Spectators at the New York City Marathon

Flying into New York and seeing the Verrazano Bridge was so amazing. I thought I would feel really sad about deferring my entry, but I had accepted that I would not be running this year. I was going to be in New York to enjoy the events and the city!!

I live at the end of a road between mountains where it is very quiet and I love that.  So, this first exposure to the city was very overwhelming for me. But we ventured out on our first night in Manhattan to see what all the bright lights and activity was all about and had a great time checking out the sights!

Even though I wasn’t planning on running, I wanted to check out the expo at the convention center. It was huge and very well organized. I got a few things that I know will come in handy for next year 🙂

Then off to see Bill Rodgers, George Hirsch, and German Silva’s talk on Winning the Great Race at the Museum of the City of New York.

Very tempting to go into this stairwell, but I didn’t want to lose my place in line …….

We really enjoyed hearing first hand accounts of their running experiences. Informative, funny, and entertaining! George Hirsch mediated the conversation while Bill Rodgers and German Silva talked about running and winning the NYC Marathon.We waited in line for quite a while to get our book autographed. Bill Rodgers was so personable and spent as much time as anyone wanted to talk about running and racing. And runners can talk all day about running, right? 🙂

 

 

 

We got up early on the morning of the marathon to get a good spot to cheer on the runners. And we found one close by at around mile 25. We realized that a better viewing spot would have been on the other side of the street because as the runners make the turn below they tend to keep to the same side of the street which makes total sense.

We took a few more random pictures of runners, but we were more into cheering than taking pictures. Experiencing the marathon as a spectator and as a NYC tourist was a lot of fun!! Being exposed to the city and how it all works makes me feel a little better prepared for next year. I would definitely stay at the Sheraton again, limit taxi rides and take the subway more, get to the expo early, plan on taking the bus to the start ( depends on how early the spots available are), have a better idea of what to wear and where to eat! Also, I realized that it is important to get some hill and strength training in; this did not look like an easy course.

Looking forward to next year….