New York City Marathon — One and Done

🏁 The Story

Over Christmas week, Becky, our son Corban, and I went to see a movie at Winrock in Albuquerque.

Becky was carrying her YETI cup — the one that says “100 Marathons.”
A young girl, maybe ten years old, noticed it and asked:

“Have you really run 100 marathons?”

Becky said yes.

The girl paused, thought for a second, and asked the only follow-up question that seems to matter in the running world:

“Have you run New York?”

Becky said yes again.

“How did you do?”

“I didn’t run it that fast,” Becky said. “About five hours.”

The girl smiled and said:

“Good for you.”

That moment stuck with me — because out of all the marathons someone could ask about, New York is the one.

So this felt like the right story to place here.

📸 (Photos from race weekend and the YETI cup are included in this listing.)

🗽 Getting In

Back in 2017, Becky entered the NYC Marathon lottery — and got in.

I didn’t.

With more than 52,000 runners, getting a spot isn’t easy. So I went the charity route and raised money for New York Road Runners – Team for Kids.

I raised part of it and wrote a check for the rest to hit the $3,000 requirement.
That got me my bib — and the Team for Kids shirt you’ll see in the photos.

🌉 Race Morning (The Long Version)

NYC isn’t just a race — it’s an operation.

You start on Staten Island and finish in Central Park, which means:

• subway

• ferry

• bus

• waiting… and more waiting

We were up around 3:00 AM, took multiple subways, boarded the ferry, then sat around for hours until our corral was finally called.

We didn’t cross the start line until around 11:00–11:30 AM.

📸 (Photos from Staten Island and the waiting areas are in the gallery.)

🏃 The Run

We made a decision early:

We weren’t racing this one.
We were experiencing it.

We took photos.
We joked around.
We soaked in the crowds.

The course runs through all five boroughs — Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, and Manhattan — crossing massive bridges before finishing in Central Park.

The crowds were unreal.
Nearly a million people line the streets.

The weather was great… until the sun disappeared behind the buildings.

By the time we finished in 5:03:58, it was getting cold fast.

🥶 The Finish

After the finish line, they hand you a poncho —
and then you walk almost a mile just to get food.

By then:

• the adrenaline is gone

• the cold has set in

• all you want is a hot shower

Still — I’m glad we did it.

Would I do it again?

Probably not.

I’ve run 122 marathons.
This was my 69th.

Becky has run 100 marathons.
This was her 65th.

For us, NYC was one and done.

Not because it isn’t great.
A lot of runners say it’s their favorite marathon — and I get why.

But it’s also a huge production.

There’s the fundraising.
The travel.
The early alarms.
The ferries, buses, and hours of waiting.
The crowds before, during, and long after the finish.

It’s an all-day event, not just a race.

And after doing this long enough, that matters.

Honestly?
I’d rather run Leadville again — with the altitude, the climbing, and Mosquito Pass — than repeat New York.

That probably says more about me than the race.

🎭 Destination Marathon Reality

NYC is still special.

Our older son Conroy flew in.
We saw Wicked on Broadway.
We did the full tourist thing.

It’s a fantastic destination marathon — just not one I’d recommend as a first.

Ironically, it’s often the race celebrities choose for their first attempt.

If you’re new to marathons, there are easier (and honestly more enjoyable) ways to learn the distance.

🏁 And Then We Did It Again (Four Weeks Later)

What makes this story funny to me is that New York wasn’t the end of the year.

Four weeks later, we lined up again — this time at the San Antonio Marathon in Texas.

No lottery.
No ferry.
No bridges.
No million-person crowd.

Just a clean start, cool weather, and a straightforward race.

That one felt easy by comparison.

And that’s kind of the point.

Running isn’t about one race.
It’s about stacking experiences.

📊 By the Numbers

• NYC Finish Time: 5:03:58

• Finish Place: 37,484 of 52,705

• 2025 NYC Stats:

  • 59,226 finishers

  • Average time: 4:32

  • Runners from 130 countries

  • Over $600 million raised for charity

🏝️ Why This Story Lives on RunnerFreak

Running stories don’t belong buried in social feeds.

We’ve run races like Denver, ADT, Mt. Sneffels, even San Antonio — races that don’t exist anymore.
Their websites are gone.
Their results pages disappeared.
Photos, stats, and memories scattered or lost.

You’ve probably seen the sign at races that says:

“The pain is momentary. The internet is forever.”

That sounds good — but it’s not really true.

When races go offline, so do your stories.

On RunnerFreak, they don’t.

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a place where race recaps, photos, stats, and moments stay live as long as you want them to.

Not trapped in a feed.
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Not erased when a website shuts down.

Just your story — preserved.

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