2026 NYC Marathon Race Report
Amazing (g)Race!
Background
November 1st, at 4:15am we had a wake-up call, Judy said “Randy” and I opened my eyes and knew today was the day! Up in a flash. Time to execute.
So, let me step back. I’m a 69-yo, long-time, moderately successful, endurance athlete. With respect to marathons, I estimate that I had done 24-35 marathons, depending on how you define “marathon”. Here’s my estimate:
Pure marathons 6 Columbus, Cleveland, Foxboro, Boston Fest, Boston-twice
Ironman 15
29029 Events 2 (Snow Basin, Rainier—both 30+ miles)
Great Saunter 1 (32-33 miles)
Events 24
Data recorded 26+ mile training 3 Two in the last two years in prep for 29029
Early Over-distance runs 5-8 Not recorded (estimated from memory--pre-Garmin)
Over 26.2/Not Event 8-11
Total 32-35
So, lots of history with long/endurance run/walk/trek events/episodes over 26.2 miles. On the other hand, my last pure marathon was Boston 1984, just 9 days after we were married and hurried back from our honeymoon so I could race (lol, but true). Prior to that, I had BQed (sub 2:50 required back in the day) at Boston Fest in 1983 when I did my PR of 2:48:58.
That said, it was over 42 years since I had last stepped up to the start line to race a pure marathon! That was my second time at Boston, but first official (I ran as a bandit once) and I ran 3:03 9-days after our wedding.
So, I was here because this marathon was always on my list. I grew up a Billy Rodgers/Frank Shorter idolizer and in those days, it was Boston (as always) and then beginning in 1976, wow, New York! This year, I had entered the NYC lottery (where my chances of gaining entry were less than 1%) for about the 5th time and did not get it. So, I decided to go the charity route (since I wasn’t getting younger and had long since become old) and joined Fred’s Team and raised a nice donation for Sloan-Kettering in NY.
What an epic race to return to marathoning in! This was to be the 50th anniversary of the 1976 edition of the race when they first moved to the Five-Borough format and invented Big-City Marathoning. The first time the race was held was 1970 with 55 finishers. That race was all within Central Park. In 1976 they went 5-borough and it surged to over 3,000 people and my favorite, Billy Rodgers, won in 2:10. This was after his 1975 Boston victory where he set a 2:09 American Marathon record. Boston Billy would win 4 Bostons and 4 New Yorks from 1975-1980 when these were the only two MAJOR marathons in the world beyond the Olympics. Long ago it had become a priority for me to do NYC at least once in my life. Further, on this day over 61,000 people would finish making it the largest marathon and indeed endurance event ever held (until next year!) As it would turn out, my Age Group represented a bit less than 1% of the racers and 98% of the people in this race were younger than me.
As you can see from the above, I do a lot of endurance things and frankly there’s a lot more including over 180 triathlons, a RAAM team finish, lots of high-altitude mountains, etc. This year, I did my second 29029 Mountain event by doing Rainier at the end of June with a friend of mine and my two sons. After that event on July 1st I was pretty fit but wanted to shift my summer focus to open-water swim races and my swim across the lake where we have a cottage on in Minnesota.
The net of this is I didn’t really train for this marathon. I ran for more than 1-mile at a time maybe 3 or at most 4 times during July-October. I did do the Kerr 7-mile race in Avalon where I ran the whole thing at a 10:30/mile pace. While I hadn’t done traditional marathon training by any sense, I was confident in my deep base of endurance training (I’ve averaged 3-4 hours/day for many years) and my strong performances earlier in the year What could go wrong?
Judy went right back to sleep, and I tried to minimize the noise as I did my pre-race biz and donned my marathon clothing including a number of leave behinds for Staten Island. I ate a blueberry muffin and a banana and drank some water and some electrolyte drinks. It was now 5am, but my race would not start until wave 3 at 10:55, almost five hours later.
