I will start off by saying NYC Marathon is one of my favorite marathons, which I have run 7 times. Overall NYRR and TCS do a great job with managing and running (no pun) the marathon; however, I thought the ball was dropped for this year's marathon.

As many NYC Marathon runners know, getting to the start village is a marathon itself. In previous years, the process (for the most part) has been pretty seamless. This year, however, there were several issues regarding the transportation from St. George's SI Ferry terminal to the start village. This year, I felt the bus loading situation was a bit of an unorganzied mess, In the past, there were nice, ordered lines for boarding the bus, but it was more of a free for all this year. At one point, several runners started to push their way to the front out of frustration. In the start village, I overheard several people say that folks who arrived on later ferries arrived to the start village before they did.

Unfortunatly, there were several fluid stations that did not have water, Gatorade, and/or cups, which I found unacceptable. I noticed empty fluid stations around Mile 8 (I was in Wave 4) and a couple later one in the marathon, so I imagine that it was worse for the last wave. I will say that it was such a sad sight watching runners having water poured into their hands, mouth-to-mouth sharing one Poland Spring jug, and/or gabbing entire liter containers of Flow Water. I guess this situation was especially annoying because NYRR constantly sent emails all week about taking it slow and hydrating, yet they did not have all of their supplies in order. While the fluid situation was horrible, I am so glad that I went against my better judgement and carried my own hand-held water bottle.

Ok, I guess that I'm done ranting, so now I'll discuss some of the positive things about my NYC Marathon 2022 experience.

Other than those two major blemishes, the marathon itself was great . . . I just wish my performance was a bit better. I always have to give love to the thousands of volunteers that did they best they could with the supplies that they had. Also, it was an amazing sight to see runners helping each other (not counting the intensity at St. George Terminal). During my run-jog-walk of 26.2 miles through NYC, I saw countless runners slowing down and ignoring their pace and goals to help other runners who were having health issues. It really showed me the true spirit of the NYC Marathon. As always, the crowd support was out of this world. I'll have to say that my favorite spots for crowd support were Bay Ridge, Park Slope, 1st Avenue (Manhattan), Marcus Garvey Park (Manhattan), and Central Park.

Whille the logistics of getting to the start were less than optimal, I will say that the marathon expo was pretty straightforward because bib pick up was a breeze (as usual). As always, the expo had everything that a runner would need and then some. While I tend not to break my piggy bank at the expo, I appreciated the wide array of vendors. Although I get that New Balance is a major sponsor for marathon, I'm not a huge fan of having to go through its store at the expo before visiting the other vendors. I guess it is what it is.

Although my review is less than positive for this year's marathon, everyone gets to have a bad day or two. However, if this was my 1st NYC Marathon, I'm not sure that I would be too gung ho about coming back . . . if I did not live in the city. Since I have participated in previous NYC marathons as a runner and a volunteer, I would gladly sign up for another one in the future based on my NYC Maration experiences prior to 2022. I know that NYC Marathon 2023 will come back stronger than ever.

Hopefully, this review will describe a one-off experience regarding Rock n Roll’s (RnR) race management.

Originally, I registered (during early fall) for the full marathon, but I received an email (shortly after registering) stating that the full marathon would not be held this year. However, registered runners could register for a few selected Rock n Roll races or have their registration transferred to the half marathon distance. Ok, not a biggie to switch from running 26.2 to 13.1 miles. Hey, this would give me more time to enjoy the food and drink of New Orleans. Unfortunately, a couple of weeks before race weekend, we received an email telling us that the course would be significantly changed. Instead of running along the Mississippi River and through the French Quarter (you know, the things that New Orleans is associated with), we pretty much would be running along Lake Pontchartrain. I’m not sure if this was an issue with RnR, the City of New Orleans, or both, but I have to admit that I was very disappointed about this nearly last-minute change. This change was particularly annoying because it was made after most runners had booked their travel and accommodations. I guess they were going with the idea of it’s better to have these races rather than canceling them. However, I am appreciative that RnR provided shuttles taking runners and their guests to and from the New Orleans Convention Center and the start line (at the University of New Orleans). Also, the shuttles ran pretty frequently throughout the day. I did not have to wait more than five minutes for a shuttle in either direction, which was nice.

While I am somewhat of a fan of courses with a couple of turns or a U-turn here and there, this course had way too many tight turns (at least 15) in my opinion. In the original course for the full marathon, this section was supposed to be about 6 miles of the marathon. Basically, the organizers crammed a 13.1-mile course into a 6-mile stretch of a marathon's course. Because of the multiple turns, there were a lot of in and out components of the course, which is not a bad thing IF there is enough space for runners going in and coming out.

Having run multiple RnR half marathons, this course definitely was on the bottom of my list. While the pandemic may have prevented RnR from putting on a perfect (or near-perfect race experience), I do believe that the organization could have done a better job with its customer service.

To end this review on a positive note, the medal is pretty cool and the expo was nice.

DATE: AUGUST 7; 9:00 AM
DISTANCE: 10 KM
PLACE: GOVERNORS ISLAND, MANHATTAN, NY
WEATHER: 82 F
FINISHERS: 271
OFFICIAL TIME / PACE: ACK! 189 / 10:43 MIN/MI
SWAG: POST-RACE GOODY BAG AND A TECH SHIRT

Since I already have guaranteed entry for NYC Marathon 2022, I decided to support some other NYC-based racing organizations instead of New York Road Runners (NYRR). This race was organized by NYCRUNs, which probably is the second-largest NYC-based racing organization. Not that I have much against NYRR, I just want to use this opportunity to run other organizations’ races and to race in different parts of the city.

