Some Hicksville residents are adept sprinters, even under unlikely circumstances. A woman, dressed in a black business suit, darts toward a departing Long Island Rail Road train, precariously balancing her briefcase on her shoulder. Another runs after a child in Cantiague Park while she adroitly holds an open juice box, a Dora the Explorer backpack, a cellular phone and a small coin purse.

When 43-year-old Luisa Castiglioni of Hicksville laced up her Asics sneakers last Sunday, however, it was for much more than a dash: she wore them in the 2005 ING New York City Marathon, crossing five bridges and trotting through the city's five boroughs. More than two million spectators and a global television audience of 260 million followed the action.

Castiglioni crossed the finish line inside of Central Park in front of an cheering sea of spectators in 3 hours, 47 minutes and 57 seconds. "I missed my target by two minutes and everything hurts," Castiglioni said with a weak smile after the 26.2-mile race.

Although this was her fifth long-distance event, Castiglioni adhered to a disciplined training regimen for the past six months. "I push myself to the limit when I run," Castiglioni said. "To improve my time by even a few minutes is very hard." Castiglioni started training for the marathon in May and ran 30 to 40 miles a week, increasing her distance to 40 to 50 miles a week during July and August. In September, she slowly scaled back her mileage to prepare her body for the upcoming marathon.

Despite all the preparation, the marathon was still a grueling experience and, by the race's final stages, Castiglioni was running with bruised and purple feet, five of her toenails missing and her skin tearing around her bleeding blisters. "My feet looked perfect for Halloween and my body aches a lot," Castiglioni said.

On weekdays, she would leave home in Hicksville and arrive at 9 a.m. at Manhattan's United Nations building where she works in the department of peace keeping. Upon leaving work at 5:30 p.m., Castiglioni would run in Central Park, returning home to Hicksville by 10 p.m. On weekends, she ran Bethpage State Park's 6.5-mile trail.

"I run to relieve stress and it is something I do for myself," Castiglioni said, who ran in the New York City Marathon four times and the Philadelphia Marathon last year. "Training for this marathon has been hard. It has taken a lot out of me mentally. On the day of the marathon, you just have to hope that you feel good enough to run."

On the morning of Nov. 6, Castiglioni, dressed in red and black, said she was "very nervous" as she lined up at Fort Wadsworth in Staten Island. As one of the top 3,000 runners in her section, she started the race at the foot of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge at 10:10 a.m.

Although intense pain radiated through her body, her running schedule still remained at the forefront of her life. As Castiglioni ran across the Pulaski Bridge between Brooklyn and Queens - the marathon's halfway point - she had run for 1 hour, 48 minutes and 18 seconds - just 18 seconds past the target time she had set for herself. Although Castiglioni missed her overall finish time target by just two minutes, she finished in 5,627th place amongst more than 35,000 other runners. She was 929th among the females and 170th in her age group. Her future plans include participating in a biking, swimming and running triathlon.

Although her achievement in the marathon was cause for celebration, Castiglioni had no major festivities planned. After the race, the main item on her agenda was a bath in a tub filled with cold water.