Accepting modification of goals

For several years, I've attempted to get into the Abbott World Marathon Majors Age Championships. Not surprisingly, it's damn difficult -- I haven't managed it yet. And it seems like the only plausible way (at least for the next decade while there's still lots of competition) would be for me to get sub-3 times for both races. And, to date, I've only managed sub-3 once. I'm starting to think that I might not have it in me any more. I think 2023 will be the last time I actively seek sub-3 times at qualifying races. (Which also means no more "absolute" Personal Records are in the offing after 2023.) I just signed up for Mesa (where I got my only sub-3 earlier this year), I will attempt that time at Chicago, and I'll even consider signing up for Grandma's, too. (I've got a few months to go before I need to make a final decision on that one.)

Starting in 2024, I will continue to do a few of my regular races (Boston for as long as I qualify, MCM (hopefully continuing as a pacer), and NYC if I time-qualify). Beyond that, I think I will look to do more pacing, and hopefully at a variety of races (and states) I've not done before. And I definitely want to travel to international marathons more than the few I've done so far -- getting at least one of those per year would be nice.

Critiquing marathons, part 2: on-course and post-finish

Most marathons that have corrals line up their runners within the corrals right at the start line. NYC is one of the few races (along with runDisney) that pre-stages the corrals in one area and then has everyone move from that pen along a relatively brief path to get to the starting line. And in NYC's case, they have three different sets of corrals and starting lines. (London also has multiple starting lines and merges the courses, but they don't have seeded corrals like NYC, Disney, Boston, and (to an extent) Marine Corps Marathon do.) For the times that I've run NYC, it has worked quite well. And given that they not only have three different starting lines of multiple corrals, but also five separate waves, they pretty much HAVE to set it up this way, so that they can pre-stage one wave when the preceding one has been moved out to the starting line, and keep as continuous a flow as possible. NYC seems to have this system pretty well down.

Having the three distinct courses also works wonders for making sure that the roadway (both on the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge and on the early streets of Brooklyn) isn't SO overwhelmingly packed that it takes forever and a day for people to thin out enough so that you can maintain a full stride at your chosen pace and not be required to bob and weave excessively. 

Crowd control: Like many of the larger marathons, NYC is hit-and-miss with respect to properly controlling the crowd. What's necessary is for the spectators to stay on the sidewalks, not crowd into the roadway, especially in the early miles and early hours when there are large volumes of runners flowing along the course. Spectators should not be obstacles, but become exactly that when they encroach on the roadway. While I was more than willing to slap lots of high-fives during NYC this time (which is not my norm), it should be because I'm close enough to the sidewalk to take advantage of the outstretched arm, not because the people on the side of the road have decided to come 10-20 feet closer in, closing off that much real estate for runners who want to move around people in front of them. Hell, while the final 2 miles inside Central Park are exciting for everyone involved, losing that much real estate makes an already narrow spot on the course that much more difficult to handle. When I was pacing the 3:40 group for MCM the previous week, I took advantage of my pacer sign on a very long stick to dramatically and overtly motion to people who had come way too far into the roadway to move back, and get the heck out of our way.

Aid Stations: To me, these were a bit of a mixed bag for NYC this year, though I suspect that may be in part because of the heat. What did NYC get right? They had explicitly clear and very prominent signs at each stretch of table indicating what was Gatorade and what was water. They also not only color-coded the cups (green branded Gatorade cups for the Gatorade, and blue/white cups for the water), but all of the volunteers maning those tables had a corresponding poncho on (helping to protect them from the inevitable splashing): green for Gatorade, and white for water. Wonderfully clear, as opposed to some races where they don't have different color cups for each liquid, nor a consistent order of which will appear first and which second (or, even worse, possibly have them intermixed multiple times along the length of tables). What did NYC do wrong, IMO? They didn't have enough tables of cups (read: not enough volunteers handing out cups). There were multiple times where I was shut out of most of the stretch of table for water (only once where I was totally shut out). This sort of thing happens at lots of marathons, but when you have 50k runners on the course, it's pretty much expected that your aid stations will be that much longer than any of your competitor races. And given the hot conditions for the race, it was all the more expected that we would have enough water (or Gatorade) to get to at any stop. There was even one aid station where they had NO ONE handing out the water. They had volunteers present, just none that were handing off to the runners, so to get any water there required a dead stop to be more sure of getting a cup lest you inadvertently knock off a slew of cups in the effort to get one.

