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Friday, 7 November 2008
Thursday, 6 November 2008
Tired and jetlagged but chuffed to bits!
So, as the millions of real-time updates told you, I finished! Here’s the story of my New York experience…
We arrived late on Thursday night. Sadly, the first thing that happened was the immigration computer system crashing and we had to spend an hour and a half just sitting in immigration. Luckily we got through eventually and jumped straight in a taxi from JFK airport to our hotel in Manhattan. I’d chosen our hotel based on the tripadvisor hotel reviews which said the beds were comfortable. And yes, that was true, thank goodness.
We woke the next morning at a sensible time and by lunchtime we were up and about and enjoying the New York experience. First on the list was the free shuttle bus to the marathon expo to pick up our numbers and obtain some marathon themed merchandise (I invested in a lovely pair of gloves with the names of the 5 NY boroughs on each finger) and then we got a free bus to a sports shop after we were lured by the offer of free lunch. There was indeed free lunch plus Deena Castor and the same marathon merchandise with 20% off (boo). Next up we decided to walk around a bit to see the sites of Lower Manhattan including the statue of liberty at sunset on the Staten Island Ferry…lovely. In true Gary and Lindsay style we did walk around a lot and we were pretty tired by the end of it…maybe not the best marathon preparation! Later on we took in the Greenwich Village Halloween parade which gave us the opportunity to observe our American friends' love of getting dressed up at Halloween, has to be seen to be believed.
We decided to take it a bit easier on Saturday. Well, after the International friendship run which was 4k from the UN to just before the marathon finish line in Central Park. The highlight of this was the large French flag carried by some frogs singing La Marseillaise, very entertaining! We also discovered that out of 35,000ish runners in the marathon the were 3,800 brits, 3,500 French and 3,000 Italians. I was truly amazed by how international the marathon is as well as the way it takes over the city. On the plane, in immigration, in the hotel and walking around the streets there are so many marathon runners. I wonder if is the same in London, I am not sure you notice it when you live in or near a city as opposed to visiting.
We spent the rest of the day at the “Top of the rock”, an excellent viewpoint at the top of the Rockefeller Centre which was lovely and warm and mild and had loads of good benches to rest on! On Saturday evening we took in the marathon pasta party and the marathon fireworks in Central Park, very exciting! By this point I was a little bit nervous and young Gary was suffering from a random paranoid injury moment when he was unable to walk without a limp on the way back to the hotel, most worrying.
We were on the latest possible Midtown bus option on Sunday morning to the start at Staten Island which left at 6am. We arrived at the start at around 6:45am, a good 3 and a half hours before my race started, way too early. I am not sure why they get you there so early, probably something to do with the bridge you run over in the first mile and getting there but 3 and a half hours is too early. Especially when the mild weather from the rest of the weekend disappears just when you need it to be replaced by a rather cold and bitter wind. It was sooo cold. Some people were well prepared with sleeping bags and duvets. Other, such as Gazza and I, just sat cold in a heap and huddled together for warmth. We were a very sad and sorry sight indeed.
I said goodbye to Gary at around 8am as he went off to the blue start, and I went off to the green start. It is hard to keep yourself occupied for that length of time, there was coffee and bagels and loads of toilets but nothing else really. I managed to amuse my self by translating all the announcements into English (the language geek in me came out while I was bored!).
I was on the Green wave 3 start in the first pen and 10:20. We seemed to hang around for ages waiting to get into our pen as the 10am start got out of the way, after a quick trip to the loo (again!!!) I realised that I would be able to start more or less on the start line as pen A was the first pen in the Green start. How exciting and what unchartered territory! We walked up to the start and after a false start from a fellow inexperienced 4 and a half hour marathoner (we don’t usually make it so close to the start line) we were off to the tune of “New York, New York”. Now, I have seen the start of the New York marathon before and I was expecting to be one of many people crossing a bridge with not a lot of room. As it happened, the Green start was on the underside of the bridge and there was no-one in front of me! It was a very strange and eerie experience and not at all what I expected. This also contributed to me going a bit too quick at the beginning (plus I missed the mile markers for 3 miles so it was only then I realised) but never mind!
