Pictures This year, I took a disposable panoramic camera along (I last did that in 1991).
As usual, we begin at Fords Wadsworth. Shortly before the race we're herded to the bridge.
Here we are waiting for the start.
The mayor makes a quick speech and the cannon goes off. The race begins and we start crossing the Verrazanno Bridge. I somehow missed capturing in my picture any runners peeing off the bridge.
We enter Brooklyn and run up 4th Avenue. In this picture, you can see the Williamsburg Savings Bank Building in the distance. You can also see some of the many kids giving high fives.
We cross the Pulaski Bridge to enter Queens. This is the mid-point of the race and there's a nice view of the New York City Skyline.
We cross the 59th Street Bridge to enter Manhattan. Here's my favorite part when we're hit by the huge crowd waiting for us as we make the U turn off the bridge.
We now have a long stretch up First Avenue.
We cross into the Bronx then back into Manhattan, around the park and then the Finish Line.
And now the excuses (zzzzzzzzzzz).... The reason my time was off was that it was so crowded in the first several miles. By the time I reached mile 8, I did the math and realized I had already lost so much time that it would require a greater effort than I am currently capable of to make up for it. But I continued along at a good pace for me. Unlike previous years, I maintained that pace after mile 20. Before the race, I decided that I wanted to try to enjoy the last 6 miles as much as the first 6. And I did (see below for what my sister said). So I'm glad about that.
My gripes (more zzzzzzzzzzzzz) Was it more crowded than other years? I think so. There definitely were more entrants (they're now up to 32,000; it was 25,000 just 8 years ago and the course hasn't changed). The organizers keep bumping up the number and I think they've exceeded the saturation point for the course. Also, because the weather was so good, there were a lot of spectators. I think the spectators are great and are a major reason why the NYC Marathon is special but the police need to do a better job in keeping them back. They often drift onto the course in order to get a better view but this makes it more crowded for the runners. Also the people doing the water tables need to stand back and let us come to them. There's too much traffic at the water tables too.
And since I'm griping, let me add another complaint. The Family Reunion Area was a mess this year again. Instead of using the Great Lawn, they used Central Park West. They had us go all the way up to about 86th Street and then trudge down to meet our families. If your last name began with a letter near the end of the alphabet, you were going to be walking all the way down to about 65th Street. Ugh!!! The last time they did this it was because the city was reseeding the grass in the park. I assume that's the reason this year too though I didn't hear an official reason. Anyway, it was pretty bad.
And one more complaint while I'm at it. I was one of the unfortunate runners who had our bags put on UPS truck #64. Everyone must have seen truck 64. It's the one that had a huge line of cold, tired runners waiting 20 minutes to pick up their bags at the end. That's not a complaint for NYRRC and most of the trucks seemed to be well organized for the end. It just added to the problem of meeting family at the end.
Compliments I should also mention what was better this year. For one thing, the staging area at Fort Wadsworth went very well. Last year, that was terrible (and the reunion area was good). This year, there was room to move around. I don't know what was different. They may have spread out the UPS trucks more. I don't know.
I also like that they were handing out PowerGel at mile 18. I hope they continue doing that in future marathons.
Highlights The biggest highlight was seeing my sister Janet and her friend Ira at 86th Street (between miles 17 and 18). It's a great boost and I appreciate it. After seeing me, they went to the park and caught me again just before mile 24. That I wasn't expecting and it was a very happy surprise. In 1994, they did that too. However, that time, they said I looked awful until I heard them calling me. This time, though, Janet said that I looked like I was doing fine (see above).
In the reunion area, I met Janet and Ira and my mother Evelyn and stepfather Herman. Here's a picture of me with my mom and Herman. Some people from New Balance were at the finish area taking free polaroid shots of everyone. We then went out to eat where I met some other runners. It's a tremendous atmosphere.
Along the course, there weren't many notable moments; nothing much different than the previous marathons. The only one that stands out are the spectators along Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn. This crowd plays some great music to get us dancing (sort of) as we're going by. Last year, they were playing "YMCA" when I passed. This year, I got to hear "Funky Town". As I passed, I raised my hands along with many of the runners and clapped to the beat.
