New York Marathon - 2009

The gloomy forecast leading into the 40th running of the New York Marathon did not materialize on Sunday morning, only had a few sprinkles as Pat and I met on W51st at 6:30 to begin our journey to the Staten Island Ferry. An hour later we were cruising by the Statue of Liberty on our way to the starting line.


Thankfully the sprinkles stopped before our boat and bus ride ended because the next half hour or so was the long slow shuffle to the staring village. On one side our path was lined with Portable toilets and the other side filled with buses. The stink from either the chemical toilets or diesel fumes is usually enough to make me nauseous but on marathon morning it didn’t bother me. Once in the starting area we had a few more hours of waiting before our wave would hit the streets for a 26.2 mile trot.

Four hours after leaving the hotel it was finally time to begin. We made our way into the corral and hiked a quarter mile or so to start running over the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn .

We planned a nice easy pace so I was a little fidgety at the start and took several photos while on the bridge.



Surprisingly the race with about 42,000 runners was not as tight as I expected so we moved along pretty good sticking to our planned pace during the first HALF but as we left Brooklyn and ran into Queens the congestion was a little more noticeable.


After a few congested miles we crossed the bridge into Manhattan where the long stretch up 1st Avenue appeared to give us plenty of room to maneuver but instead our bodies decided to slow down. The later miles of the race was more of a jog between walking breaks but after mile 24 we picked it up and ran to the finish. Although NYC was by far my slowest marathon it was a lot more fun hitting each timing mat with a partner. Along the way Pat mentioned more than once that she'd once she finished the marathon she could cross it off her list and never have to go the distance again. Two days later when she was back in Florida she mailed me a copy of her confirmation for the NYC Marathon Lottery in 2010...