FYI, I made it with 2.5 hours to spare. Phew!

Wow, what a day! Weather was near perfect; a little warm for me, but not bad and no rain, winds to deal with. The nice weather really brought out the spectators and New York City looked magnificent! This was my fifth running of the NYC marathon and the best in terms of race conditions.

Hit my goal of a sub 4-hour finish (3:59:44), so a BQ - 25! This was my fifth running of the NYC marathon and the best in terms of race conditions.

Julia, of course the weather was great; this wasn't your goal race!

I forgot to mention - my time was 3:52:12.  I was running this as a long run (20 miler) but I went out too fast and faded badly after mile 17 or 18.  Still, it's a BQ-2:48 for 2017.  I'll do a complete race report for my blog.  Waiting to see if MarathonFoto has any good pictures...

You were wearing a black singlet that said Washington Road Runners or something like that weren't you? We crossed paths several times over many miles if that was you. I also faded at the end and came in at 3:49ish.

Yes, that was me!  It read, "Washington Running Club".  What were you wearing?  Maybe I remember seeing you, too.  And, apologies if I elbowed you or something. 

 

Holy cow!  Congratulations!

 

I think I'd agree that they were the best I've experienced but I thought the wind out of the south was a bit of a factor.  I was sweating more than I thought I would be during the first half of the race.  My hands are ALWAYS cold but I tossed my gloves during mile 3 or 4.  And then when I hit Fifth Avenue, I felt cold.  But, it was nothing like last year.  It was definitely course PR weather if you didn't go out too fast.

 

Can we talk about the medal?  LOL!  Can you imagine my face when I saw it.  You mean, it's the SAME MEDAL AS LAST YEAR!!!  Unbelievable.  Although, I realized all the marketing/designs were the same this year.  Maybe they're moving towards the Boston model where all that stuff is more or less the same year after year.

It was too warm and humid for the marathon,  I'd rather having the cold and windy conditions like 2014. I found my way into the medical tent after the finish because of leg cramps.

Interesting Notes And Stats On The 2015 TCS New York City Marathon 

November 1, 2015
New York, NY

49,617 finishers crossed the iconic TCS New York City Marathon finish line on Sunday, November 1

Press Release
November 4, 2015

New York—49,617 runners finished the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday, November 1, making it the world’s largest marathon of the year, it was announced today by Peter Ciaccia, president of events for New York Road Runners and race director of the TCS New York City Marathon.

Highlights

The Field

Note: All finisher numbers and results are unofficial pending race results review. Official results will be released later this month.

• 50,235 starters

• 49,617 finishers

• 28,914 male finishers

• 20,703 female finishers, highest in event history

• 125 countries represented

• 50 states and the District of Columbia represented

• Oldest male runner: Richard Gonzalez, 83, Lousiana, 6:54:51

• Oldest female runner: Agnes Roest-Bomers, 84, Netherlands, 5:40:23

Winners

• Female open race winner: Mary Keitany, 33, KEN, 2:24:25
  • First repeat champion since Paula Radcliffe (2007, 2008)
  • Eighth woman to win multiple New York City Marathon titles
  • 13th fastest performance in event history

• Male open race winner: Stanley Biwott, 29, KEN, 2:10:34
  • First TCS New York City Marathon victory, and Abbott World Marathon Majors race win

• Female wheelchair race winner: Tatyana McFadden, 26, USA, 1:43:04 (event record)
  • Shattered the event record by 7:20
  • Third consecutive New York City Marathon victory, and fourth New York City Marathon title
  • Captured her third straight Marathon Grand Slam (winning the London, Boston, Chicago, and New York City Marathon titles in the same calendar year)

• Male wheelchair race winner: Ernst Van Dyk, 42, RSA, 1:30:54
  • Second-fastest time in event history
  • Second New York City Marathon victory, and first New York City Marathon victory since 2005

• First American male finisher: Meb Keflezighi, 40, San Diego, CA, 2:13:32 (Seventh)
  • Fastest New York City Marathon Masters (40+) performance in history
  • U.S. Masters (40+) marathon record

• First American female finisher: Laura Thweatt, 26, Boulder, CO, 2:28:23 (Seventh)
  • Seventh-fastest American woman New York City Marathon performance in history