Additionally, according to other accounts that I read from people further back in the pack, there were multiple times when the aid stations had run out of Gatorade and/or water entirely. While it sounds like NYC actually had the liquids available on-hand, they actually ran out of cups to pour them into. So, you could fill up if you were willing to stop and had your own container, but otherwise were SOL. When you have hot conditions, you should know that tons more will be taken than in more ideal conditions. While there are lots of people, like me, who carry their own water for drinking during the race, on hot days, the water from the table is used for dousing oneself and moderating core body temperature. I started doing so from the very first aid station all the way to the last, and almost every time I was using three cups of water over my head. 

Along those same lines, insufficient garbage pails for runners to throw their cups into, or for volunteers to rake up the cups and throw them into, was also a problem. It was astounding just how many cups were strewn about. And given that so many runners don't seem to understand the basic etiquette of emptying out the water and crushing the cup prior to disposing of it (and, preferably, throwing it to the side of the road, if not into a garbage pail), that made the situation all the more tricky to navigate. (Thankfully it wasn't a cold, and therefore slick, day.)

Lemon-Lime. YUCK! Truly detestable stuff that I can't stomach at all. Fruit Punch or Cool Frost Gatorade, sure. But Lemon-Lime? Egads. But, clearly, it's popular enough, otherwise they would surely be using a different flavor. This is definitely one of those situations where I just have to "suck it up" that I don't like something. Given that I carry my own Clif Shot Bloks anyway, the Gatorade on course is of no consequence for me. Doesn't mean I can't gripe about it. :-)

Smoking: According to my parents, I have been against smoking since I was an infant. They both credit me with getting my dad to quit "cold turkey" when I was only a few months old because I refused to let him touch me given the stench of the cigarette smoke. My feelings towards cigar and pot smoking are even more strident; I loathe them. If people want to kill themselves with those products, go for it. But don't put that crap into the air that I *have* to breathe while running the course. If you want to smoke something while watching the marathon, watch on TV -- not by the side of the course, subjecting the people who need to breathe to something that is deliterious to one's ability to breathe. It's not just the smell - after all, there may be some bad food odors that I want to skirt away from - rather it's something that literally negatiely affects breathing that I object being subjected to. I know it's a pipe dream that something could be one about it (by this or any other city where any of these substances is legal), but a guy can dream, no?

Finish Line: NYC does about as well as can be done given that they have about 10 blocks' worth of space that they use for the post-finish collection of medals, ponchos, recovery bags, etc., but the biggest problem that most marathons suffer from -- including NYC -- is people stopping dead in their tracks right after they cross the finish line. MOVE, PEOPLE! There are other people behind you that would like to be able to cross the line and neither trip over nor body slam their way through another person. Just keep on walking. Even slowly moving forward is better than a dead stop in the middle of the roadway. The top elites (who don't have a pack immediately behind them) or back-of-the-packers that are in the part of the crowd that is so thinned out that there is no real risk of being in someone's way who has insufficient opportunity to weave/walk around you are really the only ones who can stop dead and not affect anyone else.

Having all of the post-race recovery items in a single bag (that you can put over your shoulder, even) is fabulous. This way, you can readily get to the item that you want without having to worry about juggling around all the other items. Disney is among the worst at this, despite conducting races for more than 30 years -- you can pick up heatsheet, a bottle of Gatorade, a bottle of water, a box filled with that year's goodies, and a banana, and are expected to be able to manage that prior to collecting your gear check bag (if you checked one) and getting it open.

On the flip side, one lesson that Disney learned several years ago that NYC seems not to have: tables at the backdrop photos. By the time you have collected your recovery items, medal(s), heathsheet or poncho, and gear check bag, you then have the opportunity to get your photo taken with the race backdrop. Several years ago (sometime after the Dopey Challenge started up in 2014) Disney finally started placing small tables right net to the backdrops where runners could place all of the aforementioned items down to not have in hand for the photo, and then easily retrieve the items to move off. NYC doesn't have that, so if you want a photo without any of that in your hands, you need to bend over to some extent to place the items on the ground, and then again to pick them up. This motion is setting up the runner - TWICE - for getting all the more lightheaded than they might otherwise be. Plus it may wind up straining other muscles that just want to creak and need some TLC & recovery time.

