My run-dezvous with New York City.
Three weeks ago I ran the TCS New York City Marathon and I still can’t believe that sentence is true. Despite being one of the hardest and most overwhelming experiences (in all of the ways) it was one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made. While running a marathon isn’t for everyone, many of us face challenges that feel just a big, so I’ve decided to share what the experience was like for me. If you are looking for a boost of encouragement to tackle your next big goal (whatever that looks like) I hope you find it here or at the very least, enjoy stepping into the (very bouncy) shoes of a beginner runner taking on the world’s biggest marathon of all time…so here goes….
I said flippantly about 20 years ago that if I was ever going to run a marathon, it would be New York or nowhere. Why? Well, apart from being one of my favourite cities, I knew it would take a Manhattan sized dose of motivation to actually do such a ridiculously crazy thing. I was no runner. Far, (very far) from it. So, that sweeping statement stayed exactly where I left it for multiple decades, out there in the ether, until May 2023….
I was nearing the end of a training plan for my first half marathon which had given me an inkling of what training for an endurance race entails. Based on what I had just done, I was starting to understand the preparation involved for these kinds of distances. I could see how (in theory) the pieces of the physical and mental puzzle combined to prepare a beginner runner like myself for a marathon. Logically, it made sense, despite the training volume and end game being double the distance and volume of what I had just locked and loaded. So, believing that perhaps this very crazy thing was (slightly) possible and armed with the naivety a gal needs to set off on a year long goal and learn an entirely new skill, I made the moves to land myself a spot in the 2024 TCS NYC Marathon. I was off and…running.
Now I need to state clearly, training for your first marathon is HARD. Really hard. Don’t let those influencers and hot young(er) things whizzing past you filming themselves in barely there crop tops and perfect hair (where are their hats btw?) have you believe otherwise. Teaching your body to do something new takes patience, perseverance and a whole lot of carbs. I’m not going to tell you how to train for a marathon, after all I’m a novice and we all have different bodies, levels of experience and lifestyles to take into account. You do you. What I will say is, that for me, training for this thing was a huge time commitment and I dedicated hundreds of hours to prehab, nutrition, recovery, strength training and run sessions that it felt like a part time job. Outside of the mental and physical outlay, educating myself and managing the logistics to get in all my training was an ongoing juggle. But, after a 6 month build phase (dotted with some more practice races of various distances and terrains) followed by a 6 month training block, I was tapered and ready, en route to the airport…
Landing at JFK felt familiar (I had only just been there 10 months prior) and unseasonably warm for November. New York was in the middle of a drought so the weather, especially the prediction for marathon day was, quite literally, a hot topic for everyone (pleased to say it cooled down rapidly to a balmy, yet sunny 5°C for marathon day, chilly but ideal conditions apparently!) Now, I like to be prepared for big occasions and moments of importance. However, despite deep diving into every piece of content available about the NYC Marathon created by the professionals and amateurs alike, nothing could really prepare me for what I was about to see, feel and hear over the next 4 days….
The Friday before race day, there was no time for jetlag, I had a date with the Marathon Expo to pick up my race bib and merch first thing in the morning. Well then. Walking into that Marathon Expo was one of the most overwhelming parts of the weekend as this was like nothing I had ever seen. This was a stadium. A vast arena split into 2 parts. It made even the expos of the biggest races back home look like a humble market stand. On one side, you had rows and rows of check in desks and support people who rang bells and cheered for you if it was your first marathon. This area was adjacent to the biggest New Balance store (a major sponsor) of all time. It was so big they had even flown their sales staff in from all over the country to be able to serve their guests over the weekend as NY didn’t have enough! It was filled with all the sports merch you can think of and even had a mini running track within it so you could test out the new range of NB shoes. Only once you made your way through the New Balance space (clever) you arrived at the other part of the expo with the rest of the suppliers and partner activations that you would expect from such an event. To give you an idea of how big this place was, I spent 2 and a half hours there, looking at the brands and activations that took my fancy, absorbing all the excitement that I could and I didn’t even see everything. After that it was off for a little more tourist-ing (always!) and back to the hotel to try and rest the legs (this is way harder than you think btw!)