• Winners of the first-ever NYRR Youth Invitational at the TCS New York City Marathon (1.8-miles):
  • Matthew Nieves, 16, New York, NY,  9:42
  • Julianne Yotov, 12, Brooklyn, NY, 11:16

Additional Professional Athlete Statistics

• In her marathon debut, Beverly Ramos broke the Puerto Rican national record (2:41:56)

• Finishing fifth, Christelle Daunay set the French masters record with her 2:26:57 performance
• With their 2015 TCS New York City Marathon victories, Tatyana McFadden and Ernst Van Dyk both won theChicago-New York Challenge and earned $10,000 each

Celebrities and Notable Personalities

• Alicia Keys, 5:50:52: Grammy Award winning singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress; ran on behalf of Keep A Child Alive, an official charity partner of the TCS New York City Marathon

• Ethan Hawke, 4:25:30: Academy Award nominated actor, writer, and director; ran on behalf of The Doe Fund

• James Blake, 3:51:19: Retired professional tennis player; ran on behalf of his foundation, the James Blake Foundation, an official charity partner of the TCS New York City Marathon

• Additional notable personalities who ran the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon include:
  • New York Giants legend and radio personality Tiki (Atiim) Barber, 4:50:56
  • Actress Katrina Bowden Jorgensen, 4:19:39
  • Chef Daniel Humm, 3:35:30
  • Professional snowboarder Chris Klug, 4:13:51
  • Soprano for the Metropolitan Opera Susanna Phillips, 5:01:31
    • Susanna sang the national anthem at the start of the TCS New York City Marathon
  • Chef and restauranteur Marcus Samuelsson, 3:36:42
  • Producer, actor, photographer Nev Schulman, 3:34:31
  • NYRR President and CEO Michael Capiraso, 3:54:05

Grand Marshal

• Spike Lee, the New York University tenured film professor, writer-director, actor, producer, author, and iconic New York City figure, served as the 2015 TCS New York City Marathon Grand Marshal, first Grand Marshal from New York City and third in event history; he rode in the Grand Marshal Vehicle with the TCS New York City Marathon Race Director, Peter Ciaccia and held the men’s finish line tape

Digital and Social Statistics

• Nearly 26 million impressions on Facebook during race week (Monday, October 26 to Monday, November 2), including more than 6.5 million impressions during race-day and more than 9.7 million impressions during Marathon Monday

• Top tracked runners via TCS New York City Marathon Live Results (Note: Alicia Keys ran under a different last name):

1. Ethan Hawke
2. Alana Hadley
3. Meb Keflezighi

• From 12:06 to 12:07 p.m. ET on race day, there was a peak of 290 tweets per minute using the hashtag #tcsnycmarathon

• 268,567 mobile app downloads as of 11/1/2015

• #TCSNYCMarathon Journey Video platform, journey.tcsnycmarathon.org, was built for marathoners, fans, and volunteers to create race-day recap videos to share socially, this is a first by any brand outside of Facebook itself

o   5,000+ signed up to participate

o   1,065 videos created so far

Race-day Weather

Start (Wave One): 60 degrees, 62% humidity, wind 7 mph.

Finish: 62 degrees, 60% humidity, wind 6 mph.

My race report is up on my blog.

 

I'm already looking forward to next year!

Nice report! Can't believe this was just a training run for you.

I had some similar experiences, like the wonky readings on 1st Ave -- what was going on? It really messed with my pacing. My Garmin was telling me I was running a 13 to 14 minute pace, and although I knew I had slowed down more that I had planned to on the Queensboro bridge, I was sure I wasn't going that slow. I started to speed up and my pace reading didn't change. I was trying to run about a 8:55 pace, but I didn't want to get too aggressive at that point since I still had 10-11 miles to go and I was worried that I would blow up just trying to get the Garmin pace reading to go down. Later, I saw that I was running 9:23 and 9:09 for those miles, so slower than I wanted to be but nowhere near 13.

The last stretch on 5th Ave before the park was the worst! I wished I had studied the maps better because I would have liked to have known when we would turn into Central Park. I just kept telling myself, "This hill WILL end." Then I felt cramping in my foot at mile 26. I've never had cramps in a race before and could only think, what, NOW! Just pushed through to the finish hoping for a sub 4-hour finish.

Can't wait to do it again next year!