Lance Armstrong meets goal in NYC Marathon
Cyclist barely breaks 3 hours, calls race 'hardest physical thing I have ever done'
"NEW YORK // His face twisted in pain, Lance Armstrong virtually walked the last couple of steps. He slowed to a halt immediately after the finish line and bent to the ground, his green shirt soaked with sweat.
No one's more familiar with how painful achieving goals can be.
Armstrong barely met his lofty goal of breaking 3 hours in his first marathon, but it came at a price. No Alpine climb on his bicycle had ever been as tough as Sunday's New York City Marathon, he said.
"For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong, who finished 856th. "I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."
Armstrong's time was 2 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Afterward, he shuffled into a post-race news conference, his right shin heavily taped.
"I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier," he said. "(My shins) started to hurt in the second half, especially the right one. I could barely walk up here, because the calves are completely knotted up."
Armstrong's build presented a stark contrast to the elite men's runners who preceded him on the course. The cycling champion's heavily muscled legs and powerful chest set him apart from the slender Kenyans who traditionally dominate the race. Even Armstrong compared the leaders' legs to pencils.
He was paced for most of the race by former marathon champions Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit Samuelson and middle-distance running great Hicham El Guerrouj, and said he got a lot of support from fans packed along the course.
But his body seemed to tighten and showed signs of pain and fatigue in the final few miles. He started to fall off the pace required to break 3 hours before a final push allowed him to meet his personal goal."
Cyclist barely breaks 3 hours, calls race 'hardest physical thing I have ever done'
"NEW YORK // His face twisted in pain, Lance Armstrong virtually walked the last couple of steps. He slowed to a halt immediately after the finish line and bent to the ground, his green shirt soaked with sweat.
No one's more familiar with how painful achieving goals can be.
Armstrong barely met his lofty goal of breaking 3 hours in his first marathon, but it came at a price. No Alpine climb on his bicycle had ever been as tough as Sunday's New York City Marathon, he said.
"For the level of condition that I have now, that was without a doubt the hardest physical thing I have ever done," said Armstrong, who finished 856th. "I never felt a point where I hit the wall, it was really a gradual progression of fatigue and soreness."
Armstrong's time was 2 hours, 59 minutes and 36 seconds. Afterward, he shuffled into a post-race news conference, his right shin heavily taped.
"I think I bit off more than I could chew, I thought the marathon would be easier," he said. "(My shins) started to hurt in the second half, especially the right one. I could barely walk up here, because the calves are completely knotted up."
Armstrong's build presented a stark contrast to the elite men's runners who preceded him on the course. The cycling champion's heavily muscled legs and powerful chest set him apart from the slender Kenyans who traditionally dominate the race. Even Armstrong compared the leaders' legs to pencils.
He was paced for most of the race by former marathon champions Alberto Salazar and Joan Benoit Samuelson and middle-distance running great Hicham El Guerrouj, and said he got a lot of support from fans packed along the course.
But his body seemed to tighten and showed signs of pain and fatigue in the final few miles. He started to fall off the pace required to break 3 hours before a final push allowed him to meet his personal goal."
