The Day after the Marathon and Reflections

Apparently, it was a tradition for all of the marathon finishers to proudly wear, walk, and parade the medal on the streets of New York City...

And that's exactly what we did on the next day :) Even with our 'busted' legs :P

My pretty necklace of the day :)

Breakfast at one of our fave places, Le Pain Quotidien 

On the way to Top of the Rock...

With the gorgeous Central Park as the backdrop :)

Because we had to celebrate the American style ;)

Dinner time ;)

And to end our NYC trip, of course we had to make an epic one... And so we did :D

One of the best concerts I've ever gone to!!!

I think our medals had a blast too on that day... Hehe ;)

It was a perfect post-marathon day for us... Strangers on the street came up to us and congratulated us for completing the marathon... Bumped into runners that did the same thing, we exchanged smiles at each other on the street with an unspoken understanding that we braved through the 5 boros the day before and the medal's probably one of if not the best thing that has happened for this year :)

I think if we were to do this in KL, people would think that there's seriously something wrong with us :P

Now, I don't normally do this... But I thought a self-reflection about the whole marathon experience would probably do me good whenever I look back later on... And of course I wouldn't mind sharing it here with all of you :) So here goes...

What went right:
The training... I completely agree that you need sufficient training in order to achieve your desired time goal in a marathon... As I was saying, I've never trained properly for a marathon except for this one... And it helps to have a training buddy who shares the same passion as you too :)

The speedwork did wonders to my legs... And when I was running the first 30km, I felt like I could go on and on with the unexpected pace that I was running at...

Oh, and before I started training for the marathon, I used to loathe running through the hills... Whenever I see one from afar, I'll start to get demotivated and immediately switched to brisk walking mode to go through them... But thanks to my training, I can proudly say, bring the hills on because the legs are loving it! :)

And as per my previous post, the combination of feeling happy and the amazing atmosphere were definitely the two factors that helped me PB-ed this awesome marathon on that day :)

What went wrong:
I think looking back, there was a pinch of regret as I felt that I didn't push myself during my last 10km of the marathon... After I crossed the finish line, I thought to myself that I could've gotten a slightly better timing have I not been walking too much... But a PB is indeed a PB... And there's always a next marathon to smash a PB right? ;)

Also, the fact that my Garmin went hay-wired during the race... I became too worried and kept on checking on my watch and the mile markers to see whether I was on target with my time goal... But either than that, I am super grateful that my legs were fine (except for my cramped left leg between 35 - 40km of the route) throughout the race... Alhamdulillah for that :)

What could've been improved:
I think more speedwork and strength sessions for the legs would've helped during my training period...

Also, I should've ran outside more instead of on the happymill... I think my dailymile friends can conclude that happymill was my superbestie during the training period... Hehe... Time was always a factor for me when it comes to running during weekdays... Maybe next time, I'll try to go out more and run at parks instead :)

And it wouldn't hurt to have a man by your side, supporting you throughout your journey ;P

So there you have it, my NYC Marathon journey, jotted down in words (and in 3 parts! hehe) and written straight from the heart with no regrets :)

Follow your dreams, have faith and believe in each one of them, and they will come true eventually...

I know that one of mine did :)