nyc marathon: journey to the start

i woke up on race day before my 4:30 alarm. i wasn't feeling 100% as i had hoped, but i also wasn't feeling as bad as i have before. i was assigned to the 6:00am ferry, and we needed to leave the hotel a little after 5:00 to catch the subway down to the staten island ferry. as j and i walked to the subway station, we saw a few people returning from their halloween parties and passed a club that had a small crowd of people leaving. wow people, how do you have that kind of stamina to party til 5am? the one drink i had saturday night put me to bed! there were also a few halloween creatures on our train, but it was mostly filled with dedicated runners from a variety of countries. i sat next to a rather smelly non-runner man for most of the ride which didn't help the nausea much.

while on the train, j helped tape a couple of my homemade pace bands around my wrist. i know i can get frustrated when i fall off pace, so i had a few 'backup' plans to keep me from giving up mentally. in reality, my "a" and "b" goals were probably too lofty considering how much the nausea interfered with my training. when we got to the ferry station, j taped the third pace band on ("plan b") and i decided to go ahead and ditch "plan a". i was still feeling slightly nauseous, and i knew it wasn't race-nerves. i wasn't nervous about the race and my performance like i would be normally; i was still worried about surviving but that's caused by the nausea and not the other way around. with plans b (big pr), c (less as big of a pr), and d (pr by a couple seconds) around my wrist, i said goodbye to j and boarded the ferry. i found a seat facing sideways (i don't do well with riding backwards) and tried to ignore the not-always-smooth ride; which was not too soothing for the nausea. (seriously, this crap has been annoying!)

the ferry ride took a little under half an hour, and then it was a short bus ride to fort wadsworth. it was cold and dripping -- not raining and not drizzling, just the occasional drip -- but that didn't last long (thankfully, as i spent almost three hours sitting outside waiting for the race to start). after a slow walk to/through the security tent to show your bib number and clear plastic bag, i was officially in the runner's village. i went in search of some coffee; i wanted to expedite some business along and warm up a little from the inside. i found the dunkin donuts tent and then basically hung out. i visited the porta potties 3 times (i think?), sat down for awhile, tried rolling my left quad with a bottle of water (it had randomly started aching saturday afternoon and was still whiny), and listened to my pre-race playlist (all 3 songs). yes, 3 songs, on repeat, for a couple of hours; you may think i'm weird for that. it worked for disney (when there were only two songs); i added jay-z's "empire state of mind" for this occasion. i ate a couple of homemade oatmeal bars and people-watched. some of you were treated to this lovely photo of an italian man:


i know, i'm so lucky to have witnessed this in person. imaging sitting there, minding your own business, and then you look up and see frank and beans a few feet over. thanks italy! shortly after he applied his anti-chafe (i assume), a few of his countrymen also dropped trou to rub their legs too. most of them had on spandex shorts at least.

i got up to ask the medical tent for ibuprofen (for my quad) but they didn't have any. i dealt with crappy at&t service not letting me send/receive texts for most of the morning, but was able to get in touch with rick the marathonman. thank goodness at&t wasn't a complete fail because he was sharing a couple of much-needed gu's with me! i had packed 5 gu's when i left south carolina two weeks ago but could only find 2 when i was packing in kentucky for the race (oh how i love living on the road). while emailing with rick during the week about meeting up, he offered to bring a few to the race for me. how awesome are our fellow runners? :o) {thanks again rick for the gu's!}


a little before 9am, i headed back over to the ups trucks to turn in my bag and change into my racing flats. i was glad i had worn a different pair of shoes because it was wet and muddy in the village. i wore the same pair of saucony grid type a2's that i wore in the disney half marathon in january, the race that qualified me for nyc. i hadn't raced since then, so those shoes still had well under 50 miles when i put them on for nyc. i met rick, got the gu hookup, and we chatted as we headed to the water tent. i didn't realize how close it was to my starting time until i heard announcements that wave two runners could head towards their corrals. umm, i was supposed to be in wave 1! we said a quick good-bye, i made one last trip to the porta-potty, and hustled over to the starting corrals.

major cluster. there were people crowding the corral entrances which were blocked off by volunteers and i had no clue how to get in. i saw a couple guys climb up and over the 8-foot fence, and i knew i'd have to do the same. i noticed the fence was "secured" by being tied to the next section of fence, but what else could i do? i stripped my $10 walmart sweatpants, hopped the fence, and was caught by a guy on the other side. (thanks, random runner guy for making sure i didn't fall.) i looked around and most of the bib numbers were for corral g (i was corral d). no big deal, at least i had made it into my wave. although i arrived to the race site with three hours to spare, i still managed to almost-miss the start. go me. the crowd began shuffling forward as we were herded towards the start line.