4th – 7th – Post race and return home

There was a diner only a few streets away from the hotel so that was the obvious choice for dinner after the run. Why walk further than absolutely necessary when your legs have a hard time cooperating?

The following two days I spent being a tourist and visited the National History Museum and the Bronx Zoo. I had visited the National History Museum before but it’s quite extensive so I wanted to visit it again and maybe check up on things I may have missed the last time. And dinosaurs are always fun looking at. 

Stegosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus Rex.

The Bronx Zoo was quite the experience; it’s basically a very large park in which they have installed multiple large cages or fenced areas where most animals have a lot of space to move around in (relative to the fact it’s a zoo). I think the only thing I had a real issue with was the collection of semi-exotic birds outside that were placed in fairly small cages. I feel like every zoo has a setup like this, regardless of where you are. It was otherwise nice to see the seemingly good conditions the animals were living in. Unfortunately this also meant you had to do a lot of walking to get around – minor unfortunate downside of an otherwise good experience. There is always the “eek” about having animals in cages for our entertainment, but if you do it this was the way to do so.

They had this wheel of fortune thing to show what you could experience as a penguin. 

For a child friendly zoo, some of these are very dark. I loved it.

 

 An excellent visual way of showing the fragile life of 100 robins. 100 eggs, 74 hatchlings, 52 fledglings and 10 adults. 

And descriptions for why those gone disappeared (cold, eaten, etc.).

I spent more than 5 hours at the zoo and when they closed at 1630 I had to rush the last parts before leaving. It was a ½ hour ride with the subway from the hotel, and leaving the zoo I took the subway south for an hour ending up in Brooklyn to check out the night views of Manhattan before crossing Brooklyn bridge with all the other tourists having the same idea as me.

 

Dinner at Katz's Delicatessen: a Reuben sandwich. Even better than it looks!

A place known by most without knowing it. "I want what she's having" should give you a hint.

The Wednesday was the last day in the city with a flight out in the late afternoon. I didn’t want to plan much so I did a late checkout from the hotel, went down to the pizza place further down the street and used my last cash on a slice and soda, before having a walk around midtown and ending up back and Penn station and returning to the airport. Got there a bit earlier than planned – but better too early than a bit late – so I hung out in the lounge seeing it slowly completely fill until my departure. Wasn’t such a bad thing getting there early after all.

The flight home went well and arrived back the next day in the early morning, had a long nap and finished off the day with a port tasting. I slept very well that night. Overall this had been a nice trip back to New York and running the marathon there again, but I do not expect to return again for that purpose. I would rather spend my money and time on different destinations, and while I didn’t reach the goal of getting a sub-4 hour run I did improve my time enough to get my average down below 4 hours. And that was good enough for me.

Full album can be seen here.

3rd of November – New York marathon

The alarm went off at 0430 and I met up with a couple of people in the hotel reception and left at 0520 to go to the pickup location where we got onto a bus that took us to the starting area. As opposed to Boston they used tourist busses and not school busses so there was plenty of leg room available for the 1½ hour drive. It wasn’t because it was far away but the last half hour we were stuck in a queue of busses letting runners off. Getting there around 0730 meant there was quite the wait until my wave started at 1020. The wait time was spent walking around in the huge starting area trying to stay warm; while the temps would be around 10-12 degrees during the run it was barely half that as long as you weren’t standing in the wind, so a lot of the time was spent trying to find a place where you’d be in the sun but out of the wind – but when you found a spot like that it was quite nice. There were free handouts of bagels, coffee, teas, water and energy drinks. The New York marathon is the one I have experienced with the most of such things and plenty of similarly large runs would be very welcome to feel inspired by this.

At 0945 the corrals were opened, 15 minutes later they were closed again and a few moments later we were all channeled from the corrals forward to the starting line. With 5 starting waves there would be an average of app. 11.000 people getting ready to run at this moment.

Crossing the Verrazzano bridge.

With the national anthem sung (of not for that and all the flags, how would we even know we were in the US?) we were finally let go at 1020. We started by leaving the first borough (Long Island) by crossing the Verrazzano bridge from where we had an excellent clear view of the south end of Manhattan. The was a slight cold breeze but barely a cloud, so conditions were nice. After the bridge we passed a 2-mile sign and I couldn’t help myself proclaiming “don’t worry – only 24 miles to go!”. The woman running next to me gave me a look that showed without a doubt that she was not nearly as enthused by that comment as I was. Tough crowd.

Crossing the bridge we entered Brooklyn and from there it was mostly just a straight line north, passing through Queens, before crossing Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. Even if there was a unitedness in the boroughs themselves, styles, visual expressions and the level of support changed on an almost street by street basis. It was constantly changing and plenty for a runner to look at and take in, especially for someone who wasn’t local, but what they all had in common was at times overwhelming support for the runners.

With few exceptions there were water stations at every mile which meant it was easy skipping half. This seemed to be a common theme among the runners, and it also helped take some of the pressure off the stations with the numerous participants. I noticed in the beginning that the stations seemed quite short relative to how many people ran, but considering most people skipped a few here and there it made sense. Towards the end the temperatures had risen enough that getting a sip of water at every station seemed justified (and appreciated), but at least the humidity never got to the level as it had been on Friday morning. That would have been horrible.

Reaching Manhattan we were met by a wall of noise. A mile on the bridge made you get used to the silence except for the footsteps, but reaching 1st avenue you were met with countless loud spectators welcoming us to Manhattan – an almost shocking experience if you weren’t prepared for it. Running up 1st avenue all the way to the Bronx is rough; mostly mentally because you can see very far ahead and it’s hard to ignore the fact that you can see an incline almost all the way. It isn’t steep at all and you probably wouldn’t feel it if you couldn’t see it under normal circumstances, but it just keeps going forever. You just have to dig down, grab the occasional water and let the support and routine carry you forward. You crossed the 25km mark on the middle of Queensboro Bridge so there was still a bit to go from here.

