ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHON

November 2, 2003

Jen Rhines

Marla Runyan

MARLA RUNYAN: No.

MARLA RUNYAN: The 8-mile water station, I think it was Catherine, she was right in front of me. As we ran parallel to the table and she reached for the bottle and she obviously picked up the wrong one and she stopped to put it back and look for hers, but she stopped and I was coming right behind her, and I am like, Catherine, so I kind of ran into her, I put my hands on her shoulder, we were both standing completely still for a second and then I went around her to get the bottle. But it doesn't appear as though -- nobody fell and she was right back in the race.

MARLA RUNYAN: I felt really bad, but no, it didn't affect me. I just felt it was unfortunate. I didn't mean to interfere with her race at all. But it seems like it was okay.

MARLA RUNYAN: I could tell that that lead pack was running very fast, looking at my splits, I knew I was running about 2:26 pace at that stage of the race, maybe a little faster. They were running closer to 2:24 and, which is course record pace. And I didn't think all 10 of them or all 8 of them ahead of me would actually break the course record. I knew a couple could and obviously they did. But I was kind of thinking that if my legs were getting very, very sore that it was best that I try to relax and set back and run my pace, if I wanted to even have a shot at just running well. As you saw, I had a lot of troubles out there.

MARLA RUNYAN: I stopped probably three times, maybe even four (laughs), with actually thinking that I would drop out around mile 18. 18 is when I really was ready to drop out for sure. But I walked for a bit and then I just said, well, the goal here is just to get to the finish and so that's kind of what I tried to focus on.

MARLA RUNYAN: Just incredibly -- my legs were just so incredibly sore I just felt like I couldn't pick them up. Especially my adductors, and I felt like I just couldn't move them. I couldn't pick them up. Really disappointing.

MARLA RUNYAN: I don't like that expression "overtrained." Lack of recovery, maybe, or I -- I really tried to copy exactly what I did last year because it seemed to work so well. But obviously it's been a longer year for me this year, and I think I need rest.

MARLA RUNYAN: Jen and I were giving each other little cheers on the course. She ran by me, I said, good job, Jen, then we were both struggling out there and we tried to finish this up together. I think what really concerned me was the charity that we were both running for. We both ran for the Run for Something Better Challenge. I had some concerns that if I did drop out, that the charity would go empty-handed after we had done so many media press conferences and things like that for the charities. I said come on, you can -- you got to get in there. You have got to drag in five, six miles make sure your charity gets what they deserve. So quite honestly I knew my time was miserable. My place was terrible.

MARLA RUNYAN: I just wanted to finish. Just to make sure that they got -- that that went through okay.

JEN RHINES: No.

JEN RHINES: It started out as planned. I was right on my pace through halfway. When I was going over the bridge, my legs started to cramp up and my calves and quads began to get very sore and fatigued. When I got onto First Avenue I was only able to get one more good mile in. I was kind of downhill for there. So the fatigue just hit me much earlier than I thought it would.

JEN RHINES: Similar to Marla, I was actually -- -- I had actually stopped and was going to drop out around 22. I saw Marla was still coming and I started to think, I have to finish for the ING Run for Something Better, so that was definitely my motivation to finish the race.

JEN RHINES: I don't think today is the day to make that decision. So I will discuss it with my coach. I am definitely -- I may consider the 10,000 more strongly than I was before after today, but I do still think some day I am going to run a good marathon, so I will sit down with my coach and decide over the next few weeks.

MARLA RUNYAN: I agree. I don't think making any kind of serious or important decision after a disappointing performance is a good time, so I had already said that I was 99% sure I would be on the track next year. Pretty much sure at this point I still will be on the track next year, but I also feel that a good marathon is still in my future, so it's not out -- I am not going to retire from the marathon just yet.

MARLA RUNYAN: I didn't wear the watch. Nike had given me this last year. They made a prototype watch, it's approximately about 4-and-a-half inches wide, the digits are about two inches high. I can actually see the stopwatch when I am running, so it's actually a great thing to have. I chose not to wear it today. I just felt as though I had enough of a challenge today. Obviously I didn't really want to know what my splits were in the second half, so I think it's going to be very -- it is going to be invaluable to me in training more so than racing. A lot of at least I don't like to race with watches. But I am grateful for that, and you will see me wearing it in the future.

MARLA RUNYAN: It's actually very light weight, of course being a Nike product, they are streamlining it. They are even going to make another one that's even going to be lighter and almost form to the shape of my forearm so it will be very flat. When I do easy running with it, I actually forget it's there. But when you start increasing your pace obviously you start noticing smaller things, whether you have a watch on or not. So I think the prototypes in the future will be very good for racing.