New York City Marathon Race Report 🍎🗽🇺🇸
On a cold but clear morning, my alarm went off at 4am, such are the logistics of running a big city marathon. After collecting two lost runners (a Brit and an Irishman of course) in the subway station, I made it to the Staten Island Ferry terminal, ready to make the short hop across the water to yet another mode of transport: a bus to the starting villages. After all this there was still more than two hours until go time, so I found myself a comfortable spot on the floor and facetimed home, my son far more interested in the helicopters flying overhead than anything running related.
Eventually, the time came to join the starting corrals and make the lengthy walk to the actual start line. The NYC Marathon starts on a very impressive, but very much not flat bridge spanning the two miles between Staten Island and Brooklyn. It was the most congested first two miles of any race I’ve done, so it was a case of ignoring the watch and trusting that I would have time to make up the lost seconds during the rest of the race. Sure enough, though, things opened out and we could all settle into a rhythm rather than watching the feet of the runners in front.
Brooklyn was probably my most favourite part of the race, not least because I was still feeling pretty strong in the early stages, but also the crowds were out in force. (Side note – look up the silent mile, so called because it’s through the Hasidic Jewish community who are literally warned away from watching the race by signs in Hebrew on lampposts due to the lack of modesty on display. They go about their days as normal, save for some human frogger as they try to cross the course.)
The Pulaski bridge signalled the end of Brooklyn, and the start of the strugglebus for me as the course slowly heads towards the apex of the bridge and the halfway point. Somewhere along that climb I saw a spectator with a sign which read “F*#k this bridge” – a sentiment I shared, and not for the last time.
The course’s visit to Queens is relatively short-lived, and ends with yet another nemesis, this time the Queensboro Bridge. This felt like the longest slog of the day, and I was cursing the girth of the East River as the lack of spectators left us runners with nothing but the sounds of each others’ footsteps, or rather the music we all definitely cranked up to get through it.
What followed, though, was supposedly the highlight of the course as the silence of the bridge made way for the roar of the Manhattan crowd for the first time. I found myself still waiting for said roar, but was briefly distracted as I ran in front of, and then very shortly after behind, Richard Whitehead who was rightly attracting most of the attention and cheers from the crowd.
My thoughts as we trudged in a dead-straight line all the way up 1st Avenue wavered between “maybe this will be OK” and “I don’t think I’ll make it” and the width of the road did a great job at dampening the effect of the crowd. The one saving grace was the increased propensity for buildings tall enough to block out the blazing sun, before an intersection would remind us all not to take shade for granted.
The Bronx was next, after the aptly-named Willis Avenue bridge (I refrained from telling my fellow runners my surname) which was thankfully shorter than its predecessors. This section felt like delaying the inevitable: the climb up 5th Avenue at mile 21, just as you start to question your life choices. I don’t know if I was too locked in to notice it, but I kept waiting and waiting for the incline to come, and it never seemed to.
What followed, though, felt like an entire marathon in itself. The 2+ windy, undulating miles through Central Park appeared to go on for an eternity. I had long since skipped my final gel, my stomach feeling in no fit state to take on anymore sugar, so my legs were running on whatever fumes they could find to try and get me to the finish. The organisers have even chosen to place the finish at the crest of a small hill so there was no sign of a kick from me, just relief as the metres finally ran out and I could cross the finish line of my fifth Major, and importantly only for me, my fifth Major in under three hours. Finally it was time to enjoy the culinary delights New York has to offer!
Overall winner – Benson Kipruto – 2:08:09
Second place – Alexander Mutiso – 2:08:09
Josh Willis – 2:58:39 – 2,153rd / 59,129 (New World Record for most marathon finishers)
