New York Marathon 2009

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Comments

  • Really looking forward to NY now. From those of you who have done it before, what is the weather usually like? How do you find the time difference?

     Tricia

  • Flight and hotel now booked. I decided the expense of a hotel in Manhattan was just too much so, following the advice of some random person on the USA RunnersWorld forum I'm staying in Jersey. I fly into Newark so it works out quite well and the hotel is 5 mins from a train station that takes you into Manhattan for $1.50. I plan to get the ferry to Staten Island rather than the bus (I got the bus in '07 and had to spend a whopping 5 hours waiting on Staten Island) so would need to get the subway anyway.

     I know I advised getting a hotel near the finish (and I still think it'd be best for tired legs) but from what I remember last time my main problems were

    a) I had a nightmare run and was hobbling and in severe distress and

    b) The crowds at the finish were so big that I couldn't find a subway to get downtown (and there were no empty taxis).

    Really excited now but hoping like hell nothing goes wrong as both the flight and hotel are non-refundable. Total cost (excluding race entry) is approx £530.

  • hi tortie

    how long are you staying for?

    we're staying at a bed and breakfast in the east village for 8 days (making a holiday of it)

  • Just 3 nights for me. I did the touristy stuff on a trip in 2002 and again a couple of years ago so I don't feel the need (nor can I afford!) to stay longer. I tried to convince my husband to bring the kids and make a trip out of it but it'd mean them missing 2 days of school so he wouldn't and so I am going alone.

  • my friend and i are running and my wife is coming to cheer us on ,so the bed and breakfast is a lot cheaper than 2 rooms in a hotel .just hope getting to the start doesnt cause too much of a problem.
  • Welcome Hudds Dave and Tiptree.

    Glad to hear this is the happening NY 2009 marathon thread (although I didn't know there was any competition). Please do share here any top tips you have or find, no matter what the source.

    So, here is the revised list of people who are "in" so far, as far as I can tell:

    • Champagne
    • Chowster
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave
    • L’ardvark
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T
    • Tricia Hurst
  • Goodness gracious! There seem to be about a dozen RW forums (fora?) dedicated to the 2009 New York marathon. There may be more; I get different results with each combination of search terms I use. I am so sorry for starting what may well have been a superfluous forum. If anyone reading this one knows of a better one, though, please do post the address/title here and I suggest we all emigrate there. Alternatively (my preference because I've bookmarked this one!), please make every effort to make this one so fun, funky, and informative that everyone will want to hang here - and spread the news...
  • So what times are people aiming for and what training plans will you follow? 

    I’ve done the RW sub 3:45 plan twice and did a hybrid of sub 3:45 and sub 3:30 for my last marathon. I started the P&D 70mpw schedule in December but got injured after a few weeks (not surprising considering the massive jump in mileage) so abandoned that marathon. I’m going to stick with P&D this time; I have the 70mpw schedule drawn up but will probably lower the mileage slightly, maybe to a max of 60 depending on how things go.

    My goal is 3:30 – the holy grail! I’ve spent the last 5 months building up a solid base of 35-40 miles each week which is what I maxed out on in all my other marathon schedules so hopefully I’ll be able to churn out some high mileage weeks over the summer. This will be my 4th marathon so, based on previous experience, I’m going to try and fit in a few mega long runs which take at least the expected race time.  

    Tricia – the time difference works in our favour as we need to get up early for the race. The weather was perfect when I last did it, about 12 degrees which a touch of sunshine.

  • Tricia the weather was great in 2004 - sunny autumnal.

    For time difference,do you mean due to jet lag, or the difference between running a marathon on the flat and running NY with its bridges? For the former, I never really adapted and woke up at about 3 am every morning. For the latter,when I did 4.04, I think that was probably worth about 10 to 15 minutes less on a flat course.

    We're looking at renting a flat in Brooklyn, as Manhatan hotels rooms look very expensive - plus there are six of us, so it'd mean getting two rooms. image

  • Okay, Tortie, I'll play. I hope to get a PB, despite the hills, based on continued improvement from doing 2 marathons a year recently plus adding core conditioning and improved stretching this time round. Who knows, I might even also lose some weight over the summer. However, I shall give the course the respect it deserves and save my sub-3 ambitions for London next spring.

                                                   Goal 

    • Champagne
    • Chowster
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:30
    • Tricia Hurst
  • I can't see me doing any better than my 3.22 in Berlin, so I'd be very pleased with 3.30 (or just under image), but I'm just going to enjoy it and don't want to put any pressure on myself as regards times,after having tried and failed several times to do a sub 3.20 that would have qualified me for Boston.

    I've got a summer geared towards long fell races coming up, so if I manage to keep injury-free, that should stand me in good stead.

    I also tried the P&D advanced marathoning book schedule when training for Paris (April this year), and also got injured in the process. I can't blame it on the schedule though, as the injury might have happened anyway. I might make my own up this time.

  • Unless you tell me different, Champagne, I'm going to take that as an I-don't-need-no-pressure-on 3:30. Good luck with the fell races - and especially good luck (to you and indeed all of us) in staying injury-free.

                                                   Goal 

    • Champagne           3:30
    • Chowster
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:30
    • Tricia Hurst
  • I'll go for the easy option and will be happy with a sub 3:30.  Did 3:55 in NYC 2007 straight after an injury and was just happy to complete the course.  I hopefully will have just done a sub 3 (or close to it) in Berlin 6 weeks beforehand so won't be aiming to go too quick!

