{"id":7465,"date":"2025-11-10T12:25:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/?p=7465"},"modified":"2025-11-10T12:26:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T17:26:06","slug":"ms-nelson-takes-on-the-new-york-city-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/ms-nelson-takes-on-the-new-york-city-marathon\/","title":{"rendered":"Ms. Nelson Takes on the New York City Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Media provided by Emily Nelson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Nov 2, 2025, Emily Nelson, Assistant Director of Athletics, joined more than 55,000 athletes<\/a> who ran the New York City Marathon. As Ms. Nelson pounded the pavement through five boroughs, she saw people crying, laughing, cheering, and even falling to the floor, grabbing their legs. \u201cI forgot that this is not a normal human activity,\u201d she said a few days after the race. \u201cIt was insane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Nelson decided she wanted to complete a marathon when she turned 30, so in 2024 she began preparing. To qualify for the New York Marathon, runners must either fundraise three to five thousand dollars or run in nine local races with New York Road Runners — the official NYC Marathon organizer. Still, each of these nine races has an entry fee, and Ms. Nelson invested around $1,000 in the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This July, Ms. Nelson began her full training schedule, completing the prescribed workouts from the Runna app every day<\/a>. During the school year, she ran in the mornings before work. \u201cThat was the hardest part because you have to be super consistent and you can’t miss any days,\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how anyone does it; it’s so hard to find the time.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the day of the race, Ms. Nelson awoke at 4 a.m. and suited up for the day ahead. The morning was cold as she boarded the bus rented by her running club, bound for the start in Staten Island. Up until 10 a.m., Ms. Nelson struggled to fuel up because of her nerves. By 10:20 a.m., she began her first-ever marathon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe first 3 miles were really fun,\u201d said Ms. Nelson as she recounted the pretty views and Manhattan skyline from the Verrazano Bridge. The mile-long bridge would be the steepest and longest incline in the marathon, but \u201ceveryone was so excited, so we didn\u2019t feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became crowded as Ms. Nelson reached 4th Avenue in Brooklyn. \u201cIt was a fun energy. I was still feeling good at this point.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. Nelson said that the craziest part was right before Fort Greene. There weren\u2019t enough barricades, so pedestrians were on the course, which was \u201ca tad overstimulating.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, the Queensboro Bridge was a full mile stretch with no fans. It was dead silent and \u201cfelt ghostly,\u201d Ms. Nelson said. \u201cAll you’re listening to is people\u2019s breathing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hardest part of the race for Ms. Nelson was mile 23. The route around the reservoir at Central Park is all rolling hills, but she made it to the end. Crossing the finish line, \u201cI was really proud of myself, I thought I was gonna cry, but I was too tired to cry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas! The race wasn’t over. After she ran 26.2 miles, she had to complete the notorious post-marathon marathon: the mile-long trek out of the park. \u201cFor ten minutes, I was like, everything hurts. This is awful. But then I saw my family, and everyone was really happy for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with the race almost a week behind her, Ms. Nelson is still over the moon about her accomplishment. \u201cThat was sincerely one of the hardest things I’ve ever done,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I can’t wait to do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiona M. \u201826 is the Managing Editor for <\/em>The Grace Gazette.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media provided by Emily Nelson On Nov 2, 2025, Emily Nelson, Assistant Director of Athletics, joined more than 55,000 athletes who ran the New York City Marathon. As Ms. Nelson… Continue reading “Ms. Nelson Takes on the New York City Marathon”<\/span> <\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":7466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6,8,1002,9,1018,1001,13,200,1],"tags":[180],"appful":[],"class_list":["post-7465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-culture","category-current-events","category-downtown-life","category-good-morning-grace","category-news","category-opinions","category-recent","category-uncategorized","tag-featured"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9uEnr-1Wp","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot-2025-11-10-at-12.23.28-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7467,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7465\/revisions\/7467"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7465"},{"taxonomy":"appful","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gracegazette.org\/wordpress1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/appful?post=7465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}