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:
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