NYC Marathon 2011

When I knew that I was coming to New York for school one of the first things I was excited about was the potential of running the marathon here. Unfortunately, you have to enter a lottery which you have a low chance of winning. After 2 years of applying unsuccessfuly I joined the New York Road Runner running club and ran 9qualifying races starting in February 2010 in order to get a guaranteed spot in the marathon. Fast forward over a year and a half later, past my nine races, the birth of our first kid, a lot of training and there I was, about to run the 2011 NYC marathon. My dad, brother, and sister-in-law came out to run as well. Actually my whole family came out to either run or watch the race.

We had to be at the start area on Staten Island by 7:30am even though my start time wasn't until 10:10am. There are three seperate starting areas and start lines because two of the groups run on the top of the Verrazano Bridge and the third group is on the bottom level. There were 47,000 runners so the start areas were full of port-a-pottys.

My dad ran with a camera and took pictures throughout the race. This is at the starting line

After crossing the bridge the course runs through Brooklyn. This the first time where you see some of the 2 million plus spectators. Kate and I went down to watch the marathon last year and noticed that some runners had their names on their shirts which made it fun to cheer for individule runners. Shortly after I came off the Verrezano I was confused and had to turn back when someone called out my name; I'd forgotten that I had put my name on my shirt. It was fun. For the rest of the race whenever I needed a little pick-me-up I would run closer to the side for some spectator to cheer me on. At one point one of the other runners that I had been running close to for a couple of miles turned around and said to me "I'm going to pretend that my name is Jason".

There was a steady line of spectators all along the course.

Water stations every mile. Don't worry all of those cups were made from recycled products

After running through Brooklyn you cross into Queens. It was interesting to experience some of the different feelings of the neighborhoods. From main streets with small local stores to tree lined Brownstone neighborhoods. From Queens you cross the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. No spectators on the bridge meant it was quiet as you gained elevation going across the bridge, but just as you hit Manhattan you are hit by a wall of noise from the fans that seemed to be 5-6 people deep as you ran up 1st ave.

Some of the fans. We'd set up two places where they were going to be so they could take pictures. Even though my legs felt like they were going to explode as I came closer to both locations I forced myself to keep running so I wasn't walking as I passed them. The only problem was they were not at either spot but were somewhere else altogether.

You run up 1st ave. all the way up the island of Manhattan and cross into the Bronx only to turn around back into Manhattan and down 5th ave along the edge of Central Park.

Bridget was more excited about these balloons than the runners.

I don't know what he's wearing under that coat.

I'd sort of given up on seeing my family on the run, so I was surprised when I spotted them and relieved that I was running at that point. They were just inside Central Park within the last 2 miles.

Learning from experiences from my last marathon I knew that there would come a point where I would start to ask myself if the pain in my legs, the tightness in my quads and calves, and the fatigue was really worth continuing. Because I'd let myself ease off in past runs and having later been disappointed in my results, and also that I'd prepared for so long, I was able to mentally push myself past that point.

I did finish a bit slower than I wanted to, but I was still happy with my 3:45:39 finish.

We all met up after. It was so much fun, worth all of the training and waiting. The combination of the fans, the number of runners, and all with New York City as a backdrop made for an unbelievable experience.