New York City Marathon
Sunday, November 2, 2025
Background (written in August): I opted to run this race this year because I got an invite in January from Abbott Age Group World Championships, based upon running Indianapolis Marathon last fall at age 60 in a 2:53.
I was excited at the time, and ran the NYC Half Marathon in March to get at least a feel for the experience of running in NYC as well as they both share the same finish in Central Park. Unfortunately, my experience at the NYC Half left me pretty disappointed, not just because of my own slow time, but overall because of the crowds, the logistics, and just the difficulty and time needed to get around the city.
Some of the complexities for the full are the same for the half, including expensive hotels, transportation logistics of getting to the start as well as leaving the area post-race, having to book a time slot for your bib pickup, etc.
I originally booked a hotel in the city for the marathon, with a price of $600 (one of the cheaper ones!), with hopes of revisiting and finding something cheaper later. That was a pipe dream, and the "exclusive" offers from the Age Group World Championships were all north of $1,000, as they had a 2-night minimum and optional tours tacked on. Might makes sense if you were visiting from overseas, but not for me. Writing this now in August, I really want nothing to do with staying in the city at all and will want to get out of there as soon as possible, so when I found a coach bus from White Plains to the marathon start for $50, I cancelled my $600 city hotel, booked the bus and booked a hotel for $262 in the White Plains area.
Packet pick-up / expo: Arrived in White Plains late morning on Saturday (the day before the race). I would also use today's transportation experience as a dry-run for some of the logistics tomorrow (race day), when time would be tighter. Parked at White Plains train station, walked around the station to get familiarity as well as select optimal parking spot for race day (I'd be arriving very early when there are likely very few cars in the lot), bought train tickets for both today and tomorrow (as well as for Matthew for tomorrow), so just one less thing to worry about or do tomorrow on busy and tiring race day.
Train to Grand Central (which was packed and kind of crazy), followed by two subways and a short walk to get to the Javits Center where the expo was being held. Subways were really crowded. The expo was both much nicer and less chaotic than I had expected, but I was mindful not to spend to much time there nor too much time on my feet period.
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| Entrance to the expo |
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| Dedicated booth for bib pick up for Age Group World Championship runners |
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| Photo opportunity after pickup up bib |
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| Decent gear bag we got as part of Abbott Age Group World Championships |
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| 18 hours until the marathon. Time to head out. |
Had my traditional pasta dinner at an Italian restaurant in a shopping center in White Plains. Casual and low-key, but no wait and good food, so it fit well.
Race morning: Set my alarm for 4am. Race start is 9:10am, so that sounds kind of crazy to get up more than 5 hours, but this is the largest marathon in the world*, and the logistics are not the easiest, so that's the buffer that I need.
*Largest marathon fields in the world:
2025 NYC Marathon - 59,226 finishers
2025 London Marathon - 56,640
2024 NYC Marathon - 55,646
I had a pretty restless night of sleep, and about 3:55am, I got up for good and turned off my alarm. Had my usual breakfast of oatmeal (with granola and dried cranberries today), changed into my race kit, packed up, and was out the hotel door by 4:40am.
Uber kerfuffle: Drove to the White Plains train station and arrived minutes before 5am. I had pre-arranged an Uber pickup 24 hours in advance, to pick me up from the train station at 5:10am and bring me to the Westchester Running Club (a mile away) with plenty of time for the 5:30 bus departure. The short story is the Uber driver never showed up and I panicked. I got a message in the app saying that the driver was running late (I had a little buffer but not much), but his car never showed as moving, and I messaged him twice to inquire, without any response.
I could run there, but it's pitch dark, I don't know the way, and I can't bring my phone with me as there is no bag drop from start line to finish line and I need my shorts back pocket for my gels. Ugh. Cancelled the Uber (which unfairly cost me $11 to cancel), immediately rebooked another one, and that guy was immediately showing as moving and got here within 2 minutes. OK, crisis averted, relax. Got to the running store. Unlike the coach bus we hired in Boston, no one was outside checking names, and there were 5 buses. I just walked onto the first one, and got a seat towards the back away from the chattier runners, and fell asleep.
Bus to Staten Island: I woke up over an hour later and had my next temporary panic attack. It was light out now, and looking to my right I could see Newark Airport. Why were we in New Jersey heading south on I-95?! There were multiple buses and I didn't check any signage on them; did I get on the wrong bus?! I looked around and saw everyone else had the exact NYC Marathon clear bag allowed at the start. Whew. OK, not the most direct route to go through NJ, but maybe the quickest on marathon morning?
