It all started with arriving in New York on Friday night. With our backpacks on, we headed over to the race expo to pick up my race bib. After getting my bib, we walked around a bit looking at all of the NYC Marathon gear and the vendors. We took some moments to capture some pictures. (You will have to look at Brent’s pictures later). On Saturday, we did something that I probably shouldn’t have done. We walked around the streets of New York City. By the time the day was done, we had walked 14 miles. This was not the best thing to do the day before a marathon, but in the end I think it was worth it. Brent and I had a great time just walking through the different parks and squares. It was a fun free sight seeing day. If we would have taken the subway, we would have missed out on some fun areas of the city.
With the time change, I went to bed at a normal time and was able to get an extra hour of sleep. I didn’t actually sleep too much, so that extra hour was helpful. The night before we had planned out my route to get to the ferry that would take me to the start. Since the city was new to me, I was anxious about getting there on time for the ferry. I woke up anxious and nervous. I was quiet as I ate and prepared myself for the race. It was a windy day. There was a wind advisory for gusts up to 50 miles per hour. It was still going to be a 50 degree day without rain. The wind made the air really cold. I made it on the subway, but was still feeling anxious. After transferring to a different subway line, I finally saw other runners. When I got on that subway with them, I was starting to feel a little more comfortable. My nervousness started to disappear and was gone by the time I made it on the ferry.
It took over an hour to make it to the starting area after a 20 minute ferry ride and a half hour bus ride. I was content on the bus because it was warm. They shoved so many of us on there that people were standing in the aisle. I was just glad to have gotten on early enough to get a seat. I was going to be standing long enough. The staging area for the start was so large I had to walk for several minutes to find my start village. I took it as an opportunity to have something warm to drink since the wind was making the air cold. The canon went off and the race had started. Well, it had started for the really fast people. I had another 50 minutes to wait. I walked over to my start corral, so that I could get in before the cut off. I didn’t want to be late to anything.
I am glad I went over there because there were several people huddled close together waiting to get into the corral. It was the warmest spot in the staging area. It was fun to talk with some of the other runners. There was a girl from Australia running her first marathon, a guy who was 60 who decided on his 50th to run 20 marathons. This was going to be number 15, only 5 to go! There was a father and daughter who were running together. It was fun to listen to each others stories about this race and other races. It helped make the time go by faster.
We finally were able to go through the corral and make our way to the clothing donation bin. Unfortunately, it was still so cold with the wind that most people were keeping there clothes. Good thing they were going to go along the course and pick up the clothes to donate them. I left mine on although I had originally planned on getting rid of them at that point. I made it up to the start line and waited for the gun to go off.
Check back later for the rest of the story…
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