Marathon Recap 1: Non-Race Stuff

So, I have finished the NYC Marathon!

With that being said, I have to say that the course was definitely tough. I felt that the majority of the course was uphill (without a corresponding downhill to boot.) For all of my running friends, I found that talking to others who have run the race was the most helpful, so hopefully this recap is helpful. If you are considering running this race in the future, I highly recommend doing it. It is definitely worth the experience.

Training: My training was going swimmingly well until I started getting a cold Sunday/Monday. Therefore, I spent most of the week sleeping, drinking fluids and taking lots of vitamins. With limited running that week, I was pretty nervous going into the race. In retrospect, I would have trained with a lot more hills, particularly going up.

Travel and the general NYC experience: I arrived on Friday afternoon into LaGuardia. Turns out the public transportation options are much more complicated when arriving to LaGuardia versus the other NYC airports. I was traveling out to Long Island to stay with my friend Kristin. To do this, I had to take a bus, two subways, and the train. I also arrived during the height of rush hour, which just made for a very stressful 2.5 hours out to Long Island.

Kristin was a great host for the night. I got a shower and a chance to destress. She even let me use her bed (with her on the couch) knowing that I would be running a marathon in 48 hours. The next day, she and I headed off to the city. Yoshie arrived from California the next day. She had taken a red eye and unfortunately missed her connection in Atlanta so she ended up arriving two hours later than originally planned. I checked into our hotel. (Thank goodness for Priceline. We stayed at the Millenium Hilton for $225/night. It was a 10 min walk to the Ferry and right next to several subways lines.) On a side note, some of those lines were closed this weekend, which made travel more difficult than it should have been. In the future though, I highly recommend Google Transit if you need to navigate public transportation in any major city.

Besides the Expo, we did manage to go to MoMA. Definitely worth checking out but it did mean that I did WAY more walking than I should have on the day prior to the race. I also ate at several delicious resturaunts. Beyond that, I didn't do much sightseeing. Our hotel literally overlooked the World Trade Center. (The construction work lasts into the wee hours of the night). So, I guess I can count that. I also saw the Statue of Liberty from the Staten Island Ferry.

Overall: If you run this race, use Priceline to get your hotel. The city is so accessible by public transport you really don't need to be anywhere particular in the city. Make sure to arrive a day or two before the race and leave extra time for siteseeing. Also, I heard a lady when I finished say that she had a 6pm flight that night. Give yourself at least 24 hours before traveling again. Your quads will thank you!