Terry Gormley – New York Marathon – The Full Story

New York Marathon – The Full Story

By Terry Gormley – Fire Training Academy’s Managing Director

The training for this marathon was very demanding, not only on myself personally but on my wife and family also.

Terry gets to the Finish Line

I started the training for the New York Marathon on the 29th June 2008 – exactly 18 weeks before the marathon itself.  I was advised by my personal trainer to follow a beginners schedule designed by famous runner and coach Hal Higdon.  Details of the novice 1 schedule that I used can be found at http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/novices.html 

The first couple of weeks were relatively easy training with 4 runs scheduled, in the first week, and also a cross training day.  The total running mileage in the first week would be 15 miles, this does not sound like much but when it has been many years since I had ran seriously the challenge had begun.

Over the first few weeks I did not have many problems with the training and the first challenge came with my wedding and two week holiday in Cyprus at around week 6.  My runs in the week were not so much a problem apart from the heat but the long run at the weekends was almost impossible with the intense heat.  Fortunately my cross-fit training and my Mount Everest fitness training earlier in the year meant I had a decent level of fitness already.

I had a little bit of a problem that meant I could not run for around 10 days with an Achilles injury but with the base fitness already there this meant I was able to come back into the training without too much problem.  This is quite stressful mentally as you feel like you need to be out running.

I agreed to run my first half marathon, with my personal trainer on the 24th August at Fleetwood (near Blackpool) and I came in around 240th out of a possible 248 entrants in a time of 2hrs 16mins.  Not a fantastic time but mission accomplished and the distance completed.  My last half marathon was 11 years earlier and it has to be said, I was somewhat lighter back in the day.

From now on in the mileage increased week on week and so did the challenge.  My family were also suffering because my total focus had to be on the training.  With the mileage increasing I learned very quickly that if I did not fuel my body correctly, with good food and plenty of water, I suffered very badly on the weekends long run.  This was a steep learning curve on what you eat through the week and prior to the long run day.  Indeed, on more than one occasion I was found wanting notably on a 16 miler where the last couple of miles I found myself reduced to an embarrassing walk/jog pace.  (some would say that’s my normal pace ha ha)

It was three weeks prior to the marathon when disaster struck.  I was hit with a chest infection which meant I could not run.  A visit to the doctors meant I had a 10 day course of anti-biotics with the doctor telling me “if it is not totally gone in 7 days come back” and 10 days later another 7 day course of anti-biotics meant that the course of tablets only finished two days before the marathon. Nightmare!!!

The longest run was a 20 miler which was meant to be 3 weeks before the marathon but because of the chest infection this was not possible.  But I had to do the 20 miler so I left it until the last Sunday before the marathon with the chest infection still lingering!

Due to business commitments I had to travel to Holland on Monday evening by Ferry and I did not sleep much due to the rough crossing.  Tuesday Night in Holland I got some good rest but Wednesday evening’s crossing was equally as bad as Mondays so this was not the best preparation for the Marathon but never mind.  What was worse is that I could not fuel my body properly whilst I was away.  I arrived back in the UK around 10:30 on Thursday morning and after spending a couple of hours in the office I went home to pick my Wife and Children up in preparation to travel to London’s Heathrow Airport to travel early morning to New York’s JFK airport.

After around 4 hours sleep on Thursday night we were awoken by our alarm clock at 03:30.  This early call ensured that we had enough time to arrive and book in at the Airport at 05:00 hours for our 08:25 flight to JFK.  We needed to get there early because Air France had told me they over book all flights by 25% but not to worry if we do not get the flight we should get another flight within the next 24 hours………….yeah right??? 

Another problem then arose, this time with the aircraft, so we had a delay of 3 hours.  (I could have really done with those 3 hours in bed with the marathon only 48 hours away)  But eventually we got off the ground at 11:40 and this would still allow me to book in for the marathon on the Friday when I arrived rather then the queuing with 20,000 other people on the Saturday.

We arrived a JFK at around 19:30 UK time which is 14:30 US time and this was great because it meant that I could get to the Javits Convention Centre to book in for the marathon which would leave Saturday for complete rest.  Then, for some unknown reason, we had an hour delay getting through passport control?  Then another hour in a queue for taxi?? Then, if that was not enough, the normal taxi ride to our hotel was 40 minutes but because of traffic the drive took an hour and 40 minutes…nothing seemed to be going right!  We arrived in our hotel at around 18:00hrs which did not leave enough time for me to book in for the marathon on the Friday so I decided to get some pasta and an early night and get up early and get to the convention centre first thing in the morning.

