The last few months have been a bit busy for Kim Smith. She ran the Olympic Marathon in August, got married in September, and won the $100,000 bonus from the Boston Athletic Association in October. Instead of taking the money and finally going on that honeymoon to Hawaii, Smith still has one more race this fall.

That race is the New York City Marathon.

“There’s definitely a buzz around New York around the time of the marathon... definitely New York, the whole kind of city is so involved with it, I think that makes it really special,” Smith said during her press conference.

Smith is no stranger to NY as she’s competed in the marathon for the last two years. She’s finished 5th in the last two years where she ran 2:25:46 (2011) and 2:25:20 (2010).

Even though she’s familiar with the course, the race is always a surprise. 

Smith said, “It’s really hard to predict what’s going to happen tactically I think for New York because two years ago we went out really easy and it became like a five-mile race at the end. Everyone was still together. And then with five miles to go, it just got really fast.”

“And then last year was just so crazy fast from the start, it was kind of unbelieveable that I was running like - I think I went through 71-and-a-half minutes at the half, which is near the course record, and I was way back.”

Even though Smith can’t control how the race will be run, she can control her preparation.

“We work on a two-week cycle, so yeah, it would be like in the two weeks we’ll have a shorter workout, a workout of long repeats, a tempo run long run, and then just a normal run. That would be four workouts... We’ll do a tempo run where we do like five miles and then 10 miles at marathon pace, and then around five miles afterwards.”

One thing that Smith can guarantee is that there will be an electric atmosphere in NYC leading up to the marathon. Despite the power outages and destruction brought on by Hurricane Sandy, New Yorkers are resilient and will be on the streets come Sunday.

"I definitely do New York more than the others, so I might enjoy [Sunday] somehow."