Other Runners Through my homepage and other means, I know of a few other runners in this year's marathon. Here's a big shout out and congratulations to the following: Mike Sanders...3:03:26...awesome time (a 7 min/mile average!)...also one of the fellow victims of the infamous UPS Truck #64. Aaron Polak...3:40:08...who said you're allowed to beat me? Aaron had this to say about the race... At mile 22 I swore I would never do another marathon-- this just wasn't fun anymore. At mile 23, I asked myself why I was even doing THIS marathon, this REALLY wasn't fun anymore. Of course as I crossed the finish line and got my medal, I was totally psyched. I can't wait until next year. Aaron also sent me his own tips which I will put on the main page. Marianne DeMarco...5:03:06...a self-confessed "bandit" in the 1996 Boston Marathon ;-) Kim Hoenshell...4:39:19...first time....tremendous Kim had this to say about the race... How INCREDIBLE to run a marathon!! I will never be the same. I loved every minute (well almost every minute). I feel so great!!! So accomplished!! And participating in that marathon is as close to being/feeling famous as I will ever get. I am not sure if I really believe this has all come and gone!! WOW!!! And later she added the following... The 1998 New York City Marathon was my first marathon ever. I am not a runner, I have never been a runner, I didn't even like to run. When I started my training I couldn't even run for 6 minutes. I registered and followed the training schedule that was sent to me. I will admit training was tremendously challenging both mentally and physically. There were good days and bad days, good weeks and bad weeks. But with each new mile I gained confidence, strength and a better attitude about life. The five month training period came to close and it was time for the race. I have to say the marathon is probably one of the three greatest experiences that I have ever had in my lifetime. I couldn't stop smiling for the first six miles. The spectators combined with fact that I was in the midst of accomplishing one of my lifetime goals was almost overwhelming. I had some tough miles, some fun miles and even a boring mile or two but I am a forever changed person because of that race. I witnessed a coming together of all kinds of people and cultures, both runners and spectators. I witnessed total strangers providing me and others with more support and enthusiasm then I often receive from close friends and family. I was reminded how it feels to be a part of something far bigger than me and my world. I have not decided if I will run another marathon or not, but I would like to let everyone know that I urge you to take on this challenge. I have complete faith that anyone and I really mean anyone who wants to run a marathon can and will be successful. It truly is an experience of a lifetime; don't miss it!!!! Johanne Beauregard...6:08:24...another first timer....excellent! Marlene Loos...4:42:45...her 2nd NYC Marathon and already looking forward to next year Didier Hingan from France...3:59:07...first NYC marathon Didier had this to say about the race... i have a very good remember of my first new york city marathon this year . It's exactly the same sensation of you . My time is not sensational 3h50mn 07 but i am happy . It's a fantastic marathon .Many thanks at all americans people. Bill Kravitz...5:30:56...first marathon Bill had this to say about the race... It was incredible, even though I hit the wall at mile 14 and walked much of the second half. I think I made some mistakes. For instance, I didn't eat nearly enough that day, before and during the race. I had a small bowl of porridge at around 5:45 AM, and I didn't really eat anything else until well into the run. I didn't take nearly enough food in Queens, either. I guess I was afraid of getting an upset stomach. Instead, I got hunger pains, something I wasn't expecting. The 59th Street Bridge was horrible...I just lost a lot of mental confidence/toughness going up that thing. I'm 30 years old. I ran the Manhattan half marathon in 2:09, and the Manhattan 30K in around 3.5 hrs. So I fully expected to finish the NYC Marathon faster than my time of 5.5 hrs. I did only two 18-20 mile training runs (they say you should do a minimum of three), and I was averaging only 30-35 miles a week at my training peak. Plus, two weeks prior to the race I did a hard 14 or 15 mile run when I should have maybe taken it easier. Oh well. You live and learn. The important thing is that I finished and had fun. Plus I want to do it again next year, which is a good sign! I wish I saw your site before the marathon; it would have helped! David Richman...5:07:23...another first timer....check out David's web page (has lots of pictures) Steven Richman...5:18:26...David's dad...ran with his Brooklyn Dodger cap Candace and John Winslow...4:59:31 for Candace, 4:59:28 for John Candace had this to say about the race... Words could never express what an unbelievable day 11/1/98 was for me and John. A year ago, I could not run more than 1 mile.....have never had an athletic bone in my body; John, on the other hand, is an accomplished runner. Due to 12 months of training, John & I ran every step of the race together. An incredible personal