The day before the marathon, I rose early and headed for a shakeout run in Central Park. The nerves were still flowing but the movement helped a lot. The sunrise was magic, the park was lit up with coral colours of ‘fall.’ The park glows at that time of day and it always blows my mind that New Yorkers sleep in and miss how Mother Nature can make their dirty big city sparkle from within like that. My husband did the Abbott 5Km dash warm up race which took him from the United Nations HQ to the Marathon finish line which was super fun to watch. You could feel the excitement from spectators around town building and spot fellow marathoners based on what shoes they were wearing. We followed this with cookies from the best bakery in the city, Levain #iykyk, a trip to the Tracksmith pop up on the Upper West Side (a chic, Boston based track brand that creates cool bespoke pieces for each of the major marathons around the world) then off to a show on Broadway (again, needed to stay off feet by this time of the day.) The evening finished with a low key carb filled dinner, a read through of some encouraging notes sent from home, one last double check of all my gear and the words “I can’t believe I’m running a freakin’ marathon tomorrow” as my head hit the pillow.
When the alarm went off at 4am marathon morning, I got up straight away because I didn’t want to be rushed and needed a moment to calm my nerves. I had a nibble of some bagels – which we sourced from a 24 hour diner around the corner (If you can’t already tell, food was a huge consideration for this trip to ensure I was properly fuelled and hydrated. I had practiced my nutrition for months leading up to the day, but being overseas you have to adapt, especially to accommodate jetlag and dehydration – so restaurants and snacks were planned in advance where possible!) My bus arrived at 6am to a dark, freezing midtown Manhattan to begin the the hour long trip to the start village on Staten Island. I didn’t chat much on the bus (unusual for me) which I think was due to a mix of jetlag-gy fog, nerves and the overwhelming feeling of awe that I made it to the start line. I was actually about to do this thing I’d been preparing for, for a year.
The NYC Marathon is referred to as a ‘point to point’ marathon, meaning it doesn’t start and finish in the same spot (many marathons are a loop of some sort.) So while this makes for a fun race day (the course runs through all 5 boroughs of New York City) it creates a logistical minefield for everyone involved. The course included 5 bridges (bridges = hills 😭) but the first bridge, the Verrazzano, had to close to traffic as it becomes part of the marathon course. That meant that all runners had to be at the start line by 7am at the latest. The wave start times range from 9.30am – 11.30am based on proposed finish time, so many (myself included) were at the start line for 3-4 hours or so just waiting in the freezing cold. So, you need to come prepared with food, water (this is also provided in each village) rain protection, battery charging packs and of course very warm clothes (There were donation bins for all of the gear once discarded which was distributed to the homeless.) All that makes for a really long morning, before you’ve even pressed ‘start’ on your watch. The enormity of the start village is again like nothing I’ve experienced, its 226 acres in size and takes 4 weeks to set up. Security and police were everywhere, including 6 x NYPD helicopters circling above which was another reminder ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore Toto...’
Finally it’s was time to hit the START line and we were ushered up to the base of the first bridge. The canons go off (preluded by an announcement so we know the sound isn’t something sinister) the National anthem is belted out by a Broadway star and Sinatra’s “New York, New York” starts booming through the speakers. THIS was the signature marathon moment I had been thinking about for the last year. When I heard that song and looked ahead to the thousands of people on the bridge ahead of me I remember feeling so happy that my body was able to do it! Getting to the start line was a huge achievement and I was ready for the victory lap - only 42.2kms to go….it was showtime ladies and gentlemen!
Like I said earlier, this marathon runs through all 5 boroughs of New York City, each of them with their own unique vibe. Here’s a little taste of what each one was like…
STATEN ISLAND – the start of it all. You don’t see a lot of SI but the iconic Verrazano Bridge now holds a core memory for me. I slowed down to take a few pictures as I ran across the top level of it, the Statue of Liberty is down below framed by the view of the downtown Manhattan skyline. It’s the only day of the year that pedestrians are allowed on this bridge. Iconic for a reason.
BROOKLYN – half of the marathon is run in Brooklyn and this place was a party from start to finish. 10-20 people deep on both sides of the course, bars were filled, live music was pumping, glitter was everywhere and the signs were epic (also, very clever.) From kids to the elderly, police to medicos, the high 5’s were regular and the noise was deafening. It’s hard to describe how bananas this was. I soaked it all up (and took so many pictures) that my jaw was hurting from smiling so much. Brooklyn was the best and positively buoyant.
QUEENS – Crossing over to Queens signalled the halfway point and features the Queensboro Bridge which was eerily quiet and dark. The incline was hard, no spectators were allowed here and many used this point for a moment of rest or recalibration to get through the second (harder) half of the race. I knew my husband and sister-in-law would be in this borough so that kept me going. It was THE BEST to see people I actually knew on the course and as this was at about the 25km mark, I needed it because I was starting to hurt a little here. I stopped for a big hug from both of them and was then quickly on my way. I wanted to get to that finish line!
