The largest marathon in history with 59,226 finishers. Iconic run through the 5 boroughs of NYC with over 2 million spectators.
Overall Rating- Monumentally Awesome!
Pre-race
The expo is open Thursday 10am to Saturday 5pm located at the Javits Convention Center.
Bag Check must to done Friday or Saturday in Central Park (finish area).
Runners must preselect their mode of transportation to Staten Island, bus or ferry.
The course is a point-to-point course that goes through all 5 boroughs.
The course
The race starts on the Verrazzano Bridge then goes through Brooklyn and Queens, next the trough Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. Then you head along 1st avenue and head north into the Bronx via the Madison Avenue Bridge, and return to Manhattan by crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge. The race finishes in Central Park.
All runners are given fleece ponchos a the finish.
Aid Stations
There were 22 water/Gatorade stations . The Gatorade was offered in green cups whereas the water was in white cups. A few times they were very crowded and it bottlenecked a bit. Once I had to get my own cup from the table as the volunteers were standing on the far side of the table. Maurten Gels were handed out twice during the course, both the caffeinated and the non caffeinated.
How was the weather?
The weather was fantastic! We arrived on Thursday and there was torrential rain with high winds, even flooding occurred in areas of NYC. Many people had flights cancelled or were rerouted. Each day the weather improved and on race day we had low winds, sunny skies and a high of 18 degrees. I probably should have worn sunscreen but I wasn’t thinking about that in November.
My Race Experience
I was fortunate enough to have an invite to the Age Group Championship (AGC) this year at the NYC Marathon. Unfortunately Mike didn’t get in this year, but we still wanted to run in the same marathon. He tried to get a spot with a time qualifier, lottery, and with North American tour groups. Still no luck, however, we remembered that Pat used a UK tour group for NYC in the past. Bingo he scored a bib.
Mike and I started our journey very early Thursday Morning, with a 6:00am flight. Luckily my daughter, Sienna was kind enough to drive us to the airport for 4:20am. Once in NYC we dropped off our luggage at our hotel and headed to Expo. There was a special AGC bib pick up which was super efficient, Mike soon had his bib as well. It’s a big expo with lots of merch, we both bought a shirt, toque and socks. We took a few pictures and I made sure I didn’t loose my bib! We headed back to the hotel and for a nap and then a Broadway Show.
Saturday, we had to drop off our bags at the finish area in Central Park. This is the first time I have had do a bag drop the day before a race, it took some planning and we had to make sure we had a meeting spot post race since we both didn’t want to race with our phones nor put them in the bag check the day before.
Race Morning: Our alarm went off at 3:30am, thank goodness for the extra hour sleep with the end of daylight savings time. We ate our breakfast in our hotel room, while getting ready for the race. At 4:40am we left the hotel to take the subway to the New York Public Library. This is where we were scheduled for the 5:00am bus to Staten Island. The coach buses with toilets were a big upgrade from the yellow school buses in Boston. Once on Staten Island we had to go through the metal detectors/security, this took longer than expected. We still had lots of time since my start time was at 9:10am and Mike’s was at 9:45am. It was still only 6:00am!
We finally found the AGC area, which wasn’t well marked. Mike and I parted and I went to my area, unfortunately the tent provided was way too small and there wasn’t a place to sit. I went back out and found Mike. We had the perfect spot to hangout, relax, and nap before our start times. There were so many porta potties, the best I have experienced in all my marathons, with minimal line ups.
At 8:00am I headed to Wave 1 and Mike went to his Wave. Again many toilets were available in this area and lines were very manageable. I was starting with the other Age Groupers, though it was hard to tell. We were supposed to have back bibs on but they had made mistakes on most of them, wrong country and wrong age group so they stopped handing them out shortly after I got mine at the expo. They had me coming from Sweden. It’s too bad, in the past when I did the AGC, it was nice to see other runners in the race also doing the championship. Now it was hard to know who was in it and who wasn’t.
It was now time to get onto the Verrazzano Bridge, I was on the top level and lucky enough to see the elite men start. It was my turn to start, I felt good for the first half of the race, until my glute started bothering me. I have been dealing with this the whole training cycle. I had a sample pack of Biofreeze and an Aleve pill in my pocket so at 30km I took the pill and spread the Biofreeze on my right glute, this takes skill as I didn’t stop running. Luckily I got some relief and was able to push through to the end.
I loved the course, it’s tough but the energy is amazing! Once done I got the orange fleeced poncho, another upgrade! It wasn’t cold outside but still nice to have. As an age grouper we got another medal and the express exit from the park. This brought me to the bag check area where I waited for Mike.
Once he was done we headed back to the hotel, cleaned up and then we went to a pub for a burger, fries and a much deserved beer. Later on we attended the Age Group Championship Awards Ceremony. It was nice to meet up with other runners and it’s very impressive how fast the winners were. My age group winner ran in 2h54. Simply Amazing!
Would you do this event again? Why?
I have run NYC twice now, I love the race and the energy. Most likely I won’t be running it again, I have many other fall marathons on my bucket list.
Would you recommend this event? Why?
If you can get into the NYC Marathon then do it! It’s big, it’s loud with tons of energy.
Closing thoughts. Any hints for others planning to do this race? Where to stay? Things to bring? What to wear?
The NYC Marathon is not the easiest to navigate! There are lots of logistics including getting to Staten Island well before your start time. My advice to would be to arrive on Thursday and go to the expo on this day, you will have more selection on merch and an extra day on Friday to explore NYC. Staying in midtown, close to Bryant Park will make it easier to get to the bus loading area which is at the New York Public Library. The wait on Staten Island is at least 3 hours so dress warmly, bring lots of throw away clothes, mylar blankets, toques, hand warmers, old shoes, blankets etc
Run K2J 