Having a working app that tracks the runners is always nice, and far too often seems to fail. As I understand it, NYC's worked this year (whereas MCM's crapped out utterly). And NYC has an additional feature beyond providing readouts for each timing mat the runner crosses during the race, they also have 1 or 2 of these same mats placed on the exit path -- every runner exiting will cross over at least one. This provides the family member or friend who is tracking you in the app yet one more location and time to help you know how much longer it will be before you and your runner meet up at a hopefully pre-set location.

Critiquing Marathons, part 1: Before the race

There are so many aspects of a marathon that need to come together to have a successful event. It's easy for us to pick things apart during/after the marathon, but most of us don't appreciate how difficult some of these things may actually be to accomplish. But that's not going to stop us from pointing out the problems, so that the future editions of races can hopefully benefit from the feedback and turn them into actual lessons learned. While below is specific to this year's New York City Marathon, they are hardly unique in having some of these problems. And other races very well may have yet additional problems not mentioned below.

Expo:

It's unclear to me just how much has changed over time (my first marathon was NYC 2003), how much is change of perspective (I've now finished 60 marathons, so have seen some form of expo or packet pick-up 60 times), and how much is post-COVID reaction. Back in 2003, I remember the expo being overwhelming in scope with seemingly tons of vendors. This year, it was very sedate with relatively few vendors on hand. Some of that impression may be because I likely went to the expo on Saturday back in 2003 -- with the chaos of a huge number of runners -- whereas this year I went on the first day (Thursday) during the middle of the workday, with so few people there at the time, I was done with bib and t-shirt pick-up less than 2 minutes after walking in the front door of the Jacob Javits Center. And I've been to enough expos that I know exactly what I'm looking at quickly at each of the tables to blow past most of them in short order.

Gear Check:

When I ran NYC in 2003 and 2004, I don't recall them giving ponchos out after the race. It has only been in recent years that I've seen anything about those. Pre-COVID, runners were required to make a choice: either get a poncho post-race or check a gear check bag (and do so on marathon morning). Since NYC Marathon has returned in 2021, the poncho is being provided to all finishers (nice!), and any runner choosing to do gear check is required to drop off a bag at least 1 day in advance, no more marathon morning gear check allowed. I don't understand the rationale behind no longer allowing same day gear check. And there are times when you can't realistically check items a day in advance, since you will need to continue to use them through marathon morning.

Transportation:

This is a huge logistical challenge for point-to-point marathons like New York City and Boston, where the race is responsible for getting the runners out to the start line. Boston only has buses from Boston Commons out to Hopkinton, but making sure that all the drivers know where they're going seems to be a perpetual issue. NYC has even more to handle. Not only is the field over 60% larger (50k+ versus 30k runner), but there are multiple different modes of transport at issue.

Midtown Bus: Runners gather by Bryant Park and the Midtown Library to take a coach bus direct to the runner's village at Fort Wadsworth on Staten Island. This is the method that I have always chosen. And one that has always seemed to move very smoothly. While the line snakes around a fair bit, and when there are only a small number of people in line early on it seems silly, the queue is increasingly necessary as time drags on and larger groups of people are in line.

Ferry: This one had huge problems this year, apparently. Having chosen the other option, I don't have first-hand knowledge on this one. Runners need to make their own way (likely from hotels in midtown nearer to the finish line) down to the ferry which is open to the public. Where the Midtown Bus option is only available for runners with bibs to board, anyone who wants to get onto the ferry can do so whenever they want. This potentially keeps some of the runners in Manhattan longer than they might otherwise be there. But the biggest logistical hurdle is making sure that only runners board buses which are staged at the S.I. side of the ferry to drive them the remaining several miles to the runner's village. Apparently this year there were insufficient buses/drivers, and no appreciable presence organizing the arriving runners. And lots of runners arriving well later for the ferry than the times they had originally signed up for - thereby creating a huge backlog. By the reports I've seen, it looks like there were certainly dangerous conditions. Mercifully, no one was hurt, but the stage was set where it would not have been surprising. NYRR needs to figure out how better to handle this.