We started to catch the first tail enders form the previous start as we came off the bridge after about a mile and a half and by 3 miles we were well and truly integrated back into the field. We’d started in Staten Island but fairly soon we were in Brooklyn. The support was simply amazing, loads of enthusiastic yanks shouting “good job (or should I say jarb), great job, nice job). I am not sure I have seen this level of enthusiasm before! I was feeling great and trotting along nicely. I knew I was going too quick so slowly I decided to slow down the pace a bit until I settled into something a bit more sensible. Soon we passed over another bridge and into Queens which was a bit less noisy but still enthusiastic. Around 13 -16 miles I had a really strange patch where I slowed a lot. Not sure what happened but I had to have a strict word with myself and get sorted out.
At 16 miles we crossed another bridge to Manhattan and the crowd was amazing again and I had sorted myself out so I trotted along first avenue very nicely thank you. At around 19 miles it started to become more of a struggle, some gradual uphills were taking their toll on tired legs and I really started to tire as we crossed into The Bronx for a couple of miles before crossing back into Manhattan. I was tired by this point, but not so tired I had to walk (apart from drinks stations, the drinks were in cups and I kept splashing my face!!!) so I kept going.
I was slowing and as we ran alongside Central Park the support was amazing but it was starting to become a struggle. But not as much of a struggle as in the past. I was able to keep running without having to battle with myself about walking, I just wasn’t running as fast as I had done at the start! In fact, I think I ran almost all of the way from 23 miles to the end and this was probably the brightest last few miles in a marathon I had ever had.
Just before the finish we went a bit uphill which was tough but eventually I was finished, 4:26:01, my 4th fastest of 13 marathons and I was very happy. And very cold, shivering in fact. It seemed to take an age to get through the finish and back to the hotel. I encountered Gary en route who was disappointed with his new 2:55 PB but had just bought tickets to a show so was OK!
Post race we ate a Macdonalds, I know this is a bad thing to do…then we took in a show and then fell into a deep (and rather chuffed with myself) sleep, yay!!!
We arrived late on Thursday night. Sadly, the first thing that happened was the immigration computer system crashing and we had to spend an hour and a half just sitting in immigration. Luckily we got through eventually and jumped straight in a taxi from JFK airport to our hotel in Manhattan. I’d chosen our hotel based on the tripadvisor hotel reviews which said the beds were comfortable. And yes, that was true, thank goodness.
We woke the next morning at a sensible time and by lunchtime we were up and about and enjoying the New York experience. First on the list was the free shuttle bus to the marathon expo to pick up our numbers and obtain some marathon themed merchandise (I invested in a lovely pair of gloves with the names of the 5 NY boroughs on each finger) and then we got a free bus to a sports shop after we were lured by the offer of free lunch. There was indeed free lunch plus Deena Castor and the same marathon merchandise with 20% off (boo). Next up we decided to walk around a bit to see the sites of Lower Manhattan including the statue of liberty at sunset on the Staten Island Ferry…lovely. In true Gary and Lindsay style we did walk around a lot and we were pretty tired by the end of it…maybe not the best marathon preparation! Later on we took in the Greenwich Village Halloween parade which gave us the opportunity to observe our American friends' love of getting dressed up at Halloween, has to be seen to be believed.
We decided to take it a bit easier on Saturday. Well, after the International friendship run which was 4k from the UN to just before the marathon finish line in Central Park. The highlight of this was the large French flag carried by some frogs singing La Marseillaise, very entertaining! We also discovered that out of 35,000ish runners in the marathon the were 3,800 brits, 3,500 French and 3,000 Italians. I was truly amazed by how international the marathon is as well as the way it takes over the city. On the plane, in immigration, in the hotel and walking around the streets there are so many marathon runners. I wonder if is the same in London, I am not sure you notice it when you live in or near a city as opposed to visiting.
We spent the rest of the day at the “Top of the rock”, an excellent viewpoint at the top of the Rockefeller Centre which was lovely and warm and mild and had loads of good benches to rest on! On Saturday evening we took in the marathon pasta party and the marathon fireworks in Central Park, very exciting! By this point I was a little bit nervous and young Gary was suffering from a random paranoid injury moment when he was unable to walk without a limp on the way back to the hotel, most worrying.
