New York Marathon- Getting to the Starting Line

The New York Marathon is a tremendous running experience, and since it’s one of the largest marathons in the world, it requires the runner to execute some planning and logistics in order to survive the experience. The race takes anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours. The trip to the start takes 90 minutes, you’re stuck waiting at the start for 3 hours, and the death march to retrieve your bag is another 20-30 minutes. Tack on 45 minutes for staggering back to your hotel room and the ING NY Marathon becomes about a 9-hour expedition through the boroughs. You’ll spend more time sitting around waiting to run than you’ll spend actually running the marathon, and five hours of shivering can put a severe buzz-kill on your race day unless you plan ahead.
I like to be early, a poor habit for the NY Marathon. By 6am, I was in the starting corral; however, the race didn’t start for 3 hours. There were bagel stands, Dunk ‘in Donuts coffee trucks, and powerbars for breakfast, but sitting in the open for over a hundred minutes is a great way to ruin your marathon by getting cold, stiff, and cramped. Here are some tips for handling the pre-race.
• Use the gear bag. Most marathons provide a clear bag which you can pack some items, like dry clothes and a cell phone. NY is chilly in November, and you have a long walk at the end of the race. In a long, cool race, you’ll start to lose body heat as your move into the third hour of the race. A dry shirt and jacket is a life-saver for an exhausted, chilled runner.
• Wear several warm layers on the journey to the starting line. I had a fleece jacket, which I packed into my race bag at start time so that it would be returned to me at the finish. I also bought a couple of cheap Wal-Mart sweat shirts. As the sun rose and my body warmed to the effort of the first miles, I peeled away the layers.
• Take an early trip to the Port-a-Johns. The line is bound to get longer as the wait to run draws shorter. This will keep you from finding yourself desperate with nowhere to drain yourself while also getting you out of the chill for a few minutes.
• Park your butt on the lee side of one of the coffee trucks. This will keep you out of the wind, and the engine warmth will help. Take care not to be in a position where your breathing fumes, though, or you’ll have a long, nauseated trot to the finish line.
• Wear gloves. Fleece running gloves are a must for this race.
• Pack a couple hand-warmers; and activate them early, before the sun starts to rise. It is always coldest in the moments before dawn. If you can get through this period staying warm, then the sun will rise, raising temperatures as well as your state of mind.
• Eat your breakfast before you leave the hotel room, and don’t skimp on the calories. It’s a long wait before a long run. Smack the peanut button on the bagel and stuff a couple of bananas down your gullet. You don’t want to start running with an empty stomach.
• DO NOT start eating your gels or Sport Beans to stay warm! While this will put sugar in your system and raise your temperature, it will also start your system burning the sugar, and you’ll bonk early in the run as your body tries to adjust to an endurance event while overloaded on fuel.
• Take a book. The minutes will go by far faster if you have something to read. I took a $5 biography of John McCain, and damn near finished it before chunking it in the garbage as the race started.
• At the 15-minute mark before you move to the start line, take a last port-a-john trip. Select the line with the fewest females. It takes them far longer to use the bathroom.
Eventually, the wait ends and you are herded to the starting line, where you stare up the slope of the Verrazano Bridge. The crowd and energy are immense. Nervous laughter bounces across the crowd as runners pretend to laugh at stale jokes they heard with only 10% of their brains. The other 90% was scrolling through the pre-marathon litany of doubts. (Will I bonk at mile 19? Does that tiny cramp mean I’m going to have to pee? How much will I hurt 3 hours from now?) Then, the gun pops. Far ahead, you see a blur of motion as the first runners climb the lower slopes of the bridge. The blur of motion moves closer and focuses into bright dots of orange, green, white, and blue as runners closer to you begin moving forward. Then, heads around you move and your own feet stutter a few steps… stop… stutter… pause…and then you are running. You pass the huge digital starting clock, hear the double-tap “beep” of your timing chip crossing the line, and you are running the New York Marathon.