TCS NYC Marathon Experience

Today is race day!  I can't believe it's here.  I'm so excited.  Not nervous but just excited.  I'm glad that we got an extra hour of sleep and I actually slept pretty good.  Maybe that was because I slept poorly the week before. I'm well prepped, I have everything I think I'll need at the start village and we've been over all our lists twice.  I'll have my best girl friend there for support and know that I'm well trained and prepared.

Going through everything we are taking to the start village.  We did the no baggage option, so everything we took to the start village we had to dispose of before the race.

Devon gave me these lucky 2014 pennies.  Hand stamped with NYC on one and 26.2 on the other.  

People keep asking me about the weather and the wind.  Yes, it was windy.  Very windy but knowing that no matter what the weather was like that I was going to run in this race suddenly made the weather seem very trivial.  It just didn't matter.

We woke up at 4:30am to get dressed and make breakfast that we would eat at the start village and were out the door by 5:10am.  We got on a bus in Darien, CT at 5:30 and that would take us directly to the start village.

There was an older group of women, clearly in a running group sitting behind us on the bus and I asked them for advice because they have done many marathons and one woman was going to run her 10th today and they said "Enjoy today.  Enjoy it all.  Make sure you smile and take it all in because it will all be over before you know it.  Also, don't spend energy trying to weave you way through people at the start.  It will disperse after a few miles."

Great advice and it was all true!

We had a heck of a time at the start village.  There was no shelter and while there were a couple of tents up, the tents didn't have any sides because of the wind factor.  Devon and I were all bundled up with our running gear on (layers) as well as hats, gloves, scarves, hand warmers, sweatshirt and sweatpants along with an aluminum blanket and a shower curtain to sit on.  The bus operator also handed out huge heavy duty garbage bags that we cut holes into for our heads.  Wow, was that a life saver.  Literally, it was the best thing we wore all day.  Without those, we would have been shivering like many others we saw that morning.  We actually had a great time and those hours ticked by pretty quickly.

Devon all bundled up!

Me too.  Back is to the wind.  There is someone in this garbage bag!

This is what we looked like for 3 hours before the race.  Kinda crazy but we managed just fine.

By the time our wave was called we were ready to get off the cold ground and start running.  The entire race was absolutely amazing.  A once in a life time experience that I can't quite put into words.  I'm sure there isn't anything like it and to truly understand you will need to experience it for yourself.   It is indescribable.  Nothing I seem to type, feels right, feels enough.

The start village.  No shelter and lots of Dunkin Donut hats!

One runner had this to say:

The stories keep coming in about the NYC Marathon: "Katie Yant had this to say: "What an honor, what an incredible experience, what a beautiful day I had. I got to meet and talk with people from Brazil, Germany, France, UK, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Japan, Italy, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and lots of folks from different states. Everyone was so excited to be there and even the spectators were so very excited for us to be there. Incredible feeling to see the support of the crowd and all the different faces smiling and shouting cheers for the runners. I saw babies, elderly, and every age in between. I saw so many different cultures, religions, families & communities. I heard live gospel, punk, hip hop, reggae, mexican, rock, rap, soul, blues, country, folk music. I was overcome by emotion a few times along the course because of the caring and kindness from the spectators. A little girl said "you can do it, don't give up!" and I almost melted. There were poor, wealthy, healthy, ill and everyone in between lining the course. I high fived about 200 people at least & that powered me up that I barely realized I was running. But most of all, I was overcome by love. The thread that weaved through thousands and thousands of faces was brilliant, shining, amazing love. I am so touched and I will treasure this experience for the rest of my life. If you ever start losing your faith in humanity - go run NYC... or at least go volunteer to be part of this event.


I thought the most crowning moment for me was going to be crossing the finish line however this wasn't the case.  It was those last few miles, probably the last 10K that made all the difference for me.  My body was done....screaming for me to stop.....my mind....going crazy....telling me to stop, but I didn't, I didn't stop running, I kept going and it was in those painful moments when I ran with my heart that was truly life changing.  Those moments where I felt like I was going to die was when I really felt the most alive.  It was a feeling I will never forget.  I am so proud of myself for having the courage to go after a dream, the confidence to believe in myself that I could do this and the persistence and dedication to follow through with it all.


Thank you so much for all your support and prayers and thoughts.  I'm so glad I can share this experience with you all and I highly recommend running in a marathon....at least once!

Pictures from the race can be found here. 
You'll notice I'm smiling in most of the photos. I think happy looks pretty good on me!  Although time didn't matter we finished in 5 hours 36 minutes and 16 seconds.

Crossing the finish line and all smiles!