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| The New York Marathon was really fun. I grew up near New
York City and have visited the city four or five times each year
for the past fifty years and I love to explore different
neighborhoods throughout the city, but this race managed to take me through many places I had never been before. The course runs through all five boroughs of the city, starting in Staten Island, and running over the Verrazano Narrows bridge gives a great view of Manhattan and the Wall Street area where the World Trade Center was located. Then running through Brooklyn we passed through Hispanic neighborhoods with Mexican and Puerto Rican music playing. There are 120 bands playing along the race course so every few minutes different music can be heard. We went through a Jewish neighborhood where all of the men were dressed in long black coats and had big beards, long hair and big black hats. We crossed other bridges into Queens and had a good view of the tall buildings in midtown Manhattan like the Empire State building, CitiCorp and Chrysler buildings. In Harlem and the South Bronx we passed gospel choirs and school bands and many rock groups. They even had jazz music, bluegrass, and bag pipers. The course was lined with two million screaming fans, and there was lots of cheering, singing, and bell ringing. With over 39,000 runners the crowd is so thick that it is hard to pass people, but I managed to pass quite a few. I started at the 18,000 mark and finished around 11,000. I went with a 4 hour pace group and the leader stayed right on target. He carried a flag and balloons, and it was always possible to find him again after getting a few seconds behind on a more crowded bridge or at a water stop. The water and gatorade stops were well organized every mile. I stayed with the pace leader till mile 24, then tried to go ahead a little so I could finish a minute faster than 4 hours. Only about five of the original fifty pace group members were still together by mile 24. The runners were so thick on the road that it was like a river and people in the city couldn't cross the race course by foot or by car all day. The race expo was better organized, more spacious, and much less crowded than at Boston, even with far more runners. Getting to the start was a long bus ride, and had to be done very early. There was a four hour wait there and it was cold, but the crowd was friendly. As soon as the race started it was sunny and warm enough to run comfortably with just a t shirt and it never got too hot to enjoy the run. My wife Sue, and my Mom, sister, brother, nephew, sister in law, and brother in law were all there to watch the race at mile 16 and mile 25 and they met me at the finish and all 8 of us went out to dinner after the race. It was fun being in New York City and seeing all the other marathoners all over the place wearing their race shirts and finisher medals. I wanted to finish in four hours and I made it in 3:58:52, so I was happy with my race in every way. The only thing that hurt me after the race was blisters on my toes. I don't plan to do it again, but I'd recommend this race to anyone. It was a really fun race. -Bill Gasparrini |
