Running the New York Marathon
Running the New York Marathon as my first ever marathon was an awesome experience. If you’re thinking about taking on the Big Apple, here’s some insider information that’ll help you get quickly acquainted with this magnificent event.
“You did WHAT???”
Or something along those lines.
That’s what my wife said when I told her that not only had I put in a ballot application for the New York marathon, I’d actually been successful. I would be one of the 53,636 people running 26.2 miles through all 5 boroughs of the Big Apple in 2019.
It would also be my first marathon.
And my first race overseas.
And if you’re thinking about taking on the New York Marathon, maybe my story will help you make up your mind. Here’s how my race unfolded.
Before You Even Get There
Download the TCS New York City Marathon app.
It’s the best and most mobile-friendly way of finding out what you need to know and saves having to trawl through old emails or carry print-outs around with you. As race apps go this is one of the better ones, and actually has a load of functionality built into it so you really won’t need anything else.
The app is also great for others to track your progress, they can search and add you as one of My Runners. They’ll then get regular updates throughout the race showing your distance and pace. And after the race, all your statistics, charts, photos and maps are in one place with some really cool data given, such as your relative effort over each mile.
Some time over the summer, you’ll be asked to select a method of transport to get to the Start Village on Staten Island, as well as whether you’ll be shipping a bag to the finish line or claiming a free poncho at the end. If you’ve got the app, you can do it all through there.
The Thronging Bib Pick-up
The organisers don’t post out your race bib so you need to pick it up prior to Race Day.
The Javits Centre has been used for bib pick-up for many years, and it’s just a few minutes walk from Hudson Yards/ 34th Street subway station (Subway Line 7). You can also get there via a brisk 12 minute walk from 34th Street/ Penn Station. However, do plan to spend two or more hours there, as I found out when strolling in around 10:30 on the Friday before the race.
There were literally thousands of people waiting to be let into the Race Expo, the place had just opened and it looked like I was in for a long wait. As I’d made lunch plans, I had to ditch the bib pick-up plan and return on the Saturday morning… which was surprisingly a lot less busy.
There was still a wait to be let in, around 10 minutes, but once inside there was no queue to pick-up my bib and everything else flowed smoothly.
You also get to pick-up your race finisher’s shirt at this time, and there’re sample shirts to try on for size before you choose your fitting (which come in men’s and women’s styles, and up to XXXL!).
There’s a lot of course information and a massive New Balance shop to drain your bank account in, and then an even larger exhibition area with sponsors and other organisations with stalls, goodie bags and more products to buy.
There was a nice touch at the tills when buying gear from New Balance, where they ask if it’s your first marathon. When the answer’s “yes” — as it was with me — the staff shout out “WE GOT A FIRST TIMER HERE, WOOOHOOOO!!!” and the whole place joins in celebrating you. It was mildly embarrassing but a very nice touch.
Staten Island Ferry
There’re multiple ways to get to the start of the New York Marathon but probably the most common is to take the ferry to Staten Island. You’ll be asked to choose a ferry departure time in advance, which for my starting pen (Wave 1, Pen F) gave me a choice of 05:30, 05:45 or 06:00 departure times.
I arrived early for my 05:45 departure at Whitehall Terminal and found a seat in the spacious and warm departure area. As it hit 05:25 the marshals told everybody that they could take any ferry, and that the first boat was leaving soon. Eager to get to the start, I jumped up and boarded the earlier ferry.
This, as I discovered about an hour later, was a mistake.
The Staten Island Ferry departure area was warm and I had a seat.
The ferry itself was also warm, and I got a seat.
The shuttle bus on Staten Island to Race Village was extremely warm (and I also got a seat).
However, Fort Wadsworth, where the race starts, is a massive open air military base outside in the cold (6C at 07:00) with nowhere to sit!
So if I were to do the race again, I’d make sure I was on the last ferry out of Manhattan to minimise the amount of time spent outside.
Fort Wadsworth Start Village
After a brief security check, you’re let into Fort Wadsworth. Runners are split into different waves — organised by colour — and each colour has a different designated Start Village. That said, you’re free to walk around and mingle in any Start Village, which is great because killing 3 hours in the cold when you can’t really run to warm yourself up gets a little tedious staying in the same place.
I was in the Green Wave, and while that Start Village was fine (it got the first rays of sun as it came up over the Verranazzo Narrows) it was the Orange Wave Start Village where all the action was at.
Here you could grab bananas, water and take full advantage of Dunkin’ Donuts’ hospitality with the free bagels, hot coffee and beanie hats they were handing out (which was a godsend!).
