Left: The Author at 5th Ave. and 109 (courtesy: M. Goodman Private Collection) | Right: Photo of NYT 2025 Marathon Section
The New York City Marathon is a pretty special race. This is my extremely biased opinion, but I’m not the only person who would tell you this. I have a couple of friends who have run upwards of 80 marathons (a piece) around the globe who echo this sentiment. One could literally write an entire book about the experiences and observations that transpire from running the NYC Marathon; everything from achieving entry to the race, through waking up months later and wondering if it was all a dream. Alas, apparently no one really reads books anymore. No one really reads blogs anymore, either. But I’ll continue to publish this nonsense anyway. Let’s go-
I’ll skip the part about getting a bib. I got one. Much to B’s chagrin, I could not turn it down. Chagrin because training for a marathon takes a lot of time, and can tend to eat up the better part of weekends for several weeks. Before our little dude arrived, it was not an issue. The fall is B’s busiest time for work. So it was actually nice for her to have me out of the house logging miles while she could focus on getting that paper. Last year was tricky, but our little dude still slept a lot and was not yet really mobile. So he kinda just did whatever we did. When we put him down, he would stay put, etc.. This year, coach Britt was busy coaching a young mind while I was off logging weekend ‘long runs’.
My training program was a 10 weeker, which is already relatively short for me compared to prior years. Until last year, I traditionally did 12 weeks. But I found that I would burn out around 10 weeks and ‘taper’ was actually just 4 weeks of forced BS. Shaving off 2 weeks last year and doing a 10 week program seemed like I had finally found my personal sweet spot. So I put together my program and drew an X on my calendar for the Monday in the last week of August when it was time to start training. I promptly became ill and missed my entire first week of running, including the long run. Since around the time that our little dude started “school,” I find this to be a theme. I was tempted to panic, but instead shook it off toward the end of the week and did some of my routine workouts to ease back in. The following week was solid. I even mixed in some early tempo stuff. Then.. sick again. I missed another long run as well. At this point, I was assuming that I would probably have to defer my entry until next year.
Shifting gears slightly, what do we think about the ‘boom’? Running is having a moment. For NYC, and more specifically for racing in any NYRR event, the experience has dramatically changed. Getting into an NYRR 5k (or any distance) these days is akin to vying for sneakers at a GD Yeezy drop circa 2014. For the record, I am not (and was never) a yeezy guy. I’m also not a fan of the juggernaut that the boom has made out of NYRR. Great for business. Not great for longtime members and local clubs. This is a discussion for another day that probably deserves it’s own headline. But I felt the boom hard this year. Maybe it’s because I’m just a casual runner, who happens to have many hobbies apart from running. Maybe because of this I’m less competitive in the sport that I do primarily for fitness and enjoyment? At any rate, I have learned that I’m exponentially less obsessive about running than many individuals I have observed recently while logging miles in NYC. Yikes, and sorry. I knew something was different this year when I got to the ferry terminal for the 5:30 boat. In ye olde marathons of yore, it had just been me, a couple of other old runner guys, some people who were still in Halloween costumes (intermittently wandering into the bathroom to puke) and some people commuting home from the graveyard shift. This year, the terminal was packed to the gills at 5:15 and the boat was almost full by the time everyone boarded.
Some Crappy Iphone Photos from the Boat
Shifting back- The bout of illness that I experienced in mid September was one of the worst that I have had in my adult life. I got on antibiotics, then had to switch to a different type of antibiotics. It was a generally brutal experience that I would not wish on anyone. At this point, I figured that I would go through the paces and see how I felt in mid October, but kind of assumed that I would not be racing this year. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I felt back on track. I had to shift my program around a bit to accommodate the demands of work and dad life. But I at the end of each week, I was logging the intended amount of miles in the intended sized chunks. When I banked a 20 miler in mid October and felt fine afterward, I knew that as long as I could stay healthy for the next couple of weeks I would be okay to race, from a conditioning perspective.
Some Corny Iphone Selphies From Late October Runs (Columbus Cir./Williamsburg Bridge/Catskills Scenic Trail)
Alas, by the grace of some higher power, I did stay healthy for almost the entire month of October, and was feeling pretty strong[slash]ready for the race. Visiting the pre-race expo at the Javits Center to pick up my bib is always a trip. It’s like a mini snapshot of the chaos to come. But the reality of the race always sets in for me when I get to the Staten Island Ferry Terminal a/k/a ‘the boat’. As mentioned above, even the boat was a bit different this year. It was a chilly morning, but not freezing. I took an Uber from Gpoint to Battery Park. I was wearing some hand-me-down sweat pants and a hoodie that Britt had procured from the neighborhood mom group. The donor mom had even included a little “good luck” note, as moms tend to do. Walking down the boarding ramp onto the ferry to Staten Island, I was already starting to feel like all of the stars were aligning for a great Marathon Sunday. I don’t often run with a phone. But I did this time, and because of it, I have this sloppy little video starting from my apartment and ending on the Verrazzano Bridge–
The moment that I hit mid-span of the Verrazzano, my prior inkling was confirmed; I was having an awesome race. The weather was literally perfect. I was feeling great both physically and mentally; not stressed at all. I didn’t have a specific goal in mind. But I knew I would be happy getting anything between a 3:30 to 3:45, since that is what I usually do on this course. I decided that I was definitely not going to push myself hard, especially since I had such a minimal training program. I just wanted to run at a comfortable pace and soak it all in. Despite missing seeing my family (I forgot to ask which side of the course they would be on, and guessed wrong), I felt amazing energy from the crowd. I also managed to see a dozen or so friends along the course, which was very cool. I looked down at my watch around the time that I first made it into Central Park. I thought my watch must have been glitching based on the fact it was saying I was on pace break 3:30. This would have been an incredible time for me (especially for this course). As I crossed the finish line, and saw that I clocked a 3:31:35, I was still elated. It was probably the most enjoyable marathon that I have ever done, and I was super happy with my time. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to run this race. I’m equally grateful to my friends and family who supported me during the process.
Left: Selfie in the Pre-Start | Right: Selfie in the Post-Finish