We stayed uptown this year for the race (last year our hotel was “downtown” in the Greenwich Village area), which allowed us to spend some time walking through Central Park. This statue caught our attention, a couple of eagles feasting on a ram.
This is the finish line, located within Central Park, near W. 67nd Street. They were busy installing all of the electronics while we visited this area on Friday.
Cathy and me posed near the finish line. Workmen were busy erecting all of this several days in advance of the race. We dodged forklifts and trucks getting here and I am kinda smiling now, knowing full well how I will be feeling when I actually cross this area race day. This will all be a blur.
This view is looking down the finish chute. Grandstands line the finish area on both sides and admittance is very limited. The seats cost about $50 each and they were full of cheering fans on race day.
We made our way to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center for our bib pick up at the Marathon Expo, just a quick trip south on the “A” subway to Times Square, then the “#7” to Hudson Yards. We are getting pretty good at riding the rails! We arrived just before it opened at 10:00 and stood in a huge line with many other runners. The buildings outside, approaching the center from the #7 train were interesting, to say the least.
This is the Javits building where the Marathon Expo was located. This building is composed of glass and it is a pretty impressive structure. Security was very tight here and at all marathon-related events. The entire street was lined with police vehicles, you could not park on the street surrounding the building and the officers were carrying AR15/M16s, (they will not tell you when asked) with 30 round magazines.
Police were everywhere . . .
This is one helluva police vehicle, I would hate to get pulled over by the officer driving this screamer. Actually, the officer driving this was almost bigger than the car.
I located my name on the wall of participants, located in the Jake Javits Center.
And there it is!
While exiting the expo, with bib in hand, I ran into 78 year young James Lu, running his 35th NY Marathon in a row and had to get a pic. The NY Marathon was celebrating its 49th running this year, with over 52,000 registered runners, 16,000 volunteers and thousands (no “official” number available) of police and/or National Guard and canine officers from the local and state levels. James was truly a character and I did manage to see/pass him on race day.
We returned to the Expo Friday afternoon to pick up another shirt that we saw Thursday. While walking around (and gathering more samples) I ran into Meb. For non-runners, a little history:
Mebrahtom “Meb” Keflezighi is the 2004 Olympic silver medalist in the marathon and finished in fourth place in the 2012 Summer Olympics. He won the 2009 New York City Marathon and the 2014 Boston Marathon, becoming the first American man to win each race since 1982 and 1983, respectively. Meb is a graduate of UCLA where he won four NCAA championships competing for the UCLA Bruins track and field team. He came in fourth in the 2014 New York City Marathon, eighth in the 2015 Boston Marathon and second in the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials to qualify for the 2016 Summer Olympics. There was a line a block long to get his autograph and I just happened to be in the right spot to talk with him. This is in the line to the restrooms. Side by side. . . side by side!
We found several neat local delis , this one being on Cloumbus Street, just a block from our hotel. We had a late lunch here the evening before the run. New York City has excellent food venues everywhere! I made sure that I did eat the day before the run this time.
Next we attended the opening Ceremonies for the Marathon, held at the finish line. The Parade of Nations was led by the NYC Police Band and the NYC Police bagpipers followed by representatives of the many nations that had participants in Sunday’s race. We sat near the Brazilian group, boy were they pumped! Brazilians to our right, French just in front of us, Venezuela to our left, Australia facing us, all of the cultures were run-centric here! I tried to get some pictures, but my cell phone “camera” doesn’t perform well on moving targets in the dark. There were over 125 countries represented for this year’s race with hundreds of runners clad in their native costumes and colors. It was almost like being at the opening ceremony for the Olympics.
Immediately following the parade, there was a half-hour long fireworks display in the park! We then walked back to our room, about a block away. I have to admit, it was kind of nice being so near to every thing, albeit a little pricy.
