The New York City Marathon

Ready and Waiting

400 Metres from the Finish Line

Not try to drag things out, but her impressions of NYCM had to wait until we returned home at midnight last night. We talked at the kitchen table until 2:00 a.m. The long lineups at the washroom area, caused her to be one minute late getting to the red zone for the 1000 females given the FXXX numbers. She and another lady were told, "Too Bad, You're Late, You Run with the main group". As the other lady swelled up with tears, Fariyal replied,"No Way Buster" and saw other people slipping through a closed gate. She took her by the hand and the two of them entered.
She eventually saw the area for the Red Zone Females and showed that person their bib numbers. He said that they were supposed to be there 10 minutes ago and said to get inside quickly. The lady told her that her mother was dying of cancer and she was running this marathon for her. Her mother had also told her that today an angel would be watching over her. She told Fariyal that she was that angel today.
Thus Fariyal started at the rear of 1000 runners. This cost her 18 seconds to get to the start line. I don't know if you knew, but there were three starting times. The first was for the elite females, the second was for the elite males and the Red FXXX females and the third time was for the main group. So she ran slow and started taking pictures. She has many pictures of the marathon all along the 26 miles.
For the whole marathon, she felt great and kept stopping to take photographs along the way. The route was wall-to-wall spectators much like Boston in 96. The roar of the cheering was great and the only time there were breaks in the crowd was when she was running on the bridges. Here it was erie in the sense that all you could hear were your feet. Many of the runners wore their names on the front and people were calling them by their name.
Here it was funny for her as a friend of ours who owns a boat called the NaHoko 2 in Honolulu sponsored her. She had the name of his boat sewn on her singlet. People were calling out,"Go Hoku". John will get a laugh out of this.
She loved the entrance to Harlem with the red carpet on the bridge.
She never got tired and never felt sore. Took three sips of Gatorade and three sips of water at each aid station. Never used her Sharkies or Advil.
As she approached the finish line, the announcer said," Female runner F332, Fariyal Samson, Canada. Happy Birthday." And everyone there sang Happy Birthday. A real nice touch.
When she finished, she felt emotionally drained as there was no one there to greet her and everyone else seemed to have someone. She felt like sitting down and crying. As she walked around, people asked her if she had just run the marathon. Then they asked why she was not walking funny like everyone else. She then waited for the remainder of the Calgary group to finish and greeted them.
At the time she called she was in the New World Coffee shop and planned to call a taxi to go back to the hotel.
The final standings as of today say:
Adjusted Standings (Top 100 Female Finishers

Female Age Group Bib # Name Finish Time Country Rep
87 45 F332 Fariyal Samson 3:10:38 CANADA CAN

Running a marathon in a giant city like New York and Boston allows you to experience a feeling generated by the spectator crowd. Fariyal really enjoyed this.
As it was amazingly cold, runners were tossing expensive tights, sleeping bags to the side. She kept her running gear except for what she put in the UPS bags.
Some runners told her that she was lucky to be running on the upper level of the bridge as males always peed off of the bridge and the wind carried the spray down to the runners below. She saw lots of that going on plus one man actually taking a dump over the side of the bridge. Some females, not to be left out were peeing right on the bridge. But you see everything at a marathon.
The added thrill for her is looking at the collection gathered from the marathon that has her 34th birthday printed on it. She as already asked if she can run it again the next time if falls on her birthday. I guess seven years from now is okay.
It is costly even without considering the exchange of our dollar. The hotel room ended costing $189.00 USD per night and was a very tiny room (she said our condo in Honolulu was larger). Add to that taxis, airfare and it just adds up. But she would not trade the experience. The Momma Mia performance on Broadway was terrific. It was bloody cold for her (these people born in Africa just can not take it). LOL.
Anyway, just over four weeks and she can 'cook' in Hawaii.
So that is it. Marathon 29
Good Luck and Great Runs
Gord - Women in Motion who wishes he had been there.