I’m skipping ahead because … Marayhon Sunday!!

Today was the big day. My husband caught the bus at 5:30 am from Bryant Park. The bus driver got lost on the way so they spent 45 mins longer on the bus. This turned out not too bad because he was in the warm sitting on a comfortable seat. They arrived 10 minutes before my husband’s corral opened. He was pretty impressed with the number of toilets provided, he didn’t even have to queue which has been pretty standard at most races.

I had my plan to try to see G in four spots. I caught the subway out to Brooklyn 86th St. Apart from the people planning their spectating, there was also a decent number of people heading to the start line for later waves. I think the last wave started at 11:30 am.

Once off the subway I surfaced about 3 miles in after the blue joins 4th avenue. Participants take three different routes at the start. G was in blue which goes on the top level of the bridge from Coney Island. He was starting at 9:10 am. At 86th St the blue and orange were both running up 4th avenue but still separated by police tape running down the middle of the road. This was good for me because I knew G would have to be on the right side of the road.

I was ready in time to see the elite men come through. They are always so wonderful to watch. So smooth and fast.

Once the rest of the field started coming through and it looked to be getting close to the time for G to be passing I tried to pay more attention. G was wearing a fluro yellow singlet and cap to help me pick him out, but I only just managed to work out it really was him, yell out some encouragement and he was gone. So no photos or video unfortunately.

Once he passed I quickly headed back down to the subway. Unfortunately the next train was not for another 16 mins. I started trying to calculate out where I could get my next glimpse. I decided to stay on the train until the Barclays stop. Exiting the train station the crowd was five people deep and as I looked out over their heads I saw G run past, which was lucky timing. Then I was back to the subway for my next stop in Manhattan.

I went 59th and Lexicon and walked down to First Ave. This was where the participants come off the Queensborough Bridge. Once again the spectators were 4-5 deep but I managed to snag a spot on the rail just up the side street where I had a good view. There was no chance of G hearing me shout out to him though.

My final stop was just before the runners exited Central Park. The fence was lined with spectators but only one deep. I popped myself behind two Japanese women who were tracking someone who was in front of G. Yes, I did look over their shoulder at their phone. I figured they would leave as soon as they saw their runner and so could take up their position. I was right and then just had to hold the spot until G came. A rather annoying women came and squeezed in beside me, leaned right over the rail constantly and held her phone way out taking video. Basically blocking all the people on the fence up from her from seeing the runners until they were right opposite us. Luckily she left and I had a clear view to get some video of G and yell out some encouragement. He was not in a great place though and didn’t register me there even with my extra loud voice screaming out.

I headed toward the subway to go to our agreed meeting spot. While heading their the official app notified me the G had finished in a time of 3:20:04 which was a 5s PB- a pretty good effort on a toughish course.

It was a while until G cleared Central Park and made it to me. By the time we got to the subway the trains were all packed. G got on the first one but I couldn’t get on and had to wait for the next one. It was getting later and so I headed straight to the Tenement Museum. In this museum you learn about the stories of some migrant families who lived on the Lower East Side while walking through the actual apartments they lived in. I did the “Under One Roof” tour which looked at the lives of the Rogarshevsky and Baldizzi families. It was fascinating and a little like the Susannah Place museum in Sydney that we visited in May.

Arriving back at our hotel, I got to rest my feet for a little before getting ready for dinner. G loves a good steak dinner after a race so we had booked Keen’s Steakhouse which was just a couple of blocks away. We ordered the porterhouse steak for 2, carrots and beans. Everything was really good and very tasty.