ING New York City Marathon - RunMarathon

I wish I could say my first marathon was a good experience. It wasn't. My pace group was great, and I came 4 minutes within my goal of 3:30 - but the bottom line is: this is one crowded race! And nobody ever gives their real time. I calculated afterwards that I passed 10,000+ people. I bobbed and weaved more than I ran straight for the first 2/3rds of the race. And no, I am not kidding.

Additionally NYC coordinators and the handbook said there was no "family freinds" meeting place. Meanwhile there was and they had the whole length of an avenue alongside Central Park closed, with big letters corresponding to your last name to meet your loved ones. But barely anyone was there cause nobody knew about it! I had to hobble and slowly walk 15 blocks before I finally got a cab. Every freaking cab in God's creation was taken.

The positives were: the other runners (for the most part) were great; the people of NYC rock! ; crowds were super supportive ; they put orange foam matting over the bridge going into the Bronx, which was awesome cause by mile 22 (I think it was) it would've been beyond painful to run over metal grating ; plenty of aid stations.

Not run this race with any type of time expectation - this is not a fast course due to the overwhelming number of participants.

Walk, errr hobble and drag my feet for 2 miles just to get out of Central Park, then walk for over an hour trying to find a cab. Miserable, painful, lonely experience.


The almost 11,000 slower runners in front of me.


I really, really am looking forward to Steamtown in October. If you have not run a marathon yet, I would not recommend a monster marathon as your first - unless you only plan to run one. If I could do it over, I would have ran a smaller more intimate event, for sure.