Runner's Starting Village:

NYC has an enormous challenge with holding 50k runners in place in three different sections (orange, green, and blue - aligning with their respective starting corrals/lines) prior to the race kicking off across 5 successive waves. Generally speaking, in my experience of the race, they do a masterful job of this. Any critiques are minor nits that are relatively easily overcome by the runners. There is plenty for the runners, including food, water, and other goodies. My main nit was not having sufficient signage pointing out where that was located, despite having plenty of signs pointing out where the respective color-coded mini-villages were. I had plenty of time to locate it, and the Info tent knew the information to point me the right way.

There are also LOTS of porta potties throughout the village, to include inside the corrals themselves. The biggest nit on this score is that the corrals are so narrow that it's very hard to discern the line for the porta potties compared to people just standing waiting to proceed to the start line.

Marathon Day!

As always, sleep in advance of the marathon was thoroughly restless. I had to have awakened at least a dozen times before my alarm went off, even with the extra hour being given to me with the end of Daylight Saving Time. Fully prepared and out the door just before 5am. I was staying at the Americana Inn at 38th & 6th, only a few blocks south of Bryant Park, where the buses for Staten Island were loading, so it only took about 2 minutes to get into the queue. Last year, there was no appreciable line at that same hour. With the increase back to full complement of 50k+ runners, the line of people boarding was certainly much larger. It moved very well. And, ironically enough, with the way the line snaked around, about halfway back up one length of the queue, people were pulling up the rope between the lanes of the snaking line to move over, rather than walking all the way down to the back end of the lane. Anything to save walking just a little bit more. After 25 minutes, I was on the bus and underway.

Always a beautiful sight to be greeted with at sunrise on Marathon Sunday.

With the race starting for me at 9:10am, and needing to be in the corral by 8:45am, I was cooling my heels for about 2 hours. Much better than what I had to do in the hours before MCM last week, I was able to simply lie down and even take a nap for a little while. Given that the temperatures were about 65F, it was not at all bad having merely my MCM paper jacket for covering my torso. (Nope, no shirt for the run, given I'd just be asking for lots of chafing with dousing myself continually along the course with the high temps.) Finally got up at 7:40 to join the ever-growing porta potty line, and ultimately into the corral. (Would that I had realized there were really short lines for the porta potties within the corral, I'd've just gone there, since I was in Wave 1.)

Finally, after hearing the announcements in English, Spanish, French, German, and Italian (at least a couple of times), we finally get released to the starting area. Yes! It's getting real!

After the National Anthem and the usual pre-race announcements, the cannon announced our departure!

I didn't manage to grab as many photos/videos during the race as I expected I might. Basically, I limited predominantly to the various bridges saying goodbye to one borough and hello to the next.

One photo that I'm kicking myself I didn't make sure to take was of the English Bulldog that I noticed along the course around Mile 8. Oh, what a great pooch. Thankfully his owner let me pet him for a few seconds. (I should've asked for a posed picture with him.)

Meanwhile, somewhat later, I just had to pull to the side of the road to take the following video. All Disney runners know exactly why.

In the distance is the Pulaski Bridge, from Brooklyn into Queens -- the halfway point is on the bridge.

Here's the bottom of the 59th St. Bridge, from Queens into Manhattan. 

As we approached the off-ramp into Manhattan, I did what I could to capture the silence of the bridge to what I had hoped would be the road of the crowd, similar to my first NYC Marathon in 2003. I must say, like last year, I was sorely disappointed with the crowd at this point of the course.

1st Avenue was wonderful for crowd support -- much better than the turn off of the bridge.

It's a long, slow hill climb to get to the Bronx. Then a relatively quick bridge into the Bronx. While I didn't hear any Bronx Cheers, there was plenty of high-energy cheering during our brief stint through the Bronx.

And just as quickly as we entered the Bronx, we departed back down into Manhattan.

Given that I wasn't able to pull back on my pace as much as desired early on in the marathon, I was certainly hit at this point. I did some semblance of run-walk, especially once we got to the steep portion of the hill going down 5th Avenue.

