November 6, 2006 Seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong made his first marathon attempt in New York City this past Sunday, and came in just under his three-hour goal with a time of 2.59.37.

After crossing the finish line in Central Park, 35-year-old cycling champion told reporters that he underestimated the difficulty of the marathon, saying that it trumped all of the events in his 20-year career as a professional athlete.

“Nothing was as hard as that, and nothing left me feeling the way that I feel now in terms of just sheer fatigue and soreness,” Armstrong told Reuters.

Limping the last few steps with knotted calf muscles, Armstrong came in 856th out of a record-breaking 37,954 finishers.

Brazilian Marilson Gomes dos Santos broke the tape roughly 50 minutes before Armstrong, winning the men’s race, while defending champion Jelena Prokopcuka finished first among the women.

Armstrong was paced throughout the race by former Olympic champions Joan Benoit Samuelson and Hicham El Guerrouj, as well as former race winner Alberto Salazar, Reuters reported.

Suffering from fatigue and severe muscle cramping only a few miles from the finish line, Armstrong made one final push in the last few minutes to meet his goal. He told the Associated Press (AP) that in the last few miles, his three-hour goal was not a priority. “Honestly, at the end I was so tired, I couldn’t care,” he told the AP. “Now I’m glad I did.”

Armstrong, who retired from professional cycling after his record-setting seventh Tour win in 2005, admitted that his daily training may have not been sufficient. “I think I bit off more than I could chew,” he told the AP. “I thought the marathon would be easier.”

The official NYC Marathon web site reported that roughly two million spectators came out for this year’s event, and another 315 million worldwide caught the race on TV.

This marked the 36th year of the marathon, which began in 1970 with 127 runners on a 26.2-mile course within Central Park. Now with almost 40,000 finishers, and the title as the largest race in the world, the course runs through five city boroughs.

Lance and fellow Team Armstrong runners raised over $600,000 for cancer research at the event. When asked if he planned to run a second marathon, Armstrong told USA Today, “The answer right now is no, I’ll never be back. But I reserve the right to change my mind.”

For more on Lance Armstrong, read Outside editor Christopher Keyes’s interview with the seven-time Tour de France champ in the December issue of Outside, now on stands.

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