I headed out into a beautiful (as it would remain) day that was just beginning to unfold. It was about 48 degrees with no wind and a brilliant clear sky. As I walked through Times Square to meet up with the Fred’s Team folks, I was amazed by all the people dressed in costumes, still out doing the Halloween Party thing. Quite a contrast to the Running-gear crew I was part of! All around, the Times Square neon lights were flashing and there was an effervescent buzz in the air—very surreal!
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Eventually, I gathered with the Fred’s Team folks and joined one of their many buses and was on my way to Staten Island. I sat up front behind the driver and enjoyed a great view of the dawn breaking over the East River and talked to a very nice young (40ish) man who was doing his 6th New York. His experiences in those races were pretty much the focus of our conversation over the next 90 minutes as we made our way to the starting village. I learned a bunch of useful tips about the start-area and course. It was hard not to feel amped up as we crossed the bridge and then descended into the start area. I remember thinking wow, wow, wow (and maybe calm down!)
About 7:15am, we exited the bus and I eventually (10+ minute walk through security and the huge starting area (60,000+ people)) reached Fred’s Team tent, which was very nice. I grabbed a bit of the tarp covered grass and proceeded to try to get settled in.
Frankly, all morning I had felt like I was way too amped up, too jacked. I was breathing more rapidly, my HR was elevated and I was actually physically shaking a bit. I went through several cycles of long deep breaths, and this had the desired effect of calming me down a fair bit. I was definitely reacting like a guy who hadn’t done a “real” marathon in 40+ years rather than someone who had 35 marathons including two earlier this summer!
All that said, the experience in the tent was very nice and interesting. The environment helped me to settle in for the task at hand. I felt proud to be part of this team. This group raised about $11MM for Cancer Research at MSK in New York. Most of us have been touched by Cancer as I have been and I was there, representing a friend back in New Jersey, my Dad, who passed away from Cancer at 76, as well as for my high school best friend who died at 18, so many years ago. And of course, a special nod to little Rylie, my daughter’s dog, who was fighting the doggie equivalent.
The ambient environment in the tent was very comfortable, and I removed one of the two sweatshirts I was wearing. I had coffee, a whole plain bagel, two bananas and had ready access to the bathrooms (very helpful for one of these things!)
I had several brief chats with folks near me but generally the people around me were quiet and trying to just relax. There were also several more animated groups and the Fred’s Team volunteers were fabulous! Nice way to pass time!
As an aside, I was running in New Balance’s latest, the NYC Marathon-specific “super-shoe”, on the recommendation of my son Alex who works there! I had the Fred’s Team orange long-sleeve with a New Balance 2026 NYC singlet over it and a Salomon running vest. I was once again wearing my 10-year-old Soul-Cycle black shorts. I also had gloves that matched my singlet and a bright orange hat—it was hard to miss me—especially at the pace I planned to keep during this race. (I thought around 15 min/mile in a run/walk cycle was about right).
It was very exciting in the tent when they called the first wave—at that point I knew it was game on. They have a (literally) clockwork schedule—they call your wave, you go and get in the corral, they close the corral, you start. If you miss the corral close, you get bumped to the next wave.
Soon the first wave cannon went off, and the second wave did the same and then they called my wave. I feel very ready and finally began to focus in. I left the tent, after depositing my excess/donated sweats (in total 97,000+ pounds of clothes were “donated” this way), and wound my way through what was a surprisingly long and circuitous path to the “C” corral, in which I was assigned to start. I made it by 6-7 minutes before it closed (which is closer than I had planned on, lol).
They closed the corrals (although I think they let a few late comers squeeze in—good on them!) They removed the barriers at the front of the “A” group and the barriers between each (I think there was at least an “F” group) and we all walked, in a very orderly fashion around a back-and-forth path and then finally onto the entrance road to the Verrazano Bridge!
The singing of the National Anthem. The Cheers of 15,000+. The Cannon. It’s “Time Go”...
Miles 1-2
The first two miles are up, over and then down the Brooklyn side of the Verrazano Bridge (VB), leaving Staten Island and entering Brooklyn. It was a glorious scene. I was back with all the folks with more modest objectives, timewise, for this race. It was, as Marshall told me it would be, electric! Everyone was up. Lots of yelling. The views were beautiful. My legs felt a bit sluggish, but nothing of concern. I had decided to run the first two miles and then walk a mile to get a sense of where my body was at on this crisp November morning. The reason for two miles is due to the first mile is a straight climb up to the top of the VB and then the second was all downhill—while not a great metric, I figured the average of the two would be a good indication of what my fitness was on this day (I was shooting for a Z2 effort overall—about 128-132 bpm).
I must say that the first two miles passed pretty quickly. I was looking all over and just thinking that here I was, doing the NYC Marathon and I felt more than ready (although also with a realistic appreciation of how slow I was likely to be)!
My first mile passed in 12:02 and my HR averaged 135bpm, and during the mile I gained 174 vertical feet (3.3%)—not really that big of a deal. As I descended, I just focused on feeling loose and relaxed and not pushing. My second mile was 10:45 as I had descended 203 vertical feet (HR 130). So, for my first two miles, my average pace was 11:34/miles and my “Grade Adjusted Pace” was 11:16. This was more than sufficient for my purposes and I was on my way!
Miles 3-8
I was pleased with my run and how I felt—it felt very easy. I now wanted to see, what I think of as a “purposeful” walk, would yield as I did my first mile in
Brooklyn. I was surprised to see a 13:59 with an average HR of 128. Hmmm—maybe I ran part of Mile 3? Nice problem to have so far!
Miles 4-7 were as follows: M4: 12:53@141bpm; M5: 14:20@130bpm; M6: 13:11@142bpm; M7: 13:17@135bpm. During this time, I was experimenting with different durations of my run and walk segments and there were also segments that were more uphill than downhill during this stretch—although on-balance, this section is quite easy and fast. It was clear at this early stage that I could comfortably walk a mile at sub 15 and run around 12. Based on this I decided to emphasize a higher % of walking. Through seven miles I had averaged 13:08/mile, which translates to a 5:44 marathon. I was a full 13 minutes ahead of the 15 min/mile pace I thought was a reasonable plan for the race. I admit I was even turning around in my head the idea of trying to go sub-6 hours, which I had told myself I wouldn’t do before the race.
I was stunned, I mean almost literally stunned at the crowd support. The noise—everyone screaming—amazing. I paid $15 to have my name on my bib (of course I could have wrote it) and probably 1,000 times on this day people cheered for me by name—that means it cost about 1.5 cents/cheer—sign me up!
Just past 7 miles I saw Judy and Kara and its always a big mental boost when you see your family. I had been looking for them for a half mile or so and I would have been disappointed to miss them, so I was all smiles when I did! Kara was holding a “HTFU” sign—a blast from Ironman past!
Miles 8-13.1
This next stretch, all through Brooklyn, was an eye-opener. I had no idea how big and diverse Brooklyn is. Lots of little neighborhoods, all with a bit of a distinctive flavor. I was struck by how nice Williamsburg is and everywhere throughout Brooklyn, it was packed 2-6 people deep, with bands, DJs, and boom boxes. People were yelling and screaming—almost deafening in places. I also must have high-fived 100+ people during this section.
Here were my splits during this section:
M8: 14:41 @ 127 bpm (included a pee and a quick chat with Kara and Judy)
M9: 13:16 @ 137
M10: 14:10 @ 127
M11: 15:13 @ 127 (another pee break)
M12: 15:55 @ 127
M13: 15:30 @ 127
Once I hit 10 miles, I began to feel some fatigue and discomfort in my legs and by M11 my pace had crept up above 15 minutes per mile. My walking pace was now closer to 16-16:30 as my glutes and hip flexors began to ache and I wasn’t as able to generate walking power as I had been earlier in the race. I was running off and on, in almost a fartlek style and I would guess I was probably running about 20% of each mile at this point.
At one point, I heard my name called several times and I looked around, left and right and finally saw off to my left and now, slightly behind me, Kara’s good friend Kabeer and a bunch of his friends cheering me on. I knew it was Kabeer but given the increasing stress my body was feeling, I decided not to circle back and say hi and I just stuck my fist in the air to acknowledge their support (sorry Kabeer—I owe you one!)
I would end up peeing 5 times in the race, the last time at 16/17 miles. There were always fairly long lines at the porta-potties, and I found a nice hack by pulling into the medical areas where they always had 2-3 toilets that were unoccupied (don’t tell anyone about this secret!).
I hit the half-way point in 3:02:02 and was no longer entertaining a sub-6. I crossed the Pulaski bridge (bridge #2) and was soon in Queens for a quick (so to speak) couple of miles.
Miles 14-18
I don’t have much to share from my time in Queens except that as I looked ahead, I could see the Queensboro Bridge (#3) rising high above the stores and Brownstones along the race route and it definitely looked intimidating. However, I soon was able to climb up onto the lower level of the Bridge for what is typically labelled, the Silent or Quiet Mile.
There were no spectators on the Bridge, and the dominant sound was a bit of traffic from above us, but mostly the sound of hundreds of feet hitting the pavement. This mile was harder than any before, but to be honest, none of the miles on this course are especially difficult. At least, that was my view having lived through two 29029s and all the climbing one does there. In fact, for the entirety of the Marathon I recorded just 1,033 feet of total climbing, which is just about 3% of what one faces with a 29029.
As we approached the end of the QB bridge and I reached the corkscrew that led down to 1stAvenue and our first taste of Manhattan (well since about 5:30 am in Times Square) I could hear the vaunted “wall of sound” that hits you when you exit onto First Avenue. I also saw some toilets there under the bridge and waited in line for about 45 seconds and peed for my 5th and final time in this race.
Soon, I was out on First Avenue in Manhattan and heading North towards the Bronx. It was loud, but in my view, Brooklyn is even louder. As I approached 75th Street I heard a very loud whistle and looked over and saw Judy with her sister Jill and brother Mark. It was a great uplift to see them and I swung over and spent a about 30 seconds chatting with them. I remember telling Mark that it might have been a mistake to not train for this race as my legs were growing increasingly irritated with me.
My mile splits for 14-18 were:
M14: 15:47@123
M15: 16:11@122 (QB bridge)
M16: 16:36@120 (pee break)
M17: 16:08@128 (saw Judy)
M18: 16:20@124
Miles 19-22
Mile 19 was my last mile in Manhattan before a quick trip through the Bronx.
I remember thinking that the Bronx had a lot more going on in terms of local support than I had expected and I also noted I was on 138th street quite a bit and calculated I was about 80 streets north of Central Park South and in my usual nerdy way, couldn’t wait to start the countdown in Manhattan! I generally took it pretty easy in the Bronx--Mile 21 was my slowest of the race) and was gearing up for maybe a push or two once I returned to Manhattan!
Mile 19-22 splits were:
M19: 16:37@117
M20: 16:44@ 119
M21: 17:03@119
M22: 16:50@121
Mile 23-Finish
As I crossed the final bridge back into Manhattan, I laughed out loud at a lady holding up a sign acknowledging that this was indeed the last bridge!
Soon I was on 5th Avenue and getting a lot of positive vibes in Harlem:
As I cruised up 5th, I hit the “dreaded” 5th Avenue hill, which from my perspective turned out to be a non-event as my level of effort was so much lower than those who describe how difficult it is and frankly, I wasn’t even close to hitting the wall (again probably related to my very controlled effort). I was mentally clicking off the numbered streets as they went by...110th
100th (here I noted the sun had set as I was looking at a finish in the dark...
