August 16, 2009, 7:00 AM Start

Still, running through the heart of the city’s skyscrapers felt incredible!

Tomorrow, I’ll get to savor this feeling for an even longer stretch. After all, the entire course, from inside Central Park where the race begins, down 7th Avenue, and all the way to the Hudson River on the west side of New York, to the finish line at the World Trade Center, will be open to runners.
Thinking about it, I finally felt the reality of participating in a New York race, and the immense distance I had traveled to get here. I, who could only run 30 meters on New Year’s Day when I started running this year, would be running 21.1 kilometers (13.1 miles) tomorrow, eight months later…
Gradually building up my practice, I’ve come this far. When I think about it, I feel like I want to praise myself.

I Just Need to Run My Own Race

The next morning, around 5:30 AM, before dawn had fully broken, I arrived at Central Park to find a crowd already gathering. Of course, it was a large event with over 10,000 participants.
Men and women of all ages and races – this must be typical of the NYC Half Marathon. What surprised me was how few people were in costume. Perhaps running is not a special event for them, but a part of their daily lives, and the half marathon is simply an extension of that.

After a light jog, I went to my assigned starting corral based on my declared time (I was second to last). First, I did some warm-up exercises. Looking around, I saw couples embracing, friends chatting animatedly, and others concentrating with their eyes closed, listening to music through earphones. Everyone was waiting for the start in their own way.
“They all look experienced and fast…” I told myself, trying to calm my slightly racing heart. But this isn’t a competition against anyone else. I just need to run my own race. As I repeated this to myself, I waited for the moment.

I recall that in the 10k race in Yamagata in June, which I ran as practice, I was nervous before the start, but once I began running, it was so much fun that I couldn’t stop smiling. I even managed a good time while chatting with the staff who ran alongside me. I’m sure I’ll enjoy this race too!

“Ms. Fujiwara, suddenly your speed picked up and you started smiling.”

And then, at 7:00 AM, the starting gun fired. First, we ran one loop of Central Park (11.2 km). It was surprisingly tough. Despite being in a park, it was a series of ups and downs, and even though the greenery was pleasant, the scenery was monotonous. There weren’t many spectators, so it felt like I was just running steadily.
But the moment I entered the city streets, the situation and my mindset completely changed. With cheers of “Waaah!”, crowds of supporters lined the route, and amateur bands played music everywhere. Most importantly, seeing the road to Times Square filled with runners brought goosebumps to my skin and ignited my motivation!
Later, the staff member who acted as my pacer told me, “Ms. Fujiwara, suddenly your speed picked up and you started smiling.”

I never knew that the support from spectators could have such a real impact on a runner’s performance until I became one myself. I used to think that when marathon runners said, “Your cheers spurred me on,” it was just a polite remark. But I was so wrong!

Even though I knew they weren’t cheering specifically for me, hearing their voices somehow infused me with vitality from deep within. That vitality seemed to propel my motivation forward.
Fueled by these “vitamins” and motivation, and perhaps also because I started from the back, my running transformed into overtaking other runners. The feeling was exhilarating! Of course, I wasn’t aiming to compete, but if I had only been overtaken by others, my hard-earned motivation would surely have waned.

However, I was able to continue running with a cheerful “Feeling good, feeling good! This is fun, la la la” only until about 2 kilometers before the finish line. The final stretch, the “almost there” part, was agonizingly difficult.
I pushed myself, thinking, “1 kilometer to go, 800 meters, 200 meters,” and poured water from a hydration station onto my aching calf muscles as I kept running.
I even thought, “Why am I putting myself through this much pain running a marathon?” But as I ran near the finish line, I saw other runners, strangers, also breathing heavily and looking pained. Everyone was suffering equally. Some people were starting to walk, but I had promised myself that one goal would be to keep running without stopping. I repeated this to myself as I ran, and finally crossed the finish line…

A Reward for Challenging Myself in This Marathon

“I did it…!” The moment I finished, the hardship I had felt vanished from my mind and body as if it had never been there.

I was filled with relief that I had fulfilled my responsibility as a reporter to “run the NYC Half Marathon,” and with the sense of accomplishment from completing it.
My time was 2 hours, 12 minutes, and 3 seconds. This was faster than the staff’s prediction. As this was my first half marathon, I had no idea how fast that actually was.
Finishing the race and crossing the line faster than my predicted time were the results of my eight months of training. And the experience of achieving what I set out to do, of continuing to put in consistent effort… experiencing these things was the true reward for challenging myself in this marathon.