"Change is the watchword of progression. When we tire of well-worn ways, we seek for new. This restless craving in the souls of men spurs them to climb, and to seek the mountain viewdream."
- Ella Wilcox
My Story: Globetrotting from Running into Cycling...

Page 1 2 3 4     Lilli The (Ex-)Runner    Lilli The Traveler

New York City Marathon & Nike

Believe it or not, but my journey towards becoming a cyclist was initiated by the New York City Marathon. After I had retired from competitive running in 2002, I received an e-mail from the elite athlete coordinator of the New York CIty Marathon (David Monti) in April 2003. David invited me to run the elite women's race of this top-3 marathon in the world. Flight, accommodation and food paid for with access to the NYRRC hospitality suite. Every year at the ING New York City Marathon, 50 women are selected to start the 26.2 miles through the Big Apple's five boroughs 35 minutes ahead of the other 33,000 marathoners on Verrazano Narrows Bridge in Staten Island. I was one of the 50 chosen women that were presented this privilege. The offer was very tempting also especially because New York was my favorite running event on earth (I had watched the race in 1993 and participated in it in 1996, winning the junior category in 3:18:30 hrs. at age 18, never having run more than 10 miles before in my life). However, I did hesitate for half a day to think about the opportunity and decide if I was willing to return to full-on training and prepare for my first serious marathon.

Lilli-Hammer would not be called Lilli-Hammer if she didn't take up this challenge, the "NYCM03 Mission Possible", and go for it. So I started training again... but things continued where they left off before I quit athletics: Injuries. Right off the bat I caught more injuries to my muscles (strains and pulls). I had to find another way to gain fitness. What about cycling? I had used training on a stationary bike sporadically for years prior as a runner, and cycling had only had a great effect on my power levels as complimentary exercise. I had ridden a bike many times in my life before, always using it as transportation means or as short-term intense training for running. However, I had only covered distances over 30km about 3 times in my life with 50km being the absolute maximum imaginable distance on a bicycle.

I bought my first-ever road bike and took it straight out to the black forest and French Alsace regions to ride it for 192km at an average speed of 27km/h through rather hilly and windy (mostly head wind) conditions. The final 10km I had to ride one-handed as I had pinched a nerve in my neck and could barely handle the pain in my shoulder and arm. A week later I went on to the Alps for a month-long training camp at altitude with my Irish friend and fellow former Boston University runner Rosie "Guinness" Ryan. My first alpine mountain passes such as the Fluela Pass and the Bernina Pass followed. No problem. Cycling was a sport that I had viewed as "even worse than running", but my step on a road bike started to make me think otherwise... "maybe I should try out cycling??", I thought to myself high up in the Swiss Alps pedalling up and down in preparation of the New York City Marathon....but then I could start running a bit again and I put my new road bike aside, where it stayed and dusted from the summer of 2003 until spring 2004.

Forgotten were the two wheels... UNTIL... my activities as a product tester for Nike USA turned me into a running invalid. I had been sponsored by Nike for seven straight years as a runner. After I quit competitive running I became a product tester for the company, test wearing and writing reports on shoe prototypes that later made it - or not - on the international athletic shoe market. One shoe I tested never made it onto the market...with a reason. The shoe's severe instability and soft ride inflamed my plantar tendon and caused a calcification at the insertion into my calcaneus: a heelspur, a chronic injury. And the cycling story continued...