The Lincoln Center was about four blocks away, the subway (A, B, C & D lines) was less than a block away and the 1, 2 & 3 lines (Broadway Station) were two blocks from our room. Central Park was a half block down the street, the American Museum of Natural History (“Night at the Museum” fame) was three blocks up the street, as was Columbus Square. Times Square was just three subway stops south, the Staten Island ferry ride was free so we took it for a “joyride” to the Island and back, passing by Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty a couple of times while enjoying the New York skyline. We planned on stopping near Wall Street to see the Bull on our return to the hotel but the wind had stiffened and the temperatures were dropping so we stayed on the train. Perhaps we will see it next time.
Returning from the ferry to the subway, we spotted this building squeezed in between two skyscrapers. It is a chapel built on the original site of the 1801-1803 home of Elizabeth Ann Seton. Mrs. Seton, foundress of the Sisters of Charity was canonized in 1975.
While walking Times Square, with thousands of others, btw, we took a side trip to the Fox News Building, where they were busy erecting the gigantic news tent for the election night reporting.
Race morning, I am ready to go (kinda) at about 6:00 a.m. I elected to take the Staten Island Ferry to the start area this year and walked the two blocks to the Broadway/72nd Sreet station to take the ride downtown to the Whitehall terminal.
We had police and coast guard escorts from the terminal through the harbor and out to the main channel. We powered right by the Statue of Liberty as the sun was coming up, what a sight! Unfortunately, I only carried my cell phone this year (my compact camera died in the Grand Canyon) and did not manage to get very many usable pictures of the actual run.
We are waiting in the staging area in Fort Wadsworth for our start. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is the left in this shot. Once we began moving, it was almost a mile walked en masse to the start line. We ran the across the bridge on the bottom deck of the bridge, a little different from last year when we ran on the top deck. Later, I found out that BOTH decks were being used.
The race began in Staten Island, at the base of the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. While crossing the river, we were passed by 14 very large UPS trucks, with police escorts (sirens and lights) carrying the thousands of drop bags to the finish area. The bridge itself is a two-mile run, climbing 250 feet to the crest before dropping back down to street level. We entered Brooklyn at about the two mile mark, across the Hudson River from the staging areas. Next, after crossing another (unnamed?) bridge we entered Queens at about the mid-point (13.2 miles) of the run. Our next borough was Manhattan, which we entered via the Queensboro Bridge at mile 15.5. We ran up First Ave, from 59th Street to 125th Street before crossing the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx at about mile 19.5. It is almost disheartening to run some of these long stretches because you can do the math in your head . . .Let’s see . . we start on Fifth Avenue at 125th, have to run down to 59th then back up to the finish across from 71th . . hmmm thats a LOT of distance. We turned back towards downtown at 138th Street after passing the dreaded “Runner’s Wall”, crossed another, the LAST “damn bridge” (that’s what it was called by the runners) and headed back into Manhattan. We ran south on Fifth Avenue from 138th, through Harlem before entering the park at mile 24. With only 2.2 miles to go we wound through the park, down to the southernmost entrance at Columbus Square before turning up Park Avenue towards the finish line. It is one heck of a way to see NYC! There were several million spectators lining the route for the entire run, with the exception of the bridges
After finishing and walking the cool-down mile to the park exit, laden with my medal, a food/nutrient bag and the world-famous Poncho, I had to negotiate with police officer to get back to my hotel room, located on 71st Street, about a half-mile from the park exit area. Security was so tight Cathy could not get to the where the runners were exiting the park and our street was totally blocked with 14 ambulances and many pieces of fire department rescue equipment.
We did walk, the day after the race, in a driving rainstorm, the three blocks to the museum. We quickly found out that we were not the only ones that decided to spend the morning indoors. After waiting in line outdoors for about ten minutes we entered the Grand Gallery to purchase the entry tickets. Once we entered the museum, we walked directly to the following exhibits: Eastern Woodlands Indians, Plains Indians and the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Cultures. We then exited through the Primates, Sanford Hall of North American Birds and New York City Birds exhibits before my legs totally gave out. This is a massive museum complex and it would take several days to fully enjoy.
Tuesday we took the “E ” back to JFK and realized that it was nice to not need a car to get around in the city after all.
I have to include the “Spoils of the Marathon”:
Travelling with the Schinglers 
Unbelievable! You two covet more territory than a bunch of teenage tourists! Where do you get all that energy!
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