New York City Marathon (a photo essay)

Ok, time to quit procrastinating about writing this report.

I started working toward doing this race four years ago when I first applied for the lottery.  At that time, there was a policy that if you entered the lottery for three years and were not selected you were guaranteed entry in the fourth year.  I then spent the next three years entering the lottery with my fingers crossed that I would not be selected as I had other races planned in 2011 (Switzerland), 2012 (San Francisco) and 2013 (Lisbon).  All went according to plan and 2014 was the year for the New York Marathon.

My training for this race went very well … up until about the month before when life started to get busy and my training started to get a bit spotty.  I had hoped that this might be the year that I would finish in 4:30 or better.  I had previously done Victoria and San Francisco in 4:34 (both hilly races) on less training so this was a reasonable goal … sort of.

I had initially booked accommodation close to the Empire State building but in September I received an email that the hotel had gone out of business and I had to make other plans.  This prompted a rapid scan of Expedia which netted a discount hotel in the Upper West Side.  The hotel was located just off Broadway at 87^th, within a block of the subway and around the corner from a Starbucks. The location was great for the race and ended up being pretty convenient for our whole week in New York.

We arrived in New York early on Thursday morning after a great non-stop overnight flight from Vancouver.  We were able to store our bags at a friend’s hotel and we spent most of the day touring Manhattan on a hop-on, hop-off tour.  The day was definitely too chilly for an open air bus but it was a nice day otherwise and the bus tour was a good way to spend the time until we were able to check into our hotel.  The weather forecast in the days before we arrive in New York had been really nice so my wardrobe was really inadequate for the weather on Thursday and Friday.

Friday morning we made our way to the race expo.  We arrive at the convention centre around 10:30.  The Expo was supposed to open at 10 am and the shopping was definitely open but I think the package pickup opening must have been delayed as there was a huge line up that snaked back and forth through the convention centre and did not appear to move for the first 15 minutes we were there.  I sent my friend off to explore the Expo while I waited on line.  Just before 11, the line was suddenly given the all clear and everyone streamed into the package pickup.  There were numerous pickup desks and I got my race bib and shirt within about 10 minutes.  I did a quick browse through the Asics shop and the other vendors in the expo before meeting up with my friend at our rendezvous spot.  On my first time through the Asics shop, I thought the checkout line ups were really long but by the time I grabbed a jacket and a couple of shirts when we went back the second time, the line up had grown exponentially.  For all of that, the line moved fairly quickly and we were able to get through in under an hour.  There was another area on an upper floor with lots of photo opportunities and maps of the routes.  I believe they had a number of speakers throughout the three days of the Expo.

A few folks in the checkout line.                                                    Previewing the course and modeling my new purchase

Friday night was Halloween, so we took in an amazing Halloween parade along 6^th Avenue.  Incredible costumes, stilt walkers, bands and floats.  This was an awesome event, there was a young girl and her mother watching next to us and the girl attracted a lot of attention from the parade participants who all took the opportunity to come over and try to scare her.  Thankfully she was a good sport and didn’t get freaked out by all the zombies and monsters.

Some highlights from the Halloween Parade. 

Saturday was a low key day, we went to a matinee of Wicked so I managed to stay off my feet for the most part.  We had dinner at a neighbourhood diner close to our hotel.  I had the requisite pasta and then we headed back to the hotel to lay out clothes for an early start on Sunday.  I think I was asleep by about 8:30 and I actually managed to sleep quite well for most of the night.

I was up around 6 am feeling well rested, we had picked up a selection of food from a nearby grocery so I had a decent breakfast of banana, yogurt and bagel.  The food needed to last me until late afternoon so I wanted to make sure I had lots to eat.  I made a quick trip to Starbucks for coffee and then by 7am it was time to start the adventure, as I was on my way to the subway.

