One of New York City’s Great Weekends!!

In most of the United States, the first Sunday in November means turning the clocks back and gaining an extra hour of sleep; but in New York City the first Sunday in November is Marathon Sunday.  This is the running of the New York City Marathon.

Over 50,000 runners will take part in running through the five boroughs of NYC.  The runners start on Staten Island when they run over the Verrazano Bridge for the first mile and a half into Brooklyn for a little over 9 miles.  Off into Queens they go after running over the Pulaski Bridge for about 2 miles.  At this point the runners will hoof it over the 59th Street Bridge (aka Queensboro Bridge) for a mile into Manhattan.  Onto First Avenue the runners go for 3 miles getting cheered on by thousands of people and then into the Bronx for a little over a mile and back into Manhattan for the final 5.2 miles running south on Fifth Avenue, into Central Park, then onto 59th Street and back into the park to the finish line.

The race starts with the best male and female runners in the world running 26.2 and finishing in a little over two hours.  This year’s female winner, Sheila Chepkirui finished in 2:24.35 and the male winner, Abdee Nageeye finished in 2:07.39.  Most runners cannot finish a half marathon in these times let along run a full marathon.

The marathon brings over some of the greatest runners in the world but not only great runners.  General runners from all over the world come to New York to run this marathon whether it is their first time or their fifth time.  A few days before the marathon is the expo where runners come to pick up their bibs, receive their free shirts and can buy some sweet marathon swag as well as buy or receive other free swag from other vendors, runners can take pictures with their name on the wall of all the runners or many different marathon themed backgrounds.  There are also the runners who run the 9+1, where you run 9 New York Road Runners races and then volunteer at one event to qualify for the following years marathon, like your truly has done this year.

The day before the marathon there are dinners all over but also a 5k that many runners run in which it begins by the United Nations on First Ave, across 42nd Street to 6th Avenue and then up to 59th Street where the runners continue into the park ending at the finish line.  For runners who have never run the marathon it is a pretty cool experience to cross that finish line like I did yesterday.

I was lucky enough today to see some good friends as well as my great wife run this great marathon and have my kids get to see what this great event is all about.  Seeing all the people cheering for random strangers just to make sure they know they can finish the race in case they do not have anyone there cheering them on.

Check out those cool earmuffs

If you ever do run the marathon on our great city, make sure to add your name on your shirt so all the spectators can cheer you on by name and buoy you to the finish line whether you finish in 2 hours or 10 hours.