Guest Posting: Marathoner’s Journal by Elizabeth Greenstein November 2001

Hello all!

For those of you who missed out on watching this year’s New York City marathon, all I can say is, you really missed something amazing.  It was a perfect, perfect, perfect day.  A bit warmer and sunnier than is preferred for running, but the great weather brought out even more spectators which ultimately makes it better for the runners!  It was such a special day, such a special New York day.

As many of you know, I had some last minute “over-compensating for a late start in training” injuries, namely a bad shin splint in one leg. I got an emergency massage and pep talk from Howard the Miracle Massage Man on Thursday, and woke up Sunday pain-free.  Because of added security, my bus left super-early for the start on Staten Island, which meant that even before the race started at 10:50 a.m., I had already been up for over 5 hours and had had two breakfasts.  It was warm and sunny by the time we got to the staging area, and I stretched and tried to relax.  Then my friend and training partner, Carey, and I checked in our bags and went to our starting corral.

Carey and I innocently ended up in a fast starting group.  In fact, we covered our race numbers so that no one would see how slow and out of place we were.  There was so much excitement.  Clothing was flying overhead (the extra stuff you wear to keep warm at the start; it all gets collected, washed, and given to charity), and cameras were snapping away.  Someone pointed out the sharpshooters on the bridge’s towers, but I wasn’t sure if that’s really what they were.  There were loads of people carrying flags or with flags pinned in their hair; lots of people with wacky hats (Brits mostly; is that significant?), one woman in a feather boa.  There were loads of people wearing t-shirts noting that they were running in honor of someone who was killed on September 11th or in honor of the armed forces or the fire department or the police department.  [In fact, somewhere in the Bronx, I met a woman whose shirt had the name of the friend of mine — Jimmy Gartenberg — who was killed in the WTC; what an eerie coincidence.]  A bunch of people including Mayor Guiliani made speeches, but you couldn’t hear anything until they got to singing the national anthem, followed by “God Bless America,” and then BOOM the cannon went off!  Then, as we shuffled to the starting line, they played Frank Sinatra singing “New York New York” and that’s when I started to cry.  Me and 35,000 people all there to honor ourselves and to honor New York City.  It was overwhelming.  I don’t think anyone had dropped out of the race because they were afraid.  How could anyone feel afraid on such a picture perfect day!  Still, it was hard to look the few miles to the north of where we stood and not notice what was missing in the skyline, and not to get a chill when you realized that this day was just as beautiful as September 11th had been.

The first mile of the marathon is an uphill over the Verrazano Bridge, but you don’t notice because you are too busy trying not to trip over the hoards of people in front of you.  It took us about three minutes to get over the starting line, and then there was no turning back.  From the moment we stepped foot in Brooklyn, the energy from the street was amazing.  Every child wanted to slap your hand; every block was lined with people cheering, and at many street corners, the surging crowds on the race course caused bottlenecks.  I had a lot of friends waiting for me along the route, and to make sure I kept track of everybody, I ran with a list of who was expected where.  My first stop was Nick at 37th Street and 4th Avenue.  Nick is one of my best friends from high school and he is also a New York City firefighter, and Sunday was the first time I saw him since the 11th.  Nick: I am so happy you were there! Thanks so much for coming out on your day off!  In fact, the course seemed to be lined with fire trucks, many with their ladders extended over the avenue, and at almost every truck, you could see runners making detours to have their photos taken with the firefighters.  So much for having a movie star for a boyfriend!

Jen Small (whose hair is much longer than when I saw her last!) was a spectator at 10th Street, and hopefully will be a runner next year! Adam Kline was around Mile 7, Merrill — at 3rd Street with tangerine slices — ran with me for a block, and then I saw my brother, sister-in-law and dog-in-law at President Street.  They gave me a fig newton (or, rather, a Little Debbie bar since, I learned from John, they don’t sell fig newtons in the ‘hood!) and a big hug.  I didn’t know until after I finished that people were told not to pass out oranges, candies, or to have their own water stops for fear of terrorism.  Coming from Park Slope into Fort Greene, I missed Michael, Joanna and Isaiah, and also Barbara Turk and Phil Li — I looked for you, but it was an absolute zoo!  I did find Maria and Aimee in their usual spot on Lafayette — I think I scared them as they didn’t see me coming.  It was also around this point that I lost Carey.  I was settling into a groove, and that groove was a little faster than hers, but we were  each fine to run alone.  There is so much to see along the course that sometimes it’s nice to be alone to soak it all in.  Since I come this way only once a year, it is fascinating to see the changes made each 12 months.  Fort Greene and Bed-Stuy are much more upscale than when I first did the marathon in 1995.  Who would have ever thought that Long Island City and even Spanish Harlem (now called “SpaHa” by real estate brokers!) would become “in” neighborhoods?!  And Williamsburg — what happened there?! It looks just like SoHo!  [John, I forgot to tell you that I saw Nava Lubelski at Metropolitan Avenue, exactly where I spotted her last year.] 

A note to Jeremy and David — Williamsburg was lined with Yiddish-language campaign posters for Michael Bloomberg.  By the end of Tuesday, we’ll have a new mayor for the City of New York, and if campaign posters are any indication, Bloomberg will be a force to reckon with.

