This is another marathon blog penned by Geoffrey. Please contact me if you are interested in knowing more about anything related to this Marathon event.
This was my 2nd New York marathon after a disappointing result 3 years earlier. However, with that experience under my belt I was motivated to not make the mistakes this time round.
We had arrived in new York after spending 4 days in both Seattle and Chicago.
It was great to catch up with Cousin Janice who works in New York and she promised to look out for me on the course. Also, with Elleysen’s friends Sumei & Kevin who lived in Queens. We ran the 5k fun run on the Saturday with their young son Maximillian
After Boston, New York is probably one that most marathoners aspire to tick off their bucket list. So, to be able to run the event twice through the lottery ballot was exceptionally lucky!
2014 was the 44th running of the event and with over 50,000 starters it was the largest ever. As you would expect it’s super crowded from start to finish although the course is wide enough so you can go for a good time if the legs are fit enough to climb the bridges. It’s incredibly noisy – New Yorkers support the event like no other. There are an estimated 2 million supporters and loud entertainment all along the route. There are also thousands of volunteers and support services along the course. It’s a marathon on a scale like no other and because of this – it is logistically the most complicated. It’s a big effort just to get to the start line at Staten Island. My wave start time was a late 10:30am but I still needed to be up by 5am to have breakfast, get the subway to the prebooked Staten ferry at the bottom of Manhattan, join the long queue at the other end for the bus ride to the start, go through security, and then finally find my way to my waiting area.
It’s just as complicated at the finish line in Central Park. You’re tired and it’s starting to get cold – it took me 90 minutes after I’d finished to pick up my bag and to exit the park in the totally opposite direction to where I wanted to go. I then had to negotiate the road closures to get to my meeting point with Elleysen.
Luckily the weather was dry. It would have been a miserable experience had it rained.
The run itself went very well. It was quite windy and the temperature not too warm. I’d predicted a time of 4hrs 19min to Janice the night before at dinner and I came in exactly at that time with a 2 minute negative split. My race plan was just about spot on. There was some concern at the 39km mark in the rolling rises of Central Park when I felt the first calf twitches, but thankfully I was able to nurse them home without losing any time. (Unlike 3 years earlier where the calves totally locked up at only 21kms!!)
It was the also first time that I used a smartwatch – a Garmin Forerunner 220 which I’d bought just a couple of says earlier in Chicago. Wearing it was very motivating although I didn’t get the setup quite right and I was having to convert miles to kilometers for the whole race!
Verdict: Yes – New York is an absolute must-do. But it takes a lot of planning, a lot time and of course a bit of luck. It’s also expensive. But a marathon experience like no other.
