hartman i am live in a story queens not originally from new york but being new york for about thirty years i am a social worker by trade and during the day i work at a nursing home on r island in the psychiatry department and work with people with behavioral issues and different things and i've been there about twenty years out on that phase and i think i'm here because of money yeah so st i want to start out with you recently just were awarded the joe klein a marine award which is given to somebody who has like outstanding and inspiring community service and you are definitely one of those people to me so you do a lot of volunteer what brings you what twelve when i was getting ready to do my st half marathon i decided it was time to look behind the scenes and know what it was like to be a part of a race and i thought the best way to know that was through volunteering well little i know the st book that i had gotten was running the nd bug i was a volunteer in and i found it was the best way to really actually do what i thought was in some ways i felt i was working on my master's degree and reading because i was learning so much about the sport of running while volunteering what it takes to put on a race what it means what people what it means to get people to those stark lines and to the finish line and also being able to support people because so many people have supported me in my journ who i love volunteer in but the having the volunteers out there have definitely gotten me through a ton of tough races and i i honestly believe if you are racing in new york close race you have on hearing our one i absolutely agree with  you is there like a special moment you can think of that is your favorite moment a volunteer and there's just been so many different ones and i have volunteered for villain tid for the marathon i think it was five times before i actually did the marathon this year and i think that energy is something you absolutely cannot match the finish line every time and i would do the finish walk off and the energy of the runners coming through many of them just having done the you know to having finished the race being really tired needing fuel unable to open a gate or a bottle and being able to welcome to the welcome them back to central park and letting them know that if they need anything sometimes the energy is really low and they actually need some diana system or medical assistance but i think the volunteer at the map on is an amazing it's kind of like the super bowl every year from a lot of these that were every year over running but even with some of the smaller races the short races really get like the achilles race when you get to people who with disabilities people who've never done races it's just an amazing experience so i think every time i've gone out to volunteer whether it's at the start line with us to the finish line even at baggage you get to chance to sort of support other people's running and as as like i said so many people have supported me with my running they said you started running in two thousand and twelve actually tw eleven and then the air and i started the age of forty nine so i kind of got in this late and i got the bug at the dash to the finish line was really probably the race that kind of gave me the bug and then i was and i  race ever know it was and i had actually done the cone the the coleman breast cancer race but it was a one time race the st actual road race with the timing was the was the dash the finish line but it was also my st road race by myself where i was running by myself nobody was sort of there with me and i was st of all amazed that i could do it without having somebody sort of push me or say you got to go and that i enjoyed it so much running up th avenue and then of course trying to cross the finish line i never thought that i would ever have the courage to have the ability to actually one day finish that actual race which i did this year so i think that part of just getting into a race that really was so meaningful kind of it's hard not to go back to to run the i chord you have was to you just finished in the at the new york city marathon this year what made you take that leap well i think i thought it was it sure is it sure is and i realize that to know in my piece my piece is very very slow i have i've kind of become a symbol for the final of the final finishes that many road runner races because i probably have i wait a minute don't wait i mean did it as a little tangent does that ever stop you from signing up for another one did that ever have a bad feeling point you or you're just like whatever it is it is at least a finishing i think the  st thing i had to get over which a lot of people helped me do was to allow for to not feel bad about it and make sure that i didn't feel like i was holding anyone hostage waiting for me so a lot of times i'd make joke about it and say i'm the human sweep coming through i told volunteers guess what you're going to get to go home right now but again with my knowledge of volunteering and the staff i know often how long they're going to be out there and i have i have not i've signed up for races that i also know were you know we're the ones that actually i could finish in a time that i didn't feel like people were staying hours later except for the new york city marathon and that's where it really was a leap for me because i knew that i was going to be going beyond the time that normally the finish line stays open and so i had to really understand that it was going to be ok even with road runners and with even myself allowing myself to say it's ok that i'm going to finish any race but let alone a marathon race so i think that was the thing but the st thing was getting over out of my own head about it is that i would forgive myself for not being a middle of the pack or or that i was ok being in the back of the you always hear like i'm too slow or too fat or whatever and that's ok because that's on that person but it took me a long time to get there you know you know if i had to make peace within myself st and be like oh you know what that's on them i'm going to just keep doing what i'm doing so do you have like any words of wisdom that you would give somebody who maybe is just kind of starting out her running that maybe feels that way but i think i know that you are one of the people that i read your story actually watched the show and saw your interview i think it's important to look at the stories of some of us