achievement, and an incredible achievement for us as a team. The spectators were like energy for me....based on something I read on your site, I put my name on my shirt (front & back). Every time I heard my name, I knew I could go another step. And albeit my knees literally locked up around 18, I pushed through the pain. When I crossed the finish line, I immediately knew that I had been hooked. But I will only run the NYC marathon, for surely it is the best in the country and surely there are no better fans than the New Yorkers! We have been waiting with baited breath every day for the mail to come and to receive our marathon video....we've gotten our proofs back and they are terrific. Thanks for the awesome pics on the site...it's helping me wait a bit more patiently. Congratulations on finishing yet another NYC marathon, and for building such a great site. We have already sent for our 99 application! Jim Adams of Baltimore...3:38:03 Jim had this great story to tell about running NYCM one week after running the Marine Corps Marathon... Normally I don't run two marathons in a year, much less two in a week's time. Nonetheless, for reasons best explained in another forum, I found myself at the starting line of the New York City Marathon the week-end after I had run, jogged, walked, and slogged to a 3:19 Boston qualifier at MCM. On this day I would be witness not only to the glory and grandeur that is New York City, but also up close and personal to the heart-wrenching drama that comes in the marathon. After being bussed out to the staging area at Fort Wadsworth, I discovered, that contrary to popular legend, the corral system and start at Staten Island seemed to be pretty well organized. At 10:20 I wandered over to the trucks, dropped off my bags, and walked over to my corral area in the 3000 number series. It was easy to get into, and not that crowded. I will confess that since I was not concerned about a fast time I didn't really care if I was in the front of the corral or not. A few people sneaked in under the netting that served as a fence, but not too many. As we were led out to the start some people from the 5000 pen tried to shove ahead, but it wasn't nearly as pushy as I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I estimated that there were probably three thousand people ahead of me on the blue start on the top of the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge. The green start on the lower level probably had just as many people in the gap. The start went off at 10:50, and it took me 1:12 to reach the toll booths, which I thought were the start lines. I jogged easily up the bridge to a 9:12 first mile. The women were on the other side of the bridge, and had a different sort of staggered start. We were to run side by side in separate lanes for a few miles, then the women's course veered off to make up ground before merging into the men's course about mile 8. In the meantime, the lower bridge merged into the blue course about mile 4. I discovered a friend in the crowd, and he began to brief me on how the mergers would work and create more crowded conditions. My quads and calves were already feeling tired from last week, so I just wanted to take it easy and survive the day. Mile two came in 8:56, and then I began to feel better. I was passing a lot of people and picked up the pace even more, though I was trying to be conservative. I didn't want to waste any energy trying to scoot around slower people. Somewhere in Brooklyn two women passed me. They were obviously running together and were working their way through the throng. I fell in behind them because their pace seemed comfortable to me, and they were doing the work of separating the crowd. One of them stood out from the crowd because she was wearing a black and orange striped outfit with her name "Maddy" emblazoned both front and back. I lost them at a water stop, but later on they caught up to me (maybe they had been letting me do some of the work), and as they went by I fell in step. It was a little more open, and we ran side by side. Passing a mile marker, I hit my watch. 7:30 for the last mile, too fast for me in my condition. "How fast are you trying to run?" I asked them. They exchanged comments in a language that I did not understand, then Maddy turned to me and said, "Five minutes per kilometer." Well, I was having trouble doing the math, but I knew this much. A 7:30 mile is a lot faster than five minutes per kilometer, and told them so. They began discussing this, and I backed off the pace. I passed them again going up the 59th Street Bridge. This seemed to be a long uphill mile, but I felt comfortable and passed a lot of people here. Simon & Garfunkle kept rolling through my head - "Slow down, you move too fast, got to make the morning last, skippin' down the cobblestones, doo-da-doo dah, feelin' groovy". The crowds were huge coming off the bridge into Manhattan. On First Avenue they lined the streets and sidewalks for miles. At the PowerGel station I grabbed two, but they were the new hocolate flavor, so I went back and swapped them for the more familiar lemon-lime flavor. I downed one at the next water station, and saved the other for later. Somewhere north of here I saw Brittin Clark with a huge "Carpe