Crossing the bridge back into Manhattan after the Bronx.

Reaching the Bronx we basically did a few miles large 180 degree turn before returning to Manhattan where we now were running south, reaching Central Park and running through the southern part of it, ran along the south end, coming through Columbus Circle before reentering the park and running the last 400 meters before crossing the finish line.

Running through Central Park 2km and change before the finish.

Reaching the finish line.

From there there was still a bit of walking left to get our medals, snacks and ponchos before being able to find an exit and leave the finishing area. From the finish line and to leaving was probably a few kilometers and getting to the hotel was another 2ish kilometers. I could have taken the subway but that would have required me to walk on stairs, and in this case I preferred having to walk a bit more instead. Back at the hotel I had a shower followed by collapsing onto the bed. It felt good not doing much for a few hours.

Anyways, numbers! I finished in 4:03:14. So my usual goal of sub-4 hours wasn’t met, but to be honest this wasn’t expected, either. But it does mean that I improved my time from the last time I ran New York with more than 8 minutes which was nice. This also means that the average finish time for my 6 completed marathon majors is 3:59:28 which is an extra bonus. I can’t be disappointed with that. I ended up finishing as 20141 out of 55530 overall (top 36,27%), 14304 out of 30702 men (top 46,59%) and 2147 out of 4287 in M40-44 (top 50,08%). Also 57 out of 111 Danes (top 51,35%). Overall a result I am happy with. The average man ran it in 4:17:48 and average woman in 4:48:29. The fastest was a Dutch guy who did it in 2:07:39, the slowest an American woman in 11:47:55, youngest a Danish 18 years old women and oldest an 88 years old New Zealander man.

30th October – 2nd of November – Return to the Apple

As expected the flight to New York went without a hitch. We left on time at 1300 and arrived at Newark a few minutes early around 1630. I’ve heard of less than flattering stories about the airport but within 25 minutes after leaving the plane I was standing out in the arrival hall, half an hour later I had located the airport train and arrived at the train station, and from there I grabbed a train to Manhattan Penn Station from where I walked to the hotel where I checked in at 1800. The entire process ended up being much smoother and problem free than I had mentally planned for.

On my first full day in the city I went to the runners’ expo to pick up my bib and race kit. As usual it was big and extensive. It was quick to pick up my stuff and afterwards I spent some time meandering among the numerous booths selling various running-related (and less running-related things, too). It’s always weird seeing people selling jewelry and old-fashioned watches at a runners’ expo. 

My name on the World Marathon Majors list!

From there I had a walk around in Central park before moving south and wandering somewhat aimlessly. I ended up having dinner at a small pizza place with way too much cheese on the pizza, so I decided to spend the next 1½ hours walking back to the hotel instead of taking the subway, just to feel not too bad about having that dinner. But reaching 6th avenue I was stopped in my tracks as the street being completely blocked off due to the annual Halloween parade that was about to start. I decided to stand and wait to have a watch instead of trying to find a way around – something that would be near impossible as there were no bridges across the avenue so the only other option would be to take the subway. It was 2 hours of floats with a bit too much spacing in between so there was a fair bit of waiting involved. I was glad I ended up seeing it, but it also felt like if I had missed it, it wouldn’t have been the greatest tragedy. 

The following morning at 0700 a small group from the travel group at the hotel did a morning run to the finish area in Central Park and a short detour into the park to see the Lennon memorial before returning to the hotel. A nice 7km run – but at this time of day it was already 20 degrees and filthily humid. Yesterday it reached 27ish and today seems to end up being similar. Fortunately the humidity seemed to have topped in the early morning.

The day was spent getting all the way south down to and around the 9/11 memorial, circling the south part of Manhattan before wandering back north towards the hotel along the Hudson River. Dinner was had at a local smash burger place before visiting Edge – a new panorama view at 101st floor located next to and on top of Hudson Yards. Almost in the middle between the financial district down town and south end of Central Park giving a good view of both clusters of tall buildings. The platform was outside with 3ish meter tall glass walls but with limited reflections so everything considered the conditions weren’t bad. I did get pretty stressed out by people leaning up against the glass. I know they are durable and stable, but why tempt fate like that?

The following day, Saturday, I walked along the Hudson River before reaching the north end of the High Line which I went onto and followed to its south end. A subway line now closed made into a green walking path at around 3rd floor. With the weather as it was and leaves still on the trees it was a really nice walk in spite of the crowds who had gotten the same idea. I recall doing this on my previous visits, so I’m not winning any points for originality, but this is probably the greenest walk I’ve had on the line.

I ended up at the 9/11 memorial again and this time I visited the Oculus – a modern building that’s a mall and subway station. Style-wise it doesn’t feel like New York at all; bright, white and clean – almost clinically so. Felt more like something you’d see in an oil state where you build flashy buildings. Absolutely no personality at all. 

 The Oculus.

 The Oculus from the inside. Looks fancy and all, but does fit with the surrounding buildings, I think.

 

For dinner I visited a restaurant in Little Italy and arriving at 1800 for my reservation it was complete mayhem. But waiting for a bit I got my table and getting seated things seemed to settle down a bit. Until when I was about to finish my dinner where a large party was seated next to me. I quickly finished up, paid and got out of there and returned to the hotel in an attempt to have an early night before the run tomorrow.