who've done it that say mine is the most exciting but other people's stories are mean and be they say you know it's ok give yourself the permission to take your journey the way your journey is if your journey is faster your journey slower your journey is whatever it is if your journey is shorter to never feel that you're doing less than what you can do and to celebrate that journey i think that it took me ok it took me several years to get to even thinking about doing the marathon and honestly when i decided to do it it was just basically because i felt if i don't do this year i'm going to be too old so i men are just now into a shift to do it at fifty so i just chose a year  which i saw my calendar open and i said ok i'm going to do is focus on doing the marathon and that's what i did for an entire year last year but i don't think it if you know if the idea that you know you're not a  runner if you do five k so you do ten ks all those orders are particularly absolutely and it's exciting and i think that there's going to be more people that are going to come out and support you than you realize i mean the supporters overwhelming out and support you if you if you let them they'll be there for you and i think that's a great also one of the the pluses about social media i mean i know there's a lot that can be dotted downfalls and snide remarks sometimes but one of the pluses is you know you'll be amazed how many people reach out to you and you'll be like me late me i inspire you like yeah i'm just some way flow runner who does her thing but like it is to like i mean you inspire me i see you out there i saw you out there all last year training and it takes a lot and i want to talk about that from a training for somebody who's slower and takes more time and you know when you have to do these longer runs you can't fit in before work you did you know  talk about your your running you you trained with the galloway group yes i did and they were amazing the best the st thing that was great is is that jeff galloway and also and also the group said you will be able to do this so to actually  believe it is actually i think the st step more than even running your foot out and doing putting your mileage together because you don't believe it i think it becomes difficult for you to do it so once i kind of said all right they're ok with the idea of and twelve whatever time it takes for someone to finish a marathon they go i met the brain and braces you because they set the run walk according to your smoking so i really enjoyed working with the gall group this summer we started training earlier than most groups just a may and they're always they have chapters throughout the country and what was great was that i felt like i wasn't st of all having to skip up with anyone because  was my pace or the other thing is they lay out a really you know a marathon training program that fits the schedule and most of training things were on saturdays so i either did my long runs on saturdays and then short runs during the week but i knew that i could prepare for myself for saturday runs or if sometimes need be sunday runs and do they have like a group that meets together there were a couple of people that were my pace  actually one point i had one person that stayed with me throughout the marathon who was my pace from the gallo acre and she was a seasoned veteran manner so she was you know and so she was able to give me clues and everything about what to expect but the great thing was is that i knew kind of what was going to happen because she already had been there and said ok this is we're going to do this and normally we do it this way but i learned about what i needed to do and how to build up the mileage to get to what i need to get to building up the miles talk about that oh well it's a little bit like how fast did you go ik you start out with really small mileage and it's like it's a walk run thing yes so i'm in the i was in the  minutes fifteen seconds to run ok thirty seconds walk ok you can adjust that to go two thousand and twenty and we did play around with that a little bit but not much farther away from that that formula because of what it timer sort of beat four or them if i was on my own i would do it in my ear i could hear that year because i would use an app on my phone what was your nutrition like so since i did five half marathons but i really learned that obviously and i think everybody probably does a st marathon the jump from the half to the fall is such a big learning experience so yeah i had to learn a bit st i'd never needed to really use salt tablets or anything like that so for me st was my partner was sort of so interesting because she never really had a stop she barely even used water which was amazing to me and we would be out there the same mileage so when we built up our time you know we'd be out there for six hours seven hours by twenty mile or you know it was getting close to eight hours so you kind of realize that wow it's it's you have to always have this fuel and fun day it was you know i had a yeah so do you think you'll do another mouth on possibly but i'd like to make it a lot shorter like to get all the little i was but yes i'd like to see about doing it again but would it be in new york city i  mean between you're really saying and you're volunteering you do the nine plus one so you must qualify every year yeah i can't imagine that i don't see and i always have the option at least i do and i think that just because i enjoy it like this this is what i enjoy doing is being part of that and i can't imagine not doing it not running races but this year i haven't i didn't sign up for any of the half so i just really decided i wanted to give back and i've done a lot of metal giving a lot of medals and hopefully i'll be giving out medals at the the new york city marathon this year so you know you sign up for any races now and i've already done three this year and i'm in the do the boomer four mile or i'll be actually all the four milers up to the ten also running part of the killie's when you see people you can never ever complain after you run and make killers race doesn't care if it's humid the people that are out there doing what they're doing with so with everything they've got you can't you can't beat it let's talk about your marathon itself like the day itself like walk me through it i mean i know we have like me and my husband take a bus from new york city over to staten island and then you know the bus leave