MANHATTAN – turning onto 1st Avenue in Manhattan, you hit what is known as ‘the wall of sound.’ I knew it was coming, but could never have anticipated just how loud it would be. Running down here was the closest I will ever get to feeling like Beyoncé. It seemed like everyone was screaming my name. This was the first foray into Manhattan (we headed back here again for the final 7kms or so) and there were people lined up for as long and far as the eye could see. Seriously.
BRONX – This part lived up to its name as the ‘boogie down Bronx.’ There was a school breakdancing crew, multiple jazz bands and probably some of the coolest outfits I’d spotted on course. These supporters had style and rhythm and it was fun to watch them having such a great day out watching streams of people they didn’t know run by them. It was still feeling hard here (between 25-32kms were the hardest) but the last of the 5 bridges to conquer was coming up, so it was one step after the other until….
THE HOME STRETCH – any fatigue I was feeling melted away here. As we headed over the final bridge, we were greeted with the steady incline of 5th Avenue (which was really cruel, why so many hills at the end of a marathon?!?!?) but also as I looked up ahead, the Empire State Building was like a beacon up in the distance. It was the final reminder of exactly where I was and slowly but surely, as we passed the joyous banter exuding from the streets of Harlem, Central Park came into view on my right. FINALLY. There was another boom in the crowds here which was unexpected as navigating around the park on marathon day was known to be tricky so I expected the crowd to be trickling. Not even close. At one stage I felt like I was flying (I really wasn’t, but a sign of how great my body was feeling again.) I saw my husband once more as I passed the 40km mark and it wasn’t until then, that I knew, really knew with certainty that I was going to finish this thing. Then I saw ‘the flags.’ The start of the last hill to the finish line was dotted with flags of every nation represented in the race, the Aussie flag was bottom right. The last 700m was again, uphill, but I can’t remember it feeling that hard because once I saw the finish line I didn’t take my eyes off it. I literally jumped over the finish line and couldn’t have been smiling any bigger. Big joy. Big relief. Big pride in the Big Apple.
It was another few hundred meters until the happiest volunteer put the (best ever) medal around my neck and we were given our (oh so very warm, fleece lined) ponchos for the long trek out of the park. In another cruel blow, when you cross the finish line, you can’t just be off on your merry way however you please. You have to walk another 2kms (with very tired marathon legs) along a designated path to get out of the park and then another 1.5km back around to meet up with loved ones. This walk was freezing, the sun was starting to set but the volunteers were still cheering for us all and I actually loved it. We all looked like orange zombies walking slowly but surely side by side to the exit pondering this big thing we just did together. Some were happy, some were on struggle street, but I was beaming……I JUST FINISHED THE NYC MARATHON! (Also, I was really hungry.)
I’ve never been involved in the greatest/biggest/largest anything. But it turns out, the 2024 TCS NYC Marathon was the biggest marathon, globally, of all time with over 54,000 runners. A fun part of history for this milestone moment of my life so far and one of the greatest examples of diversity, strength, humility and willpower I think I’ll ever witness.
I have many learnings from that day. About myself, about running. Weaknesses became apparent, adjustments, improvements and efficiencies to be gained. Strengths were also realised. But my biggest takeaway and best memory of this whole adventure will be the people. The people from home who cheered me on and encouraged me to keep going. When I was tired, when it was hard, when I felt embarrassed for being a beginner. The people who helped me with life at home, while I was training and travelling, so my kids always had a smile on their face even when I was wasn’t there. The people who volunteered on race day, all 10,000+ of them who ran the show like a slick, well oiled machine and created an example of real operational excellence. And finally, the people of New York City, who cheered and yelled out my name from start to finish and made me feel like an invincible rockstar. Whose passion for their city and these strangers running through it made me smile through the pain and believe I could keep going. All of these people, a combination from near and far allowed me to feel brave enough to tackle something so far out of my comfort zone and have one of the very best days of my life. I have huge gratitude for them all. It was my ultimate celebration and one that I will never forget.
It's funny know that I’m back home, the question I’ve been asked the most is will I be doing another? Well….it’s a likely yes. When the time is right.
Because after all, if I can make it (to the finish line) there I can make it anywhere, right Sinatra?
Finish line joy. What a day! What a city!