Run, Karla, Run!

Photo by Christy Hourihan

The 2010 ING New York City Marathon is now another notch on my hydration belt. After months of agonizing, planning, plotting, scheming and dreaming, I ran the best race I could.

I sang. I ran. I conquered.

Sunday, Nov. 7 was that rare day of days when, Murphy’s law be darned, everything went right. Not only was it my fastest marathon to date, but it was also the most fun. I wasn’t just running; I was singing at the start of the wheelchair and professional women’s races. Read the rest of this entry →

Karla Bruning will sing "American the Beautiful" at the start of the 2010 ING New York City Marathon. Photos by Phil Hospod.

After four months of training, five races, four physical therapy appointments, one x-ray and one MRI, it’s finally here: the ING New York City Marathon. Tomorrow I’ll toe the starting line on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge with 45,000 other runners.

But I’m not only running; I’m singing too. New York Road Runners has asked me to kick off the wheelchair and professional women’s races with “America the Beautiful.”

It’s an honor for a singer to be asked to perform at any major sporting event like the New York City Marathon, but as a singer who also happens to be a marathon runner, it’s like having your cake and eating it too. Singing for athletes who are able to accomplish what most of us only dream is humbling and a privilege. I’m already anticipating getting shivers, and not from the cold. Read the rest of this entry →

12 weeks down, 4 to go to the ING New York City Marathon

The ancient Greeks gave us a lot: the Hippocratic oath, democracy, the Olympics, and, of course, marathons. Race organizers around the world are celebrating the 2500th anniversary of the battle of Marathon this year (never mind the fact that it should be 2011).

But the ancient Greeks also gave us something else: the journey to hell and back. Reading Greek mythology, it seems like people were always trekking to the underworld for one reason or another; Odysseus, Hercules and, most famously, Orpheus all made the trip.

The joke that the distance to hell and back is 26.2 miles is apt. And like Orpheus ascending from the underworld, there’s no looking back.

The road to the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 hasn’t been much different, marked by highs, lows, good news and bad news. The agony and the ecstasy are part of the journey. And my last two weeks of training have been filled with agony and ecstasy. Read the rest of this entry →

Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot and Martin Lel, both of Kenya, will not compete in the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 7 due to injuries.

New York Road Runners announced yesterday that Lel, a two-time New York and three-time London marathon champion, has injured his right leg. Lel, 31, won the ING New York City Marathon in 2003 and 2007. Cheruiyot, a four-time Boston Marathon champion, is out due to a groin injury. Cheruiyot, 32, finished second in New York last year to Meb Keflezighi of the U.S. Read the rest of this entry →

Meb Keflezighi chases down Kenya’s Robert Cheruiyot at the 2009 ING New York City Marathon. (Photo: Randy Lemoine).

The 2010 ING New York City Marathon professional field is shaping up to be one of the most exciting races in recent memory. A stellar field of the world’s top marathoners, including three previous winners and the world record holder, will be lined up at the start on Nov. 7.

Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia already announced earlier this year that he’d be running the New York City marathon for the first time in his career. And American Meb Keflezighi also announced he will be back to defend his 2009 title.

But New York Road Runners, the race organizer, recently announced that a slew of other champions will be joining them: two-time ING New York City Marathon champions Martin Lel of Kenya and Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil, as well as four-time Boston Marathon champion Robert Kipkoech Cheruiyot. Lel won New York in 2003 and 2007. Dos Santos won in 2006 and 2008. Read the rest of this entry →

Photo by fotologic/Flikr

10 weeks down, six to go.

Believe. It’s a loaded word. One that is used and abused in popular culture, in religion, in politics, in all the areas of life where what we want to be true may not always be, and what is true is not always pretty. As humans, we have a unique ability to delude ourselves. And yet, we continue to believe any number of things for any number of reasons, some of which are worth believing.

Running isn’t any different. Every runner has a different set of beliefs: that stretching is good or bad, that running with headphones is helpful or a hindrance, that tackling an ultramarathon is sane or insane, that we’ll actually be able to achieve our running goals.

I began to question my beliefs during my last week of training for the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 7. Read the rest of this entry →

The ING New York City Marathon better watch its back. I'm training with renewed vim and vigor. Photo by Christy Hourihan.

Three weeks down, 13 to go…

In the 12th paragraph of this post, I’m going to confess something that very few runners ever admit. Something that has reinvigorated my running. Something that served as the wake-up call I needed if I’m really going to race, not just run, the 2010 ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 7.

Runners are generally a stoic bunch of achievers who will run to exhaustion or almost pass out from heat stroke. I’m often one of those runners, pushing myself to my limit for the greater glory of a personal record. And because I’m still on the cardiovascular upswing, I PR every time I race. And I mean every time. Of the 25 odd races I’ve run in earnest in the past three years (I’ve run another five at a jog for fun), I’ve set a PR in all of them.

Until last Saturday. Read the rest of this entry →

Check out The Marathon Show for an interview with Karla. She talks about the running status of many elite marathoners, how to be a successful blogger, her coverage of the Olympics and much more.

The author.

Two weeks down, 14 to go…

Well, just two weeks into my training for the 2010 ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 7, I’ve already done it—I missed a long run.

It couldn’t be helped. I came down with a fever and chills that knocked me out of the game for a few days.

The funny thing is, I wasn’t actually planning on doing the 10-mile run on my schedule. I was camping in the Adirondack Mountains, and after two days of canoeing, I had on the docket a 26-mile hike with a total of 10,000 feet of elevation gain. I figured that would be far more taxing on my legs and lungs than any long run, so I could easily just swap it out, a bit overzealously, but swap it out nonetheless. I figured that starting my marathon training by hiking one first would be kind of poetic.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Read the rest of this entry →