In almost every way, the New York Half Marathon lived up to the hype it created. The field of runners was massive (10,000 ran), the crowds cheered en-masse, even the skyscrapers seemed to demand the best from us. But most importanly, a new course record was set. No, it wasn’t my record….I ran in 2:08, fairly average for me, but I had so much fun running through NYC, that it just didn’t matter.
The elite runners crossed the starting line at 7:00 AM and before the hour was over, Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia) had won, a minute ahead of his closest competitor, Abdi Abdirahman . The third place winner, Robert Cheruiyot (Kenya) had to be hospitalized with weakness and confusion. I imagine he crossed the finish and said “I just ran in a 1:00:58 and I didn’t win!? I’m confused!”
Haile entered the race highly advertised, so I’m not surprised he won. But I don’t want to take away from his achievement, because he was being chased by a pack of highly competitive international runners that all wanted to prove he didn’t deserve the attention.
Back in the middle of the pack, I knew I’d have a tough time with the 71 degree temperatures (albeit with only 62% humidity) at the starting line, so I set out to enjoy myself. Besides, I knew I could stay cool by dumping water on my head and running through the 3 misters the NYRR had set up. When I registered and read that the organization was arranging these, I knew I was dealing with a professional racing organization.
I arrived at my designated corral at 5:30 AM (for bib numbers 6,000 to 6,999) and waited while chatting nervously with some of the other runners. A nice lady from the Land of Cleves in Ohio offered to take a snapshot with the disposable camera I’d bought and immediately asked me whether it was my first Half. I explained that it was my first NY Half, and that I’d run 15 other Halves, but that I was really anticipating this one because we’d be running through NY. She pretended that she wasn’t excited as well.
At exactly 7:00 AM, the gun went off, the runners in my group leaned towards the starting line and…..waited. For four minutes we trotted in place, hearing a few cheers and the theme from Rocky. Finally, we crossed the start and were fnally off, running through Central Park.
If you don’t know, Central Park is a huge rectangular multi-acre park in the middle of Manhattan, with roads running through it. We started halfway up on the East side, ran a full loop past the starting line and then another quarter to the 7th Avenue entrance/exit.
In the park, there were a surprising number of spectators for the time of morning, but it was fairly quiet. It reminded me a bit of the BAA Half Marathon in Boston…..lots of trees, some water, baseball diamonds, and a few interested family members. But when we exited onto 7th Avenue, everything changed.
Suddenly, the streets widened, the massive buildings looked down on us, the crowds 
swelled, there was music…..oddly, having run 7 miles, I was suddenly energized. The Nike Cheering zones were filled with people armed with noisemakers, there were bands every mile and a half or so, there were even Samba dancers in feather costumes, there were dj’s pumping out club music at ear-shattering levels. All in all, there was nary a quiet moment once we left the park.
They even had our images running by on the big screen at Times Square. I didn’t see it, probably because I was too busy snapping away photos of the crowds and the band on top of a double decker bus, but I doubt I’d have picked myself out from the field anyway.
In fact, there was so much going on, that before I knew it, I was on mile 9 and I had not thought about stopping at all. At this point, however, I realized I was really really hot and I started to wonder where all those misting stations were. They were all three supposed to be near the end, starting at mile 7, but I hadn’t seen a single one. Later I asked other runners whether they’d seen them and they concurred they’d not materialized.
It didn’t matter; there was water and Gatorade at just about every mile, so I stayed hydrated inside and out. There were also time markers at each mile, at 5K, 10K, 15K and 20K, as well as signs at the end letting you know you had 800 Meters to go, then 400 Meters, then 200 Meters. They even had people translating that to fractions of a mile!
At the end of the race, we were all corralled like cattle once again through the process of getting our medals, removing the ChampionChips, getting our goody bags with water and food, and onto Battery Park where there were even more bands, individual musicians, massages, performers on stilts, and the awards ceremony.
Interestingly, not many people stuck around for the awards, but it was here where I got my final feeling of inspiration. Here I saw running legends like Madie Perez (Mexico) and Catherine “The Great” Ndreba of Ethiopia only 50 feet away as well as the famed Haile (whom I’d not heard of before because he’d not raced in the U.S.) and listened to their humble and charming comments.
When asked what he thought about his own stunning performance , Haile told the crowd “I actually want to applaud all of you runners who completed the race today, because I only had to run for an hour and you guys ran for three”, to which the crowd erupted in laughter. Interestingly, it was a 2+ hour race for me, but it had gone by so quickly that I’d not really thought about the work I was putting in. I’m already putting this race in my 2008 running calendar.
Filed under: Half Marathons, Running