Into Central Park, dealing with the excessively crowded sides of the road (get out of our way!), back out onto 59th St. (Central Park South), right at Columbus Circle, and on towards the finish line at Tavern on the Green. I managed to eke out the high end of my desired range -- 3:58:37.

At about Mile 5, I saw Spider-Man pass by (presumably the same one from the opening ceremonies), putting on his mask (I suppose after having just drunk some water), but wasn't willing to increase my speed enough to get his photo (since I was still trying to reduce my speed). I'm amazed that he was able to deal with running in this head-to-toe outfit for the entirety of the race in these conditions, and finish in about 3:50 - 3:55. Kudos, sir!

And, as is my wont once I can finally get my post-race lunch:

 

NYC Marathon Weekend, day 3

The day started off with arriving at the Marathon Maniacs photo meet-up at Columbus Circle just in time. Modest-sized group made it there.

From there, moved a little north to get into Central Park for the Opening Ceremonies' Parade of Nations. I must say, this was the most poorly organized event I've been part of.

First off: our instructions told us to go to CPW & W 69th St. Well, once we arrived there, we were advised we actually needed to go to 72nd St. Well, why not tell us this from the get-go? It's not like they didn't know that would be the case.

Then, once we arrived and were let in to the area for check-in, there were 3 sections for people to check-in -- alphabetical by first letter of country (as known in English). 

(Some of the Aussies in their outfits, waiting to check in.)

(Unbeknonwst to me at the time, this gent was the flag bearer for his home country. Gee, I wonder where he's from. :-) )

OK, so I went to the U.S. portion of things. Even though there were 5 or 6 people at each of the three sets of tables, only ONE person at each table had the list of names for people to check in, so there was no efficiency in getting multiple people through at one time. 

I took a look at the list while the lady was looking for my name. While names were properly broken down by country, there was absolutely no rhyme or reason present on the print-out for the order: it was not alphabetical by first or last name, nor by e-mail address. There was no other information for the people on the list, so finding names was much slower than it should have been.

Then, once we made our way down and were handed our now individual small flag, we stood by our designated section... immediately after the check-in tables (since we're host country, we were understandably last, after Zimbabwe). 

(Taken as we were finally under way during the parade.)

Very little space for our delegation before you get to the next flags in order. We were basically in the way for anyone else moving to earlier country sections, not least of which the UK, which also had a large contingent.

We never actually knew when the ceremonies began. They didn't pipe in any video or audio for the delegations further back. So, it was really just milling about for about 1.5 hours. The "parade" really was brief. It was maybe 3 blocks of slow walking before we got to the finish line, which was where the delegations were all introduced. 

(Here's a quick view of the vicinity after the coverage finished, before the fireworks started)

Disappointingly enough, even though the intended audience for the fireworks was the group of hundreds  of runners participating in the parade itself, the fireworks were obscured by the trees. Come on!

After a couple of minutes, I decided to leave before the fireworks ended, so I could actually get properly underway to meet up with friends for dinner. Interestingly enough, I had a better view right after I got outside the parade perimeter.

The night finished with dinner with a couple of local friends at Mom's, down in Hell's Kitchen. Interesting place, eclectic menu to handle various tastes. A little loud, but nothing too bad. And the food was quite tasty. 

Chicken & waffles with bacon, maple syrup / honey / bechamel sauce on the side. Mmm...

Time is getting close. Saturday is one more Broadway show, meeting up with mym mom (and her friends) for dinner, and then back to the hotel to prep for the big day!

Expo! Pastrami. Potter! Cheesecake.

Thursday afternoon was my chosen timeframe for picking up my bib. It was nice and easy getting into the city on LIRR and getting out of Moynihan Station/Penn Station at 9th Ave. (not used to being in the station for that extra block -- neat). After wolfing down a quick hot dog upon emerging from the station, it was only a couple of blocks to get to the expo.

No lines whatsoever to get into the expo, nor anyone checking any paperwork to get in. The only time that we needed to show the confirmation form (and ID) was when actually picking up our bibs. Again, I was there early enough (2pm) where there were zero lines to get the bib and then to get the t-shirt.

Amusingly enough, when I found my name on the wall of the 50k+ runners, I found my brother's name, too. No, he's not running. One of his name dopplegangers is. Too funny.