After finally exiting I-95S and heading east on I-278 back into New York, the bus sat in stop-and-go traffic for the next half hour of so, before finally letting us out just outside of Fort Wadsworth about 7:15am. I followed the masses to the TSA style-security check to enter the marathon start staging area, passed my bag (with gels, drink, waffles) through the xray machine, walked through the metal detectors and failed as usual (I have pins in my left shoulder from surgery decades ago), waited in line to be wanded down by NYPD officers, and then walked to the village.
Two hours to race start, but it somehow seemed to go by quickly. I was a nervous wreck. I know I was supposed to look next for Age Group World Championship area. Fortunately there were plenty of huge maps at intersections, because most volunteers I asked along the way did not have any idea where this was. Once I got there, I had to show my special Age Group bib to get in, and honestly, the "special" area reserved for us was kind of a let down. There were separate porta-jons for us, which sounded good until I saw each line was at least 50 persons long. There was a heated tent, but it was jam packed with standing room only. Grabbed a bagel, left the area, and quickly found a large grassy area open to all with ZERO porta-jon lines.
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| People sitting around at the start villages, dressed in their throw-away clothes worn over their race kits |
Corrals: This among the best security I've ever seen for checking runners as they tried to enter corrals. There were two people at each corral entrance, and no one was getting past them without the proper bib. I was in Wave 1, Orange Corral A (there were five start waves, three start colors (blue, orange, and pink), and six corrals per wave). There were announcements and prior e-mails indicating corrals for Wave 1 would open at 8:10am and close at 8:50am. I didn't want to get there late and risk either not being able to get in or being thrown in like sardines. I got to the corral entrance right about 8am and they let me in. There were very few runners in the corral at that time so it was easy to use the porta-jons in there and then I just sat down in a sunny section.
At Indianapolis Marathon, I remember another runner told me they snuck in to the corral at the last minute because it was packed. I've been to other marathons and races wear runners would either slide through vertical bars or jump over the corral barriers, but that wasn't happening here. The corral gates were probably 10' high or more, and the closed gate in front of us (which would open at 8:50am to allow us access to the starting line) was probably more like 15' high.
The extent of the international audience hit me when all announcements in the corrals were in at least six different languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and German. Naturally our corral got busier and busier. I was wearing an extra layer of clothing that I along with many runners discarded just before the gates opened. I had on a pair of torn sweatpants, a garbage bag for a top, a stretched out running hat, and worn gloves with holes in the fingers. There were numerous large boxes marked for clothing donations, and since we could no longer move in the now-packed corral, runners would pass their discarded clothes in a row from runner to runner until the one closest to the boxes would throw them in.
We could see the sub-elites ahead of us through gaps in the gates, and they were doing warm-ups in the area ahead of us, albeit on a narrow OAB section of pavement. But that option was not available to us.
At 8:50am, the large gates of Mordor (or so it appeared to me) finally opened, exposing the on-ramp ahead for us to access the interstate highway and upper deck of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge where we would start. Almost time. At 9:05am, the cannons boomed and we watched the elites start in the lanes next to us (separated by jersey barriers).
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| The start of the red line on left is showing where I was standing while watching the elites start |
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| And here is our Wave 1 start, just a minute or two before starting, as 4 NYPD helicopters patrol overhead |
Race start to 10 Miles:
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| Course map (starting from the bottom in Staten Island) |
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| Pretty good weather for race start (in truth, I'd prefer it 5-8℉ cooler, but no complaints) |
I thought that maybe I should break down my race report by each of the five boroughs, but the reality is I didn't really remember much about Queens and the Bronx, not distinctly large differences between the different boroughs. So I'll mention them as I pass through them.
At 9:10am the cannons went off again, this time for us, and we were quickly moving. At Boston this year, it took me (and Tommy) 6 minutes and 24 seconds after the start to reach the start line. Today it would take me 18 seconds!!
The first two miles you're on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. This is the biggest "hill" on the whole course at 164' elevation gain, but since it's right at the start, your legs are fresh. It's a concrete bridge but it was still neat to take it all in, with the best views the entire race looking out over the water and the city. It was pretty noisy on the bridge, as the four NYPD helicopters were overhead and on both sides of the bridge patrolling.
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| I'm not sure which wave this was, as I sure don't remember feeling that jammed in on the initial bridge |
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| Another view of runners crossing the 2-mile long Verrazano Narrows Bridge (both pics here from NYCM FB) |
Mile 2 is a big drop off the bridge and into Brooklyn. Mile 1 uphill split 6:59, and Mile 2 downhill split of 5:59, my fastest mile split in the race. Both were anomalies as I settled down and into a rhythm after the bridge.
Coming off the bridge into Brooklyn, and then for much of the rest of the race, the crowd support is amazing. Someone from a police car yelled, "Welcome to Brooklyn!" and then there is just so much palpable race excitement that I had to check myself several times against my watch and remind myself to slow down and run my intended pace (6:35/mile).