Ready for the day

I ran into two women who were obviously lost so I directed them to the right subway platform.  There were a few moments of suspense as the subway line had been closed over the weekend in upper Manhattan and Harlem.  A notice popped up that our train was “delayed” and the next train was not due for 15 minutes, however, shortly after that our train appeared and the adventure was under way.  By the time the train reached 42^nd St, it was standing room only and by 23^rd St, folks were being left on the platform.  The station at the Ferry is curved so the train can turn around and only the first five cars of the train actually open.  Folks in back cars of the train had to exit at the stop before the ferry.  This was only a couple of blocks walk so they probably arrived around the same time we did. 

Making our way to Staten Island

Upon arrival at the Ferry, the departure hall was filled to overflowing.  There was security prior to entering the departure hall in the form of a couple of laid back Labrador retrievers who had a token sniff at folks’ bags.  The ferry arrived right at 7:45 and I was able to get on board.  I initially grabbed a seat but then ended up wandering the boat for half the journey, taking pictures of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan.  I guess the Ferry crossing was probably 20 – 30 minutes and then we streamed off the boat and through the terminal on the Staten Island side.  It was around a five minute walk to where the buses were waiting to take us to the start area.  This was well organized, buses loaded five at a time and were replaced as soon as the full buses departed.  It took three sets of buses before I was able to get aboard and then it was off for a fairly long drive from one side of Staten Island to the other.  The bus ride ended up being at least 30 minutes and a number of the runners were getting restless as their start times were nearing.  We finally reached the start area shortly after 9am (so a two hour trip all told), disembarked the buses, went through a security check and then hiked for a fair distance to reach the various start coral areas.  I went with the no baggage check option but it looked like bag check was well organized, they had numerous UPS trucks organized by number.  When I finally reached the Blue start area, I still had over an hour to kill before my start time.  There was an area with hot water for tea and hot chocolate, folks handing out Power bars.  I believe there was supposed to be coffee and bagels as well but I didn’t see where those were.  The day was chilly and there was a nasty north wind, so I spent my time either in potty line ups or huddling out of the wind.

Finally, the announcement was made for Wave 4 and I made my way to the entrance of the start Coral.  There was some delay as quite a few people from Wave 3 were still trying to get into the Coral (I ran into a friend on the course who was in the Green section and she said she ended up having to start in Wave 4 as they wouldn’t let folks into Wave 3 after they made the announcement for Wave 4).  As Blue Corral, Section F of Wave 4 we were the last of the last folks starting.  The start corrals had tons of port-o-potties which had the added benefit of blocking the wind.  The start was pretty anti-climactic as we were very far from the start line when the gun sounded.  It felt like a several km slog through discarded clothes, past the bus parking lot around several corners and then we were finally on the bridge and across the start line.  My wave was supposed to start at 10:50 and I started my watch at 10:59.

Some pictures I borrowed from the media, when I saw the middle one before the race I just about freaked.

This was a really tough race for the elites and early starters due to high winds, by the time my wave started, I think the wind had let up a fair amount but it was definitely gusty going across the bridge, mostly the gusts were cross winds that kept blowing my feet and making me kick myself but on occasion it would whip around and give us a nice tail wind.  Once we got off the Verazano Bridge, I didn’t really feel that the wind had much impact on my race.  The sun was shining and for much of the race, I felt the temperature was perfect.  Because I had been cold for much of the previous couple of days, I had wondered if I would actually discard any of my throwaway clothes, I ended up running in tights, a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve bike jersey style shirt on top.  I did have gloves and a plastic rain poncho that I kept on until I got off the Verizano Bridge.  I was also wearing a light weight wool beanie that I took off early but kept stuffed in a back pocket and put back on whenever we went through a cool, shady section of the course.

My race went according to plan for the first half, I had my own Gatorade that I intended to drink for the 10 – 15k so I ignored the water stops as much as was possible.  Because I wasn’t using the water stations, I found them somewhat irritating, first you had to navigate the congestion of people grabbing water on either side of the road, someone inevitably stopping right in front of you, then you had to wade through the mass of discarded cups, then there would be the block or two that your shoes would be sticking to the discarded Gatorade on the roads.  The water stations were far too frequent for my preference but well placed if you weren’t running self-supported.  I reached the half-way point right on plan, I was actually a minute or so fast so I took the opportunity to walk up the slope on the bridge approach.  Around this time, I started stopping occasionally for photo opportunities as well so my pace started to drop.  Because my training had fizzled a bit in the last weeks before the race, I had pretty much realized that a sub 4:30 was unlikely.  The wheels didn’t exactly fall off the bus but they did start to get rather sticky and the last 10k of the race was pretty slow.

