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New York City Marathon Runner Comments
Back to New York City Marathon Information & Reviews
Course 4.7 
Organization 4.3 
Spectators 4.9
Number of comments: 604 [displaying comments 151 to 161]
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c. p. from Little rock, Arkansas
(11/3/2009)
"Great Experience but CROWDED!" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 Just returned from the 2009 NYC marathon. This was my fourth marathon (Chicago, Twin Cities, Houston). New York is a vibrant city and is awesome for a huge race. It should certainly be attempted by any marathoner at least once. It is great to see the boroughs, and the crowd diversity and size is quite impressive. That being said, here are my "good" and "bad." The good: 1. It's New York City!!!! 2. Good crowd support. 3. Nice shirt. 4. It's the New York City Marathon !!!!! The Bad: 1. The corral system was chaos. Was scheduled for first wave, but when I finally made it to the corrals 30 minutes early, the "wave" was already on the bridge; so we went with the second wave, and just jumped into a random corral. VERY difficult to find anyone who could point us in the right direction. It was like everyone vanished when you arrived on the island. 2. While the crowd is great, I found them to be quite quiet a lot of the time, especially through parts of Brooklyn and Queens. Twin Cities is still the best overall crowd support you can find, in my opinion. 3. Central Park is awesome to finish in, but the exit after the race is WAY too crowded. I had read reviews that said to escape Central Park as fast as you can and not check bags, and I wish I had listened. You had to walk what seemed like a mile to the "official" exit, and the police made sure you couldn't escape any quicker. Luckily I felt good at the end, but many were staggering around and a few passed out and got sick in the middle of everyone. Finally after getting out of Central Park, it became chaos again, trying to get south out of Central Park down to Times Square. In all, I estimate that I walked another four miles after the race just to get 10 blocks south to Times Square. Overall, I will still recommend this race because, again, it is the biggest, and it is New York and should be done once. That being said, Chicago is MUCH easier logistically to get to and from, and Twin cities has better crowd support. Houston is just a flat, FAST course where you can PR. | |
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J. H. from East Lyme, Connecticut
(11/3/2009)
"A total rush" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 1 New York City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This was my first NYC after three Bostons. Make no mistake: NYC is more challenging than Boston. I ran 3:09:20 in NYC and 3:09:43 in Boston, both in '09, but I was definitely beaten up more in NYC. That said, Brooklyn, First Avenue, Fifth Avenue and Central Park were extraordinary, almost surreal. The spectators are awesome, as are the volunteers. | |
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P. D. from Long Island, New York
(11/3/2009)
"Spectators like at no other race..." (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 4-5 New York City Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my fifth New York City Marathon in the past 12 years, and this race NEVER gets old. I will list the positives and a few slight areas that could turn some off. Pros: As mentioned here, the crowd support is unlike any other race that I have ever done. If you wear your name on the shirt, you will hear hundreds of people cheering you on directly. Coming on to 1st Avenue from 59th Street is unmatched in any race that I have done. I also found that there were plenty of fluids on the course. The quality of the water improved from past years. The few things that would be a little tricky would be: 1) The course, which is harder than many others I have done (and thus not conducive to a PR). 2) Getting to the start and waiting at the start can be a challenge. I also felt that the course was a little more crowded than the past years, but I never felt "boxed in." 3) I would have also loved to have seen someone hand out pretzels or something like that, but it's OK. Overall a GREAT race that is worth repeating, especially since it is in my backyard (which also means no airfare or hotels, etc.), and the positives easily outweigh the small negatives. | |
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B. O. from Rochester, NY
(11/3/2009)
"Great Race, Huge Number of Fans" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 2 New York City Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 4 FANS: 5 This is my second time running the NYC Marathon. They closed the first relay corral early, forcing me to start in the second wave (even though I was there 20 minutes before my start time... so get to your corral gate early if running in the future). Other than that, it was well organized. Race is tough (hilly) but fans are fantastic and volunteers handing out fluids are outstanding. Many thanks to all of those who volunteered. You all made a difference to me! | |
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Aimee Roden from Stamford, CT
(11/3/2009)
"What a Crowd!!!" (about: 2009)
1 previous marathon
| 1 New York City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my first marathon, and I was very excited. I felt like I was just coasting for the 1st half of the race, and then the Queensborough Bridge kicked my butt at the 15-16 mile mark, and then I lost that four-hour goal and started to slow down. The finish was so crowded and I was crammed in amongst all of the other finishers with no room to move. It was hard after being in a crowd for so long, and you just wanted some space. I would agree with another comment that it would have been nice to open up the park a bit for the runners to have some room at the finish after they got their food and blanket. Other than that, kudos to the organizers for running a great race. | |
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D. L. from Houston, Texas
(11/2/2009)
"It's good, but not Boston or even Chicago" (about: 2009)
6-10 previous marathons
| 1 New York City Marathon
COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I was excited to do this race after all of the hype, but it was disappointing for me. I had high expectations about the fans and they were sparse at times, and dead quiet others. Plus the course was very challenging. I thought Austin and Boston were easier. This was my eighth marathon and second worse time only to my first one. Pretty upsetting, but I'm glad I did it. Some aspects were great. | |
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D. J. from Mead, CO
(11/2/2009)
"Excellent course, poor organization" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 New York City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 2 FANS: 5 Now, this being the 40th running of this thing, why is the organization still such a chaotic mess?? The complete chaos of the wave start was just crazy. The space that is available to cram the thousands of runners into at the start (the corrals - I'm not talking about the waiting area) is just inadequate. The finish in Central Park is beautiful, but the narrow road that must accommodate the thousands of finishers is also astonishingly inadequate. Open up the park to allow runners to go onto the grass (torn up grass does recover)! The course is the most enjoyable and interesting of any marathon I've run. The fans were fantastic, very enthusiastic, and endless. This was a great experience, but I'm not sure I would do it again. The difficulties in getting to and from the expo, the prolonged wait at the start area, and the unnecessary herding of innumerable runners into relatively small areas kind of neutralized the experience for me. | |
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A. B. from Boston
(11/2/2009)
"Sweet!" (about: 2009)
3 previous marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Great marathon, city and spectators! | |
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M. M. from Glen Ellyn Il
(11/2/2009)
"fantastic" (about: 2009)
11-50 previous marathons
| 1 New York City Marathon
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 Running the Big Apple was a fantastic experience. The crowds and sights in Brooklyn, the views from the bridges, and running up 1st Ave. were the highlights for me. Plenty of water stations. The NYC people did a great job. Thanks to all who worked the marathon for the runners! | |
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C. B. from USA
(11/2/2009)
"Great as always, with lots of runners in 2009" (about: 2009)
4-5 previous marathons
| 3 New York City Marathons
COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 I've run this race three times, and it's been well organized with great fan support each time. The course isn't easy, especially because of the bridges and some hills (so, check the elevation chart). This year, with the 40,000-plus runners, I found it crowded for two-thirds of the distance. Still, I want to do it again and again.... |
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