Andy's 1991 NYC Marathon Memories

The good things were

• I took a disposable camera along. It was the kind that shot wide photos. At times, I would stop and take a picture. I took a lot of pictures including one of the "world's longest urinal". The pictures are shown below (except for the urinal photo). You can also go to the 1998 page for more photos during the race.
• I ran the entire course without stopping (except for two pee breaks and some picture taking).
• I felt OK throughout. I was better trained for the event (I had done some 18 and 20 mile runs beforehand). I never felt hostility towards the crowd (like in 1990).
• There seemed to be more cheering as I approached the finish (maybe it was just because I felt better and could notice).
• I had several people waiting to greet me at the end (my sister Janet, her friend Ira, her daughters Jackie and Julie, my friends Paula, Larry and Samantha Edlavitch).
• I met a friend Chris Poppitti along the way (he was a volunteer worker and I saw him at the 8 mile mark and at the finish).

• My achilles tendon bothered me the entire race.
• I had to wear my glasses (I was between contac lenses).
• They started the race before I even got to the starting area which resulted in it taking 6 minutes for me just to get to the starting line (though I'd heard about this problem from others, it didn't happen to me last year so I didn't think it necessary to position myself at the gate early in order to get there on time). Also they did start the race somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes early.
• Though I kept a steady pace throughout the race, it was a very slow pace for me (it was about a 9 1/2 minute pace when I usually run at about 8 min/mile).  I think this may have been partly due to the achilles tendon. Also because I started at the back of the pack, my pace was affected by the slower runners I was with (it was just 5 weeks earlier I ran a 20 mile race in 2:44 which is about 8.2 min/mile).

The previous year my first goal was to finish and my second goal was to finish without stopping. I only accomplished the first. This year my first goal was to finish without stopping and my second goal was to finish in under 4 hours. Again I only accomplished the first.

Before The Race

Here we are in front of the stage (where they do a lot of announcements and lead us in warm-up exercises). There are a lot of groups there from many countries. Besides wearing team shirts, the groups sometimes wear silly hats. I don't know which group it is, but you can see a group wearing bunny ear hats.

At this point, we began walking to our starting area on the Verrazano Bridge.

So now we're waiting at the start.

The Race

After the Verrazano, we got onto Fourth Avenue. Here's what that looked like.

The 59 Street Bridge (aka Queensborough Bridge) is about the mid-point. It's a tough part because of the steep climb but you get a great view and the crowd at the end is terrific. Here's the view you get as you're running toward the city.

After the bridge, we turned North onto First Avenue. Somewhere along the way I took this picture.

As I approached the finish line, I took the following 2 pictures.

Here's the finish. I don't know who the pushy lady is.

Family Reunion Photos

Here is everyone. My sister and family are on the left. Larry, Paula and Samantha are on the right.

Here I am with Paula, Larry and Samantha.

Here's my handsome mug. This gives you an idea what you look like when you're done (not a pretty sight). In addition, I had to wear those ugly glasses.