This past weekend Run SMART Project athlete Craig Berman participated in his first race. Craig decided that if he was going to get into running he may as well go all out, so he chose the New York City Marathon to be his first venture into racing.
Craig narrowly missed his goal of sub 4 hours, running 4:02:35. He had been well under pace at half way, clocking 1:55:58 at the half-marathon mark. Unfortunately, Craig discovered only a few minutes into the race that he had somehow lost the contents of his fuel belt, which included several hundred calories of much needed nutrition. Craig pressed on after hitting “the wall” at 19 miles, out of energy from the lack of glycogen available in his muscle tissue. Determined to hit the mark, Craig gave it all he had, only to miss the mark by 2 minutes and 35 seconds. Despite not hitting his initial goal Craig left the course pleased with his effort, as he should have been.
Craig joined the Run SMART Project team in August, with just a few months of running under his belt. He had spent the majority of his recent athletic career in the gym and on the sand, competing in beach volleyball.
Coach’s note: Due to a glitch with the timing system, Craig’s start time was recorded from the gun, not when he crossed the starting line. Craig just received notice of the error from New York Road Runner’s and it is very likely that he actually broke the 4 hour mark.