As the rain pelts down on the streets of New York City we are watching the garbage trucks, NYPD cars, endless yellow taxis and array black umbrellas pass by the window of the Hilton Executive Lounge. The small price to pay for a perfect race morning!

My legs are still a little stiff, but looking forward to returning to Melbourne Summer weather this weekend where I’m sure they’ll spring back into life!

It’s been a tough campaign preparing for a marathon through an Australian Winter. A few colds, extra work travel and our house project. I’m pretty pleased with the training we achieved despite all this and looking forward to 2019 to make have a big crack at making my next round of dreams come true!

The race went almost entirely as expected. A slower first half, running beside the most amazing female marathoners in the world for over halfway. A faster (16:56) 5km off the bridge into 1st Ave and a strong finish through the park to hit the finish line made for an experience worth every creek mile. I hope I get the opportunity to do it again!

In my dreams of course I finished higher up and in a quicker time. As runners we always want more and there’s times where we need to be grateful for what we’ve achieved and the sacrifices we’ve made to get there. This is one of those times for me.

I know I have more to give in this sport and the race certainly illustrated that. No time for putting my feet up just yet. Just time now to experience a marathon build up with only one focus…running (and mumming of course!).

Since the race we’ve walked the streets of New York City, shot hoops, admired art, found new places to eat, explored the playgrounds, bought a few Thomas and Friends trains and stopped at the Lego store a few more times than the bank account would have liked. But boy have we created amazing memories, made life long friends and hopefully I’ve inspired at least one more person to keep fit, be active and chase their dreams no matter what.

We’ve said our final goodbyes to the beautiful volunteers Nicole and Kelly this morning. We cannot thank this wonderful race enough for taking good care of us. Especially Pete! He will miss his friends terribly. Thanks for having us TCS New York City marathon.