NYC Half Marathon

What was it like running the New York City half marathon?
Hugo: Running the New York City Half was awesome. This was my first race; I went from not running at all to running a half marathon. I got to experience New York from a new perspective and really felt the scale of the city by running through it.

The most memorable part was definitely the comradery. I honestly don’t remember running through Central Park—the three of us were cracking jokes, snapchatting, and facetiming with Joe’s family [laughing] I forgot I was running thirteen miles. I’d definitely do it again.

Joe: This was the second time I ran New York; evolution of the morning is really crazy. You’re corralled into a secluded area of Central Park and surrounded by thousands of fit people—all in a good mood and who worked hard to get here. The race starts; you start running. When you get to mile 2 and 3, you’re in the middle of Central Park and all you hear is a sound you NEVER hear—thousands of shoes hitting concrete. It’s such a weird sound, unless you run one of these races you will never hear that sound in the city.

Running out of the park, you get hit with this wave of energy. Straight down 7^th avenue and right through Times Square, all of a sudden you’re in the middle of the most visited tourist attraction on planet earth. For someone who grew up in New York and lives a block away from Times Square, not seeing a single car and instead being surrounded by thousands of runners, is a very surreal feeling.

Do you remember your first thought when you crossed the starting line?
Hugo: I thought to myself, “What did I get myself into?” Unless you’re Joe, you spend months training for the race and know the distance is something your body can handle. But there’s still a part of you that doesn’t know if you’ll make it until you cross the finish line.

Joe: Honestly my first thought was, “Pace yourself.” As Hugo mentioned, I did not train a single mile for this marathon [everyone laughs]. My goal was to finish. As I was crossing the starting line with runners that were pacing for 8 minute miles, my only thought was, “Do not try to keep up with them. Slow down or else this is going to become a real problem.”

Why didn’t you train? Were you confident because you ran last year?
Joe: I was confident that if I stuck to my pace, I would finish. And knowing the course from last year helped because the hills in Central Park can be brutal, knowing where they were and how long they were really helped me out in the beginning.

My training regimen was slightly different from Hugo’s [laughing] because I’ve been trying to lift weights and put on weight. So I kept pushing off running. When you start to really train for these distance races, forget about putting on muscle, weight just falls off you. I kept telling myself, “I’ll run the last 8 weeks” and that became 7 weeks, 6 weeks, 5 weeks, and when I got down to 3 weeks I was like, “Alright, I guess we’re going into this green, we’re not running a single mile before the half marathon!” [laughing]

To top it off, I went out the night before, drank a bottle of wine, and got three hours of sleep. The morning was definitely a low point in my life. It was 28 degrees, and if you couldn’t tell already given my training regimen, I’m an idiot—I wore shorts! There were five other people wearing shorts in the New York City half marathon! To sum it up, my training regimen included a bottle of wine, three hours of sleep, no pants, and not a single mile until the half marathon. [everyone laughs]

How did you train for the race, Hugo?
Hugo: I downloaded this app called, “Couch to 13.1.” It put me on a three-month training program that built me up to run longer and longer distances. It got me from not being able to run a full mile, to running 13.1 miles without stopping.

What convinced you to sign up for the half marathon?
Hugo: To support you and The Baker’s Dozen project!

Joe: I have to agree with Hugo, that’s absolutely the only reason I ran that thing again.

Wow, Really?
Joe: Yeah, I had no desire to do it. It’s like skydiving—I did it once, put a check mark next to it, and moved on with my life. But I didn’t want you to run it alone. It was a no brainer, I had to do it.

That makes me feel great.
Joe: Good. Now, edit that out. I don’t want that in the interview. Go ahead ask me that question again. Cue it up.

[laughing] So, what convinced you to sign up for the half marathon?
Joe: [heavy-handed sarcasm] Oh my God! I LOVE running. I mean, I live to run. It’s what I do. Running the half marathon was a way of showing self-worth and determination and I purposely DIDN’T train for the New York City half marathon to deprive myself from all that joy. Because I get joy from running. That’s what I do. [everyone laughs]

You love to surf, how does running compare to surfing?
Joe: It’s akin to paddling out on a day when the waves are big—everyone else shies away from it except for the kid who actually knows how to surf, and my dumbass. It’s that battle—you get held under a wave and fight your way out, duck-dive past a couple more waves and decide whether to hold your breath and get under the next one or paddle like a maniac and get over the top of it. I wouldn’t compare it [running] to the joy of dropping in on a big wave, it’s much more like paddling back out—it’s something you have to battle and persevere. The reward is survival. You can either drown or paddle back to shore and sit on your board for the rest of the day.

Now that you’ve finished a half marathon, would you call yourselves runners?Hugo: No. There are people who run these kinds of races on a regular basis and put up 5, 10, 20 miles a week. These people live to run and I don’t think I’m there yet. I might get there eventually, but until I do, I don’t want to belittle their effort by calling myself a runner.

Joe: Listen, in my opinion it doesn’t matter how far you run—1 mile, 3 miles, 5 miles. If running is something you crave and enjoy at all, then you’re a runner. If for whatever reason you despise it from the bowels of your soul? Then no, you’re probably not a runner.

What was it like to cross the finish line?
Joe: What’s a synonym for immeasurable relief? Whatever that word is, that’s what I would like to use to describe how I felt crossing the finish line. [laughing] I was dying to see the finish line in the last two miles. Like DYING to see it. There were a lot more twists and turns in the last mile, and every time we came around a corner I would pray to see the finish line.

Hugo: The last half mile was brutal. At the end of the course, you run into a tunnel—it’s dark, it’s cool, you feel the excitement, and then you realize you have to climb out of the tunnel—your body is aching, it doesn’t want to be there or do this anymore, but mentally you have to push through and will yourself across the finish line. But once you hear the crowd cheering at the finish line and the announcer calling off names of the finishers, you start to really feel a real sense of pride—you’ve accomplished something that not many people are willing to do. When you finally get across, you’re overwhelmed with emotion, you’re surprised you were able to do it, you’re happy you did it, proud you did it, and at the same time thanking God it’s over.

How important is crowd support?
Hugo: The crowd is always there to amp you up and keep you motivated. In the last two miles, I fell into these ruts and started questioning the training and whether or not I could finish. I took inventory of all the things I did leading up to the race in order to calculate whether or not it was enough to keep going. But the crowd definitely played a big role in helping me cross the line. Even though they might be there to cheer for someone else, they’re still going to support you because you’re out there doing the same thing—overcoming obstacles.

Joe: I got such a big rush out of the bands and the people cheering in Times Square. I live in the most cynical city on planet earth and I’m one of the most cynical people you will ever meet. But on race day, it’s the complete opposite of what it’s like to live day-to-day as a New Yorker—you have all these people holding signs, giving you high fives, and genuinely cheering you on… if I actually had a heart, it would have warmed my heart.