    2007 weather was spot on as well - bright sunny day around 10 degrees.

  • djwolfdjwolf ✭✭✭

    Hi all,

    I've arranged through 2:09 events, staying at the Crowne Plaza. completed last year in 3:30, hope to beat that this year! Did Blackpool in 3:23, doing Edinburgh then San Fran in July (26th).

    Good luck to all

  • Welcome djwolf! Unless and until you tell me different, I'm going to interpret both you and kiwidave conservatively:

                                                    Goal 

    • Champagne          3:30
    • Chowster
    • Djwolf                      3:29
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave                 3:29
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:30
    • Tricia Hurst
  • I'll go with that l'ardvark!
  • Wow - bit of a high-power group! Nobody over 3:30, yet.

    Bit early for me to set anything in stone.

    I did 3:33 in Copenhagen but will not be looking to improve on that in NY. I'm just looking forward to the experience and enjoying myself. Put me down for a 3:45 (which I may revise up or down depending on form and other factors nearer the time).

  • djwolfdjwolf ✭✭✭

    Thank you L'ardvark,

    tiptree, New york is a hard course (bridges especially the iron one at about 17 mile, though they do put a thin carpet over the iron, are really tough), and you can can carried away with the crowd etc. I would begrudgingly, put the crowd support better than Londonimage

    However I did love the event and am back again this yearimage

  • Thank you for the injection of some realism, Tiptree! We certainly needed a better spread of projected times than we'd managed so far. And I suspect many of us will be amending our projected times at least once during the next 6 months!

    On a completely unrelated note: Lurkers - please come out and play. (No one has to give a projected time if they don't want to!) Literally the more the merrier.

                                                  Goal 

    • Champagne          3:30
    • Chowster
    • Djwolf                      3:29
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave                 3:29
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree                     3:45
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:30
    • Tricia Hurst
  • Hey, I said 3:30 was my holy grail, not a realistic target! My fastest to date is 3:40 so I need a substatial improvement to meet it. I'd be happy with anything that started 3:3? though.
  • Sorry Tortie, my bad. Better?

                                                   Goal 

    • Champagne          3:30
    • Chowster
    • Djwolf                      3:29
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave                 3:29
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat
    • Tiptree                     3:45
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:35
    • Tricia Hurst
  • Well, it'll make me look like less of a failure image ta. Whatever happens, I'll be hard pressed to do worse than my last NY marathon (4:23) when I ended up walking the last 6 miles.
  • At last, I've found some detailed information about before and after the race.

    RunTri.com: NY marathon - What to expect

    With links to

    Getting to the starting line

    and

     After you finish

    The site was linked to by the relevant Wikipedia page, where I should have looked earlier. Doh!

  • After the euphoria of Boson has subsided I suppose I'd better target an improvement. Raced a 10k last night with no speedwork for 4 weeks and managed to get within 13 secs of a pb.

    Congrats to everyone who has got in the ballot and commiserations to those who missed out. I failed twice in previous ballots.                                            

      Goal 

    • Champagne          3:30
    • Chowster
    • Djwolf                      3:29
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave                 3:29
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat                     3.10
    • Tiptree                     3:45
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:35
    • Tricia Hurst
  • never done a full marathon before so hard to predict a time.

    will be following the Katie Price  training programme which will mainly consist of stretching on a beach in front of photographers.

    Goal 
    • Champagne          3:30
    • Chowster                7.11
    • Djwolf                      3:29
    • Hudds Dave
    • Kiwidave                 3:29
    • L’ardvark                 3:05
    • NotCat                     3.10
    • Tiptree                     3:45
    • Tony Hodge 6
    • Tortie T                    3:35
    • Tricia Hurst
  • L'ardvark-  great links about what to expect pre and post race.
  • NotCat. Graet job on the 10k. I can't even imagine that sort of speed at present.

    Chowster. You had me for a second with the Katie Price training programme. I didn't bite at all at the predicted time. Come now, play the game. What's the slowest time that you would actually be pleased to get, i.e., where if you get any time slower than that you'll be saying "I'm quite pleased with that" but you won't be truly excited?

  • Just passing through...checking that L'a and NC are behaving themselves in here image Did BlueWombat get through the ballot?

    LOL at Chowster! Sounds like my kind of programme!

    Hello L'a and NotCat! *waves*

  • http://sitelife.runnersworld.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/bow.gif

     All hail Trin.(Anyone wondering why should ask her how many miles she's done in the last 5 weeks - and how many of them have been during races - and whether she has any exuses for taking it a whole lot easier on herself than she does. Oh, and she's really friendly and generous, too. Chowster: don't believe Trin's claim for a minute. She doesn't know how to stand still long enough to stretch.)

    Trin. Call that a wave? That's not a wave. This is a wave:

    http://sitelife.runnersworld.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/welcome.gif

    I know you haven't posted anywhere else since you were last here. Why not hang more regularly with us, as our guest?

    http://sitelife.runnersworld.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/cheers.gif

    Blue Wombat is even more blue, I'm afraid. At least as far as this year's NY goes.

  • Yo the mighty Trin! Have been following your Fetch blog with interest. Keep those legs hitting the road ! (and trail...and fields etc...)

    Chowster Does that programme involve artificial manipulation of various physical features and devloping a relationship with a washed out teen pop star of a previous decade?

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