Finally, around 90th or so, I reentered the park as we turned in front of a bit screen showing the finish line (either to tease us or encourage us to persevere):
As I entered the very familiar roads on the eastern edge of the Park I began to run quite a bit more. My legs felt surprisingly good given where I was and my lack of training—it occurred to me that I probably was a bit too conservative and probably could have pushed a bit more. Good place to be, all things considered!
M23: 16:53@ 121 (this brought me to about 100th)
M24: 16:45@ 122 (this brought me into the Park and up to about 86th, which is right near the southern boundary of the Reservoir.
I knew Judy, and her sister, plus my son-in-law, daughter and 15-month-old grandson were waiting for me somewhere around 72nd Street, and as I hit 75th I began looking up ahead as I ran, hoping to see them. Finally, just a bit past 72nd, I could see them ahead and I stopped for about a minute and chatted. I got to hold my grandson and high-fived everyone and kissed Judy and the little guy and then I was on my way to the finish line!
I have to say I was filled with immense gratitude as I shuffled on marveling at how lucky I was to be here and have such a great family around me and supporting me!
I hit mile 25 (M25: 16:53@ 127) and took this picture and then my phone died...
This was probably a good thing as I just spent the last mile heading West on Central Park South and then back into the Park for the last 500-600 yards just soaking it all in—not taking any more pics. M26 was 17:00@124 and soon I climbed the last hill, and I had finished the NYC Marathon!
Stat-wise, I was as about back of the pack as one can be:
Time: 6:39:21
Average pace: 15:14/mile (my Garmin had it at 15:07/mile over 26.4 miles)
Finish Place: 58,256th out of 61,054
65-69 YO AG finish Place: 525th out of 602 (Age Graded Place of 42%)
I wandered up past the finish line heading North and soon was given my Finisher Medal and a very nice, warm, bright orange poncho, which would come in very handy.
I felt pretty good all things considered but was pretty motivated to get back to our hotel and off of my feet. I had to walk about six blocks up to 72nd Street and exited the Park there as that was where the Fred’s Team tent was located. At one point, as my legs were now complaining a fair bit, I realized that I could walk a lot slower now that the race was over and this helped, as did the nice warm poncho.
In Fred’s Team tent I convinced one of the volunteers there to let me use her charger as I had no way of talking to Judy and coordinate meeting her, given my dead phone. This was a Godsend. I soon called Judy and it was clear that it made more sense for me to just make my way to the subway on my own and meet her back at the hotel.
I learned the nearest relevant stop was a couple of blocks away at 72nd and Amsterdam (which felt like a very long way as I hobbled up there). I had turned my phone off after charging it to 6% in the Fred’s tent. As I approached the subway I turned it on again, only to have it almost immediately die but an extremely nice Police Officer, perhaps sensing my predicament (I needed my phone to pay for the subway) waved me through.
I gingerly descended and saw to my good fortune that there was an empty (!!) Number 3 pulling in and despite the massive crowd lined up to get on, I was able to squeeze my way in. I knew I was in for a bit of standing given the crowd but to my surprise, literally 6-8 people stood up and motioned me to take their seats. Wow! Either these are exceptionally nice people, or I must look pretty wiped out (or both)! I took advantage of this kindness and chatted with the folks around me (from Traverse City Michigan, so we had similar geography to talk about) for the 3-5 stops before we finally reached Times Square.
I exited the subway and came up and didn’t know which way 8th Avenue was (where I wanted to head towards). I did something I almost never do and asked for directions (really wanted to minimize walking at this point!). I was given good advice and wound my way through the crowds in my bright orange poncho and bright gold medal soaking in numerous congratulations along the way.
I made it back to the hotel and up to our room and was reunited with Judy. I made a beeline for the bed and really enjoyed getting off of my feet. We ordered room service (burger, fries and an IPA for me) and I was now into basking in the whole experience! Thanks for reading!
