Suzy Monds is this months ‘Client of the Month’. At the end of October she headed off overseas with an ambition goal of running the Polar Circle Marathon and Half Marathon, then a week later the New York Marathon. This is the second part of her story. Read the first part here:
Suzy Monds – Polar Circle Marathon
New York Marathon – November 2016
I arrived in New York straight from the extreme cold of minus 25 degrees in Greenland late on Friday night. Saturday was the day to get your registration and attend the huge sports expo attached to the marathon. WOW so big! An hour turned into 3 or was it 4 and quite an athlete’s dream place to shop, with lots of specials. My wallet was a lot lighter when I left I can tell you!!!
Marathon day and an early start it was. We were bussed to the start line where you entered your corral by the colour on your bib. Each corral had its own village where they gave out bagels, donuts, tea, coffee, bananas before the start.
Unfortunately because I had a later start time, I had 5 hours to wait before starting the marathon so all I could do was sit and people watch. I managed to see Forrest Gump! And a whole lot of NYPD on horses, in helicopters, on the roof, walking around. There were bomb squads, dog squads and NYPD running in the marathon as well. This was a left over effect from the Boston marathon bombing.
The weather was perfect and we were off running over the Brooklyn Bridge and through the five boroughs. The atmosphere was electric and took on a carnival effect with music, bands, DJs, a choir and singers on the corner of every block.
The streets were lined with thousands of spectators screaming and yelling for each runner, holding up signs that read…”if Trump can run, so can you”. Of course it was US election time and all was chaos.
The run was relatively flat with the only hilly bits running up the ramps onto the bridges where the views of New York City were amazing. The New York skyline was what we see on television and was very cool. The crowd were equally amazing with their support as it just kept you going with so many people yelling for you. I had reached the 30 something km mark and was feeling a wee bit tired as don’t forget, I had just run 63.3kms four days earlier on the Ice Cap in Greenland and was thinking I might walk a bit. I came off the bridge into the Bronx and Harlem when I heard this DJ say…”I see you baby, I see you runnin…you lookin hot mama!”….I actually looked around expecting to see a young lovely thing running past me but no he was talking to me…lol…and I can assure you I was not lookin so hot!!! Try knackered!! But that kept me running for a wee bit longer.
Over 55,000 people ran in this marathon and I was one of them. It was a real experience to be running alongside so many people all at once and for the whole distance. I do have to say though that the markers were all in “miles” and it just messes with ya head….the crowd keep yelling “not far now, keep it up, you have 4 miles to go” – 4 miles!!! , hell, that’s about 8kms….and on it went. When I reached Central Park it was rather beautiful with the leaves on the trees all different colours as it was Fall (Autumn) and I could hear the roar of the finish line and still the crowd tells you “it’s only 1 mile to go , come on you can do it”…Baa Humbug!!! It’s still 2 Kilometres!!!!! Grrrrrr
So there it is, the finish gantry. The crowd is just roaring and I make that final sprint to the line. I have done it. I have just completed the New York Marathon. They wrap you in a survival blanket, give you a recovery food/drink bag and herd you out of the corrals to get your medal and wrap you again in a very warm poncho….so then the next leg of the journey starts. I was told by our tour guide to just walk a couple of blocks back to the hotel a nice little cool down on the way home. Hmmm, well it takes another hour to finally get out of the corrals and when I asked the nice policeman if I was headed in the right direction to 44th street, he said “darling you have another 15 blocks to go”….15 blocks, Holy Moly…(that’s saying it nicely for you. It wasn’t said this graciously at the time..lol) So I trudged 15 blocks back to my hotel adding on another 8kms to the days exercise, turning my marathon into a wee Ultra me thinks! I can hear you saying, so why didn’t she just get a taxi. Well first we were told not to as they will rip you off knowing you are tourists. Then when I could get one there were none to be found. I guess all the other runners wanted one as well.
New York City, a great place, a really nice city and I enjoyed it very much. I visited the 9/11 memorial, Times Square, went to a Broadway show, brought running shoes for NZ$30 – (only got 4 pairs though, lol), ate the biggest slice of pizza I have ever seen in my life and had a ball…so I highly recommend it. If you are a road runner, put this on your bucket list.
As client of the month Suzy received a bouquet of flowers delivered to her a couple of days ago.
To read more about Suzy’s story with Team Qwik Kiwi click here.
If like Suzy you have got a big goal you need assistance to complete, apply to join Team Qwik Kiwi.
Click here for more information: https://www.coachray.nz/get-coached-coach-ray/coaching
What an inspiration Suzy – you go girl!