Marathon part 3: after the finish

Posted on 1/1/2019 They were so not kidding about Mile 27! After the finish line, we walked to get the medal, then the heat sheet (which we needed because of the trek to get the ponchos), then a bag of food – VERY heavy! – then eventually the poncho. It was cold and getting dark and it was crowded and confusing – I had to backtrack for a medal, help someone else to find the food bags, and then wait ages for a poncho. There were crowds around the poncho distribution areas and the one where I first lined up ran out of them twice before I got one. I was too tired to thoroughly investigate the food bag – I would have tried the protein shake if I’d found it then, but didn’t want it later – and just ate pretzels and the apple, which wasn’t really enough. People were sitting down along the edge of the road even though we were encouraged to keep walking. I really needed a porta-potty but there weren’t any until after the poncho pickup, so at least a mile after the finish.

The poncho felt great – warm, sturdy, fleecy, and so official! I had planned to walk back across the park near where we came out (72nd St), since we were staying at my mom’s place in the east 80s and it would be a fairly straight shot. But I started to realize that since everything was fenced off for the finish lines, I wasn’t going to be able to cross the park. It looked like I’d have to go all the way north to 85th St or down to 66th St, which felt closer (the other way probably would have been shorter overall, and looking at the map now I might have been able to cross at the 79th St transverse). Even once I got to 66th St, it looked shut down, but a race volunteer told me to walk through unless the police stopped me. The traverse was empty and quiet, and I slipped into a meditative trance. I wouldn’t have wanted to run another step, but walking felt fine. It was about another 2 miles to get home.

The other great thing about the poncho was its marker status. There weren’t many of us on the East Side wearing one, but each time we’d greet each other with “Congratulations!” A few non-runners gave me a shout-out as well. I got back to the apartment, greeted Jonathan, took a shower, and we walked further uptown to have dinner with my mother and stepfather, and then walked back again. Fitbit shows 68,261 steps for the day, which I think is my all-time record. I was very tired and had some soreness over the next few days, but really not too bad. And when I got back to work, this was waiting for me:

One more post to come, on post-race reflections and the official photos, and this blog goes back into mothballs!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *