Read on to find out about the ups and downs that Nathan Usher faced heading into the marathon trials and how the race panned out.
RM: What are your thoughts on your performance at the marathon trials looking back? Where did things go wrong? NU: I think I did about as well as I could expect to do given the injury I had coming into the trials. Three weeks before the race, I stepped on a large piece of glass while on a training run. It went through the bottom of my shoe and pretty deep into my foot. As a result, I completely missed a week of training, and could only do easy running after that. I had the stitches taken out of my foot a week before the race, and luckily it was healed enough that it didn't bother me at all during the race.
Since I had missed so much training, my plan for the race was to go out easy at the back of the field and to hold on as long as possible. I made it through about 11.5 miles before I started to fall off the pace, then dropped out at 16.
RM: What information/knowledge do you feel like you gained from the marathon trials? NU: I didn't really learn much at the marathon trials, because I was never really in the race; I was just at the back of the pack trying to hold on as far as I could.
RM: How did you like the Central Park course setup and the rest of the organization of the NYRR? NU: I really liked the course, even though it's tougher than most other marathons I have done. Since it was a loop course, spectators were able to watch us go by 10 or more times, and as a result, there were very few spots on the course that didn't have fans cheering.
RM: When will you next run another marathon and what would you like to accomplish in that? NU: I'm going to do my next marathon in the spring. I'm probably going to run the Shamrock Virginia Beach Marathon again and try to improve on my PR.
RM: What is your next race that you will be preparing and focusing on? NU: My next race is the Club Cross Country Championships on December 8. It will be my first cross country race in four years, so it should be fun.
