Saturday, November 19, 2011

New York City Marathon...by subway, by ferry, by bus and by foot.





3:40 finish
Marathon #6, the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 6th. I want to blog about it before I forget...as you may have noticed, it's been fairly quiet on this blog over the last month.
Not only did I travel to New York, but spent one day home before traveling to Indianapolis for the rest of the week.

LIFE HAS BEEN BUSY!

Sunday, November 6th, I woke at 4:45. I took the subway to South Ferry where I boarded the Staten Island Ferry, then took a bus to Ft. Wadsworth. I arrived at Ft. Wadsworth at about 6:30 am. The first wave of the race (blue, corral 10) didn't start until 9:40. It was a COLD & LONG wait. I found a nice little corner, ate a free bagel and sipped on some Dunkin Donuts coffee (I don't typically drink coffee...but it was warm). At around 8am, I surrendered my race bag, my cell phone and some of my warm gear to the UPS trucks who would haul it all to the finish in Central Park. I entered the corral at 8:30, sat for an hour.... then the walk to the start began. Mayor Bloomburg said a few encouraging words, the national anthem was sung, New York, New York blared thru the speakers and the canon sounded...the trek across the Verrazano bridge began...probably the ethereal moment of the race for me. Looking out over the water with the morning sun shining brightly, helicopters capturing video from above and the excitement of the next 26 miles through the five Burroughs of the city of New York with 47,000 other runners from all over the world. The weather (a perfect 50 degrees) could not have been more suitable for a marathon). I took advice from a friend and put my name on the front of my shirt and felt as though I had the whole city of New York cheering and chanting for me. I was so impressed with the spectators of this race...always 5-10 people deep the entire time, fabulous motivating and humorous signs, and the diversity that makes NYC so great. The finish was magical...the crowds make you feel like your winning the race!


This was by far my favorite marathon experience.
(and I think I'll actually run this one again)
Next up?


BOSTON


in April!

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