New York City Marathon – Race Report –
Jo Holl, Nikki Boyes, Ruby Jones, Jon Holl and Chris Brenchley took on this tough marathon. Find out what they had to say….
5 Traccies made the trip over to USA to compete in the iconic New York marathon on Nov 3rd this year.
For all of us it had been a long time coming with various plans made and remade!
A 4.30am wake up call to get the bus to Staten Island was a shock to the system but we followed the lines of strangely dressed runners in their throw away clothes all heading the same way through the city to the bus line.
90 minutes later we were at the start village where there was a plentiful supply of bagels, hot drinks and Dunkin donuts beanie hats to keep us warm.
For a major marathon the lines for the ‘porta potties’ were also not ridiculously long!
As we all had different start times, we sat in the sun, wrapped in foil blankets trying to keep warm.
Chris was in wave 1 orange start at 9.10 over the top of the Verrazzano bridge.
From Chris –
For me, the race was on the back of the marathon in Berlin where I had raced hard to set a PB.
New York was always going to be tough to run two back-to-back sub-3-hour times especially as it’s known for being a tough course. The morning was cold, dressed in our donating clothes, but the temperature was due to be fine for racing.
Frank starts us off ‘start spreadin’ the news’.
Starting in Staten Island the Verrazzano suspension bridge climb has an elevation gain of 190ft and certainly starts your race strategy a little confused, soon you are descending with views of the city and helicopters buzzing around the suspension cables and a magnificent view, the elites already a minute ahead. The centre span of a mile can take thirteen lanes of interstate traffic. I had the orange start on the 7-lane top section, runners can opt to forgo the experience by choosing the lower level with a slightly lesser climb, we had driven across the bridge a few days before as part of a longer stay in the USA.
Into Brooklyn and a flatter section, however the roads here are not smooth with large drain covers set low. The crowds here are immense and loud to go with the loud music, sirens, and legalised smells as well as the locals going about their own daily life crossing the race route, makes this marathon a raw experience.
I felt good at the 10k marker, always a good benchmark, but still nervous about the hilly sections and made it through towards Queens and halfway in 1:27:13. The 59th street Queensboro bridge is a 5-span cantilever bridge to take you to Manhattan where you run up hill on the heavy 1908 steel encased lower level. It all goes a little different here as the sounds of the runners echo with the footfall and breathing only with no supporters on the 1-mile section, GPS watches go a little astray. Soon the loudness comes back and shouts of welcome to Harlem gives a feel of attachment, the Willis bridge is a swing bring that takes the route into the Bronx. The rise of this bridge really assesses you at 20miles often the point known as the real start of the marathon and where you know it’s going to be a good race. The last Madison Ave swing bridge takes you onto 5th Ave towards uptown New York and central park for a half lap, the park has little rises you would not notice on a training run, but these are now energy sapping hills, I knew sub-3 was there and started to wave and look around me. The high-rise sky scraping buildings interest me in a professional capacity as well as my unusual affection with bridges but the watch could not lie in time even if the GPS were now being confused about my whereabouts.
Jay-Z/Alicia ‘hear it for New York, New York, New York’. I can see the finish and grandstands, wooing up the NYC crowds I crossed the line in 02:55:51 a little emotional with now five world majors under 3 hours, I got wrapped in a pumpkin-coloured poncho to walk back to my hotel to get cleaned up before heading out to find the other traccies to find out they had been astounding.
Ruby also started in the same wave but this time on the blue start, also on the top section.
From Ruby…
‘I had trained for and tried to attempt to go sub-3.
I went out at target pace, but the wheels fell off around 18 miles. Overall I was happy to qualify for a London spot where I can have another go. It was my first marathon in a while and you forget how tough that last 10k is. I enjoyed the race, it was on my bucket list of ones to do, and to be back to marathoning within a year of having Esmé is something of an achievement. It could have been better, but also could have been a lot worse!’
Ruby achieved 03:09:25 on this tough course which we think is amazing shortly after having a baby. Ruby already holds our ladies club record at 03:06:55.
Jon went next in wave 2 blue start at 9.45, also on the top section of the bridge.