This is definitely a race to just soak in the spectacle, with 50,000 runners, I was pretty much always having to pass people but I was able to maintain my pace.  The spectators all along the route were outstanding, I high-fived lots of folks.  I had intended to do this race incognito, but I ended up running in a Sugoi Canada bike jersey-type top as the pockets were great for holding gels and my hat.  I got lots of “Canada” shouts all along the course which was fun.  Many of the runners had their names written on their shirts somewhere and the crowd was happy to be able to call people by name.  I think I did the whole race close to a woman who was having her 30^th birthday on race day as the crowd sang Happy Birthday numerous times throughout the day.

 More "borrowed" photos, showing just how amazing it all is.

Around mile 16 we crossed the 59^th St Bridge, this was probably the only section along the race with no spectators, it was a tough stretch as there was  a long uphill to the middle of the bridge.  This was also where we started catching up to a lot of the Achilles runners and their guides.  I like to whine a lot during training, but passing the fellow doing the whole race pushing backwards with his feet in his wheelchair definitely puts things in perspective. 

Once off the 59^th Street Bridge the crowds are back with a vengeance all the way up 1^st Avenue through the Upper Eastside in Manhattan.  Folks obviously make a day of cheering for the race, if they live nearby, they probably don’t have much choice in the matter as it’s not like they are going to be able to get anywhere for the day. 

The run up 1^st Avenue, over the bridge into the Bronx and back into Manhattan was a bit of a slog, by this time my legs were really starting to complain and I was walking on anything that slightly resemble a hill.  The crowds were still amazing but from 30k+ I was definitely no longer worrying about finishing in any kind of PB.  The nice thing about the New York grid streets, it was really easy to count down the blocks.   As we passed mile 24, we entered the secured part of the park and there were far fewer spectators.  I was starting to feel quite rough around this point.  My hydration/fueling  for the race was about 20 oz of Gatorade and three gels but as we were finally approaching mile 26 I started feeling rather light-headed.  Since the day was cool, I didn’t drink as much as I usually would and that was probably a mistake.

  

During the early part of the race, it was quite hazardous trying to avoid all of the discarded clothes but from mile 22 – 23 the hazard was banana peels as they were handing out bananas along the course and the road was awash in peels.

Finally, we turned the last corner in the park and there was the finish line.  My final time was 4:42:30 - not quite what I had hoped for but considering the stops for photo opportunities, etc not too bad. Because of security, the public was kept well out of the finish area, though they were quite close to us as we went around the bottom of the park.  Once across the finish line, the zombie shuffle commenced – first we got out medals, then the “heat sheets”.   We shuffled past folks handing out stickers which I thought was some security check but were actually tape to hold the space blankets on.  A block or so further, we went past the tables handing out the “food” bags.  This was an unfortunate selection – a bottle of water, a bottle of lime Gatorade, a bottle of protein recovery drink, an apple, a powerbar and a bag of pretzels.  With all that liquid the bag weighed a ton!  The only thing I could face out of all that were the pretzels, they turned out to be a life saver, by the time I finished half of the bag I was starting to feel human again.

The finish line is around 64^th Avenue and from there we had to hike up to 77^th Avenue before we could exit the park, then they directed us down to 72^nd Avenue to get our pretty blue Poncho’s and to exit the “lock down” zone.  The folks who had checked bags had to continue up to around 85^th before they could get their bags.  People with friends meeting them, then had to make their way back down to around 60^th St.  I was really happy to be able to just walk three blocks over to Broadway and a dozen blocks up to 87^th St to get back to my hotel.

This year was my tenth marathon and they have each been great in their own way but I would have to say that the New York City marathon has the most spectator support of any race that I have done.