Now that the pics are all up for NYC Marathon, here comes a race report, entitled “Why do all my marathons end up associated with the phrase ‘Hottest on Record,?”
To start, the trip to NY from SC unexpectedly turned into a lot of fun! We took the 6AM flight and we’re supposed to land in NY around 8:30AM I think, bet we’re diverted to Allentown, PA due to fog. They said we’d likely be back in the air by about 9:30-10:00. I got us a little keepsake to lighten things up and commemorate our time in Allentown:
After about 30 minutes, we decided we’d rather rent a car and drive the rest of the way than roll the dice on what the delay would actually be (and Delta gave us each $100 vouchers for our trouble compared to $70 for a rental).
We decided to try to find any unusual roadside attractions to stop at along the way with our new mascot and arrived at Devil’s Tree in Bernard’s Township, NJ
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It turns out that turning our rerouting into a positive was the right call. We made several stops and still got to downtown NYC before noon as we kept getting new notices that our flight was continually delayed (it apparently finally landed at La Guardia around 5:00PM as we were enjoying an incredible meal at Lucien French Bistro):
On to the actual race! As mentioned in the title, it was the hottest NYC Marathon on record since they’ve been doing them in November. Of course, my starting wave would not be until 11:30AM, so my day started in the mid-70F’s and stayed between there and about 80F all day (still not as hot as my Disney ones or when Myrtle Beach was run in May, but close!). Even setting out to take it slow, my hamstrings started cramping by about mile 9-10 and really didn’t want to me to do any real running after about mile 14, so the second half was a slow slog to the finish!
However, what a great experience! The crowds even that many hours into the day were amazing and there were people cheering almost the entire course. The views were amazing, the course support and volunteers were excellent, and aside from the buses from the ferry to the start line, everything was run exceptionally well. I really hope to get through the lottery again someday soon, it was really a great experience and, although this one was really, really slow, I’d love to get a chance to do it again when it’s chilly out!
Here’s some pics from the actual race!
(November is still warm in SC, thank goodness it was cloudy!)
