Bob Mann: 2009 New York City Marathon

Sun Nov 1, 2009

Okay, watch out. This is going to be a long report with a zillion pictures at the end. I took 270 pictures along the way, and I've narrowed it down significantly for this report, but there still be more than enough...

On Sunday Nov 1, 2009 I ran in the New York City Marathon. It was my 13th marathon, and the first time I have run New York. Not only is it the closest marathon to my home in New Jersey (and thus it could be called my "local" marathon), but of course it's the one everybody knows. It would be quite a change from my last one in Wyoming, which had only 123 finishers. This one had over 43,000 people lining up!

I had set a PR in every distance in 2009 except the marathon. I was confident that I could beat the PR I had set in Feb 2008 in Birmingham (3:47:27) and I set 3:45 as my goal. Since the last couple marathons I had run (in South Dakota and Wyoming) were on very difficult courses, I thought that New York would seem like a breeze compared to those.

This may have been the largest marathon in history, but I only knew one other person running it. Trevor came in from Connecticut on Saturday and was to stay at my place for the weekend. We went to the expo together to pick up our packets and meet up with Missy and Maria. We had an early dinner in the city, and then Trevor and I went back to Jersey.

On Sunday morning, we had to be to the Meadowlands by 6:00am to catch the bus to Staten Island. I was in the second wave of runners to start, which meant I would be starting at about 10:00am. The bus got us to Staten Island at about 6:45. I don't know why we needed to be there so early. Thank goodness it wasn't colder than it was, and thank goodness it wasn't raining. It would have been extremely unplesant to wait around that long in terrible conditions. Thankfully the weather was okay. It was just annoying to sit around for more than three hours.

Trevor and I stayed together for as long as we could, before I had to head over to my designated start area. I was in the blue section, Wave 2, Corral D, which is the most complicated start information I've ever had for a race. But the start actually did seem to go off fairly smoothly. Other than all the waiting around, that is. We took off to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", and then we were headed up the Verrazano Bridge.

Predictably, the first mile was a little slow, due both to the congestion of people and to the incline of the bridge. I completed Mile 1 in 9:15, which isn't as bad as I feared. After we crested the top of the bridge, the crowd really picked up speed. I was surprised to run 8:12 in the second mile, which turned out to be my fastest mile of the day. I had expected to be stuck in traffic for much longer than this, and I was pleased to now feel as though I could move at the pace I wanted for the rest of the race.

Through Brooklyn, I settled into a pace somewhat faster than 8:30, which I felt was something I could maintain for a long time. Around Mile 7, we hit Park Slope in Brooklyn, and a noticable uphill climb. I slowed down a little up the hill, which isn't too surprising. But the problem is that I didn't speed back up after the climb was over. For the next few miles, I was stuck in the 8:40 to 8:50 range. That wasn't terrible, and I was still almost on my desired pace. But I wouldn't be able to let the pace slide any more.

I maintained the pace thru the halfway point, which I hit in 1:53:36. If I were to run an exact even split, I would get a new PR, just barely. I was a little disappointed that I hadn't banked more time. I wasn't feeling quite right, and I had trouble believing that I could maintain the same pace for that long again. We ran into Queens, and then onto the 59th Street Bridge, which led into Manhattan. Not only did this bridge feature another incline, but it got narrow. That bunched the crowd up, and left very little room to maneuver. So for miles 15 and 16, I was at the mercy of the pack, and my pace was dragged down to 9:08 and 9:44, respectively. Now I was behind the pace I needed for my 3:45, and I didn't like my chances of picking the pace back up in the second half of the race. I was starting to wear down, and I just couldn't figure out why.

Coming off the 59th Street Bridge into Manhattan is really quite amazing. On the bridge, there's no noise except that of the runners' shoes pounding the pavement. But upon exiting onto 1st Avenue, the runners are met with a "wall of sound", as it is commonly known, from the thousands of spectators on the street. My first three miles in Manhattan were done at reasonable speed (8:48, 8:23, 8:46), and right before Mile 18 I got to see Maria and Missy cheering me on.

However, almost immediately after this, I started to slip. Not terribly. I never hit the wall, and I never truly bonked. But I just couldn't maintain the pace I needed. From Miles 20 thru 24, I ran 9:17, 9:22, 9:10, 9:18, 9:28, and 9:03. Those aren't awful paces, but they were somewhat erratic, and they were slower than I would have liked. Those miles took us north on 1st Ave, then briefly into The Bronx, before turning back south and along 5th Ave in Manhattan. I had long since realized that a PR was out of the question today, but I wanted to end with some respectability. At Mile 24, we entered Central Park, and I decided to pick up the pace a bit with whatever energy I had. I finished the last two miles in 8:45 and 8:42. Not exactly a sprint to the finish, but knowing those miles were faster than my overall average pace makes me feel as though I finished somewhat strong.

My final time: 3:52:43. Not awful. But it was somewhat disappointing since I really thought the last couple difficult marathons would have made this one easier than it was.

After crossing the finish line, I received my medal, my mylar blanket, and a bag of food (which contained the most God-awful bagel I've ever tasted). After getting a finisher photo taken, I headed off toward the bag pickup location, which was way off down a one-way path. There were hundreds of finishers shuffling off down this path, closely packed together. At this point, I would really have rather sat down, or been able to walk around at my own pace. Shuffling along for half an hour was the last thing I wanted. During this time, I really felt terrible. I had never experienced a feeling like this after a marathon before. I wondered if it was some sort of claustrophobia setting in from being in such a densely packed crowd all moving along as one. Eventually I got my checked bag and I was able to exit myself over to Central Park West. I sat down on a bench and had a bite to eat, and I began to feel better. I waited for Trevor to finish. He was running the marathon even though he had hardly run at all in the last few months. It was really gutsy of him to tackle the race.

That experience in the checked bag line, and the way I felt during that time, just about soured me on the whole day. However, overall, it was a very good race. Yes, the crowds were a bit much and the waiting around at the beginning was annoying. But when the race organizers have that many people to deal with, it's impossible to make things 100% comfortable for everybody. I'm very happy that I ran the New York City Marathon this year. I wish I could have done a little better. And I'm not sure I'm in any hurry to face the crowds and try it again.

Epilogue: The day after the race, I was feeling a bit run down. That's to be expected, of course. The thing is, I got worse from there. I started to feel genuinely crummy on Tuesday, and by Wednesday I was downright sick. I went to see my doctor and he determined that I had the flu. He even went so far as to call it Swine Flu, although he didn't give me a test to prove it. It doesn't seem like a big deal. But if this was already brewing in my body on Sunday, it would give a possible reason why I was fading in the race and was unable to maintain the pace I wanted. In fact, it makes me pretty darn happy that I was able to finish a somewhat-difficult marathon course only five minutes over my PR. No matter what, I guess my next attempt at a new PR will have to wait until 2010.

And now the photos. Click any image to enlarge.