The TCS New York City Marathon! The world’s largest marathon. Over 53,000 people finished it in 2019. The NYC Marathon is a bucket list race for many people, including me. I couldn’t decide whether to do Chicago or New York. Chicago and New York are both part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors and you have to sign up way in advance. There are six of them in total, and three of them are in the United States. Chicago is my favorite race. It’s super flat and easy to get to the start. However,I had never done the NYC marathon and had gotten into the race by qualifying. Ultimately, I decided to do both even though they were only 3 weeks apart. My plan was to race Chicago and run the hillier, more challenging New York just for fun. I have a hard time saying no to races and have a tendency to want to do them all! Not always the best approach, but it is a good learning experience!
Knowing that I only had three weeks between Chicago and New York, I had to plan my training appropriately. I felt really good after Chicago and ran a few days after the race. I did a mixture of running and biking between the two because I didn’t want to overdo it with the running. Then, I did a modified one week taper before New York.
On race morning, I woke up at 4am to get ready to board my 5:30am shuttle. The logistics for the NYC Marathon can be tough! You have to take an early shuttle or the ferry to the start villages and then wait for three hours until the start. It makes it challenging to plan eating in the morning. I ate a granola bar, the same thing I eat before every run, and had some caffeine. For New York, you have the option of a post-race poncho or bag check. I chose the post race poncho. It was warm and fuzzy on the inside and felt so nice after the race. I threw on some throwaway clothes (they get donated) over my race outfit and walked about a mile to the shuttle. It took us around 45 minutes to get to the starting villages at Staten Island. After arriving at the starting village, I got my free Dunkin’ Donuts beanie that I actually carried in my shorts the whole race and met up with some friends! I had another half of a granola bar. I have to be careful what I eat before races because my stomach is usually pretty touchy. At this point there was nothing else to do but wait a couple hours. I was in wave 1 and my race start time was 9:40am. About 15 minutes before the start, I had my Maurten 320 drink. I have this before every long run and race.
Some people divide this race into sections. Miles 1-2: the Verrazzano bridge. Miles 3-15: Brooklyn and Queens. Miles 16-20:First ave to Manhattan. The last 10K:Bronx to Central Park. I kept this in the back of my mind while running because it’s easier to wrap my head around smaller sections than digesting the entire 26.2 miles looming ahead of me! Usually, a lot of the race ends up blurring together for me when I look back on it. I will give you the details of what stuck out for me!
The start: again, my plan was to race Chicago and run New York for fun. I really did have every intention of doing that. However, many times a switch flips in my head at the start of these races and I’m like, “Rawr let’s go!” I definitely started off faster than I should have. I do this a lot, so it’s no surprise to those that know me. There were so many people and I had so much adrenaline! The race starts out with “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra blasting. It really is an incredible experience. The first mile is uphill on the Verrazzano bridge and the second is downhill. I hardly felt the first hill, which also happens to be the steepest incline. I hear that’s pretty common, but also something to watch out for, because it can hurt you later in the race if you go too fast!
I was starting to feel it around 10 miles in. This is too early in a marathon to not be feeling great. My body was like, “Ummm hello, we are not ready for this right now.” I had just had a big personal record at Chicago three weeks before and probably was not completely recovered. I truly believe that if I didn’t slow down at that point I would have crashed – hard! It certainly became more enjoyable after slowing down and I was able to really take it all in and appreciate everything around me! So many people were cheering, the volunteers were encouraging, and I was surrounded by all the other runners! It was truly amazing!
However, it did feel like I was running up the Queensboro bridge forever. It’s one of the only quiet sections of the race because you are on the bridge and it is just an uphill slog (or was for me at least). I got a big cramp in my foot around mile 23 and yelped out in pain. I didn’t want to stop though because sometimes I find it harder to get going again when I do. I gritted my teeth and ran through the cramp. It went away fairly quickly, thankfully! That’s marathoning for you! I finished with a time of 3:05:34, my second fastest marathon ever and I could not have been happier! Of course, I had to have some yummy New York pizza and garlic knots afterward!
I used the same fueling strategy that I did in Chicago for New York: the 320 drink by Maurten about 15-20 minutes before the start and a Maurten gel at miles 7, 14, and 21ish. I have a tough time getting gels down sometimes and Maurten, so far, is the only one I’ve tried that does not mess with my stomach! I do want to stress that this is what works for me – you’ve got to find what works for you! Everyone is different!
Overall, the NYC Marathon is definitely a race I would recommend doing at least once. It is such a large race and it’s really cool to run 26.2 miles through the city. The logistics can be challenging, so you just need to prepare properly! The streets are lined with people cheering for the majority of the race. The NYC marathon is an experience I will never forget and I’m so glad I had the chance to run it this year!
