I'm not usually one for manifestos, but this one just totally rocks.

There are many people that helped inspire, train or be ready for the NYC Marathon. But before I could even arrive at the starting line, I needed to raise an entry fee/donation for a NYC Marathon approved non-profit organization. I pledged to raise $3000 for the American Heart Association, in exchange for a bib in the race.

Thanks to the most awesome people listed below, I raised nearly the entire amount of my committed pledge. If your name is here, I owe you a massively huge THANK YOU. Thanks to you, $3000 won't be coming out of my pocket. Thanks to you, I've completed an event that I'll remember for the rest of my life. Thanks to you, the Heart Association will be able to do even more to help fight the disease that's killed plenty of people that we know.

THANK YOU!

Bill Baker
George Baluzy
Scott Brunjes
Jeanne Bundrick
Wally Chen
Tom Clark
Anne Corey
Derek Correia
Kristien and Dan Del Ferraro
Natalya Farsun
Rich Feldman
Eric Fleming
pete gallagher
renato ghio
Scott Henderson
David Hunsberger
Matthew Hunsberger
Michael Kaltschnee
Wendy Kosloff
Benjamin Kunz
Steven Lerner
Giuli Lewis
Tally Maffucci
Hugh McCarney
Cathy Miller
Robert Murphy
Francis Pennarola
David Plain
Susan Rapillo
Christina Reddington
Pamela Reitmeier
Linda Rogers
Syd Schwartz
christopher smith
Amy Smith Sroka
Chris Spada
Terry Spano - Rahmsdorf
Becky Terhaar
ada tracy
Per Welinder
Cathleen Winter

(If you're listed here and would prefer to remain anonymous, just give me a shout and I'll remove you from the post. And if I've someohow missed you, please let me know too.) If your name isn't here and you'd like it to be - it's not too late. You only need to make a donation to my marathon fund before November 22. Anything will help.

Thanks for making my marathon possible!

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My sons Devon and Eric met me along the race course for both physical and emotional support. Devon and I are pictured above at mile 23, along Central Park. I was tired, but still feeling in charge. (About a mile later, I'd be struggling to put one foot in front of the other.)

I met Eric earlier in the race, at about 17.5 miles, but sadly didn't get a photo with him. They were both there at the end of the night, to celebrate my finish over the best barbeque that NYC has to offer. We ordered dessert, too. :)

When you finally cross the finish line, you go through a massive range of emotions. Elation, joy, relief, reflection, and...pain. You receive your finisher medal, and are given a space blanket to maintain your body's heat.

As loud, raucous and wild as the entire course was with noise, this was the exact opposite. People were reflecting on their race, sharing their stories with others, and making their way to the exit as a tribe. The quiet was interuppted here and then by the sound of an ambulance, and people pushing the runners aside, to make room for the emergency vehicle. This was a reminder that all runners weren't as fortunate with their finish.

The walk from the finish line to the actual exit of the course takes about an hour. It's packed with thousands of runners, and you need to pick up the bag that you've checked at your appropriate UPS truck.

My phone was checked with my bag, so once this was retrieved, I could begin to call family and inform them of my finish. And then the text messages, tweets and Facebook updates. It was pretty cool to turn a phone on to a mailbox full of goodwill. :)

 

A handful of friends and some family were going to be along the marathon route, to give me encouragement and/or anything else that I needed. Because there are litterally hundreds of thousands of spectators, the only way to find the people that you know along the course is to pre-arrange meeting points.

There's a lot to take in while running 26.2 miles, so you can't remember everything. So that I wouldn't forget where my family and friends were going to be at, I wrote the meeting points on the back of my hand. This gave me something to look forward to, at different points in the race.

I had six points along the race where I had intended to see people. Only the last two actually worked out. Thankfully, these came at a time where I needed to see someone that I knew the most. Hugs, fluids and encouragement ensued.

 

To say the NY Marathon course is exhilirating would be an understatement. At virtually every step of the way, there are crowds cheering you on. At some times (like on First Avenue, heading uptown in Manhattan) the crowd is 8 - 10 people deep, all screaming for the runners.

At the suggestion of a couple of friends who have run the race before, I wore a sign with my name across my chest, so that fans could root for me. I had no idea what an experience that would be. It's uplifting to run by a crowd of hundreds of people, all shouting your name as if they know you. Definitely keeps the spirit going, even when your body is tiring out.

I shot a few clips of video with my iPod Nano, featured above. You'll see the crossing of the Queensboro Bridge, entering Manhattan at 59th Street, and a couple of clips from the run up 1st Avenue in Manhattan.

I've always loved New York City, but this was beyond anything that I have ever imagined.

