2021 NYC MARATHON: Meet the Marathoners
Our special preview of the 2021 TCS New York City Marathon wraps up with the final installment of our “Meet the Marathoners” series. Over 60 New York Harriers are signed up for the race. Read below on how some of them are training and preparing for the big day — and how they plan to celebrate crossing one of the world’s most iconic finish lines!
MATT CONEYBEARE
Matt Coneybeare joined the Harriers just a handful of months before the pandemic shut down in-person workouts. But this experienced masters runner isn’t new to long distance running -- clocking in with 16 marathons, including six New York City marathons. He’s currently coming off an insane racing schedule that includes Berlin and Chicago, as well as looking ahead to Philadelphia later this month.
Matt used to run with the Friday morning crew, but “then we added a +1 to my family, so getting to the Harriers workouts has been tough,” he explains. “I’ve mostly been going at it solo, banking on support of the Harriers on Strava.” And the Harriers plan continues to keep him on track. “I actually loathed the Cat Hill drills while doing them, as that tiny hill is tougher than we give it credit for,” he admits. “But looking back that drill really helped me maintain power on uphill sections and upped my game so… fav?”
Running without the team can get lonesome, so Matt turns to audiobooks to fill the silence. “I plow through about a book a week,” he says. “I tend towards non-fiction as I can usually let my mind wander a bit more and not lose the plot, but I have done the ENTIRE Game of Thrones and Harry Potter series on runs.”
Matt has an ambitious goal to keep him on his marathoning journey: hitting 100 marathons in his lifetime -- and commemorating them, permanently. “Every marathon I run, I go the same day (if possible) and get a tally mark addition at a local tattoo shop, by whatever random artist is working,” he says, making for some very individual and unique inking. “In the end, I expect I will have a leg filled with marks that all have subtle differences and stories,” he says. “Just like all the races I will have run over my lifetime.”
CYNTHIA VAN
Cynthia Van is having one hell of a year. So far, she’s nailed 9 personal bests this season. “I'm grateful that each race has been a major confidence and fitness boost as well as a useful fitness test,” she says.
A 5-year member of the team, Cynthia ran her first marathon in New York in 2015. “I didn't understand speed and tempo workouts,” she explains, “and I thought it would be fun to join a team and found the New York Harriers online, along with a photo of my college friend Eva. I reached out to her directly and she welcomed me to the team enthusiastically!” Cynthia is fully embracing the discipline and consistency of Harriers marathon training. “I love driving towards a goal with friends who are excited to obsess about running with me,” she says.
Cynthia, who’s run 7 marathons so far, has one final goal for the year, as she chases a Boston qualifier. She admits to feeling “mild anxiety” about hitting that target time in New York, but once the race starts, she will focus on the mile she’s in. “Each marathon is memorable and special to me,” she adds, “but NYC is the only course I'll race more than once.”
For support, she’s turned to fellow Harrier Luke Kennedy. “He’s my training buddy, pacer, coach, and biggest fan,” she says, while also shouting out the rest of her teammates “for being so unfailingly positive and supportive over the years.”
Her race strategy is elegantly simple: “I'm hoping to run negative splits, and I'll be going into the marathon thinking about it as a 20 mile warm up to a 10K race.” Post-race, she plans to raise a few cold beers with her friends -- and the team will surely toast to her incredible year.
ZACH POLLACK
The Ultimate City. The Ultimate Marathon still makes former Harriers president Zach Pollack tear up a little every time he watches it. This week, the decade-long member of New York’s ultimate running team, who decamped to Colorado three years ago, is coming home to the ultimate city, to run the ultimate marathon.
Zach originally joined the Harriers because he missed the competitive aspect of college team sports. “Plus I wanted to beat my brother's NYC marathon time,” he adds. But now in Colorado, he runs with a crew of New York Harrier ex-pats, including “some guy named Joe Arencibia and also some other guy named Patrick Jagielski.”
Zach has run 6 marathons in his career -- two of them here in New York City. While his PR of 2:38 was on the left coast at CIM, “hands downs NYC is my favorite race,” he says. “Nothing like hitting the wall of sound off of 1st Ave.”
Though he’s managed to pull off his first 100+ mile week ever this training cycle, for Zach the most challenging thing about training in Colorado is something a little more, ahem, basic. “Missing the copious bathrooms of Central Park,” he laments. “We're lucky to get an occasional port-a-potty in CO along a trail!”
Zach’s race strategy is, like Cynthia’s, simple and elegant: “If you're going to blow up, make sure you do it past the Harriers cheer zone at White Castle.” Sage advice. After he crosses the iconic New York City Marathon finish line, Zach looks forward to reuniting with his home team at Gebhard’s for a beer and a cheeseburger. A perfect way to end the ultimate day.