This is my second NYC marathon, the first being in 2011 (pre hurricane Sandy). I flew in from the West Coast on Thursday prior to the race and spent the next few days getting situated.

The Expo: open to anyone, but if you’re picking up your bib, no one can pick up bib for you. It has to be you with photo ID and your race confirmation sheet sent out about a month before the race. If you forgot your confirmation sheet, they have bib number print station for you to print out your number slip and take it to your number station and get your packet. If you signed up for a poncho, there’s a wrist band that you HAVE to wear race day to get out before the bag pick up and to get your poncho. After your bib, you walk next door and pick up your shirt (they have an area for sample shirt try ons, but the shirts sanitation are meh). You’re directed into the New Balance Area (apparel sponsors for the marathon) where you can buy clothes, etc. After that you hit the main floor of vendors. Plenty to choose from and look at.

Race Transportation: be on the look out for emails to choose transportation in August. If you don’t choose, you either end up with something assigned to you randomly or you have to see race solutions at the expo. In 2011, I did the Staten Island Ferry and you ferry over before catching a boat to Ft. Wadsworth. This year I took the Midtown Bus from the NYPL. Be prepared for security and some lines that move. It took just over 80 minutes on the bus, I took a nap. Be prepared to some down time pre race though.

Runner’s Village: separated by corral colors. Your Bib will have which wave you’re in (unless you’re a pro wheelchair racer or a pro female racer), that will be 1-4 as well as a color. The color corresponds to where you enter from (orange, blue, green). They had water, coffee, Gatorade, bagels, bananas, etc), plenty of porta potties that I used about 5 times, areas to donate throw away clothes,etc. If you have a bag check (read, didn’t chose the poncho option), there’s UPS trucks to check your bags at, but be sure to have them checked in plenty of time (they have closing times).

The Start: Be prepared for multiple waves (pro wheelchairs, pro women, pro men with wave 1, wave 2, wave 3 and wave 4) staggered over very 20-30 minutes. You have to be in your corrals within a 20 min time frame and they close 20 min before your start since you have to walk to the Verizzano Bridge and that takes some time. Orange corral is on the left of the top of the bridge, Blue is on the right of the top and green is on the bottom.

The Course: You hit all 5 borroughs! You start in Staten Island and the first 2 miles are over the Verizzano Bridge. You hit your highest incline on the Verizzano Bridge (1st mile uphill, 2nd mile downhill). The orange and blue corrals go side by side and we joined up with the green corral at mile 3 in Brooklyn. Brooklyn is fairly flat and the crowd support you get is unreal. That’s your welcome to NYC. You spend a good 10 miles in Brooklyn before heading into Queens for 2 miles. Just after mile 14/15 you head on the Queensboro Bridge. Queensboro actually took a lot out of me and slowed me down this year. It took a toll on my legs with a gradual incline. After you hit the downhill, and come out on 1st Ave, you hit the energy of Manhattan. You have about 3-3.5 miles down First Ave and a whole lot of support as you head into the Bronx for a few miles. After a mile, you hit your last bridge of the day heading back into Manhattan on 5th Ave for the last 5 miles of the course. I was never happier to see Central Park and the charity cheer zone. Still some small hill like shinnanegans that you don’t realize when you’re not 20+ miles into a race. Was never happier to see the inside of Central Park at mile 24. You run through Central Park up past mile 25, before coming out along 59th street and crossing over towards Columbus Circle and heading back into Central Park the last 800 m of the race.

The Finish: Be prepared for congestion and slow moving ness; let’s face it, everyone’s tired and hurting a little bit. You’re presented with your medal and a heat sheet. Option for pictures, but people stopping to take their own added slowness. They had a recovery bag with water, Gatorade and food. I wanted some Chocolate milk which wasn’t there. If you had the poncho option, you cut out around 77th street, but you walked a good half a mile to get there. We walked a long time to get to the poncho (as in out of the park and to the street before they were even in site). Be sure to have your wristband on and to show your bib (has a P on it to match your wrist band).

Things to be aware of: I love the NYC marathon (I came back a second time for it). HOWEVER, because it’s so popular, it’s very congested. Even during the race, I feel like I ran another 1/2-1 mile trying to get around people who were walking/in the wrong starting corrals or going 5 people across. There were cheering sections that were so far in it actually made it difficult to get through. Also the finish is ridiculously congestion and slow moving. There has to be a way to fix that. The finish is off 67th, the first exit point if you weren’t VIP was 77th. I finished at 3:38 PM and it took me an hour and 20 minutes to get to my hotel off 54th and 7th. There are definitely slow moving areas so be aware of that.

The energy is wonderful, plenty of fluids. Definitely a must do race if you can!