From Jon…
It’s a good thing we’re ’a club for all’ as I felt like a tortoise in a gathering of hares on this trip. I’d already decided this was to be my last marathon and knowing I hadn’t trained for it properly, I decided to take in the sights and not worry about my time. This time the tortoise wouldn’t be trying to catch up with the hares!
I made the best of the start area, with free bagels, coffee, and hot chocolate. Two bagels were enough though!
This was the only race start with NYPD snipers on the rooftops and THREE NYPD helicopters in the air!
I visited the ‘therapy dogs’ area – only in the USA can you tickle a dogs belly while you wait to start!
As others have said, it was a very early start and people were wearing all sorts of clothes, dressing gowns, blankets and in my case an old CSI suit! No idea why the Americans think we’re a little eccentric!!! It worked for me!
Oh, and the race… I just ran it and enjoyed it, going off a little fast of course (when will I learn). For me the highlight was not the views, the amazing crowds or even the finish but carrying the NYPD flag for about half a mile. This flag has been carried every year since 9/11. I saw the flag in the distance and gradually caught up with the guys who were carrying it, explained my credentials and asked if I could carry the flag. They happily obliged and I found out why. It was really HEAVY! I’m not one to show my emotions but I found myself welling up as I ran. It meant a huge amount to me.
After this it was onwards towards 18 miles, when my legs started to protest. I plodded on, taking it all in.
When I finished, I soon found out Chris had achieved a sub 3hour time and Nikki had incredibly beaten her Berlin time from October and achieved a new PB. Then it was off to an Irish bar for the best bit of marathon day!
From Nikki and Jo…
Jo and I were in wave 3 starting at 9.45 as we had decided to run together. We were at the pink start which ran on the lower section of the bridge. We tried to get into wave 2 with the aim of starting earlier and were met with a firm no, so we wandered up the corrals a bit to see what was happening. When we heard final call before corrals close, we were swept into the wave and ended up with the 3.30 runners still dressed in all our odd assortment of hoodies and extra layers!
We hastily stripped off down to running gear, stuffed gels in pockets etc and took a breather while walking back to a more realistic starting position and we were off!
We actually saw someone painting their nails as we were walking to the start line!
Mile 1 is the dreaded Verrazzano bridge all uphill – like running over the Dartford crossing. Surprisingly this was not as bad as we expected though freezing cold as we were on the lower section. Having got into our rhythm we were chatting and high fiving as we ran along through the extremely noisy streets through Staten Island and across to Brooklyn. At mile 15 we got to the Queensborough bridge and started to really feel it. This was hard and also quiet with no spectators. The chatting and high fiving stopped as we focused on keeping a good effort on what seemed an endless uphill!
We emerged into the roar of the crowd into Manhattan and although we had stopped chatting by now, we stuck together, tag teaming the drinks stations. It was also beginning to get warm as well as tougher the further we ran. By mile 20 we were really flagging – so many bridges and hills had taken their toll and it was getting tough both mentally and physically.
Still together we encouraged each other with old favourites such as just a Monday night to go…40 minutes to the end…just a park run etc along with the endless American chants of ‘you got this’, ‘let’s go!’ The final 3 to 4k were brutal – the crowds were insane, and we could see Central Park – uphill of course! Finally, the last corner at Columbus and one more uphill back into the park for the last 800m. We still couldn’t see the end but knew it was near. We were swearing by now but still together and then there it was. We crossed the line holding hands.
We had done it! 3 hours and 44 mins – a pb for me which was a huge surprise after a PB in Berlin 5 weeks earlier and a great time for Jo after her half marathon success and limited marathon training.
The walk after the finish line to get medals, water and bags seemed cruelly long. We needed the iconic orange ponchos to keep warm now, especially as my bag had disappeared from the bag drop leaving me with no warm clothes to change into.
Fortunately, this was at NYRR HQ the next day and I was able to put on the finisher T shirt at last.
This was going to be our ‘fun’ run after we had both focused on hard training for previous races, but we just can’t help ourselves and kept each other going the whole way.
So glad we were able to start together and finish together.
I can’t say it was ‘fun’ but it was such an amazing sensory experience, soaking in the sights, sounds and smells of NYC.
Well done everyone! What a running adventure!