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New York City Marathon (11/01/2009) | |
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ING NYC Marathon New York City Sunday, November 1, 2009. 55 degrees. Cloudy/Partly Cloudy. A few days before the marathon the weather reports were starting to project another day like our folks had in Bay State: really cold, really rainy, and really wet. While these conditions proved to be a recipe for CRC PRs, those of us headed to New York were hoping for at least a bit more kindness from mother nature...and she delivered. On Sunday morning we awoke to partly cloudy conditions with temps in the upper forties heading to the mid-fifties. We were looking into a day with no rain, no wet and not even cold. We couldn't have asked for better. In the early hours of Sunday morning, nearly 44,000 marathoners gathered in the well-stocked athletes villages (three different areas) on Staten Island, awaiting their chance to cross the Verranzo Bridge and begin the five-bourough jaunt through New York City. As start time approached, all the runners began sifting through their bags, swapping out clothes, and preparing for a race of moderately cool temps and little wetness. That is, all except for one runner. Just before the race, Meb Keflezighi opened his bag to find that all his race gear was soaking wet. Volunteers quickly jumped to action, drying his clothes and saving him from a potentially ruinous incident. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/sports/03marathon.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=Keflezighi%20&st=cse Volunteer efforts along with spectator support clearly helped turn NYC into a momentous occasion for Meb, and played a big role for all the CRCers who ran that day. With over ten thousand volunteers and literally tens of thousands of spectators, the NYC Marathon did not hold back last Sunday. The provisions along the race course were far more than ample and the crowds were far more than amazing. The throngs of spectators along 4th Ave (Brooklyn), 1st and 5th Aves (Manhattan) and Central Park were in top cheering form and pockets of super fans popped up in Clinton Hill, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and the Bronx. CRC had a small but strong showing at this 40th Anniversary of the NYC Marathon. Mike Barry broke the 3:30 barrier and ran a PR for his second marathon but his first in a city he once called home. When asked how he pulled it all off, he replied "by perfecting the art of running gigantic positive splits times." For Daniel Golberg, you can call it a "comeback". After 6 years of trying to get into NY and struggles this past year, he nailed down a solid marathon time just shy of the 3:30 mark. This year also marks a return to marathons for Mo Gomez after a ten-year hiatus. He ran a 22min PR for his second NY marathon noting that "if this ten-year NY PR thing becomes a trend, that's setting a pretty high bar for, say, 2039." Stephen Hau ran his first marathon at Chicago this year with an Oprah-beating time then decided to give it another go just weeks later in NY. Knee pain began plaguing his race around mile 6 but he was able to hold on to complete his second marathon in three weeks. Starting in the last wave (there were three wave starts) with an initial projected marathon completion time of 4:30, Carine Simon "zigzaged through the crowd of runners in order to keep up my pace" and completed her first marathon with a qualifying time for Boston. Overall, it was a fun day day and a good time. Many CRCers also came down to NY to cheer last Sunday, and for that we all thank you too. Below are the final times. Links to photos are here: http://www.brightroom.com/view_event.asp?EVENTID=47685
Report entered by Mo Gomez |