Speaking Topics - Speaking Credits - Mountaineering - Running
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| Steve Gardiner gets directions to the finish line in a 5K racewalk in Washington Park in Denver, Colorado. | "To describe the agony of a marathon to someone who's never run it is like trying to explain color to someone who was born blind." Jerome Drayton |
I had wanted to run the New York City Marathon for years. I finally built up enough mileage to be ready for it, but it took four years to get selected in the lottery. At last, I had my chance to run in the 2004 event.
The temperature was 62 degrees, a pleasant day for a run through the five boroughs. We crossed the Verazzano Narrows Bridge into Brooklyn and the main street through Brooklyn was amazing. Several bands were playing, boom boxes were blaring and people were shouting. The pack of runners was tight through the first several miles and it was often difficult to get to the water stations and it was difficult to pass anyone. As I had seen at Boston, everyone was polite, but the crowded conditions made it hard to move ahead.
The streets were lined on both sides with thousands of spectators, all shouting and cheering. The first miles seemed to fly by. I felt relaxed and excited and I reached the half-marathon mark feeling very strong. We ran through Queens and crossed the bridge into Manhattan. On the bridge, it was quiet, no spectators, and just a breeze blowing through the pillars of the bridge. As soon as we left the bridge and moved onto First Avenue in Manhattan, things changed quickly. Fans were ten or twelve deep on both sides of the avenue and the noise was deafening, especially at any underpass where both runners and spectators yelled even louder.
I drank at every aid station and kept an even pace through 20 miles when we crossed into the Bronx. Even though the loop through the Bronx was short, it was long for me as I cramped in both legs and had to stop several times to stretch. It was disappointing, not because of time because I had set to goal, but because I had felt so good and wanted to keep enjoying the run the same way. With each bridge, the noise stopped while we crossed and returned again in each neighborhood. When we crossed from the Bronx to Harlem, the crowds were again large and loud and they cheered us all the way into Central Park. I settled in to a slower pace to keep from cramping and finished the loop in Central Park.
The last half mile was chaos. Bleachers line both sides of the road in the park and they were full of screaming fans. I had seen the finish line area on TV in previous year, so it was a strange and wonderful experience to be running through there myself. I felt exhausted at the finish, but at the same time, elated to have finished a race that had been a dream of mine for so many years.