity and the feeling nobody does anything for nothing and that someone's always trying to play you.
It stripped away some of the curses of modern life and the suspicions that segregate us and admitted runners and spectators alike to a world where sport is at its best, bringing people together, not dividing them.
When I got back to my hotel room, I pored over the results and the splits that show every runner's time every 5km.
Now and again, a competitor's time fell off a cliff as if they had suffered some physical catastrophe.
But instead of giving up, those people kept on going.
More than 400 people took over seven hours to finish.
You don't even get a medal if it takes you more than six hours.
But they kept going, too.
Maybe the medal wasn't what mattered to them.
Maybe seeing the faces in the crowd mattered more..

[Dombo]

Fantastic effort, Chloe. Well done to you both.

Sounds way tougher than anything I've ever done or will do on a bike!

[Andrew G]

Well done to both of you. I'll run for a bus, but no further.

[Marky Mark]

Well done Chloe and mum of Chloe, super job, job jobbed.

Are you doing it all again next year?

Marky Mark