New York City Marathon (Read 1027 times)

It was a little warm in New York this past weekend for running a marathon, but that was about the only thing that was unfortunate about the event (well, except the bus ride to the start taking about 2 hours due to traffic). The expo went quite smoothly. Although there were thousands of people milling around, the lines for race numbers, bus tickets, and free stuff were relatively short. Probably the most exciting part of the expo was meeting Khalid Khannouchi. I was amazed by how nice and down to earth he was (considering he's the former world record holder in the marathon). Half jokingly, he told me that he thought I was crazy to run new york just three weeks after running the louisville marathon. I laughed at the time, but I definitely started thinking about the truth in that statement about 11 miles into the race the next day when my legs started to ache. Although the pain in my legs increased as the race progressed, the 2 million spectators, loud and encouraging, prodded me along to the finish in 2:53:23. Although I went 3 minutes slower in the second half of the marathon than in the first half, I was definitely pleased with my time considering that even with the heat, hilly course, proximity to my last race, I was able to run my second fastest marathon time. I was particularly proud of the fact that even though I was suffering considerably and slowed between mile 21 and 25 (which were sadistically up hill, by the way), I was able to pull myself to together and run a 6:10 for the final mile. Well anyway (I'm sure I've babbled for long enough), I don't know how many of you have run the new york marathon in the past, but between the fans and sights, it's definitely a great marathon to put on the list of things to do in the future.

Well, congrats to both of you...one question...top or bottom? If the answer was bottom, you know what the question is (key: - Starting across the Veranzano-Narrows bridge, lots o'folks realize just how over-hydrated they are and with no porta-potties for the first few miles, the bridge becomes the largest public bathroom in the country...those poor souls on the bottom of the bridge go through the whole "oh, look, it's misting to wait, it's not cloudy, to hey, you guys stop pissin'me on!" range of emotions...), but I digress... Sub 3 in NYC is AWSOME, schneidr, I can't believe you can maintain that speed in such a throng of people. I remember a few years back, I just enjoyed the ride, what a trip! I actually got to attend a real wedding at the race when I did it. Sooooo many cool things about that race... Way to go! Lynn B

Yeah, I also got bottom. I was a bit disappointed when I found out that I was assigned the bottom level, as I was looking forward to the view from the top. And I was definitely even less of a fan of the assignment when I heard about the possibility of being "R Kelly-ed" by the runners on the upper deck. But as eric said, it didn't seem to be a problem. Fortunalty, I don't think the wind was going the right direction for that to be a problem. To tell you the truth, at that point, I was more worried about weaving people, clothes, and water bottles, than the possibility of yellow mist from above. I agree with you eric about being relieved that the race is over. Taking some time to rest up and recovery certainly doesn't seem like a bad idea at the moment. I'm not exactly sure what my next goal race is... There's an outside chance I'll run the Gulf Beaches Marathon down in Florida at the end of January (my brother is running it and he's trying to convince me to do it). Although I must say, Florida in January sounds like a lot better place to be than Illinois. More likely, I'll wait until spring to do my next marathon. My uncle wants me to come down to Tennessee to do the Country Music Marathon at the end of April, so I might do that. Hopefully the weather is better for Boston this year. It was definitely too warm this past year when I ran it, and I really have no idea how anyone was able to survive it 2 years ago when it was in the 80's. The best quote I heard about the conditions that year: "the sea breeze that day felt like someone held a blow dryer 6 inches from my face for the entire race." Other than the weather though, running Boston was a great experience...

Eric, Being a redneck from the south, I was cruising across the BOTTOM of the bridge and made my way to the side for a better look at the Manhattan skyline...right in the middle of a good ole Gomer Pyle "Goooooooaaaaoooolleeee", I felt a mist on my face...you can imaging the rest...back up under the deck to seek shelter from the "yellow rain"... Lynn B

Are you sure you're not getting sprayed by the fireboats down below instead? With the excitement of the race and all, you might not be able to tell the difference. schneidr: I went as far as going over to the info desk during the expo to see if I can run on the upper deck instead. They said I can go to any start I want, but I changed my mind at the last minute. In a way, I wished that I ran on the upper level because of the view, and because I doubt I'll do New York again. The promotional race photos are always of the upper level, and they are quite pretty. eric