The NYC Marathon Experience

I ran the NYC marathon this past Sunday, and it was fun, but I did very poor with my running time. It was actually my second worst time ever after the first marathon I ran. I haven't run a marathon in the last 2 years so I knew I would be doing worse then where I left off, but my goal was about a 4:30 time...sadly I came in at 4:50ish but it was not all my fault. The race itself was fun, OVERWHELMING crowds. The one down side was that there were 60,000 bibs, not sure how many actually ran it but obviously that is a huge amount of people, and on the bridges and at the water stations there was a lot of bottle necking where the road would go from 4 lanes to less then 2. At several of those points people would stop running and walk, and since we were so congested I was forced to walk at several spots I did not want to as well.

Despite being very disappointed in my personal time, it was a fun race, but not one that I think I will do again.

Some memorable moments and how my weekend went:
Arrived in NYC in the afternoon on Saturday and went straight to the expo. I was a little disappointed in the expo- same inherent problem as with the race: no organization and too many people, so we were only there long enough to get my bib and baggie.
Went to dinner at a vegan restaurant called Caravan of Dreams in the East Village with Christina, Pete, and Paul.

Sunday morning I got up at 5:20 and started getting dressed. I knew it was supposed to be 50 degrees with winds at 10-20mph, so I wore a hat, a running shirt and jacket over that, my spandex pants, 3 pairs of socks, and then disposable sweats over the outfit to keep more warm to the race start.
When I got to the subway to head towards staten island there was a train full of runners- we were all bundled up in crappy sweats over our real running gear. I was worried I would miss my 6:15 ferry if I took the transfer on the subway, but several runners were worried about the same thing so we all decided to grab a cab together. SO I took a random cab with 3 other runners at 6am, the total fare was only $5.50 so when we all tried to chip in with $5 bills the guy in the front paid for it all and said "It's my treat". We told silly stories along the way, like the one woman who told us her 9 year old daughter was making fun of her fashion when she left even though she kept trying to explain to her that everyone throws away their outer layer at the start line.

I caught my ferry and it was a gorgeous boat ride to Staten Island going right by the statue of liberty. Once on Staten Island we were shuttled in buses to the actual start village.
The start village split you up in to orange, blue or green bibs, and then again into Wave 1, 2, and 3 of runners.
The village was hosted by Dunkin Donuts, so we all got free hats and bagels and coffee and water. My breakfast was a bagel. The crappy part then was we all had to wait, in the cold. It was FREEZING! We all sat on these fields with no wind cover for about 3 hours nbefore the race with nothing to do.

Finally at 9:45 we headed towards the start. They had three waves of runners all starting 30 minutes apart. I was in wave 2. And once my wave started it still took me 20 minutes to cross the start line.

The initial mile was actually over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and there are runners on both sides of the bridge as well as the lower level. The neatest view for me was when I was coming off of the bridge you can see the 4 different groups of runners all going in different directions, which creates this amazing scene seeing hears of thousands of runners running in different directions. In about another 2 miles we all converged again.



The race it self was full of more spectators then I have ever seen at a race before, and more runners too! This did make it difficult at a couple points though...in particular there were a lot of various points ni the race where things would bottle neck- on bridges they would often have us running on only one side, so the race would go from 4 lanes to 2, and at water stations they cramped in going from 4 lanes to 1.5-2 lanes. This was particularly difficult since these were places where people wanted to stop and walk, so on several of the bridges that were uphill as well as at almost all the water stations I was forced to stop and walk even if I did not want to because all the runners directly in front of me had stopped to walk, and there was no clear path to breakaway and get back to running.

I won't lie though, by mile 22 I was hurting a bit, and those last 4 miles each seemed longer then a mile.

The funny part was to add insult to injury, at the water stations where the bottle necks occured and people all stopping to drink in front of you forced you to stop, there were other hazards...most people who run marathons know that water stations are sticky and slippery- there is a layer of wet cardboard cups, gatorade, and water adhered to the pavement that you have to run over without falling. Well the funny thing to me was at mile 20 they had a "banana station" incoroprated within the water station- so on top of the slippery paper cups, gatorade, and water there were also banana peels scattering the ground...I hoped this was a one time deal just for the mile 20 station, but no, every mile from then on to the finish also had bananas, and their peels covered the ground.

The last 4 miles were toughest, mostly downhill which is good for a lot of people, but I preer uphill as downhill hurts my knees more. And the lanes went from 4 to 1. Mark was at mile 23, and he commented the race seemed poorly designed because at that mile the lane got so crowded with runner they were constantly tripping and bumping in to each other.

I finally finished at 4:52, not a good time at all, but I plan to run another marathon in the spring that isn't so crowded and hope to do better. Once at the finish it took 45 minutes to be corralled through central park to our bags at the UPS trucks and make it out of the park to Mark. And he got a good parking spot but it was 20 blocks away from the finish so that was a long walk after running a marathon. Then it was a 4 hour drive home so I could get up at 5:45 the next morning and go to work. I was a little sore, but now that it is Wednesday I feel fit again and want to get out for a run tonight!