Post race

The area beyond the finish line is usually one of the most painful parts of the course, because it is typically overly crowded, people are stopped in the way, and you can't keep moving at the speed you want and need. My vague memory of NYC 2003 and 2004 jibes with this typical painful experience. This time around, they did a MUCH better job. Whether this is a regular occurrence now, or merely because of post-COVID adjustments, I don't know. But given that everyone was receiving the ponchos, that likely simplified the process.

In relatively short order, we got our medal handed to us, got a bag with all of the post-race food/drink (as opposed to some races that dole it out piece by piece without even the benefit of a bag to hold it in), and had the ponchos placed aroudn our shoulders. Oh, boy, are these quality. Wonderfully warm and easily secured with the velcro around the shoulders.

We continued moving out of the park at about W72nd St. It was at this point that I got extremely frustrated with the set-up. They had lots of fencing and barricades set up at every single corner going down the park through to Columbus Circle. In retrospect, I understand why they were doing it, since they were setting up security check points for spectators trying to come into the finish area, but that didn't really help with my frustration at the time. Silly me, I kept trying to go south on Central Park West (and kept getting stymied by the same set-up), rather than walking a couple of blocks west to get well outside of the perimeter to then continue south.

I took advantage of the need to continue walking post-race to walk to the hostel to pick up my bag that I left at the front desk at checkout, and then walked the few blocks up to where my car was parked. (Still amazed at the fact that onairparking.com got me a spot in Times Square for 24 hours for $20.) While getting to the outbound Queens Midtown Tunnel was tricky (given how several of the roads were blocked off, unrelated to the marathon), it only took me an hour door-to-door. Wonderful.

And the stats that finally came through for my race performance were an especially nice boost.