At the point entering Brooklyn, it is odd to see some runners coming towards us on a different route and in a different direction. For the first eight miles, there are three different race routes (orange, blue, pink) corresponding to your bib colors and your corral colors. For most of those eight miles, the routes are running parallel and adjacent to each other, but not in this section. I guess this is all part of the well oiled machinery that allows the marathon to get almost 60,000 runners to the finish!
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| Early on in the race, there are actually three separate courses, depending upon which color you are in. The routes eventually converge. |
Mile 3 to 10 splits were amazingly consistent for me: 6:32, 6:30, 6:34, 6:35, 6:34, 6:39, 6:35, 6:32.
It's like I set it on cruise control. When I did have to adjust pace, it was always that I had to slow down slightly to hit my pace (as opposed to speed up). While that's a good place to be in, I told myself not to get excited, as it was very early in the race. It's not like this section was pancake flat, but the hills at most were 50-60' and such gentle grades that they were barely noticeable.
Miles 10 to 20: Just after Mile 10, you hit the "Silent Mile" section of the course, where Hasidic Jews line the Williamsburg neighborhood and absolutely no one is cheering. It's a weird contrast to the rest of the loud raucous spectator lined route. Apparently, the Hasidic Jews despise that "scantily clad" runners out there, which violates their modesty policies. The people I saw looked angry or unhappy that the marathon is going on. Some of them try to cross the street packed with runners, and that sounds like a recipe for either them or runners (or both) to collide and get injured. I did not enjoy this section.
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| Typical scene in the "Silent Mile" |
In Mile 12, we had the narrowest section of the course and I was surprised to have runners basically in close quarters all around me 360°. Any turn we took was really tight, sometimes going over curbs, and I had to be really careful not to either trip or run into someone.
In Mile 13, we cross into Queens, and I'm able to keep hitting my target pace through Queens, though Mile 15.
Mile 11 through 15 splits: 6:36, 6:30, 6:29, 6:34, 6:41
Early in Mile 16, we reach the part of the course that I disliked the most: the Queensboro Bridge. This is a 125' and although averaging only a 2.5% grade, we're in the latter half of the race when my legs are not so fresh, and the terrain is an awful cement with numerous potholes. While the potholes are filled with asphalt, they're unevenly filled in that some are not completely filled so there's a divot and others are "overfilled" so that there is an above grade big bump you have to watch. The views weren't even that good as there is a deck above you.
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| Leaders coming up the Queensboro Bridge in Mile 16 Perhaps my most disliked section of the course |
Towards the end of the bridge, you make a left turn on an off-ramp and come into roaring crowds in Manhattan. I just had to be careful to pay attention to the cement curbs below my feet instead of the spectators, as being sandwiched between my runners on my left and right, at the moment I was really at the mercy of whatever path they took.
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| And here is one of the leaders (Hillary Bor finished 12th) coming off the on-ramp from Queensboro Bridge in Mile 17 |
Mile 16 was the slowest mile yet at 7:07, and my only mile north of 7-minute pace. My concern was is it game over on sub-7 pacing and any possibility of sub-3?
Fortunately the next three miles were straight as an arrow, no turns, and relatively flat. Ran miles 17 through 19 at 6:32, 6:37, and 6:43.
In Mile 20, we cross the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx. This bridge is a very small incline compared to Verrazano Narrows Bridge and Queensboro Bridge. My pace for Mile 20 was 6:57.
Mile 20 to finish: 20 miles down, "just" 10K to go. In Mile 21, we take the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan. It is one of the smallest bridges at just a 15' elevation gain, but what I got a chuckle out of was a hand-written sign there that said, "This is the last damned bridge!". Amen.
Mile 21 is a 6:41 split, which should be encouraging, but I feel I just can't hold this pace anymore. Beginning at the Mile 21 marker and at every subsequent and remaining mile marker, I assess what time I might finish assuming a 7:30 pace for remaining miles except for a conservative 8:00 Mile 26.
Miles 22 and 23 are flat and straight on 5th Avenue. These should be very fast miles, but at this point I'm barely able to hold sub-7, with a 6:54 and 6:57, respectively. If I hold to 7:30 miles for the next 2 miles, then 8 minute pace for the final mile plus .2, I'll pretty much hit 3 hours exactly. This could be close.
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| Here I am in Mile 23. It looks like I'm getting tired, which I am, but I'm still running sub-7s! (Photo by Matthew) |
Mile 24, as I was fully aware, would be a climb. It's an 85' gain (3rd largest on the course), so nothing crazy, and should be even less daunting given it's only a 1.6% average grade. But this is Mile 24 after all, and the legs and body are tired. I see a number of runners walking now, including two young women that passed me a few miles back. Each time I look up it seems this hill just keeps going and going. Which is kind of true, as the hill continues for a full mile. Mile 24 split is 7:34. Uh-oh. I've got to pick this up or at very least not slow down any further in order to get sub-3. While I've told myself I'll be happy with anything sub-3:10 (world age group standard for my age), at this point I'm so close to the that 3-hour artificial barrier that I really want to do everything possible to break it.