so early and i don't start at the last where he is there for a while yeah they what was it like fear well i took the galloway bus so i was able to meet a lot of different people from different came in from different gallery groups and we just hung out for hours and i was in the last wave of the last hour the last i was literally one of the last twenty people to cross the start line so we literally a bridge that we were the last car we're already started last so it's comfortable place for me to be i'm used to it so it was it was interesting you know i knew then that a lot of stuff would be torn down and sure enough it was but the road was open throughout brooklyn which was great so the but i mean the road with the course was still open so that made it easy in the sense if we could do the course  when we got to the pool ascii we knew we were sort of swept off to the sidewalk all of which i had prepared emotionally for i think that would be the thing that i'd always like to prepare anyone who would be is in my speed category to be pair to and train for being on the sidewalk and so we did the queens were bridge which actually the sun set as we were going oh that means for running it was beautiful honestly it was probably one of the most prettiest things i've ever seen the weather was perfect and i mean a couple people sort of said you have the best weather ever and i think we did was literally when i finished i didn't need really need the heat sheet or the not show i just need to go home i did anything per se as far as i was in shaking or right but and so we went up and again i had i had trained the last ten so i was pretty prepared for the st avenue i was prepared for the bronx i was repaired for the  avenue and i think the most exciting thing is that i had a cheer squad to any for me at engineers gate which is ninety a street in november project to you know i made sure i got to that finish line and cheered me all the way through the central park and central park was still technically it was open but most people didn't know that so it was empty in the sense of we were there and then why our was also with us they had a couple people on bikes making sure if you like at the and and so we did holding hands through cheers not that i got a confetti cannon in my family said it was but it was quite and i also both my brother and sister surprised me at the finish line i love that and they both surprised me there and they both surprised each other not knowing i'm going to show up so that was quite a moment to say there and many people waited for i mean i saw people coming up and saying i was there that they have you and me i know a lot of people are going to go try and make it to the finish line yeah so i mean i just think sometimes i feel like being in the back of the pack means you get the best year skydiving so you go to november project to have a plan and new york city and go to more of them i find them to be an extremely encouraging group of people yeah even though i had run a marathon before i started m p i still didn't consider myself a runner and i became involved with th but november project for me because a den of five is a runner before i started and p but i wasn't sure if i was ready for it because i didn't think i was fast enough so i knew paul leak from no new york road runners and i said you guys are super fast like i would just be you know it's usually when he grabs me yeah and then they decided to have one at a story park which is literally down the hill from me and how i went and point re my st m p and of course i loved it and everyone was welcoming and i got hooked and of course i wanted my spray paint and so i started going also just being part of cheer squad in and taking photos and developed the fact that i made everyone do a selfie so yeah i bet yeah me i'm probably gonna make you do a selfie with me so it's just been a great community and i have met so many people and they've been so i guess it's so encouraging so many most of that is where we actually met each other and also you a part of a thing that you were as had called it moved me yes i was one of twenty six people that they highlighted our marathon journey and i wrote a little blog about why i was doing the marathon so it was it was sort of i already knew that people would be looking out for me and that also that the idea of being the final finisher so i don't know if it's a newer thing i think it kind of is the idea of high only people actually finish last and hers is the idea of just sort of finishing weave i think the math on always tells amazing stories of people who overcome so many things illness and and you know disability and different things when i think they actually just embrace the idea of being the final finisher i said well i guess once i embrace myself right that it's ok to do that because somebody has to be the final finish  it takes a lot of time to fly after it takes a lot of just it's an entire day yeah we don't i don't have an actual official finishing time those of us who finished after the finish they gave us a finishing sort of a finishing time but we're not actually in the official if it finished a record which i kind of had if that was where the st things i actually had except before i even started the whole journey be ready i knew that i would probably not make the cut off i believe seven highlighting the fine officers because i think that's just an amazing thing i think the group project finish and also just that the project finish which which came out to support that but also road runners really looked into that and realized that people needed to be supported no matter how long it took their absolute and you could look at the history which we won't do today some of the most amazing final finishers who took longer than i did out there and one of them i saw actually when she finished and i believe was two thousand and thirty a woman named zoe and then i'm actually in the photo i found myself in the photo when she finished two days i was there was a day later oh my god on monday she finished on a monday night and we were having the marathon party thing volunteers and we came out to see her and i found this photo of me that i can't share because it's not my image but it's me take you know a photo of you're just getting right back to you thank you thank you very much ok so i just want to thank everybody today for being here thank you to manhattan neighborhood network for hosting us and of course thank you thank you thank you