New York Marathon

Ok, so this is definitely not coffee-related, but I thought I would blog on my experence in NYC this past weekend.

I had the privilege of running in my second New York marathon on Sunday (seventh marathon overall). And it was an amazing experience. First off, I am an unabashed New York lover. I lived there from 1994-97, and for me it's always fun to go back. But no matter how you feel about New York and New Yorkers, the city really understands how to pull off a world class event, and the marathon is no exception. Everything about this event was expertly orchestrated, from the Expo, to the shuttles to the start, to the starting "village", to the aid stations, to the water stops. Of the 38,000 runners, almost half were international, so they had everything organized in multiple languages even. Really impressive.

As for this particular day, it was a picture perfect day for a marathon. It was 52 and sunny at the start and about 58 and cloudy by the time of the finish. Not too hot, not too cold, just right! I took the Staten Island ferry to the start and saw Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty on my way there. Then my shuttle bus took me to the Start Village at Fort Wadsworth, where I met up with my buddy Greg. Greg and I crossed the start line about 6 minutes after the gun--not bad for 38,000 people. The crowd was pretty thick as our adrenaline pulled us up the Verazzano Bridge along with our thousands of new friends. Man, everyone was just buzzing as we crossed the bridge--the weather was perfect, the bridge itself is stunning, and the views were awesome. We came back down into Brooklyn and that's where the real fun began.

Thanks in part to the weather, the crowds were in full force. And these are crowds like I've never experienced anywhere else--it's not even close--they are along almost the entire course, and they are loud and rambunctious throughout. Sunday was Greg's birthday, and he was smart and had a shirt printed that said "Happy 48th Birthday Greg" (I, of course, was not so smart and didn't have my name printed anywhere, but oh well). From the get-go, the crowd was in love with Greg. He didn't just get a cheer here and there, it was non-stop! You would have thought these were his life-long friends or that he'd paid them to cheer him, but men, women and children all yelled out birthday wishes. And Greg just about wore himself out yelling back thank-you's. It was priceless! And of course it put a big spring in his step, so we were moving right along. It was just fantastic. Miles 3-13 are in Brooklyn, and you really see and feel the changes as you move from neighborhood to neighborhood, from predominantly Hispanic, to predom. Greek, to predom. African-American, to predom Hasidic Jewish. But all were vocal. After 2 quick miles in Queens, we crossed the Queensborough Bridge into Manhattan.

Greg and I got separated around mile 16, which is too bad because mile 16 is where you cross into Manhattan, and I really would have loved to hear the crowd's reaction to him on 1st Avenue. But anyway, they were rampant, and I was feeling good. Generally speaking when I'm feeling good I feed off the crowd, and when I'm feeling bad, they drive me nuts. That day, I felt great, so I they really gave me an awesome lift. About 8 miles later, I had crossed into the Bronx and back into Manhattan. Soon I was running along Central Park. Around mile 23 is a hill that gives the Broadway stretch of the Hospital Hill Half-Marathon in KC a run for its money, but I made it up that and into the park, where the crowd gets thicker and louder and rowdier. At Mile 24, I passed the 3:30 pacer and I didn't look back. I shattered my old PR and finished in 3:28:25. And for the first time ever I did a negative split--my second 1/2 marathon was 1 minute faster than my first!

An awesome day! YES!