it was so exciting to be with a group of strangers, knowing that everyone around you has been doing similar training for months all around the world in pursuit of a common goal - it's thrilling! the runners came in all shapes, sizes, ages, and nationalities. it's quite likely that we've run among or passed by these runners along the west side highway, at central park, or during races.
after docking, we boarded a short minute bus ride to take us to the start village. "start village" turned out to be more of a "hobo village". imagine +50,000 runners sprawled across fort wadsworth park grabbing every plastic bag, cardboard, and styrofoam around to try to stay warm in the 39F weather. we arrived at 7:08 and weren't scheduled to start until 10:05.
kevin wore a $14.99 blue puffy coat that he bought across the street the previous night and a pair of sweats. gary wore a sweatshirt and sweat pants. i wore two long-sleeve cotton shirts and a pair of sweat pants. we all had beanies on, but it was not enough - it was SO DARN COLD. dunkin donuts had a table with coffee, which was surrounded by hoards of cold hungry athletes. they also gave out fleece beanies which was really nice of them. i brought bubble wrap from our packing boxes for us to sit on, which turned out to be AMAZING as it kept our bottoms warm, and i ended up stuff it inside my top as well.
note to self: bubble wrap is AWESOME insulation!
oh yea, we saw a lot of interesting moments during our THREE our wait. we saw a group of italians hold a little picnic with bread, butter, jelly, drinks, etc. we saw the same group of italians singing to keep their spirits up. one of them tried to take our bubble wrap - not cool lol. and we saw lots of athletes shivering and curled up in strange forms trying to retain as much body heat as possible.
finally 10:05 rolled around and we were getting into our corrals and people started stripping. off came the pants, the hats, the jackets, and lastly, the bubble wrap :) all the clothing would be donated to goodwill. and finally, the corrals collapsed and we were led to the start line which was at the beginning of the verrazano bridge. the sun started peeking out from behind the clouds at this point, my spirits were lifted at the prospect of finally moving, and we were off! :)
the race course was technically not too challenging since new york city is relatively flat, but there were a couple areas which we were warned about: the verrazano bridge (mile 1), the queensboro bridge (mile 16), and carnegie hill (miles 22). as it turns out, there were so many people on the course, we couldn't actually ever see any of the climbs which was enormously helpful mentally.
some highlights (ok, this ended up being more of my own post race analysis):
- queensboro bridge: it was SO DARN WINDY!!! haha ... kevin and i had trouble just going straight and staying upright as gusts of wind came from the northwest. we saw countless pieces of disposable clothing and tarp fly right across our eyes over the bridge. the helicopters were nowhere nearby thank goodness (i had envisioned choppers hovering around the bridge and like an action movie, was afraid i'd have the urge to jump off the bridge and hang onto the helicopter, climb up to the cockpit, and take out the pilot :p).
- brooklyn: talk about CROWDS and MUSIC!!!! there were crowds lining the ENTIRE course (with the exception of the predominantly hasidic jewish areas where it was uncomfortably silent) and there were live bands performing every few blocks - thank you daisy & bram for coming out to support! it was so much fun and a pleasant distraction to look at all the spectators, their signs, outfits, the storefronts, and countdown the streets as we ran along third and fourth ave towards the williamsburgh savings bank in the distance.
- williamsburg: a smile lit my face as we turned onto bedford ave, as i knew it would ultimately lead us to pass our old pad on grand avenue! the course got much narrower at this point, which made it difficult to continue at our original 8:30 pace. in addition, there were water stations around every mile marker in which people would stop to drink water and not always stay out of the center of the course, slowing down the race in general. regardless, it was so much fun :) i think i was starting to understand why people run the ny marathon, over, and over.
- greenpoint/queens: mile 13.5 was the point where our friends, emily and cuong, were going to be cheering! i've never had anyone come cheer (especially not my own parents haha) so i was super excited :) unfortunately we didn't coordinate exactly where at mile 13.5 so we didn't end up finding each other. darn. it was still very cool to cross the pulaski bridge though - onto QUEENS and halfway done with this thing!
- queensboro bridge: the queens portion of the race was only a couple miles long, and in the corner of my eye was the queensboro bridge. we owned it when we practice our queensboro bridge repeats, but how would we fare today? we took the pace down a couple notches and breezed across the bridge. i think we both wanted to make sure that we had enough in the tank left for the second half, and personally, i needed to make sure i could get to mile 20, and i thought the last six wouldn't be too much of an issue.
- upper east side: we thought brooklyn and queens crowds were amazing, manhattan right when you come off the 59th st bridge was off the hook! mountains of people screaming their lungs out for you, strangers to them, pushing you along with their smiles, shouts, and funny signs. this race would be over before we knew it ... still no sign of powergels yet though!
- bronx: taiko drums! we crossed the willis avenue bridge into the bronx and the 138 east madison avenue bridge back into manhattan and were greeted by japanese taiko drummers! it was sooooo cool. powergels and bananas were handed out around mile 19 finally and i grabbed three. kevin wasn't feeling great during most of the race, and couldn't hold it in any longer, so he told me to go ahead while he beelined for a porta-john.
- manhattan: the last 4-5 miles were really nice. i think because we had taken it slower earlier, i was feeling energized and not totally spent, and tried to pick up the pace for the rest of the race. the most exciting part? probably when we turned into the park around 90th st. this was our turf, our park, the place we had shed our blood sweat tears and wedding vows. i knew it like the back of hand .. unfortunately i also knew there would be a slight uphill in the last 400 meters going into the finish line. that was a little tough ha, but it felt great to finish! 3:51:09
today just reaffirms my anticipation for more training and the 2015 nyc marathon :) bring it!!!
worst: 3 hrs at hobo village. next yr im bringing more bubble wrap and wearing two layers of pants!
smile: emily and logan! you guys made my day with your sign. thank you so much! i cannot believe you were out there in the cold!
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