The Third Marathon in Four Weeks. Will it all end in tears?

We left Harrisburg in the pouring rain for New York where we arrived …….in the pouring rain. Seems that the entire East Coast had caught the tail end of Hurricane Melissa that had devastated Jamaica and then proceeded to dump rain all the way North. Fortunately, it was short lived and the following days were cool but dry. Our accommodation was only about three blocks from Penn station but the rain was so heavy we arrived sodden.

We joined up with the group from RunFun travel. I had qualified for this event myself so we only required a room not the full package. We were on the periphery but it made life much easier having some familiar faces around the place. It also gave us the opportunity to meet some new friends.

I had run twice after the Marine Corp Marathon the week before. Both short runs to try and run some of the soreness out but was a little worried how starting another marathon already a bit worse for wear was going to go. I’d had a 5 km along the river in Harrisburg, still felt a bit sore in the legs but much more positive than I was earlier in the week.

We went to the expo to pick up the race number and the t-shirt. This is where you first get the feel for how big this event is. There’re people everywhere!! For many this is their first marathon, something of the order of 8-9000 I think I heard. Of those many will be one and done. Meaning that if you want a souvenir top or shirt or whatever then this is it. And people were buying. And buying big. I heard figures that this event is worth over a billion dollars to the greater New York community in flights, accommodation, food and sales. Big, Big. We did our thing and got out as quickly as possible. Number, T-shirt, a nifty back pack from the Abbott Age Group people a couple of gels and we were out.

Anne and I walked the Highline on Saturday and had a coffee at the Australian themed Bluestone Lane Cafe. Coffee was OK but I’m not sure they would get away with the pricing in Melbourne. Ouch. But that’s New York. I found everything price wise on a par with Melbourne prices. Unfortunately, that was before tax and tip and currency conversion. The serves are huge but the quality is not so great. Let’s not talk about the coffee.

The Marathon

Sunday morning rolls around. I had to be on the bus at 5.30 am as I was in one of the first waves being in the World Age Group Championship. I met up with the others from RunFun who were on the same bus including the amazing Krishna Stanton who ended up winning her age group and beating me in by about 20 minutes. We were shepherded to the bus by Dave and Fran from RunFun and special guest star Steve Monaghetti. Krishna and I sat together and found that we knew a lot of folk in common from around the Australian running scene so it was great way to spend some time. Krishna took lots of phots before the start and many of the images with this blog are courtesy of her.

We found some space and settled in to keep warm, had a couple of comfort stops and then we were moved as waves around to the start line. We had heard the cannon go for the wheelies and then for the elite women. Gathered at the start it went again and the elite men charged past on the other side of the bridge. We gave them a head start and then it was our turn. Boom! Cannon goes off, Frank Sinatra starts New York, New York and we head up the Verrazzano Narrows bridge. First kilometre is all up. Go through in 5.03 minutes. Good pace. Next kilometre is all down. Go through in 4.17. A bit quick but all downhill. Next bit is also mainly downhill. Still quick at 4.30-4.35 for the next couple but downhill and flat and comfortable.

Through 7-8 km and legs could tell (and did tell me) that we had run a marathon last week but were rolling along and not getting any worse. I told myself that it was likely that they would fall apart but maybe if we kept going long enough there wouldn’t be too much left to do when it happened. Interesting theory. Not sure where it came from. Through Brooklyn and into Queens (I think. I don’t live here). 10 km down and then 12 and then 15. Still holding good pace and being pushed along by the deafening crowd. Several deep in places and loud, very loud.

Went through the half on a bridge or an uphill and was still looking at a pace to finish in around 3 :12-3:15 but knew that the previous events will eventually make themselves known. There were also a couple of bridges to be climbed and I was pretty sure they were going to hurt. Up and on to the Queenboro bridge. This is one spooky bit of the run. No spectators are allowed on the bridge so it is quiet, mercifully, strangely quiet. The slap of the runners feet and the sound of the cars on the upper roadway and that’s it. Until you get near to the end with a sharp downhill and turn and the roar of the crowd starts again.

This gets us to First Ave and we head North. It doesn’t pay to look too far ahead on this bit. It is a wide boulevard but straight, and long, very long. In fact it turns out to be over three miles or 5 km of straight run and if you look forward all you can see is runners and spectators and if you were to look back it would be just the same. I wasn’t looking back. I knew there were still over 50000 runners behind me.

Things were starting to get a bit tough. There’s a couple of bridges up around the Bronx and some funny little turns and twists and I was getting some enough is enough messages from my legs. I tried to convince them that we didn’t have far to go but they had heard that last week and were not convinced. On to Fifth Avenue. The last road before Central Park. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that this road is flat. I have 50,000 runners who’ll testify that is a gradual uphill. I was concentrating on trying to maintain posture and pace even though I could feel myself slowing. If I kept my head up I could see where the deviation would be into Central Park and this would nearly be all over. Fifth Ave on this part of the course is about 4 km long. It also has the unfair mirage in that it runs alongside Central Park for about the last 1500 metres. Eventually, finally we trun into Central Park.

There is still over two miles or 3 km to run in Central Park but something about being in there says that the finish isn’t far away and that I will get there. Now is the time to look at the watch and see what the possibilities are. With 3 km to go if I could hold 5 min/ km I would run significantly quicker than last week. With 1 km to go up on 59th street it looks well and truly like I can beat my time from Washington. Wouldn’t that be an achievement! To run the fastest of the three marathons in the final one. It needs a Sub 8 minute kilometre. There are signs of 800m to go and then 400m to go. At this point I think I might be able to go under 3:20. Sign for 200m to go. Watch ticks over 3:19. One minute for 200 metres. Push hard. Into the finish and over the line 3:19.55. Two minutes quicker than last week, 6 minutes quicker than Melbourne three weeks ago and even 9 minutes quicker than when I ran New York for the first time back in 2019. Finished 11th in my Age Group in the World Age Group Championship so I’m claiming that as 11th in the World. Sounds good.

Quads shot, calves not happy and feet a bit distressed. We walked back to the hotel and I had a shower and a nap. We headed down to the hotel bar and had a couple of Guinness (Guinnesses?) and caught up with Krishna, Steve and the other runners as they came in. We then headed out for food.

Monday was slow, a bit of touristing up on “the Edge” the rooftop with amazing views and then to the aircraft carrier “Intrepid” which is now a museum and finally to a Broadway performance of “The Lion King”. All well worthwhile. Tuesday we packed up and pootled off. Now down in Philadelphia for the Rocky Run on Saturday. A much easier assignment. 5 km warmup and then 10 miles (16km). No expectations and no time challenges.

That will be the last of the runs on this adventure. It’s off to Vancouver and then home. We’ll be in Vancouver for my 67th birthday. New York was my 67th Marathon. There’s poetry in there somewhere.