Larchmont Hotel, NY - November 7, 2010 - coming to you from the Larchmont Hotel, which Larry can take full credit for (bathrooms down the hall) in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. It's actually a nice place, clean, good location, and down the street from our favorite French Bistro, "French Roast" where I have had way too much onion soup. The New York Marathon is really well organized, you check in at the expo to pick up the race packet, its organized by three color zones, I was blue, then organized by your "corral" number, so things were very easy to find. They gave us clear UPS bags, which we would put our label on and use to drop off clothes on race morning. The expo had a huge selection of really good quality running things, anything a runner could want. The marathon t-shirt was very nice, a "dri-fit" type material with a nice design, that can be actually used for running, as opposed to the usual cotton shirt. Race day starts with a subway ride at 5:45 am to Whitehall Station which takes you to the Staten Island Ferry. I arrived well before the 6:30 am scheduled Ferry ride to Staten Island. On the suway ride I met a guy from the Slavic Republic, talked awhile about his long travel to NYC for the marathon. Everyone's UPS bag was marked with their label, identifying where they came from, it is truly amazing how international the NYC marathon is. In the Ferry building, I was surrounded by runners from every country you could imagine. At 6:35 am we piled into the Ferry and were taken to Staten Island, where a long line of busses were waiting, they loaded us quickly, and took us to Ft. Wadsworth. You quickly walked in and followed the signs to your color zone, to find a very organized line of porta potties, food section, and the UPS trucks for your bag drop off. I don't recommend this, but the day before the marathon I had a huge corned beef sandwich at Katz's deli at around 3pm, then around 9pm had pasta and sorbet at "French Roast". So, needless to say, I did not eat anything on marathon morning, despite the long wait between my 5:45 am hotel departure and my 10:10 am marathon start time.
They called us into our "corral" at 9:15, though I did not go until around 9:40. I hung out with two guys from the Netherlands, discussing how this was not our first marathon, and that getting to the start area "on time" was way overrated. We did our final race preparations, gulping down yummy energizer "gel" and water, applying liberal amounts of Vaseline, then dropping off our clothing bags at the UPS trucks, then got to our starting corrals in plenty of time. The start was really amazing, the Verranzano Bridge is about 2 miles long, and loaded edge to edge with runners, and fire boats on the water below shooting up streams of water to celebrate the start. Temperature while waiting for the run to start was around 39 degrees, but it warmed up to around 44 by the start of the race, I started with a long sleeve running shirt and had a short sleeve shirt over it, and running shorts, but by mile 3 it warmed up some more and I took off the long sleeve shirt and carried it and ran in short sleeves and shorts. I think it "warmed" up to around 52 by noon. Perfect running weather.
The problem with the NYC Marathon is how crowded it is. The best thing about the NYC Marathon is how crowded it is! In most races, after 2 miles or so, things spread out and you can run your race. The NYC Marathon seemed crowded all 26.2 miles, to where you had at times to pick spots to get around other runners in order to pass . . . so it was hard to get into any kind of rhythm. On the other hand, it was fun having so many runners, and they organize the runners start times and areas so you are running for the most part with people with similar estimated finish times as you. And the crowdes that come out to watch the race were incredible, almost the entire 26.2 miles were filled with cheering fans who were loud, enthusiastic, had lots of signs and really lifted your spirits while running. I was wearing a shirt that said "Cal Football" and at around mile 18 there was a couple that had a huge "Cal" blue and gold banner. "Go Bears" were properly exchanged and that was a nice lift.