At mile 18, I was feeling a little beat down, so I "rewarded myself" with music - by turning on the iPod, and running to a soundtrack of songs that I had selected. To my amazement, the crowd volume was louder than the music. I kept it that way, and enjoyed the spectators all the way to the finish line.

Love you, NYC!

Getting to the starting line was as much of a journey as anything else associated with the marathon. This was one of the areas that made me most nervous, as there were so many variables where I didn't know what to expect. How cold would it be? Would I bring everything that I needed?

My hotel was in Times Square, so my morning began at 5:30am, at the Starbucks on Broadway. I checked the night before, and thankfully they opened at 5:30am, just for marathon runners. I am eternally grateful for this, Starbucks! This allowed me to start the day with some nice, warm oatmeal.

From there I caught the subway train downtown, to the Staten Island Ferry. It was pretty energizing seeing Times Square buzzing with runners, on their way to the start line. When the train arrived, it was packed with runners. This is not something you'll ever see in NYC, and it was inspiring. There was a lot of nervous energy in the air.

Once at the ferry terminal, we waited for our ferry, which are scheduled to leave every fifteen minutes. I was on the 7am departure. I shared the ride with two new friends, one from California and the other from Colorado. You arrive at Staten Island and are immediately hit with the image of the Manhattan skyline, which looks like it's a hundred miles away. It's hard to believe that that's where we're headed.

From the terminal, you board a shuttle bus for a ten minute ride to the starting village.

The starting village was absolutely surreal. It felt like you were in a post-apocalyptic scifi movie, where the government is hearding people together in camps. The village is organized in several camps by color. I was in the orange wave. As you're finding your way to your camp with the thousands of other runners, announcements are broadcast through outdoor PA systems, in languages from across the world. People are wearing garbage bags (another layer for warmth), dishevelled thrift shop coats and sweats (that they can leave behind at the starting line) and even Tyvek suits (that retain the heat while waiting for the start.) You can hear the conversations around you in French, German, Japanese and other languages. Coast Guard and media helicopters are circling the camp. The video clip above gives you a sense of what it was like.

Once in your village, you see giant video display screens, with rotating messages about start times and logistics. Again, in languages from across the globe. At this point you need to check your bag at a UPS truck (and they bring it to the finish line for you), and prepare to wait for your start.

At the appropriate time (9:15am for me), your "corral" opens up, and you're summoned to head there. This is exactly what it sounds like. It's a corral of humans, each funneled into the road that leads to the Verrazano Bridge. It's at this point that people begin to shred layers of clothing, slather vaseline on their nipples and legs, and various other pre-race rituals. As you slowly move forward to the starting line, you're stepping over bottles, discarded clothing and various other sundries. Totally, completely unreal.

As we near the bridge, we hear the first cannon. The first wave has just kicked off. I'm in the second wave, and so we head onto the entrance of the bridge. I shed my thrift shop jacket and old sweat pants, and walked with the crowd that made up "wave two" of the "orange bib" section. They play the national anthem, Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York", and the cannon fires. It's exactly 10:10am.

We're off.

Here's how my NikePlus logged my run. You can see exactly when I hit "the wall", and didn't think I could go any further, right at about mile 24. That's not a bad place to hit "your wall", but it didn't seem so at the time.

Those last two point two miles felt like a hundred miles. My feet felt like cinderblocks, and I was afraid to stop for fear that my body wouldn't let me get re-started again. But I plodded along to the finish line and weakly held my arms in the air. I had imagined myself crossing the finish line in a stronger fashion, but I'm grateful for just crossing at all. :)

 

 

Wow. I did it. The official time: 4:35:57. That's 27,447th place out of over 45,000 runners. I placed in 2,997th place in my age group. And I survived to tell the story.

This was easily one of the most amazing life experiences I've had to date. I can see why it's on the "bucket list" for so many people. If you've never run a marathon, you should put it on your own bucket list. And if you're a runner and have never run the NYC Marathon before, well this is something you absolutely must do.

Congratulations to all NYC Marathoners on a most spectacular day, and a day that I will undoubtedly remember for the rest of my life.

I'm carbed up, all of my gear is ready for the morning, and I'm feeling ready. Still nervous about the morning, and the three hour wait in the cold for my starting time, but I believe I have enough gear to keep me warm in the starting village.

If you're looking for me on the course, I've snapped a pic of the shirt I'll be wearing during the race. I start at 10:10am, and I'm in the Orange wave.

I'm planning to meet family/friends at the following locations on the course:

+ 14th street in Brooklyn

+ Mile 7 in Brooklyn

+ Mile 8 @ Fulton Street, Brooklyn (right hand side)

+ Mile 17.5 @ 86th Street, Manhattan (left hand side)

+ Mile 22.5 @ 102nd Street, Manhattan (left hand side)

It's only a few hours away now!!