Saturday I was awake at 07:30 and took a shower wanting to arrive first in the hope that I would avoid the queues.  I arrive at the Javits Convention Centre at 08:30 as it was not due to open until 09:00 – wow something was going right for me as the staff processed my booking and I was given my official race number and runners pack.

When I arrived back at my hotel I noticed that, because of my charity place, I had to catch the 04:00 bus from Mid-town Manhattan.  This meant an early morning call for 02:30 so I needed to get as early a night as was possible.

-1 degree C but getting some rest

02:30 came and my alarm woke me.  Oh I was so tired as with the children in the same room I did not get the early night that I had planned.  The preparation in the last 10 weeks had not been the best for a Marathon but the race day was now here and I could not change anything.  So, all that remained was for me to stay positive and get to the finish. I met some of my team members at 03:45 and we got onto the bus at 04:00.  The traffic had been stopped throughout New York due to the Marathon and the bus took around 30 minutes to get us to Staten Island where the Marathon would begin.

We arrived at Staten Island just after 04:30 and we had to find something to do as the my race wave did not start until 10:00.  We found a tent called “the religious tent” and made that our home for the next 4 hours as it was -1 degree C.

10am came and the gun went and all my 18 weeks preparation was now down to the 26.2 miles that lay ahead.  I had planned to run as slow as I could and do what ever it took to reach the finish line.  The people through the 5 boroughs of New York were amazing and it was a good job because at 11 miles I pulled my Achilles tendon and started to feel sick.  This was odd because I had ran a 20 miler, 18, 16, 15, 14 and two half marathons in training without feeling at all sick.  And if this was not enough I lost all my energy Gels out of by running belt by 3 miles! (I did not get any Gels until 23 miles this is not good when I was taking one every 20 minutes on my long runs)

Miles 17-20 took me an age, and my brother was following my progress on the internet and he kept texting me with encouragement (he is 58 and has done 2 London Marathons) and he told me that Paula Radcliffe had won the women’s race which helped me.  The last 6.2 miles were done in total exhaustion as clearly something was not right within my body but when you are running for two fantastic charities like Children with Leukaemia and Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice it is amazing what the body will do.

I crossed the line in 5hrs 51minutes totally shattered and I must admit in tears of emotion.  The time I was very disappointed with but it was mission accomplished!!!  What was great was I had achieved something that I was beginning to wonder might never happen – Terry Gormley running a marathon!

The story does not end here though because on the Wednesday evening whilst we were watching a movie in our hotel room on the 23rd floor we heard quite a few fire engines outside.  I thought there must be a fire somewhere close to us?  Nicky, my wife, went into the corridor to the ice machine and said that she had smelt smoke?  I immediately checked out the floor on which we were and asked Nicky to call reception for further information.  Nicky said reception had said we have had a minor situation but it is now under control.  I said well, if it is under control we should be ok.  This just shows you that after 16 years as a fire-fighter you can still learn because 30 minutes later I thought that I would go out to the corridor to check it out and there was smoke visually building up in our corridor and I went to the means of escape closest to us to find that smoke was coming up at an alarming rate.  Having checked where all the means of escape were on the first night (just in case of such an emergency) I knew that there were 3 other escapes on our floor so I told Nicky to dress the kids calmly while I checked the other means of escape.  Once dressed I carried my youngest and we started to descend the staircase calmly but confused as to why there had been not fire alarm or no procedure to inform guests that there was a fire?  We passed a fire-fighter on the 5th floor and eventually reached the reception area where there was a congregation of people waiting to see what was going to happen.  There was also more than 20 fire-fighters present on the ground floor at this time!

Alarmingly, for a top hotel, the hotel staff were very poorly trained, did not know what procedures they should do in case of fire and had decided to protect their reputation as a premier hotel in New York rather than taking care and informing guests of a serious fire on the 5th floor!  Peoples behaviour in fires never ceases to amaze me!!!!

The Fire Training Academy could really do with setting up an office in New York

Finally though our team has raised around £12,000 for our two charities Children with Leukaemia and Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice and my personal contribution has been in excess of £2,000 www.bmycharity.com/terrygormley and I would like to thank everyone who has sponsored me on this amazing journey.

The only thing left to say really is what’s next…….