County employee trains not once, but twice after marathon’s cancellation
Dana Begley needed a healthy escape.
Then a stressed-out law student, she started taking her roommate’s pet Weimaraner on walks at the beach.
The Senior Deputy County Counsel had always hated running. When she was in high school, she played goalkeeper on the soccer team—a position that required little to no running. But the pup, named Harley, was so energetic that she would pick up her feet and run a little with him. They began jogging to just the next lifeguard tower. Then, a few days later, they pressed on and ran as far as the next tower.
“Eventually it became a habit and a challenge,” Begley said. “I didn’t put pressure on myself. It was whatever Harley or I felt comfortable with that day, but I noticed a difference in my endurance and even stress levels during law school.”
Just four years later, the New Jersey native was running one of the most elite marathons in the U.S. She recently completed her first New York City Marathon.
The road there was not an easy one. As if the tasks of gaining entry into, training for and then completing the 26.2-mile race weren’t hard enough, Begley got in but had to train twice for the race. The first time she was scheduled to run it last fall, race organizers cancelled due to the devastating effects of Hurricane Sandy on the New York City area.
Her primary concern was the damage suffered by her own family and friends. Some lost homes. Many of the spots along the Jersey shore where Begley spent time visiting as a child are still gone. Her grandparents lost power for weeks and the family’s restaurant in Hamilton, NJ became a de facto community gathering spot and donation drop-off.
As disappointing as it was to not be able to run last year, Begley said she felt incredibly lucky to be with her family during such a trying time.
“It wasn’t fun to use a week of my vacation time in the dark, freezing and unable to do anything,” she said. “But I don’t know what I would have done if I wasn’t home.” Her skin would have been crawling, she said.
Growing up in the suburbs of New York, Begley would often cross over the famous Verrazano Bridge to visit her grandparents in Brooklyn.
However, the New York City Marathon isn’t easy to get into. In fact, it’s one of the hardest to gain entry into in the U.S.
“The qualifying times are faster than the Boston marathon, so it’s still one of the most elite marathons,” Begley said.
She got in through a lottery system on her second year of trying last year. After months of rigorous training, she flew to the New York/New Jersey area a week before the Nov. 2 race.
Then, Hurricane Sandy made landfall on Oct. 29, wreaking havoc on many parts of the area.
Though her parents’ and sister’s homes escaped major damage, other friends and family members didn’t.
“You wanted to go out there and help,” she said. “But between all of those road closures, not having hot water of your own to take a shower, it was kind of difficult.”
Her family’s restaurant, Padrino’s Bistro & Italian Steakhouse, was one of the few spots with electricity in the community, and so people would go there to warm up, get hot food and charge their cell phones.
It was very emotional for Begley to see so much devastation, especially along the Jersey shore. But she wouldn’t trade the experience of being there then.
“I feel like there was a reason I got into the marathon last year, so I would be home with my family,” she said.
Even before the race organizers decided to cancel the race, Begley had decided in her mind not to run it. Reaching the race course would have been near impossible and her help was needed elsewhere.
Organizers allowed runners to reschedule either this year, or in 2014 or 2015. Begley decided to go for this year.
She started training in May, and pushed through injuries and a grueling training regimen.
A record 50,000 runners participated, and she remembers passing through a metal detector at the race. The Boston marathon bombings had happened just a few months earlier.
Race day was chilly, with a high of 48 degrees and winds of up to 30 mph. But she felt an incredible sense of enthusiasm and joy coming from the crowds as she ran. Friends and family gathered along the course to root her on, and she ran well, dropping her personal record time by 21 minutes.
She didn’t even hit the “wall” that is so common among marathoners around mile 20.
“My brain never even went there,” she said. “Because I knew that with everything else that happened, I only had that much more to do. I knew I could get through it.”
The sacrifices weren’t easy.
“But when it all came together, running the New York City Marathon was absolutely amazing,” Begley said.
She entered the lottery to run it again next year.
