Marathon part 2: the actual race

This would be the normal race report if it weren’t such an ordeal to actually get to the starting line (and to finish – part 3). Mostly made from notes shortly after the race, then re-thought about while consulting my photos and Google Maps. Posted 12/31/2018, giving up on the sucky photo placement – hey, I made it before 2019!

Approaching the starting line – not too crowded!

We moved out of the corral to the strains of “Lust for Life” by Iggy Pop, and I guess because the corrals are so far from the start we spaced out pretty well – it was actually much less crowded than it would be later on.

The actual starting line

Everywhere along the start, and this would be true for most of the first section of the marathon, there were piles of trash and discarded clothing – all the detritus that didn’t make it into proper receptacles. This actually worked out really well for me, since I had really wanted one of the Dunkin’ Donuts fleece beanies – I saw and grabbed a discard before the start, so that was one goal checked off. I saw DOZENS later too!

We filed on to the bridge approach, heard the anthem, the cannon, and Frank Sinatra, and we were off! Even at the starting line it wasn’t as crowded as I expected–I crossed the start line within less than a minute of gun time.

The granular grouping into corrals works really well. I had lined up on the right to get a view off the side of the bridge, but even though the northbound lane was closed, we were all confined to the southbound lane (I guess to allow emergency traffic). So I veered over to the left. The bridge surface was extremely rough and we all had to watch our footing, especially with clothing and food that had been just dropped, or had rolled over from the sides. I hopped up onto the tiny sidewalk for photos of the great view over the river. Taking photos slowed me even further than I expected because of having to get well out of the way of the crowds, and then making my way back into the runners. The first few miles still went fairly quickly – looking at the splits, the second mile was my fastest pace at 10:31.

First of more selfies than I take in a normal year
Crowds on the bridge
Battery Weed
Mid-point of the Verrazano

We had been instructed not to pee on the bridge under pain of removal from the race, but a bunch of guys were using the bridge supports right at the exit.

A rare sight

Our first spectators were gathered as we got off the bridge, solidly lining the street even though the green course is split from the yellow and blue. I got a text from our friend Harold who lives in Bay Ridge, telling me where to find him, so that was my first goal to look forward to, at about mile 3, just before the dogleg back to 4th Avenue. I saw him on the right and my impulse was to stop and chat for a bit but he encouraged me to keep running.

We rejoined the other colors on 4th Avenue but we were on the right and the other colors were on the left; they didn’t actually merge until mile 10.

Runners from the top section of the bridge at left

Hydration stops were a sea of volunteers in green, and they made it very easy to get either water or Gatorade. But running through was treacherous because the street was littered with ground down cups and sticky with residue; there are just too many runners to keep on top of cleaning up.

I relished the huge variety of handmade crowd-support signs, although mostly they repeated a few themes in their own ways. My favorite jokes were:

  • Long way to go for a free banana
  • I trained for months to hold up this sign
  • Pain is just French for bread
  • Touch here to power up (with lots of different  Pokemon logos–and I often did!)

And such a range of runners and spectators! I saw little groups from Sweden, France, and Italy specifically (matching shirts). Tons of music played from boomboxes, bands, DJs, and church choirs. All kinds of food on offer. So many dogs and kids!

Dog before saying hi
Dog after saying hi

My favorite stretch was Lafayette Ave in Brooklyn. It was a combination of beautiful shade trees and architecture – much more residential feeling than 4th Avenue – and a fun hipster vibe. I spotted old favorite buildings and new ones as well:

Williamsburg Savings Bank Tower
The Brooklyn Masonic Temple – wow
Gorgeous terracotta

As the pre-race session warned, the Queensboro bridge was tough in terms of the pavement, incline, and length. But it wasn’t too cold and it was amazing to find there were places where you could exit from the roadway onto the pedestrian path and get a great view over the river. I took a selfie and a volunteer offered to take my photo – he took 3 and they really capture how happy and excited I was to be there, and what a gorgeous day it was.


A kind course official took photos at at cutout on the Queesboro Bridge

Coming off the bridge onto 1st Avenue was the wall of sound and spectators I’d heard about, but even better it was the section that really felt like home turf.

The boost from hearing my name shouted so much was way more than I expected. I would hear “Go Hilary!” and I would grin or say thank you or hi-five and they would shout louder; not just little hits of dopamine but little extended bursts. It was more emotional than I expected to see so many happy people, especially when someone would reach their group of friends and hug.

The dreaded slippery sponge area (mile 17)

I knew Jonathan and my mother would be around 92nd St and I looked forward to it from 59th St. on, so when I was counting down the blocks and scanning the crowd my anticipation rose and rose. It was a moment of pure joy to finally see them. We all teared up and I hugged and kissed them both. I have to say that was the peak moment of the whole marathon, followed by seeing Jonathan again at mile 23–way more emotional than the actual finish.

Still so many people! About mile 19
RFK Bridge from the south side of the Willis Ave Bridge?
Crossing into the Bronx
On the Willis Ave Bridge – 3rd Ave Bridge in the background?

Physically it was an arduous race, and my feet started feeling hot fairly early. I wished I’d had time to re-vaseline them at the start, but decided to do so at mile 20, in the Bronx, which I planned again to think of as the transition between the last training run and the actual marathon. Harold, who was watching my progress and keeping Jonathan updated, later said it looked like I’d taken a nap, because my split for mile 21 was 17 minutes. I grabbed a water, hobbled over to a little fence in front of an apartment building, sat down, and tried to be as quick as I could taking off socks, putting on vaseline, sucking down a gel, swallowing ibuprofen, and drinking water.

Madison Ave Bridge back to Manhattan

Getting back up and running again was painful and I hobbled for at least a quarter of a mile. But knowing I only had 6 miles to go, that I would see Jonathan again, and my friends Nancy and Craig, really helped. Marcus Garvey Park was a good marker but I couldn’t remember exactly where that was and I was missing most of the RunKeeper cues with the sound of the crowd. I saw Nancy and Craig and their daughter and granddaughter, got some hugs; found Jonathan and hugged him again.

I kept thinking we were further along than we were.

Dog’s tocks ahead – my only Central Park photo

Getting to Central Park felt like “almost there” but really wasn’t. I liked the small hills in the park, but when we passed the back of the Met I realized there was a still quite a ways to go since 20 blocks is about a mile, and then we still had to exit the park and go up 59th Street. I was speeding up too soon but kept up the pressure. By the time we got to Columbus Circle I was really feeling the exhaustion but I finished strong. The last 2 mile splits were 11:13 and 10:45 according to the NYRR tracker, for a finish of 5:19:23 (average pace 12:11). Not too far off my predicted time of 5:25!

The post-finish gets its own post; “Mile 27” is a real thing…

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