Very frankly, the Start Village wasn’t pleasant. A 3-hour wait anywhere is bad enough, but in the cold, with little to do and a building sense of being ‘ner-cited’ (nervously excited!) it wasn’t great. Perhaps I’d take more clothing to keep warm if I do the New York Marathon again, or use the bag shipping service so I can wrap up in good gear and have it waiting for me at the end of the race, but unless I’m doing the race with someone I know that wait is still likely to be frustrating.
On Your Marks…
Depending upon your wave, you’ll either go over the top of the Verrazzano Bridge or underneath it. The build-up to gun time is incredible, and as soon as you start moving forward towards the starting line the atmosphere picks up and you forget about the cold boredom of the past 3-hours.
It’s now time!
After some motivating tunes and a rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, you’re off. And man what a start to a race it is!
You’re straight over the Verranazzo Bridge and thankfully don’t need to run up the major part of the incline to get there. Being my first marathon what struck me was how slow the start seemed (but I guess 26.2 miles is a rather long way!) but what amazed me was how people stopped to take photos running over the bridge… and honestly I was very tempted too.
You’re serenaded by an NYPD helicopter fly-by, which when framed with the bridge above and below and the Manhattan backdrop in the distance looks like something out of an action film. The FDNY also get in on the act, with a boat spraying red-white-blue coloured water into the air that also distils into an amazing rainbow as the droplets hit the morning sun.
As the start of a race goes, it’s hard to beat!
Looking back at my tracking data I did run that first mile over the bridge far too fast. While it felt slow, my Garmin was going crazy saying my pace was 12–13 minutes per mile, which I knew wasn’t right, but with the adrenaline coursing through me I ended up doing that first mile around 7 minutes per mile, which was 1 minute per mile faster than my goal pace. Thankfully my Garmin recovered once I got off the bridge and into Brooklyn, where I could then slow down and hit my stride.
It’s Brooklyn, baby!
Turning the corner into Brooklyn the crowds start to swell until both sides of the road were lined with thousands of cheering supporters. Lots of kids to high-five, great energy from the crowd, it’s 7+ miles of wall-to-wall whooping, clapping and encouragement and for me was probably the highlight of the race.
I chose not to run with headphones and I’m glad I didn’t as the atmosphere was electrifying. Plus, it’s always good to stay on the right side of the locals — I overheard this conversation about Mile 5 when a guy tapped another runner on the shoulder who was wearing headphones:
Man 1: “What you listening to, buddy?”
Man 2: “Huh?”
Man 1: “I said, what ya listening to?”
Man 2: “Oh, nothing recent.”
Man 1: “THEN TAKE THOSE DAMNED THINGS OUT OF YOUR EARS AND LISTEN TO THIS!” [gesturing at the crowd]
And it went on, with a final exchange:
Man 2: “So where you from?”
Man 1: “I’M FROM BROOKLYN, BABY!”
Says it all.
Over the bridge and into Queens
I must admit I was a little hazy as to when Brooklyn turned into Queens but you’re into Borough №3 once you cross the Pulaski Bridge. The course seems to narrow at this point and the support — which is still buzzing — gets very close. There’re a few 90 degree turns in there too, which up until this point you haven’t seen too many of.
Once you pass through Queens you’re over halfway, and I was feeling great at this point and through Mile 15 when I crossed over the Queensboro Bridge and into Manhattan. The bridge is a fairly straightforward incline although there is a tricky 270 degree twist when you come down the other side, which coupled with the decline, did hit my legs a little hard.
1st Avenue, Manhattan
Into Manhattan and it’s a long 4-mile run up 1st Avenue towards The Bronx. This is where I first started to feel my legs and hips fatiguing, as the skyscrapers blocked out a lot of the sun making it feel cold for the first time since the starting gun.
While the race supporters were still out in their thousands, and vocal, the wide roads of Manhattan coupled with the safety barriers holding spectators back made it feel very different from the laid-back, ‘stay-behind-the-police-tape-if-you-want’ attitude of Brooklyn. I felt more distance from the crowd.
I had a friend waiting to high-five me at Mile-17, which kept me focused and ploughing through, although my motivation did start to dip as I neared Willis Avenue Bridge and the 1-mile excursion into The Bronx. The incline of the bridge was tough at this point, and people started to drop by the wayside to massage out cram or simply take a breather.
Hey you! Get the Hell out of The Bronx!
Getting over Willis Avenue Bridge and into The Bronx was a massive relief, and such a change in atmosphere. For some reason, crowds in The Bronx had a reputation for being the most subdued, but on this race day that certainly wasn’t true.
