Run, Karla, Run!

New York, New York. Photo by Fergal Carr.

Cue the theme from Rocky: “Gonna fly now…. Getting strong now…” Yee-haw. Marathon season is here. This week marks the start of training for the 2010 ING New York City Marathon. Come Nov. 7, I’ll be strong and ready to fly.

Or will I?

This past weekend, I took a sailing class out in New York Harbor. We sailed from lower Manhattan past the Statue of Liberty to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the iconic start of the race. It was a view of the bridge I’ve never seen before. As the boat cruised underneath, I looked up at the mass of steel and bolts looming above me. My blood rushed. In just 16 weeks I would be crossing that bridge at the start of the New York City Marathon.

I looked back up the bay toward Manhattan. The island was tiny in the distance, seemingly a word away. I gulped. Read the rest of this entry →

It seems like everyone wants to run the marathon. And not just any marathon—the ING New York City Marathon. Haile Gebrselassie, the marathon world record holder and undisputed King of the Road, has already announced that he’s running NYC for the first time this fall. Defending NYC champion and American superstar Meb Keflezighi is also returning to defend his title. And now, Shalane Flanagan, America’s track darling, has announced she’ll be making her marathon debut in New York on November 7.

“It’s the ultimate challenge for the distance runner,’’ Flanagan told The Boston Globe. “I would love to win another Olympic medal, but more than anything, I would love to win a major marathon.’’ Read the rest of this entry →

The High Line in New York City on Oct. 29. The elevated park is on the city's West Side. Photo by Rob Thurman/Flikr.

Okay, it’s been a full month since I ran the Chicago Marathon and I suppose it’s time—time to run again.

I’m a real stickler when it comes to the rules of training. And perhaps my favorite rule of training is actually the rule of recovery. A common adage says it takes one day per mile of any distanced raced for your body to fully recover. So that means I get 26.2 days off from hard training. I take that seriously. Maybe too seriously. As much as I love to run, I love to take it easy when I feel I’ve earned it.

But after about two and a half weeks of recovery, I started to get antsy. The yoga, stretching and sit-ups I was passing off for workouts just weren’t cutting it. So I finally laced up my shoes and hit the pavement. Read the rest of this entry →

Meb Keflezighi chases down Kenya’s Robert Cheruiyot at the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 1. Photo by Randy Lemoine.

It only took 27 years. For the first time since Alberto Salazar ran away with the title in 1982, an American won the ING New York City Marathon. On Sunday, Nov. 1, Meb Keflezighi cruised to victory in 2:09:15 wearing a “U.S.A.” singlet. Does his win signal the return of the great American marathoner?

Back in the 1970s and early 1980s, marathon legends Frank Shorter, Bill Rodgers, Joan Benoit Samuelson and Salazar enjoyed an era when Americans actually won races, and inspired a generation of runners to hit the pavement in the process—running boom, anyone? Indeed, Rodgers has the most major marathon wins—8 of them—of any runner in history according to the World Marathon Majors, a two-year race series with a $1 million prize. (New York, Boston, Chicago, London and Berlin comprise the Majors, along with the Olympics and World Championships as qualifying races.) But African runners have largely dominated the sport since. Sure, an American star like Deena Kastor—who won Chicago in 2005 and London in 2006—has challenged the status quo every now and then. But on the world’s streets at large, the U.S. hasn’t been a factor. Certainly not like Kenya or Ethiopia. But this year on the mean streets of New York, a total of six American men finished in the top 10—the most since 1979—with Keflezighi taking the crown. All signs point to a potential renaissance. Read the rest of this entry →

Natalie stops to chat with her cheerleaders. Photo by Christy Hourihan.

I was running. Striding up Second Avenue in my new sneakers hurrying to catch my friend who was also running. But she was racing the ING New York City Marathon, and I was merely a spectator hoping to spot her at Mile 17.

If you’ve ever run a marathon, you know how critical spectators can be. I’ve been lucky enough to run three with friends and family peppered throughout the course, lighthouses on a stormy day blinking me in. Last year in the New York City Marathon, the devil on my shoulder was whispering insidious thoughts about quitting the race as I climbed the steep incline of the Queensboro Bridge around Mile 16. But knowing I had friends at Mile 17, Mile 18, Mile 20 and on kept me going. For one thing, I have just enough vanity to not want to look bad lollygagging up to them when I should be running. But I also know that seeing them is usually all the encouragement I need.

This year, I was excited for my first marathon as a spectator. My friend Natalie, one of my diehard cheerleaders, was running her first marathon. She was nervous and I was happy to be the one rooting her on for a change. Read the rest of this entry →

Chicago at dawn on marathon morning. Photo by Phil Hospod.

It was dark. It was brisk. It was electric. I shivered in the 29-degree air, my teeth chattering as the sun rose over Chicago’s Grant Park. This was it. My stomach rolled over, nervous and uncertain. I stood in the starting corral, packed in with nearly 35,000 other runners huddling like penguins bracing for winter. We moved forward en masse, and then, there we were facing the starting line of the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.

It was the 6th anniversary of my father’s death, and I was about to literally run down memory lane. The day before at the marathon expo, I watched a video of the course neighborhood by neighborhood—The Loop, Lincoln Park, Old Town, Greektown and on and on. My emotions swelled and I swallowed hard. I had come back to Chicago a prodigal daughter of sorts. This was my homecoming, my triumphant return to the city of my youth. Read the rest of this entry →

The Merchandise Mart in Chicago. Photo by Phil Hospod.

Chicago, I’m coming home. On October 11th, I’m running the Bank of America Chicago Marathon. It’s my third marathon, but it might be my most significant. October 11th will mark the 6th anniversary of my father’s death.

I was born and raised in the Chicago suburbs. My family lives in the city proper now, and I visit a few times a year. But when I left for college in Massachusetts 13 years ago, it was the last time I ever called Chicago home. After graduation I moved to New York, where I still live. Now when I line up for the start in Grant Park, it’ll be a homecoming of a different kind. Read the rest of this entry →