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TCS NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 2, 2014Caroline WozniackiNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK THE MODERATOR: As of 9:00 a.m. this morning at the start line at the Verrazano narrows bridge, the temperature was 43 degrees, and the winds were 31 miles per hour sustained. That is the official weather statistics for 9:00 a.m. at the start line. I'll start off by asking Caroline if she's finally willing to tell us what her goal was, considering she ran that pretty well. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Actually, at the start, when I said I was going to run the marathon, I said I want to do it under four hours. So that was my first goal. As I started training, I was like, you know what, I got this. It was 3:30. But I said, if I start hitting the wall halfway through, then I'm going to go for 3:45. But somewhere in between 3:45 and 3:30 was my goal, and I did 3:26:33. So I'm really proud of myself. THE MODERATOR: Caroline, if you can, tell us a little bit about what it was like running through the streets of New York, what the crowds were like, what all five boroughs were like. What was it what you expected? What did it make you feel like? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It was amazing. There was a lot of times during the race‑‑ I was running with John and Michael. They were my pacers. And I was just like this is awesome. This is awesome. I kept saying, "This is awesome." And they were like, "Yes, this is pretty awesome." After 15 kilometers, I was like, "Oh, I have to do another one." They said, "Wait, don't say that yet. There's still a long ways to go." At 20 miles, 6 miles left, I'm like, "I'm never running another marathon again." So I kind of changed my tune but just kept grinding out there. I was like, you know what, I've made it so far. I have to finish now. Q. Was there a moment where you felt you hit the wall? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: At 20 miles, I felt I hit the wall. That was for like about one mile, then I had two miles where I felt pretty good. Then we got to Central Park, and I'm like, well, we should be here. How far can it be? The last mile or two was just really, really tough. Once I saw the finish line, I started sprinting basically with the last energy I had. Yeah, the last one, two miles are really hard. Going into today, I thought, oh, you reach Central Park, piece of cake then. You're there. It really was tough. Q. Caroline, how do you compare that to a four‑or‑five‑hour tennis match? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I've never tried anything this hard. This is the hardest thing I ever‑‑ like toughest physical test ever. It was so hard. You have to keep going, keep going. Once I got into First Avenue, I had the camera crew basically following me the entire way. And I was like, well, now you can't walk. You have to keep running. Whether you slow down your pace a little bit, but keep running. Just make it look like it's easy. THE MODERATOR: Caroline, it was windy out there. Certainly heading over the bridge, there was a pretty big headwind. Did you feel it? How did the start go? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Actually, I think I was just so pumped. So I didn't really feel it too much. I thinkI felt it on Fifth Avenue, just when we were turning into the park. That's exactly when I felt it the most. I was like, okay, not enough I'm hitting the wall over here, I'm also getting a huge headwind, and it's uphill. So there were some negative thoughts starting to creep in. Then I was like, you know what, keep going. Just keep going. THE MODERATOR: Did the crowd encourage you on? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: The crowd was amazing. It was incredible. It was such an incredible experience. I'm so happy to have done this. I'm so proud. Now I have this medal. I can say that I've done the New York City Marathon. I've even done it at a cool time. So I'm really, really happy. THE MODERATOR: I know this was a labor of love for you from the charitable standpoint. Team for Kids was your charity, NYRR Team for Kids. What did you finally end up at on your fund‑raising goal? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I just checked now, and it was at $81,500 and something. It was great. It was amazing. I wouldn't have done this without the charity. It's so amazing to help kids. That's what I'm passionate about. I'm so thankful to everyone who donated. That means so much and making a big difference in all these kids' lives. Q. What does it feel like to actually be a finisher? You said about mile 20, "I'll never do this again." Now that you've finished, chance you'll run another one? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Right now I don't think I'm going to do one for a few years, but probably at some point I'm going to do another one. Right now I'm just tired. I'm exhausted. If you ask me right now, then I'd say no, but I'm sure that I'm going to look back on this experience and say that this was awesome and want to do it again. Q. So you said you beat your goal. Does this give you more confidence for your tennis game? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I mean, it does because I know I can be out there for hours and be fine. I know that physically I'm great. I can keep battling it out out there, and I think that's a great mental advantage to have when you go out to play. Q. I know Serena Williams is out there. What did she tell you when you crossed the finish line? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I think she said, "I'm proud of you. Unbelievable! Well done! Great job!" All of that. But honestly, I think I was just so exhausted and so happy at the same time, I don't really know. I just know she came in to hug me and gave me the medal. Q. What did you get Serena to kick in to the charity? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: She donated a lot actually. It was great. I'm not going to say how much because she's chosen to donate anonymously, but she's really helped. She really put in a big contribution. Q. I know you said that you won't do another marathon for a few years, but you also qualified for Boston today. Would you ever run Boston? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Maybe, yeah. I don't know how long these qualifications stay‑‑ Q. A year. