TCS New York City Marathon - Race Day Plans
Only a few days until I’m done with marathons forever! Let’s talk about some plans.
Getting There:
One of the good things about the NYC Marathon is that you get to pick your transportation months in advance, so there’s no last-minute nuttiness. I’m signed up for a bus from the New York Public Library at 7:00am.
On a weekday, it would be super easy for me to get to NYPL - one train all the way there, pretty much the same as my new commute to work, just getting out of the train in a different place. But … that train doesn’t run on weekends. Assuming the trains are running semi-normally, the commute won’t be that much worse - it’s two trains, not one, but the same stops. The problem is that the train I need runs every 12 minutes, so I may plan to be ready early and monitor train status to decide when to leave.
My goal is to leave the house between 6:15 and 6:30, which will get me there 6:40-6:50ish.
Pre-Race Plans:
From what I understand, it will take about 1.5 hours to get to the start area, so I’ll be there around 8:30am. My corral doesn’t open until 10:30am. So I’ll have two hours to kill.
I will probably eat my breakfast as soon as I get to the start area, to give myself a decent amount of time to digest it (which I did not do the day I tested my pre-race breakfast…). So that’ll take like 5 minutes, since I eat like the bottomless pit that I am.
There are a few people from my running crew also in the same start area (I know at least one in wave 2 and one in my wave), so I’m hoping to find some people to hang out with a bit.
I’m also probably gonna explore the start village a bit, see what’s going on. I know there are therapy dogs, but I’m not a big dog person, so I likely won’t make an effort to find them. I think there’s coffee, but I also may just bring coffee from home. We’ll see.
Outfit:
(Sorry about the instastory comments ... I apparently don't have a copy of the original picture)
My outfit theme is New York Yankees fan.
The idea for this outfit kinda came about last year. I actually wanted to do this for either the Bronx 10 Mile or the Staten Island Half, but I never had the core piece - the headband. I bought the headband in Trenton this summer, and so the outfit started to come together.
The skirt I already had. I was originally thinking of buying navy capris, but decided to stick with gray capris that I already had. I’m kinda debating going with leggings instead, but we’ll see. I’ll probably decide that on Saturday night.
The shirt was the big question mark. I wanted to buy a Yankees shirt, but I couldn’t find one that I really loved. So I decided to just go with a navy shirt, with my white shirt (which I’ve had since 2015ish, I think). The navy shirt was fine, but I guess I hadn’t worn the white shirt with this belt, because they weren’t interacting so nicely. So I was really torn on what to do. I think I decided on just wearing it and dealing with it … but I may call an audible on race day and wear a navy tank, the white shirt, and the new navy shirt on top. Especially now that the forecast is heading into the 40’s.
Honestly, I’m wondering if I should go to a Yankees store and see if I can find a long-sleeve tech Yankees shirt. But I’d be nervous to try a new shirt on race day, since that’s against the rules and I hate breaking rules. But Yankees.
Obviously, I was hoping to wear this when the Yankees were newly-minted World Series champions. That didn't happen. It’s tough, but I knew all along that that was a possibility, and I’m not letting it stop me. They play “New York, New York” at the start … I gotta represent the pinstripes.
Oh, and the shoes will be the same Brooks Levitate 2 that I wore for WDW marathon. Socks will be whatever, because I decided to be stupid and not buy the NYC Feetures.
Race Goal:
None!
I had a goal. From the start, Coach said it was far from a sure thing, but I believed I could do it. As race day approached, I tried to come up with a good plan that would allow me to hit my goal but also wouldn’t make me feel guilty about stopping for pictures or to chat with people. As we started discussing plans, I started to get stressed out about what my goal should be (because I had some thoughts that my original goal wasn’t exactly what I wanted my time to be) and what approach to use, and I kinda thought the best idea would be to just scrap the goal and run whatever feels right, even if that leads to a crash and burn at the end. Coach agreed that that removing the stress and goal is a good idea, so here we are.
Race Plan:
Whatever feels right.
I will have my watch set up for M Tempo intervals, and will run at whatever pace seems right. That may be slightly slower than my usual M Tempo pace, around my M Tempo pace, easy pace at M Tempo intervals (easy intervals are usually 60/30, M Tempo is 90/30, so I’d do my easy interval pace, but or 90 seconds instead of 60), or none of the above. We’ll see what feels right on race day and adjust as necessary.
I do want to divide the race into “pieces” in my head, but I’m not setting goals for those pieces. I haven’t decided on the pieces yet - I’m thinking either 10mi/10mi/10K or “between the bridges” (Verrazzano to Pulaski, Pulaski to 59th St, Manhattan, Bronx (I don’t know the names of most of the bridges in and out of the Bronx, which is why those segments aren’t named after their bridges), after the bridges).
I will have some friends spectating in the Bronx, so I will stop to talk to them when I get there. My dad is planning to at least come see me in Manhattan, possibly also in Brooklyn, so I’ll probably stop for a bit to talk to him too.
Post-Race:
I have to double-check the details with my dad, but the plan is to meet him post-race at the Starbucks right near the poncho exit. I’ll probably mobile order from the finish area and have him grab the coffee for me.
I don’t know if my dad is going to want to go out to dinner or anything after the race, so my post-race plans will depend on him. If I’m not doing anything else, I may see if my run crew is doing anything. If not, it’s back home to shower and start getting ready for work. I have my first day at my new job on Monday, and I want to make sure I have everything I need all set out and ready to go before I go to bed on Sunday. I find out more about my orientation schedule on Friday, so once I have that, it’ll be easier to figure out what needs to be done and how long it will take me.
Around 7:30ish, I’d like to be back at the finish line. That’s when the last finishers start coming in (the official Project Finish starts at 7:45pm), and I think cheering for those last finishers will be the perfect way to end my marathon day.
Medal Engraving:
NYRR does medal engraving at the marathon pavilion (which is kinda on my way to work), but they charge. I think some years New York Running Company has done free engraving, but they don’t seem to be doing that. They are engraving goodr sunglases, so if I end up splurging and buying the NYC marathon sunglasses at the expo (probably not gonna happen), then I’ll try to get them engraved, schedule permitting.
... And I think that's everything.
