What a difference a year makes.

Last year, I passed out at Mile 22 of the New York City Marathon, and I was in the hospital for two days.

The media came out and did a story on me. I had been wanting to get back in news. The reporter who did the story on me called me and encouraged me to get back into journalism.

The rest is history.

To have covered the marathon this year as a journalist for News 12 is a dream come true.

The marathon starts on the Staten Island side of the Verrazzano Bridge – Marathon Village is a pre-party of sorts. I was most excited to play with the therapy dogs.

A few hours later, it was showtime. I felt strong the first 16 miles of the race. I was energized by the crowd. The crowd came out strong, kids were giving high fives - it was a party in Brooklyn.

Around the half-marathon mark, I got to go home when I crossed into Queens.

As a Queens native, it was really exciting to get to run in my borough.

After running my beloved Queensboro Bridge, things got hard around Mile 16.

By Mile 22, I was in front of the Harlem brownstone where I passed out last year, just trying to hold on. I didn’t know if I was going to make it.

But my friends and family along the course kept me going.

“You are almost done, you are almost done,” my friend Sarah Fox Tracy told me around Mile 25.

Soon after, I got very sick and I ran/walked to the finish line. Sometimes the NYC Marathon is a beast no matter how fit or prepared you are.

After a stop in the medical tent and a ton of blue Gatorade, I was a 2023 TCS New York City Marathon finisher.

It was such a hard race, I didn’t know if I was going to make it, but I’m so grateful I got a across. My race wasn’t perfect, but I did it one step at a time.