A FEW ISSUES WITH THIS RACE

-The organizers sent an email with all of these COVID-related rules (e.g. social distancing and masking guidelines). I was a bit disappointed that none of these rules were really enforced before, during, and after the race. A couple of examples: 1) Runners were supposed to wear masks in the corrals. 2) Runners were supposed to wear their masks within 500 ft of the finish. Then again, runners (myself included) had a choice of not participating in the race if they felt uncomfortable with other folks not following masking guidelines.

-Several portions of the race were not well marked, and some people went the wrong way during the second loop of the run. Fortunately, I was running with some folks that stopped at a fork in the road and were like we’re supposed to bear right here. Had it not been for those folks, I probably would have run the wrong part of the course too. In our defense, we tried to call out to the other folks that went the other way, but they were too far ahead.

-Of course, they ran out of popsicles by the time I finished. I guess this means I have to run faster next time. Here’s the “funny” part: The finisher right in front of me got the LAST popsicle. Had I sprinted a bit harder during the last 100 meters, I would have acquired the last, cool, refreshing popsicle.
-I think many folks missed the 5K race, which started an hour before the 10K, because they missed the 5K ferry due to long bib pickup lines. I’m so glad that I registered for the race with enough time for NYCRuns to mail my bib. However, I do not blame NYCRuns 100% for the delay in receiving bibs because mail delivery in NYC has been a hot mess during the pandemic. Honestly, I’m surprised that I got a race bib in time. However, NYCRuns should have had a better contingency plan. That said, I get organizing races is not as easy as it seems and NYCRUNs did the best it could.

Date: September 5, 2021; 7 AM
Distance: 13.1 MI (plus 2 miles before the half)
Place: Virginia Beach, vA
Weather: 86 F
Official Time / PACE: 2:31:39 / 11:35 min/mi
Swag: Tech T-shirt, finisher medal, a goody bag with a LOT of post-race snacks, face mask, Heineken 0.0

While I did not run as well as I wanted to do, I did enjoy running my first half marathon in my hometown. In my defense, this half marathon was supposed to be a 19-mile training run for NYC Marathon.

Pre Half Marathon:
I will say that the Rock n Roll folks did a good job with the race expo.I thought bib pick-up was pretty easy breezy for the most part. Actually, it probably was easy breezy because I went early on the first day of bib pick up. Also, there were not 80 thousand vendors trying to sell you everything under the sun. I’m kind of a get-in-and-get-out kind of guy when it comes to race expos.

Since finishers who are over 21 years old could receive free samples of Heineken 0.0 after the race, it was recommended that runners pick up their wristbands before the events. I thought it was kind of weird that I had a wear a wristband from Friday to Sunday (the day of the half). A volunteer told me that we had to wear the wristbands over the entire weekend because someone could give the wristband to someone who is under 21.

Here’s the thing:
-Are folks under 21 really trying to score free NON-ALCOHOLIC BEERS?
-There’s probably more alcohol in apple cider vinegar than in Heineken 0.0

It was a bit annoying that the race expo did not have parking information that you could take with you especially because the parking information was VERY limited on Rock n Roll’s website.

Half Marathon Time:

Honestly, I arrived at the start a bit later than expected – quite a few of the parking garages and parking lots were full or closed.

It was so beautiful running along the oceanfront right after sunrise. I will say that the first 4 miles were really nice because of the crowd participation, music, views of the beach/ocean from the boardwalk, and running through the strip. However, things became a bit “boring” from mile 5 to about mile 10 because it was super quiet. While quiet, it was nice to see some sights that I have never seen growing up in Va Beach. Although this section of the race was “boring”, it was very well shaded, which is always an A+ in my book.

Miles 11 to 13.1 were when things became a bit more exciting because we were coming “home” via the boardwalk. Running in direct sunlight was one of my biggest concerns the weeks/days leading up to the half. While the majority of the race was shaded, the sun was on top of us while finishing the last two miles on the boardwalk . . . and it was hell.

Lol Moment:

I thought it was kind of funny that volunteers were handing out cans of Heineken 0.0 at mile 12. I’m like we still have one more mile left in this thing. I guess they wanted us to get the party started early.

Post-race stuff:

While I did not have a major goal going into this half marathon, I was kind of proud of myself for not walking until Mile 7. This probably happened because I did not take many pictures during the race. Actually, I only took a quick video once we hit the boardwalk for the first time, and a bunch of pictures after finishing. Although I do not need to stop to take quick race snapshots for some memorable moments during a race, I have noticed that it does throw off my rhythm. Maybe this is something to think about for future races.

Going forward, if I need to incorporate a long training run into a half marathon, I need to run the additional miles BEFORE the race. For my NYC Marathon training plan, I was supposed to run 19 miles. While I did run (technically jog) about two miles to the start from the parking lot, once I finished I did not really feel like running. I was not completely drained, but I was not in the mood after receiving my medal, post-race snacks, cold cloth, two cans of Heineken 0.0.

Once I put all of my post-race goodies in my finisher bag, it was pretty damn heavy. While I did not have to accept the post-race goodies, that crap is built into registration fees, and I like to get my money’s worth. However, there was about a 2-mile walk back to my father’s car so I counted that as part of my long run. Oh well; feet smell.
Of course, I had to seize the opportunity and go for a dip in the ocean after the half.