We were on the latest possible Midtown bus option on Sunday morning to the start at Staten Island which left at 6am. We arrived at the start at around 6:45am, a good 3 and a half hours before my race started, way too early. I am not sure why they get you there so early, probably something to do with the bridge you run over in the first mile and getting there but 3 and a half hours is too early. Especially when the mild weather from the rest of the weekend disappears just when you need it to be replaced by a rather cold and bitter wind. It was sooo cold. Some people were well prepared with sleeping bags and duvets. Other, such as Gazza and I, just sat cold in a heap and huddled together for warmth. We were a very sad and sorry sight indeed.
I said goodbye to Gary at around 8am as he went off to the blue start, and I went off to the green start. It is hard to keep yourself occupied for that length of time, there was coffee and bagels and loads of toilets but nothing else really. I managed to amuse my self by translating all the announcements into English (the language geek in me came out while I was bored!).
I was on the Green wave 3 start in the first pen and 10:20. We seemed to hang around for ages waiting to get into our pen as the 10am start got out of the way, after a quick trip to the loo (again!!!) I realised that I would be able to start more or less on the start line as pen A was the first pen in the Green start. How exciting and what unchartered territory! We walked up to the start and after a false start from a fellow inexperienced 4 and a half hour marathoner (we don’t usually make it so close to the start line) we were off to the tune of “New York, New York”. Now, I have seen the start of the New York marathon before and I was expecting to be one of many people crossing a bridge with not a lot of room. As it happened, the Green start was on the underside of the bridge and there was no-one in front of me! It was a very strange and eerie experience and not at all what I expected. This also contributed to me going a bit too quick at the beginning (plus I missed the mile markers for 3 miles so it was only then I realised) but never mind!
We started to catch the first tail enders form the previous start as we came off the bridge after about a mile and a half and by 3 miles we were well and truly integrated back into the field. We’d started in Staten Island but fairly soon we were in Brooklyn. The support was simply amazing, loads of enthusiastic yanks shouting “good job (or should I say jarb), great job, nice job). I am not sure I have seen this level of enthusiasm before! I was feeling great and trotting along nicely. I knew I was going too quick so slowly I decided to slow down the pace a bit until I settled into something a bit more sensible. Soon we passed over another bridge and into Queens which was a bit less noisy but still enthusiastic. Around 13 -16 miles I had a really strange patch where I slowed a lot. Not sure what happened but I had to have a strict word with myself and get sorted out.
At 16 miles we crossed another bridge to Manhattan and the crowd was amazing again and I had sorted myself out so I trotted along first avenue very nicely thank you. At around 19 miles it started to become more of a struggle, some gradual uphills were taking their toll on tired legs and I really started to tire as we crossed into The Bronx for a couple of miles before crossing back into Manhattan. I was tired by this point, but not so tired I had to walk (apart from drinks stations, the drinks were in cups and I kept splashing my face!!!) so I kept going.
I was slowing and as we ran alongside Central Park the support was amazing but it was starting to become a struggle. But not as much of a struggle as in the past. I was able to keep running without having to battle with myself about walking, I just wasn’t running as fast as I had done at the start! In fact, I think I ran almost all of the way from 23 miles to the end and this was probably the brightest last few miles in a marathon I had ever had.
Just before the finish we went a bit uphill which was tough but eventually I was finished, 4:26:01, my 4th fastest of 13 marathons and I was very happy. And very cold, shivering in fact. It seemed to take an age to get through the finish and back to the hotel. I encountered Gary en route who was disappointed with his new 2:55 PB but had just bought tickets to a show so was OK!
Post race we ate a Macdonalds, I know this is a bad thing to do…then we took in a show and then fell into a deep (and rather chuffed with myself) sleep, yay!!!
Sunday, 2 November 2008
2008 ING New York City Marathon Alert Notification
| Event Information: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Event: | The ING New York City Marathon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Runner: | Lindsay Cook | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Latest Results at 02:46:06 PM: | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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All times are unofficial. Times may vary in post race official results.
Please note: This e-mail was sent from the NYRR Automated E-mail Notification System. Please do not reply.
Sincerely,
New York Road Runners
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