REPORT
ON THE NEW YORK MARATHON
Sunday,
2nd November 2008
I am no stranger to the USA having first visited in 1980 but I had never yet sampled the
delights of the Big
Apple. This was the city I had spent so much time
exploring through television programmes such as Hill Street Blues. I could never justify visiting the city as a “City
Break” so running the Marathon gave me the justification. I had looked at entering in the past but you
had to go through a “Sports
Tour Company”. This costs north of £700 for
two or three nights and that was a few years ago. I was informed that I could
get a guaranteed entry on the back on my Half Marathon time. Over a pint, the usual suspects agreed that NY was something we wished to tick off from our To Do list. At this point Tanya, the organiser, took charge of
the rabble and I learned that she is a very smart cookie. The passenger list
would consist of Tanya and her sister, Rachel, Lovestruck Lee, Simon, Peter, Lynne and I. British
Airways, a few weeks before the flight, informed us
that the direct flight from Manchester to JFK had been cancelled. We would now use their shuttle to Heathrow on route to JFK.
With a civilised 7am taxi pick up we were on our way. Well, we should
have been on our way but our mini-bus had a puncture less than 3 miles from the
airport! The wheel changing kit was as useful as a GPS on a cloudy day. The ratchet
for the wheel nuts was broke so the intelligency were on their mobiles calling the Calvary. Luckily another passing mini-bus stopped and took us those last
remaining miles. The shuttle whisked us to Heathrow and the most expensive Witherspoons on Earth located in the infamous Terminal 5. You may pay that bit
extra for BA but the service is great, especially the complementary bar. We managed
to finish the plane’s stock of canned lager but I stuck to the bottles of red
wine, (8 bottles!) Arriving at the lovely sounding Kennedy Airport we commandeered two yellow cabs.
Our Marathon base was to be the Crowne Plaza Hotel which was across the
road from the LaGuardia Airport. Central NY hotels are too expensive so this choice kept the budget for the group
affordable. To commute into the city we used the hotels hourly shuttle that
took us to the nearest subway which was at Shea Stadium. The subway journey lasted roughly 50 minutes depending on how far south
we headed.
When I was asked what time I hoped for in the Marathon I always gave a stock answer. ‘I wanted to soak up the race -
I wanted to remember going over those famous
bridges - in a nutshell I wanted to enjoy
the experience’.
We travelled daily into the city and behaved the way
tourists should - we enjoyed ourselves. We took in Mama Mia on Broadway, we went up the Empire State Building we visited the Statue of Liberty.
I always compare Marathons to the London Marathon, which is my favourite. The first negative is the entry fee roughly
£115. To be fair, London does charge overseas entrants more but over £4 a mile sounds like a
chauffeured car rate.
We hooked up with friends of Simon who meet and greet
people checking into the Marriot Hotel in Times Square. They work for Sports Tours. We joined them on a
little run on the Saturday morning through 5th Avenue down into Central Park accompanied by an
informative guy called Whalley who worked for the same company and had over 300 Marathons under his feet! They had taken 1500 Brits to NY for this year’s race!
Our numbers had swollen - Steve came over on the Thursday and Mark on the Friday. We had yet to meet Mark as he was not staying in the
same hotel. We were told that the Sports Tour runners where setting off from 3.30am on buses organised by the New York Running Club, the race organisers. A friend, who ran the race last year, told me to
forget the buses and catch the Ferry to Staten Island. The reason the buses set off so early is that they close the bridge at
07.00. The Ferry, normally every half hour, was every 10 minutes on the morning of the
race. The Ferry is ‘free’, a word you don’t use very often in this City. Tanya, Pete and I started on a different start to Lee because he is better than us!
The start was a shambles!! It was supposed to be
pens but everyone just piled in when we moved forward. The first mile was
running up Staten
Bridge, the second going down the other end. As
usual the initial few miles you find yourself surrounded by thousands of other
runners. I won’t bore you with my run - in a nutshell I was enjoying what I set
off to do and that was until 19 miles - then the Marathon part went wrong. I knew I did too much prior to the race. Too much
walking, drinking and eating. Though I over indulged I still thought I could
manage the 26 - I was wrong! At 20 I started to walk and Twiz from BWFAC tells me it took me 18 minutes to cover the last mile. I know I did it
wrong but the course is not an easy one.
The roads are concrete and similar to running on the lower prom.
They are in poor condition - not flat! It is as if
some parts have sunk, the man holes are sunk about 4 inches and there are a lot
of them. A big ‘plus’ is the crowd support which is probably more than London and certainly louder! By the time you get to Central Park the crowds are brilliant even to walkers. As I entered the Park, Tanya ran past me just at the same time.
Behind Tanya was Steve watching behind a barrier!!!!
Simon, Rachel, Mark, Steve and Pete went home after the race. Lee and Tanya spent some time with Tanya’s brother, Dominic who lives in New York State then went on to Niagara Falls. We decided to move
to the flash hotel in Times Square in a lovely room on
the 43rd floor overlooking Times Square - what a view.
What did I think of New York? The city is wonderful and everything I had hoped. I loved Central Park. We spent a whole day exploring its beauty. I loved Central Station and the Chrysler Building - both works of art. That
is if you love Art Deco as I do. What almost spoiled it for me were the people who served you?
In the Big Apple you are expected to tip and you tip for everything. If they are in the
service industry they expect tips. Let me give you two examples.
1.
The night before we
left we decided to eat in our hotel’s restaurant. This is on the 46th floor and it actually revolves so you pay for the stunning view. We
chose the ‘help yourself buffet’, $50 each and two glasses of wine at $15. All
the waitress had to do was to bring us the glasses of wine – there was no
serving of food and the South Americans cleared the tables.
The waitress brought the bill and pointed out that gratuity was not
included. She suggested she add it to
the total. I asked how much this was she told me 18%. She wanted $25 for bringing two glasses to our table!
On the day of leaving at JFK, Tanya, Lee and I had a beer each. Tanya coppered up and we gave the
waiter a small tip. A few minutes later another waiter came over to point out
that gratuity was not included. I explained we had no more change - which was
not something he was willing to except. He stood arguing and then
walked off in a sulk. Similar incidents happened
throughout the five days we stayed on after the race. It left a bad taste of this apple.
I asked our hotels
concierge how much a bell boy earns at the Plaza on the Park. A lovely 5 star hotel overlooking Central Park. All that guy does is whistle for
yellow cabs for the Hoi
Polloi of the hotel. He stands in his grand long
coat and peak cap blowing his whistle to hail yellow cabs. $80,000 to $100,000 a year just on tips!!!!!!!!
Written by: George Kennedy
Submitted: 13th November 2008
Edited by: Brenda J Earnshaw WRR Editor