This is the first marathon I ran fully loaded with Hammer Nutrition products, had a mix of Hammer Gel and HEED, extra concentrated, figuring I would wash it down with water handed out along the marathon course. I also took a lot of Electrolyte tablets from Hammer Nutrition, 30 minutes before the start, then at mile 6, 12 and 18, and for the first time, I had absolutely no cramps during the marathon!! I was ecstatic. The bad news was that I was slow, I just had a hard time getting any rhythm going with the crowds, though I felt I had good energy with the Gel and HEED combination. My half marathon time was 1:55 which wasn't too bad, but by mile 16 I was feeling really tired. My personal best is a 3:48 and I knew I had to have a fast 2nd half in order to get close to that, but by mile 16 I knew that was not going to happen. By mile 16 I was running 9:45 miles, which is way too slow to be able to finish under 4 hours, my other goal if I could not get a personal best. By mile 18 I pretty much gave up on running under 4 hours, I just figured I would enjoy the race. It was fun paying attention to the different crowds. In lower Brooklyn the crowds were very energetic, several bands playing along 4th Avenue, very lively and upbeat. After running along Flatbush Avenue and Lafayette Street, we hit upper Brooklyn which was quite different, still lots of crowds, but that seemed to be more of a blue collar area, more rap bands than rock and roll. Crossing the Queensborough Bridge from Brooklyn back into Manhattan was eerie, it was for the first time in the race very quiet, you could just hear the echo of runners footsteps along the metal bridge floor, then after a mile of this silence you could start to hear the screaming of the crowds ahead as you approached 1st Avenue along Central Park in Manhattan, where the crowds were enormous. That was really quite a lift, and really fun.
This part of Manhattan was around mile 16, and by the time we had run past the Central Park area, through Harlem, and into the Bronx, this was around mile 20, I was just enjoying the run and not too upset that I would not finish under 4 hours. I did manage to get in some 8:45 and 8:55 minute miles, so I figured I would keep up a strong effort, not give up, and see what happened.
We left the Bronx, and ran down 5th Avenue back along the edge of Central Park, and that's when a bit of magic happened at around mile 23. Pam and I had a spot worked out to meet at mile 23. We also had selected meeting spots for miles 8 and 18, but due to crowds, we could not find each other. At mile 23, I slowed down, and there she was, with her new purple hat that she had bought the day before near Central Park. I was feeling like I had plenty of Hammer Gel in me, so I tore off my running belt, and tossed that and my extra shirt to her, yelled "I love you" thru the crowd, she returned the yell, everyone said "awwww", and then I took off. Without the weight and pressure of the belt around my waist with the remaining gel, and without carrying the extra shirt, and having connected with Pam, I felt completely rejuvenated. I picked my way thru the slowing runners, and was just flying, the pain was gone, the fatigue was gone, and I just wanted to run. Mile 24 was approaching and looking at my watch I realized I could still break 4 hours!! I ran 8:25 and 8:30 minute miles those last two miles, and I hung in there for the last 1.2 miles and finished at 3:57:45. I was thrilled and felt extremely proud to have finished so strong. I limped along with the other runners along the long road where they gave us our finisher's medal, goodie packs, a NY Apple, wrapped us in the space blanket so we would stay warm, and picked up our UPS clotes bags. Ithrew on some tights and a jacket, then walked about a mile to "Barney Greengrass The Sturgeon King" deli on Amsterdam between 36th and 37th Street, where Pam and I planned to meet after the race. She was there waiting and the deli staff smiled as we hugged, then they sat us at a nice table and we had yummy Matzoh Brei and Latkas (really!!). I think I learned three things from the last 4 miles of the race. First, the Hammer products had left me with a tremendous amount of fuel to be able to finish strong, I did not run out of gas. Second, I need to re-think carrying the fuel belt, I think the concentrated Gel and HEED misture, and washing it down with water, would have been plenty, and I could just carry one small bottle of the stuff rather than use the waist belt. Third, it really helps to have a loved one cheer you on near the end of the race for motivation.
This is my last marathon, way too difficult for my heavy cyclist body. I'll stick to 10 mile trail runs, a few half marathons now and then, and mostly do my cycling that I love. Of course, I said the same thing after my last marathon, so we'll see. Cheers. Keith
New York City Marathon 2010
Completed my 4th Marathon on November 7th, 2010, the New York City Marathon. After applying for an entry 3 consecutive years, I finally got in, and had a great experience. My race report is below.
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