Surprisingly enough, there really isn't anything else in the "packet". And the number of vendors in the venue is ridiculously small for the largest marathon field size in the world. I wound up buying a few sheddable shells, even though I surely won't need them this Sunday -- given 60F+ temps.

From there, it was off to Central Park to take a quick gander at the finish line to find out how my mom needs to get into the grandstands. After taking some photos, and finding out the method for getting to the right side of the finish line area (which she won't be doing anyway), it was off to late lunch/early dinner -- all the way on the upper east side. I decided to walk through the park (since it was still daylight) rather than exit onto Central Park South/59th St.

Amid the meandering paths of the park, I came across the memorial to Balto:

En route, I passed by one residence that sure got into the Halloween spirit and hasn't yet taken down their decorations. My photos surely didn't do it justice.

Several miles later, I finally arrived up at Pastrami Queen at Lexington & 78th. Boy, did I feel like a traitor walking in the door there. Katz's is my go-to pastrami place. But I had been convinced to at least give this place a try. Very small, hole-in-the-wall with seating for about 10 people total. 

Pastrami was tasty, and the rye bread was certainly better than Katz's (both flavor and the fact that it actually held up to the normal greasiness of the meat). Totally passable place to get hot pastrami if you're in the vicinity. However, there is zero vibe here. (And they're both comparably expensive.) Katz's is still #1 for me.

Then it was off to Broadway. I had tickets to go see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Definitely carried the theming pretty well inside the lobby area, too, and subtly provided a spoiler for what was to come later.

The show itself? Mixed bag. Originally a 5-hour 2-day tour-de-force, it was converted into a 3.5 hour (with intermission) 1-day performance. It felt VERY rushed, like a lot of material to get us familiar/comfortable with the characters was chopped. The vast majority of the Hogwarts students were barely seen -- the only ones we have any connection with are Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy. Even Rose Granger Weasley is barely heard from after the initial scenes introducing those three characters.

Once we get to the point of the story where the timeturner is employed, the logic of the characters' plans makes no sense whatsoever. And Scorpius Malfoy's voice? UGH! Worse than Jerry Lewis saying "Hey, LADY!!!" And, unfortunately, far too often things appeared needlessly melodramatic.

The effects were certainly impressive, especially the one they used to indicate they have moved through time. But that really didn't make up for the many lacking parts of the show. Much as I would like to say I liked the show, I can't quite get there.

Finally, after the show finished and as I waited for the car to pick me up and drive me back to my mom's place, I swung by Junior's to pick up a slice of cheesecake. Mmm... it's always good. But I suspect I'll only get it again at some of the restaurants down by me in Virginia that import it -- it cost me nearly twice as much up here than I had to pay the last time I got some near me.

Next up... the Parade of Nations and Opening Ceremony!

Gorgeous but bad forecast

The forecast for the next several days looks gorgeous. But that's really from a spectator's perspective, not a marathoner's.

Staten Island (home to the start line):

            

Manhattan (home to the finish line):

So, it will be about 60F when I walk out the door from the hotel in Manhattan to catch the bus to Staten Island. By the time the race starts several hours later, odds are good that temps will have risen into the mid-60s, at least. That is HOT for the starting temperature of a marathon. By the time I finish, it will have gotten past 70F. I'm glad I wasn't planning on running this for a particular time -- there's no way I would likely be able to do a great time in such temperatures. So, it's all about enjoying the race. (Hmmm... maybe I should actually consider taking my camera. I've only done that during Disney races and at Big Sur this year.)

Lord knows, if this holds, no need for the foil and no freezing while cooling my heels in Fort Totten. Heck, given that I know I'll be dousing myself with water at every aid stop, I may well not bother wearing my singlet.

Time for New York!

Once again, I am trekking up to New York for the marathon. I intend to make this one of my regulars for as long as I time-qualify, just like Boston. I am looking forward to everything being back 100% -- a full field of 50k+ runners, and the largest crowd of spectators at any marathon cheering us along the whole time.

This time around, I will be doing a lot more touristy stuff compared to last year. This time around, I'm actually managing to go to two Broadway show, will be participating in the Opening Ceremony Parade of Nations, and stick around in the city after the marathon to attend the after party (so long as I am physically up for it).

It's now time to finish up my laundry so I can pack my bags to load into the car tomorrow.