I officially crossed the finish line of the New York City Marathon in 2 hours, 52 minutes, and 5 seconds. My watch time was 2 hours, 51 minutes, and 18 seconds. My official (net) time was 2 hours, 51 minutes, and 42 seconds. No matter how you cut that, it beats the 2:52:37 that I ran last Autumn in the Mystic Places Marathon. This was also a much easier race for me. Effort wise, it was on par or even easier than running the Vermont City Marathon this Spring. The way that New York sets up its baggage buses also facilitates quick recovery for the runners by forcing everybody to move right along. I had as good a time after the race as I did during it.

After you cross the finish line, you enter an assemply line. Keep walking; grab your medal. Keep walking; get a photo taken. Keep walking; grab a foil blanket. Keep walking; remove your chip. Keep walking; keep walking; keep walking; get your clothes from the baggage bus. Everything is designed to not only get you away from bottlenecking the finish line, but to also get you walking some of the race out of your legs before you can even get your baggage or realistically sit down. I mentioned to a few folk that I saw falling by the wayside that they’d be making things much worse. Your body doesn’t have enough fuel to keep you warm on its own no matter what the weather, and getting a walk on is the best way to stretch your muscles before you stop.

After I got my foil blanket I started chatting with a volunteer until my friend, John Tomac, had finished. The gentlemen I was talking to had run his last marathon in New York in 2002 at the age of 72. He had a few good stories to share. John and I got our chips removed (is it strange that I’m prepared that I can bend down and untie my own shoe after a race?) and then started looking for baggage. They must have known what sort of shape we’d be in when we were done. John’s bus was a bit over halfway down the line, and my bus was one of the last few.

We found a nice spot in the grass next to the medical tent that had a bit of sun to clean up. I called my wife and then got busy with the deodorant, baby wipes, and clean clothes. Not to mention the granola bars and water botttles. After cleaning up we met with John’s family and walked over to Summit Place for a post race party. John’s cousin came in towards the end of the party after having gone to her friend’s marathon celebration. Apparently, two guys walking around and chatting people up made more of an impression than her other friend who was barely able to move and was passing out in the corner of her own celebration.

A couple of guinnesses at an Irish pub that evening rounded things out well, but I was really regretting not having had a chance for my own nap. The only thing that kept me awake was the Patriots game coming on the television. It felt like it was 2:00 am when we finally left, but it was only 9:30 or so. I tried to stay awake for the rest of the Patriots game once I got to where I would be crashing for the night, but I fell asleep with about 10 minutes left to go in the game.

The next day John and I tried to get lunch in the city, but the Times Square Brewery had gone out of business and a trip to Harlem helped us to learn that Dinosaur BBQ is closed on Mondays. At least we got a lot of walking in. We went to Connecticut where we had dinner with John’s family and I would have an easier commute home on Tuesday. This was important to me since I never filled in an absentee ballot and had to be home before the polls closed. Coming from Connecticut instead of the far side of New York City meant that I had time to stop at my favorite farm stand and at the Bidwell Tavern in Coventry.

As for soreness, there really never was any. My knees hurt every time I got in a cab after the race, but other than that I have had no trouble getting around or being mobile. I felt healthy enough until the day after I got home when I came down with a cold, but I am taking until the end of the weekend off from exercising and will hopefully start a new weight training regimen next week.

For anybody else that ran at New York, how was the end of your race?