I’ve been trying to get into the nyc marathon for 10 years. I finally decided to run for a charity so that I could check it off my list. I thought I was well prepared for this race, but there were a lot of things that are hard to anticipate. Let’s start with the good:

1) the crowds were amazing! Best ive ever seen and I’ve done Chicago which is also great! Brooklyn was my favorite part of the race hands down.

2) miles 1-10 fly by without even noticing them. That felt really good!!

3) the scenery is quintessential nyc and it’s beautiful! It would be more fun to cross Brooklyn bridge and run up broadway or 5th Ave to the park, but I understand why they can’t shut down the entire city for a race. Overall I loved the scenery.

4) expo was great, quick and easy!

Now onto the bad:

1) we took a subway to the statement island ferry and then got out to board a bus. This is where things went wrong.

We waited in a massive crowd of people for about an hour and then had to essentially bargain our way onto a bus. My two friends who were with me started to get crushed against the bus by all the people pushing. When they got on board they both were visibly shaken and upset. This happening on the heels of the South Korean Halloween crush that killed 150 people was disturbing. I could easily see how something similar could have happened l. At one point my friend grabbed the back of my shirt because people were pushing me and I was in the front row about to get run over by the bus. The volunteers tried their best to control the masses, but there were wayyy too few volunteers and zero organization. No lines. No management. Just masses of people anxious and frustrated.

2) from the time we left our hotel to the time we got to the start line was 4 hours. I would never ever recommend the ferry and bus combo to anyone. Total nightmare.

3) there are lots of sneaky hills/ miles of elevation gain. The course is harder than you would expect!!

4) forgot the other terrible part!! The finish line walk. It is torture to walk 20 blocks after a race. Also the charity baggage was supposed to be more convenient, but everyone told us to go to the normal Bag area, so we did that, but they didn’t have our bags, so we had to walk 4 blocks back where we came from to find our bags. My recommendation is don’t check your charity bags as charity bags. Just do the normal pre check.

5) speaking of pre check. You have to check your bag the Saturday BEFORE the race and bag check is all the way at Rumsey playfield in Central Park. Somewhat inconvenient.

I’ve run 6 marathons in different states and all in all I won’t do the NYC marathon again, but I’m thrilled I did it and now I can finally put that one behind me. Thanks to all the wonderful New Yorkers who supported us and cheered us on. The people were HANDS DOWN the best part of the race!