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: A year? I'm not sure if I'm going to run Boston next year. Probably not. It's probably not the best scheduling for my tennis. Q. How would you compare finishing this to some of your great tennis accomplishments? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI:  This is completely different. I have no idea what to expect when I went out there today, and to finish this, it's just such an amazing accomplishment for me. I'm so proud of it. Every time I go out on the tennis court, I know exactly what to expect, and I know what to do out there. Here I just knew put one foot in front of the other until you see something saying "finish", and that's when you stop. Q. Did you arrange to have a couple runners run with you to set a pace? How did that happen? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I did, yeah. There was a couple of guys from Team for Kids charity, they were pacing me. That was amazing. They're great guys, and they paced me all the way through. When I was struggling at the end, they just kept encouraging me and say, "You're almost there." I think I said at mile 20, I said, "I really need a vanilla milkshake." So they're like, yeah, we talked about milkshake for a little bit, and that kind of made me think of something else. Q. What were their names? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Michael Rodgers and John Honerkamp. Q. With the pacing, did you just kind of set the pace and they went around you? How did you know what pace to run? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: I told them I wanted to finish at 3:30. But I told them, since I only ran half in my training runs, and that felt really easy to me, and I ran faster in my training runs. I said, I think I can do 3:30. That's my gut feeling, knowing my body. But I said, "If I'm starting to really struggle at some point, I'm just going to tell you guys that we need to slow down a little bit." But, yeah, I really need to have that 3 in front. I don't want to get over four hours. So I kind of knew coming in that 3:30 would be my best goal. THE MODERATOR: Caroline, you had a great summer into fall playing tennis, after you declared that you'd be running the marathon. I know you won't be running a marathon next year, but will you keep up that running training around your tennis game? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: It's obviously helped me, so I need to keep it up. It's great. I've really enjoyed it. I've enjoyed the whole experience. I've got to meet so many nice people and great people. I'm sure we're going to keep in contact as well for many years to come. I wouldn't have been without this. This has been amazing. I'm definitely going to keep up the running. I don't know if I'm going to run as much. Sometimes I need to relax. I've got two weeks now to put my feet up. THE MODERATOR: What's next? Do you take a vacation? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Yeah, I'm going to chill for a little bit. I'm not going to run, that's for sure, for the next two weeks. I think I deserve to put my feet up a little bit. Q. What are your plans for tennis? Do you have any tournaments left? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: No, this is the end of the year. So I'm done with this year. I'm going to start in Auckland, 5th of January. So I have a little bit of time to prepare for that. Q. Did you speak with Amalie Mauresmo at all about this experience and what she went through? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: She told me it's so hard, and she said, "I don't understand how you can do this while you're playing?" She was encouraging me, but at the same time, she was shaking her head a little bit, thought I was a little crazy. I think I beat her time here, didn't I? I did beat her time. Wow, so, yeah, I'm proud of that. THE MODERATOR: Caroline, just to make you aware, the women's professional race winner, Mary Keitany, finished in 2:25:07. CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Wow, that's impressive. THE MODERATOR: Think you could do that? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: No. I think today was the fastest I could have run today. Maybe with a lot of training, maybe I could get down to three hours, maybe. But that would really, really have to take in a lot of practice, a lot of change of diet, and a lot of other things. I don't think that I could do that. I'm very proud of my 3:26. THE MODERATOR: I'm sure Mary couldn't attain the No.1 ranking in the world either. So that's a pretty even split. Q. You said that you didn't train past 13 miles and you thought you'd be really nervous the night before. Did you sleep well last night? Were you nervous this morning? What was last night and pre‑race jitters like? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: To be honest with you, I didn't feel nerves at all last night. I didn't feel them this morning when I woke up. The time when I felt them was when we were actually going on the bridge to start. I'm like, oh, my God, what have I gotten myself into? Ready or not, there's no way back. So here we go. I'm just hoping to finish. I thought, as long as I finish and don't get injured, that's already going to be an achievement in itself. I saw a couple of people walk out, and I was like, hopefully, that's not going to be me. I'll just keep going even though I started feeling my legs. I'm like, you know what, keep going, keep going. THE MODERATOR: What was your pre‑race ritual? Big pasta dinner, night on the town? CAROLINE WOZNIACKI: Honestly, I think I've done everything you're not supposed to do before a marathon. I had a Halloween party three days ago and came back at like 4:00 in the morning. Two days ago I chilled a little bit, but I've been really busy. Last night I actually didn't have much of a dinner because I went to the Rangers game, and I just got a little bit. You're supposed to load up on carbs, but I didn't really have too much time for that. This morning I had to get picked up so early, and I didn't have breakfast. Then I had two bagels in the tent before I went out there. So I don't think it's the proper preparation, but it worked. THE MODERATOR: Ranger game and a New York bagel. That's very five boroughs‑y. Any questions? FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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