Finish Line

What a day for a marathon!

Woke up at 3am (still on Africa time), to make my 5:45am appointed travel on the Staten Island ferry. Had time for a quick bite to eat, kissed wifey good-bye and hit the NYC subway. Temp was a bone cold (for me) 38f, with winds in the 10 – 15mph range, out of the north.

After a 90 minute commute to the starting spot on Staten Island, it’s sit around and wait for the 9:45am start. That’s a long time to sit around, especially with the cool temps and wind. Luckily, I found a spot inside one of the tents. I sat there and zoned out waiting to get called to the starting corals.

Pre-race grumpy - and freezing my butt off!

Pre-race holding tent - able to hold about 20% of the runners

The race starts with a 2 mile climb over the Verrazano Bridge into Brooklyn. Beautiful views of the New York harbor, if you bother to look and enjoy. The wind was whistling up there pretty strong – it was cold! The rest of the race takes you through the 5 boroughs of New York. From the New York Road Runners website:

The first New York City Marathon, in 1970, was four-plus laps of Central Park. In 1976, in celebration of the U.S. bicentennial, NYRR moved the marathon to the streets of New York’s five boroughs: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan. The course united dozens of culturally and ethnically diverse neighborhoods, crossed five bridges, and finished at Tavern on the Green in world-famous Central Park. The course continues to challenge thousands of athletes every year and has become a model for big-city marathon courses around the world.

It’s a great way to see NYC. The crowds are awesome the whole way. You get to the Bronx about mile 20. Many are tempted to stop, but when they see the crowd of locals cheering them on, they keep going, From the Bronx you head over to Harlem. Nicely gentrifying. Wish I would’ve bought property there in the 1980’s. Once you clear Harlem, is a tough slug down the east side of Central Park. By this time, the race is at the trudging stage, but the crowds won’t let you stop. Wall-to-wall cheering, 5 people deep it is awesome.

Eventually you tuck into Central Park, running to the southern end before making a U-turn and heading north for about a 1/2 mile for the finish line.

I ended up running a bit slower than I wanted / expected. The first half of the run I concentrated on keeping my HR below 150, letting things pick up till I got to mile 22, then see if I had any fire left for the finish. My thinking was that by doing this, I would save myself from the dread BONK that occurs to me in the last 4 miles (massive cramps).

Plan worked well, except I had no fire left for the finish. So I resigned my self to just keep a steady, albeit slow, pace to the finish. I never stopped (except for water stations), never cramped (Hurrah!) and generally felt good the whole way. Suspect that the travel and strange diet over the last couple days doesn’t help things.

I also think the course is not so easy. Several fairly serious long rises. And a steady amount of long rolling ups and down. Don’t you believe that NYC is flat as a pancake. I don’t think the course is as tough as Boston, but it’s certainly more difficult than TC Bayshore.

Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Runner No.

First Name

Last Name

Age

Team

State/ Country

Finish Time

5 km

10 km

15 km

20 km

13.1 mi

25 km

30 km

35 km

40 km

Minutes per Mile

19474

14828

559

21375

JOHN

MURRAY

55M

NGR

04:13:32

00:27:38

00:55:43

01:24:45

01:53:59

02:00:30

02:24:20

02:54:39

03:26:40

03:59:21

09:41

My Nigerian running babe Uche had a great day. She qualified for Boston. I’m going to need to train with her if I expect to pick up my times!

 

Nigerian Running Star - Uche

 

Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Runner No.

First Name

Last Name

Age

Team

State/ Country

Finish Time

5 km

10 km

15 km

20 km

13.1 mi

25 km

30 km

35 km

40 km

Minutes per Mile

6549

963

233

20110

UCHE

ORIZU

32F

TX

NGR

03:36:46

00:24:45

00:48:38

01:12:40

01:37:05

01:42:32

02:02:42

02:27:57

02:55:33

03:24:09

08:17

I felt pretty decent after the race. Wifey met me at Columbus Circle, where we took a bike taxi back to the hotel. Hot bath and a quick nap and I was ready to roll into the evening.

We had dinner with Aboucar and Sylvi, from the Ivory Coast. Abou is  an IT colleague I met through work. He works in Abidjan for one of our sister companies. Dual national, his family lives in NJ and he commutes back and forth. Sort of like me. We went to a nice Malaysian restaurant in China town. Pigged out – then went back to the hotel and conked out!

 

Abou and Sylvi - friends from Cote d'Ivoire