Early in Mile 25, we enter Central Park. The map shows we ran next to a pond, but I didn't see that. I am just singularly focused on getting to the finish line, and now doing so in sub-7:30 miles for the next 2.2 miles. Mile 25 split 7:05. For the first time, I'm confident doing the math that I will break sub-3.
Mile 26 has two right hand turns and while it's not flat with a 50' decline and similar incline, the closeness of the finish line gives me reason to just push and be optimistic. After that second turn onto "West Drive" at SW corner of Central Park, I know we're close. Mile 26 split 6:59.
I really appreciate seeing the "800 meters to go", "400 meters", and "200 meters" signs. At long last, the finish line comes into view!
Final result: Gun time 2:58:04, chip time 2:57:46, 2,003 of 59,125 overall (top 4%), 18 of 1,590 in age group (top 2%), 6th American in age group (all of top-10 were from Europe and Asia).
Fantastic! I'm just elated with this result! Such a huge redemption after so many disappointing races this spring, especially NYC Half and Boston Marathon..png)
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What went well for me:
- The race organization itself is obviously first-class, run by New York Road Runners.
- The expo was fantastic and very interesting.
- The Westchester Road Runner bus was so efficient, so easy, and a bargain at $50.
- The crowd support (except for the Hasidic Jews) was amazing and helped pull you along.
- Being part of the World Age Group Championship was a plus (except for the overcrowded bathroom line there), especially for leaving post race when we could exit Central Park pretty much immediately after the finish line as opposed to vast majority of finishers having to walk about a mile before exiting.
- Having such a strong competitive field also helped pull me along.
- I was thrilled to be able to consistently click off miles in the 6:30s for basically the first 20 miles. That exceeded my expectations.
- I slowed in the final 10K for sure, but didn't crater like a number of my marathons. I only had three miles north of 7:00 the whole race (with 2 of the 3 hill-related), and only a single mile north of 7:30. I certainly didn't come close to slowing the 20% for a 5K sometimes used as an indicator of "hitting the wall".
- I finished sub-3! At age 61!
- I love the New Balance tech shirt!
What could've gone better:
- The logistics are very difficult. Of course there is some subjectivity to that, and yes, this is the largest marathon in the entire world (59,000+ in 2026), but like Boston having a point-to-point race just makes the transportation logistics difficult in at least one direction (pre or post-race, depending on where you stay, but likely both). No matter where you stay and how you travel race morning, you're facing some combination of bus, subway, train, and ferry just to get to the start and/or from the finish. This was only my second World Major, but I just have to believe the logistics will be markedly different (for the better) at Chicago next fall. Based on the logistics alone, I will likely never run this race again.
- Besides the transportation logistics, there is the matter of time required to get to the race start and/or from the race finish. I got up at 4am and left my hotel before 5am for a 9:10am race start. That's a lot of sitting around. (Yes, I stayed outside the city in White Plains, but even if I had stayed downtown as originally planned, my bus time would still have been 5:30am, and I would've needed to take a subway to get there!)
- The athlete's village was all just very confusing to me, and it didn't help matters with the majority of volunteers that I asked questions of (pretty basic questions about getting around the village actually) could not help me.
- The sheer numbers of people concentrated on the course meant that people were very close to me and limited my lateral movement, even 16 miles into the race. That made it tough for me on corners.
- The first bridge was interesting and the most scenic, but after that, the concrete bridges were not fun to run on and some, especially Queensboro, were in quite a state of disrepair and partially patched potholes, which I was surprised to find.
- The amount of e-mails I received from the race, from my NYRR membership to Abbott World Age Group Championships to the race itself, was really too much for me. I'm all for frequent communications, but this was sometimes 4-5 times per week, often repeating the same information, and making it difficult for me to go back and search for specific information I was looking for, for example where exactly is the special early exit after the finish for World Age Group Championship runners, so that I can plan a meet-up with Matthew?
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| Bib was nice. Medals (upper-left for World Age Group Championship, upper-right for all finishers of NYC Marathon) just OK |
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| The "ponchos" they give you after finishing are pretty amazing - better than a regular poncho as it's lined and warmer, and better than the typical Mylar "blanket" you get |
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| And again, I just love the shirt: the color, the brand (NB), and the design with the Statue of Liberty and list of all 5 boroughs you ran through |
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| So now I have 2 World Majors stars! Finally! Let's see how far I get in this journey. My NYC Marathon results puts me at 9th in the country in my age group this year; last year was 7th. All good. Onto the next one ... |