As I enter my fifth borough, the first thing that hit me was the music.
Proper hip-hop.
Like live DJs and MCs on the street corner giving it what-wherefore.
Choirs singing rock songs.
And hundreds of people cheering you on your way.
It was magical.
The one quiet quarter-mile section goes through what look like backstreets, but that’s when two older gents heckled a runner who’d started to fade with a very loud “Hey you!”, pointing at the runner, “Yes you! Get the Hell out of The Bronx!”. Cue raucous laughter and a fellow runner well and truly motivated to crack on!
As you hit Mile-20 there’s a large medical station as well as water, Gatorade, energy gels and also deep heat muscle sprays. While I swiped an energy gel and some Gatorade, I do wish I’d spent 10 seconds on the deep heat spray as my hips were really starting to hurt by this point, and they’re kinda difficult to stretch out…
Home Straight… sort of
Heading back into Manhattan you attack 5th Avenue, which has a slight incline but feels relentless for the 4-miles or so you have to run along it. I was now focusing on the finish, tuning out the crowds and just putting one foot in front of the other.
As you head off-road and into Central Park, there’s still a good 2-miles or so to go, but by now my legs were starting to give up.
Unfortunately, Central Park also isn’t flat. It’s hilly. And windy. And up and down a lot. Just when you don’t need it.
While it seemed like an age until I spotted the finishing line, it was thankfully visible from pretty far out so I got a good sense of how far was left to go and when to sprint(!) to the finish.
I am a Marathoner!
Crossing the line was an amazing feeling — I’d done it, my first ever marathon!
Getting that apple-shaped medal lowered over my head and a space blanket wrapped around me gave me a few moments to let it all sink in.
Wow, amazing!
And then the fun started :)
It’s a good half a mile or so from the finish line to the poncho pick-up and the actual exit from Central Park and the race, and after a few minutes of slowly shuffling along with my swag bag (which was bloody heavy, LOTS of goodies in there!) the place started to resemble something out of The Walking Dead.
People were limping along in a state of daze and confusion (myself included) and every so often someone would cramp up and hit the ground, quickly to be set upon and stretched out by the wonderful medical teams on hand.
One guy in front of me just stopped and puked.
Others decided it was best to just have a little sit before moving on any further.
And I totally sympathise with everyone, they’d been into battle against the Big Apple and come through it after giving everything they had. Maybe this is normal for the end of marathons, I don’t have a frame of reference yet, but it certainly brought home the enormity of the challenge everyone had just overcome.
Post-race Meet-up
One of the best pieces of advice I’d got was from someone at the Javits Centre, who told me to pick somewhere to meet friends and family that’s set a little back from the race exit and to take a screenshot of the map on my phone as cell signal saturation can mean making phone calls or getting data signals is difficult. That way I’d know where I was going even if I couldn’t get a call through or load a live map.
The public generally can’t get to within a block of the race exit, so I had to hobble just a little bit further to meet my wife. The crowds around the exit were large and boisterous, but we managed to find each other ok and headed over the street to get the subway back to the hotel.
Reflections
It took me four months of training 5 days per week to build up to that marathon, and that’s after training another four months prior to that to build up the weekly mileage just to do the marathon training programme.
It was a huge commitment that I only got through with the amazing love and support of my family, who put up with me disappearing for hours on end every Sunday (then not being much use when I returned!) as well as the masses of clothes washing training generates on a weekly basis. I’m so grateful for their support, not just on Race Day, but in the best part of a year building up to the event, where they gave me the space to do the training.
As this was my first marathon, I don’t have a direct frame of reference but certainly compared to all other races I’ve done this was something very special… and incredibly well organised. The volunteers are brilliant and are literally everywhere, so you’ll never get stuck for not knowing how to do something. The facilities at the Start Village are also abundant, meaning you never need to queue for more than a few minutes (even for toilets, which also line one side of the start pens).
I’d certainly do New York again, it’s a wonderful course going through a truly one-of-a-kind city. With heaving support pretty much all the way through, you’ll have the energy of the crowd to keep you ploughing on even when the going gets tough nearer the end (or soon after halfway, as my stats show!).
So if you’re thinking of levelling up to run a marathon like I did, or just fancy taking on the Big Apple as another 26.2-mile challenge, I’d thoroughly recommend it. It’ll be a running experience that’s extremely hard to beat!
If you’ve liked this race report, you can check out my other reports on Running the Berlin Marathon, Running the Chicago Marathon and Running the Athens Authentic Marathon.
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