My Day at the 1996 NYC Marathon

Intro

On Sunday, November 3rd, I went to the NYC Marathon just to spectate. This would be the second time I went in to watch. The first time was in 1985 to see some friends. Since then I have run the NYC Marathon 6 times with 5 finishes and one DNF (1994, I dropped out after 16 miles). One of the good things about watching it live is that it gets a person motivated to do the training so that it can be run the following year. The other thing is you don't hear the inane commentary on TV. This would be my 8th time in the city with the Marathon. The funny thing is every year you notice something you missed in previous years.

Getting There

As I live in Northwest New Jersey, there are plenty of running clubs and marathon runners in the area. This year I took one of the buses provided by the Amazing Feet Running Club. They provide two buses leaving from New Providence. This is a great service. The cost is $21.00. The buses leave at 8:00 AM sharp and get to the start at 9:30. First, the busses drop off the runners at Staten Island then go on to Central Park. Runners and spectators would later meet at a local church on the West Side of Central Park for a post race party and pick up service.

I had to get up at 6:15 AM to make it to a friend's house. My friend Joe and his wife Denise are avid runners. This will be Joe's 103rd marathon and Denise's 32nd. I catch a ride to New Providence with them. From there we left at 6:45 to make it to New Providence to catch the bus. Getting to Staten Island was no problem. The buses dropped off the runners. It looked like the typical NYC marathon prestart scene. Runners wearing plastic bags and old clothes. It was cold at 9:30 about 35-40 degrees. After seeing the runners off, we took off for Central Park. We got there around 10:30.

During the bus ride into Central Park, I meet Chris. Her husband, Bruce is running the marathon for the first time. She is very familiar with Manhatten while I am not. I am familiar with the race course. We decide to stick together for the day. She has a video camera to record shots of Bruce finishing the race. We make our way to the finish line. I just want to get my bearings and determine where I am going to hang out most of the day. It was amazing how close we were allowed to get to the finishing line. We were only about 5 meters from where it was blocked off. We were actually on the race course. People were taking pictures of each other posing before the finish line. The VIP bleachers were mainly empty at this point.

1st Avenue 16.5 miles

After the race starts we start walking to First Avenue near the Queensborough Bridge. At this time there are not too many people in the Park. First Avenue at the foot of the Queensborough bridge is where the first time the marathoners get to Manhatten. The crowd at this point are 2-3 people deep. About 10 minutes after we get there we start seeing members of the Achilles Track Club. The Achilles Track Club is comprised of people with different disablilities. They are allowed to start early. Wheelchair racers come next.

The first pack of elite men come through about 1:28 into the race.I'm surprised to see a pack of about 11 men leading the race. It is surprising the pack is so big at this point. Unfortunately, I can only see them for about 30 seconds. The interesting thing about watching it live is that for the most part you don't know who the elite runners are. I just make a mental note on what the people are wearing and hope when I see the TV coverage I can remember their names. The only ones I recoginized the whole day was Tegla Laroupe and Espinoza from Mexico. Slowly other runners pass us. I see Tegla Laroupe about 10 minutes after the men. She looks strong. About 10 meters behind her I see the second woman wearing red. I see two other women runners.

At this point Chris is waiting to see Bruce for the first time. I predict that he would be here about 1:51 into the race or 12:40 PM. He gets there in about 1:52 into race which I think will get him in by 3 hours. About a minute before we see Bruce I see Joe whom I drove in with. He is well on the way to breaking 3 hours. My best time in NYC is 3:44 and the last time I ran it I was in 3:57. When I am running NYC this part of the race is really crowded with all the other runners. This is the first time I see the first avenue with so few runners on it.

Central Park 24.5 Miles

It takes about 20 minutes to walk from 1st Avenue to Central park. We chose a location near 72nd street in Central Park. The Elite Men have already passed us and the people passing us now are doing about a 2:20 marathon. The first woman to pass is the other Kenyan wearing a red uniform. The eventual woman's winner is not too far behind now. At this point I have no idea who see is, just that she is wearing white and seems rather big for a female marathoner. At this point Tegla Laroupe is about 5 minutes behind and it looks she is struggling. I later hear she was doing 7 minute plus miles at this point.

About 10 minutes after we see Tegla I see my friend Joe Sikora run through. It looks like he will break 3 hours. A glance at my watch and some quick calculations tells me he has a good shot of breaking 3 hours. Chris sees Bruce about 3 minutes later. We are in a good spot to videotape and she gets some good shots of Bruce. I figure he would do about 3:03. It is amazing to me how good everybody looks at this point. I don't see anybody walking. During all my NYC marathons lots of people are walking at this point. There really is a big difference between 3 hour marathoners and 3:45 marathoners.

The Finish

About three hours into the race we head towards the church to meet the finishers. We pass the area after the finish line. After the runners finish the marathon, they go through the finishing chutes where the bar code is removed from their numbers and they get medals. Women finishers also get roses. After they get their medals they are funneled to the family reunion area which is about a half mile walk. There is a pedestrian bridge over this area for spectators to cross over this area. At this point it is not crowded yet as only about 2000 people have finished. Even so you can tell that people are feeling the effects of the race. It has been cold all day and now after 3 plus hours of running they have stopped and the cold is getting to the marathoners. The blanket they give to the runners really helps keep them warm.

It is there we see Joe and Bruce. They are on the way to the reunion area. Chris was very excited to see Bruce. It takes about 3 yells to get Bruce's attention. We finally do. They talk for a while and then bruce has to walk through the finishing trail.

Conclusion

It was an interesting experience as a spectator. First I only knew the names of about 3 or 4 elite runners. Second, I along with most of the runners didn't care about who won. I really cared about my friends and other associates who ran. This was a good day to watch the marathon. It motivated me in a lot of ways. I was motivated to actually run more and train for the 1997 marathon. It also motivated me to keep up and revitalize my web site. The weather was great and it is completey different watching it live than on television. Being in a group of people is definitely the way to go to the NYC Marathon either as a spectator or as a runner. My goal for next year is to get back to running 30-40 miles a week and run NYC in 3:20 which is 24 minutes faster than my current PR. The marathon is 52 weeks away as I write this. The last thing I have to do with the NYC Marathon is to emcee the Morris County Striders post Marathon Party on Friday November 8.

The New York City Road Runner's Club deserves a lot of praise for putting on this race. They have the complete race results on their server. I would like to thank Celeste Fondaco and the Amazing Feet Running Club for the excellent bus service they have every year.

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