From Long Island City, the course makes a long uphill, this time over the 59th Street Bridge.  [Doug, were you there?]  Unlike at the start, this time you notice the hill because there are no spectators, and because it is Mile 16.  I passed Ed Altman on the way up; last year he and I met on the way to Greenpoint.  The descent off the bridge is fast and steep, and makes a sharp turn onto 59th Street and then onto First Avenue.  That was the second time I started to cry.  I was overwhelmed by all the people there.  It felt as if they were all waiting for me.

It was hard to know where to look.  I tried to find Toby on 64th Street, but instead found her miles later in Central Park.  Toby is my best friend from high school and was rescued on the 11th.  Like Nick, it was the first time I had seen her since then and it was great to see her, even if I couldn’t stop. Aunt Elaine was between 71st and 72nd, Sara Levine was a few blocks after in a surprise appearance, and then came Oliver at 75th — amazing that I recognized him with a cap on — and somewhere in there was Amy Mushlin.  Coming up to Mom at 82nd Street, I passed a lot of neighbors — including the Heyles and the Maloneys — which was very nice and made me realize how far I had travelled already.  I stopped just long enough to get another fig newton (this time, the real thing) and to pick up a running partner, Ethan.  I am sure it was Ethan who made me forget the blister on my foot and got me to focus on running faster mile splits.

From there on to the finish, I knew the course well since I had done training runs over the last 8 miles.  I was sorry that I couldn’t find Susan and Amanda, but we had to keep going.  For the first time, the crowds were thick all the way up to the Willis Avenue Bridge.  There was a bottleneck getting on to the bridge (but then, isn’t there always?), and Ethan had me picking up speed after then.  He pointed out that I could absolutely come in under 4:30, but it meant maintaining 10 minute miles for the last 10 Km (6.1 miles).  I scanned the crowd at 110th Street for Annette, but she must have gone home after speedy Ala passed by an hour and a half before me!  Also, no Becca Schanberg at 102nd, although I did see Ellen Umansky and her husband Dave somewhere near the hospital.  By this point, I was focused on the half-mile hill before you turn into Central Park at 90th Street.  This was the “easy” new course change so as to avoid the steeper but much shorter hill at 102nd.  All I can say is, it is much harder now.

With 5 Km to go, I took my name off my shirt, dropped my head, and took my mile splits down to about 9:30.  Ethan kept me going — I hope his 8-mile jog with me convinced him that he has to do NY next year!  He left me on Central Park South, and as I turned into the final .2 miles, I could hear someone announcing “two more minutes and you’ll make it under 4:30….one more minute and you’ll make it under 4:30…”  I did my last mile in 8:47 and, finally, after years of trying, I crossed the finish line in 4:29.20 (my net time was 4:26.23)!  It is not my best time (which is 4:23, which I did at a small, flat marathon at the Jersey Shore this past April), but it is my best New York City Marathon time, and I am thrilled!

As always, I started sobbing as soon as I finished (although I think I should look happy in the finish line photos!), but this year I couldn’t stop.  It was all too overwhelming.  I’ve been giving a lot of thought to why this event is so special.  This was my tenth marathon and my fifth run through New York, and I can say that while the distances are the same, the other five races don’t hold a candle to NYC, and this year, well, I don’t think even the Olympics would compare.  I spent 26.2 miles trying to figure out why, and this is what I’ve come up with:  one of the things that has always moved me about this city is the incredible humanity of its citizens, and we are at our absolute best on Marathon Sunday.  It is truly an “I Love NY” moment.  People who aren’t from here don’t always experience it, and most days even a native can miss it, but it — our humanity — is there.  For all our 8 million people and with all our problems and all our complaining and all our traffic jams and honking of car horns and moaning about school systems and over-priced apartments (especially over-priced apartments), we are actually very good people.  We truly value each other, that is, when we let ourselves.  New York is indeed a place where the whole is greater than the sum of our many parts.  The whole world saw it on September 11th and in the weeks that followed, and this past Sunday, we got to experience it for ourselves.  This Sunday truly was a celebration of New York for New York.  That records were set by the winners (and by people like me) was just icing on the cake. 

So, that’s what I did on Sunday.  Sarah and Radek met me after I picked up my bags and, together with Mom, we walked back to the east side to get food and then home.  Nothing like a 5-story walk-up after running a marathon.  Today I had a massage, and tomorrow it’s back to work.

Again, to all of you, thank you so much for your support.  It means the world to me.  And thanks for slogging through this very wordy report. I dedicated my run to charity and supporters are invited to make contributions in my name to the American Jewish World Service (AJWS).  AJWS is a peace-corp like organization working to alleviate poverty, hunger and disease among the people of the world regardless of race, religion or nationality. AJWS is working to create conditions for change in the developing world, and their work is even more critical in this time than at any other moment.  They are sharing our humanity with others, and it is in that spirit that I urge you to give.  You can check them out at http://www.ajws.org.

No promises for next year.  All I can think about now is restoring feeling to my legs and toes!

With much love,
Liz

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