Viam" sign. Maddy and her friend caught up with me at about mile 18 1/2. As we crossed the bridge into the Bronx, Maddy began to fade. Her friend looked back at her, then decided to maintain her pace with me. We had been running about 8 minutes a mile since hitting First Avenue. As we left the Bronx, I spotted the 20 Mile marker. Looking over to my running partner, I lifted both hands with fingers outstretched. "Ten kilometers," I remarked. She nodded her head. The clock says 2:45. "3:30?", she asked. I shook my head. "3:35," I told her. OK. People are now beginning to slow and walk. She told me, "This is the tough portion of the race." "Here," I responded, "We call it the Wall." She replied, "We call it `The Man with a Hammer'." I'm not sure if she knew what I was talking about, so I introduced myself. Her name was Vivianne, and she's from Nederlands. I substituted Washington DC for Baltimore so she could recognize my home area. Now we had 8 kilometers to go. Running down Fifth Avenue from Harlem towards Central Park I noticed that Vivianne's pace was beginning to falter. I still had the packet of PowerGel with me, so I told her I wanted her to take it at the next water station. "Will it help?" she inquired. "It will either help or make you sick," I said. "Stay in the middle of the road and I'll get the water." Re-energized by the shot from the PowerGel, she resumed her 8 minute pace, but began to lag again about a mile later. The Apache believed that to possess one's name was also to possess a power over the soul. Maybe surrendering her name to me wasn't such a good idea because of the power it gave me. I spotted a fire truck parked on the side of the course loaded with firemen watching the race, so I sprinted ahead. "This is Vivianne coming up," I shouted, "She's tired and needs your help. Yell for her when she gets here!" As she pulled up to the truck, twenty male voices exploded in unison ,"GO VIVIAN!" Her pace picked up noticeably, and I now had a mission in life for the next few miles. Entering Central Park at the 23 mile mark, I told her, "5 kilometers, you can do it." Then I ran over and incited the crowds again. "GO VIVIAN!" they roared. She smiled at the crowds and waved, then set her head to the task at hand. And so it went, all the way through Central Park. I had the crowds cheering for Vivianne, and I had her pace pegged at 8:40 (she was a little faster but I could calculate that...2:10 per 400m, 5:25 for 1000m. Between the crowds, I would run back to her every 5 1/2 minutes, four kilometers, three kilometers, two kilometers to go, and the people were screaming. She would smile and wave, which made the crowds even more enthusiastic. I was having a blast and not feeling the least bit tired. In Columbus Circle Maddy caught up to us again. Vivianne stayed off my shoulder, close to the crowds and the life- sustaining energy emanating with every roar. "RUN VIVIAN, GO!" The Big Apple was reverberating, and Vivianne was rocking and running. Suddenly she saw the 26 mile banner and began to really push it. "Five hundred meters" I shouted, but she didn't let up. At the banner I told her "Four hundred meters, come on, you can do it." The crowd was going crazy and she was passing all kinds of people. Suddenly, her pace lagged. "Come on, come on, two hundred meters Vivianne, come on." Her arms pumping, she began racing for the finish. I was just off her shoulder, entreating the crowds, entreating Vivianne, and we could see the chutes flying up to greet us. With thirty meters to go she gained rapidly on the three men between her and the chute. "Go get'em Vivianne!" I was exhorting, the crowd in the grandstands was hysterical, and she put on a sudden burst and blasted by the remaining obstacles between her and the finish. From a half step behind her she looked strong. Her stride was smooth and powerful, without a hint of the fatigue built up from the previous miles. She planted her right foot, and the result is fixed in my mind in slow motion. As she began to lift her left leg up from the ground, her entire right leg started to wobble, then buckled at the knee. Ten feet, just ten feet from the finish line, Vivianne collapsed in a heap on the pavement. I stopped and went back to her, yelling for the medics. The swingman immediately closed the area in front of that chute, directing trailing runners to our right. "I'm OK, I'm OK," Vivianne was saying as the medic rushed up. "Can you stand?" he asked her, and we offered assistance. Grabbing our arms, she pulled herself up, but as soon as her legs attempted to support her weight, she sank back to the ground. I looked at the medic, and we each grabbed an arm, put it around our shoulders, and picked her up. With us supporting her weight, she was finally able to move her legs, and we crossed the finish line together. 3:38:03 We carried her through the chute to a waiting stretcher. I got her a medal and a rose stem as they put her on the stretcher. She flashed me a big smile, "Thank you, thank you!" she mumbled as they moved her away to the medical station and, most likely, out of my life forever. One of my slowest marathons, but one of my best times.
And special thanks to Mario Anglero, Thomas Guidera and Doug L for their support and kind words.