Tooting my horn:
Well! I have to say I am happy with the results of the marathon- I had no idea while I was running, but I ended up running my first sub-4 hour race, finishing in 3:59:37. My stats, according to the current website:
Overall place: 12,786 out of 37,899 finishers
Gender place: 2,549 out of 12,827 female finishers
Age place: 520 out of 7,069 finishers, age 40-44
I have to say, I am very happy with that!
The trip and race:
Tim and I left Boston around 9 a.m. on Saturday morning. We made our way through to NY quickly, meeting Chris by the Expo Center. After a quick race packet pick-up and t-shirt purchase, we dropped Chris in Teaneck, which is her hometown, and made our way to our hotel, the Glenpointe Marriott, also in Teaneck. It was a BEAUTIFUL hotel and I am so happy that we didn't opt to stay in the city. The room rate was great, and the atmosphere very quiet. It is located not too far from the football stadium (Giants?) and those players were apparently staying there that evening.
We unpacked, and I set out my race day gear, put my feet up and read about the course.
Chris and her dad picked us up for supper in Teaneck, where we went to a Japanese restaurant. I loaded up on rice and ate some teriyaki chicken, and bought two onigiri for the next day. I had a tiny glass of wine to relax.
The next morning, I got up and tried to force down as much rice as I could. I only managed one onigiri, but I was pretty confident that I had carbed up plenty the few days leading up to the race. I marked a few key points in marker on my arm so that I could remember where the hills would come and how long they'd last. Chris came and picked me up at the door at 7:45. We headed out towards the Verrazano Narrows bridge near Staten Island, where the race begins. Everything was perfect- we made it almost up to the athlete's village, where Chris turned back to pick up Tim. I met a woman running her very first marathon and we headed to the village. I gave her some last minute pointers like keeping her energy the first half of the race, ducking behind people in heavy headwind (it was a windy morning).
By the time I got to the village, they were calling the first wave to the corrals. I was in the 2nd corral, so had time to get in line for the porta potties. I talked with a Norwegian man who was also running his first race. He had come with 25 others from Norway, but THEY had been told to take the very first bus to the start (5:30 a.m.) and were FREEZING. The temperature was in the upper 30's, but with the wind chill it was almost freezing. Luckily I had my old winter jacket, which I had decided to wear and throw away (these belongings are all collected as donations after the race) as I headed to the corrals. I just had time to find the UPS trucks where our bags were loaded (the trucks go from the village to the finish line, where you can pick up your gear), and they were calling OUR wave to the start.
This was the first year to have 3 waves, and it showed. We had three lines, based on color (orange, blue, and green) and each had a corresponding letter. I ended up giving up finding my letter because I was already mixed in with many others, but we managed to make our way up to the start. I knew that it wasn't important, since the chip time didn't start until your sneaker hit the start cushion. I was in the lucky two colors who got to start on the TOP of the bridge (the trick of this race is that if you start at the bottom, you should stay to the center of the road- well-hydrated runners on top often pee off the sides!) and took my place.
The first 2 miles consisted of the Verrazano Bridge, and more than the 1st mile was up. But it was fine- we were all packed in and went nice and easy. Our orange wave had their own route which met up with the other two colors at mile 8, and the first half of the race was FUN. Each neighborhood had different music entertainment, whether it was a school marching band playing 'Rocky' or a church gospel choir or a group of rappers. We passed through Brooklyn and made our way up to Queens:
Right before mile 15 in Queens, Tim, Chris and her dad Walter were standing on the side of the road and I pulled over to eat some pretzels. Tim pulled off his khakis to reveal running tights and jumped onto the course with his full backpack. I was glad he did. I had been concentrating on keeping relaxed and not getting too excited, and it had momentarily resulted in my not breathing fast enough and feeling a bit dizzy. There is danger in getting TOO calm, ha ha. We made our way across the 3rd bridge, the Queensboro, which empties out onto 1st Ave, called the 'Wall of Sound'. The crowds were incredible and things stayed packed up to the Bronx. Crossing from the Bronx through to Harlem, I had a little asthma attack, but we pulled over and used the inhaler and all was good. The next 2 miles up to Central Park on 5th Ave. were a mixture of fatigue and anticipation. I missed my friend Kathleen, who was waiting on the corner of 110th and 5th, but people were starting to press in on all sides and it was difficult to do any passing at points. A little before mile 24 we entered the park, and made our way up and down the hills to the turn. Chris and her dad had made it there and we heard them yelling for us. I knew the last part of the race was uphill, but I still had energy left, so we made our way to the finish. The nice thing was that after mile 26, they had markers for 400, 300, 200, 100 meters and then the finish. It was a great feeling!
Tim and I were immediately wrapped in silver heat blankets and send the long way up the park to the UPS trucks. We walked from around 30th to 86th street, then exited. We walked from there to Chris' place on 89th street, getting some coffee along the way. And then, a nice warm apartment with Chris and her dad waiting for us with drinks, sandwiches, salted pretzels. We both took a shower and changed and after a brief celebration, headed out and back to Boston!
Chris was amazing. And Tim was incredible. I didn't mention that there were people hired to pull non-registered runners out of the race, but Tim managed not to get snagged, which was a great help to me.
And that's my marathon story!
-Marie
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