In this episode of the Podcast It's a long road I will describe to you what it is like to run in the New York Marathon, perhaps the most popular Marathon in the world and in the series of 6 World Marathon Majors.
Hello my friends,
As running rises in Greece, so do many things surrounding it, such as the many running events throughout Greece, the various clubs involved in running, but also through the Social Media and the various groups that are created. Some of them have not only remained in electronic contact but now organize various Events, simple meetings to get to know the members, but also training sessions all together in some beautiful place. So from here I would like to mention a running group based in Thessaloniki and they are the World of Running. A group that I recently got to know, I even did some training with them, we drank our coffees, got to know each other and exchanged opinions, ideas and experiences around our love of running and I confess that I was particularly impressed by everything they do and they have become a good company through running, they became friends, they made their t-shirts and they are all together whenever they can go to their races but also do their relaxed training together starting on Sunday mornings from the umbrellas on the beach of Thessaloniki. What particularly impressed me is the attitude they have around running, the reason why they do it and in general how they approach this whole activity with the common goal of doing good to their health and to their souls. From here guys I would like to say a big thumbs up and I am especially happy to meet you. Keep up this beautiful company and of course to the listener friends who are in Thessaloniki and not only who want to get to know this beautiful community, all they have to do is enter Facebook at World of Running, I will have a link in the description of the episode, but also those who want can find them for a relaxed training on Sundays usually at 9 in the morning under the umbrellas on the beach of Thessaloniki. At some point even with it Podcasts everything is a road, I intend to invite all friends who want to come and meet one Sunday morning and do a training session all together.
New York Marathon so, the time has come for a magical destination, a city that just by hearing its name, immediately predisposes you to think of something magical, something taken out of movies and your mind and your imagination already start to make the journey through the city , in its famous neighborhoods, its grand boulevards, its skyscrapers and the famous Statue of Liberty. In a city where you walk and it never ends!
So still with fresh memories and without my body having fully recovered from the fatigue and the personal record of 03:30 London Marathon, the time has come for another great Marathon in the series of 6, this one in New York. This would also be the 5th in the series, so I only had one more left, the Tokyo one. I may have experienced unrepeatable moments in London, I may have thanked him until the last second, but I can't hide from you that with even greater impatience I was waiting to travel and run in this Marathon that was taking place in perhaps the most famous, the most cosmopolitan, the most dream city of the world, New York.
October 02, 2022 I ran to London Marathon, November 06, 2022, a month later he was in New York, but in between on October 15 there was also my very favorite match, the Night Half Marathon of Thessaloniki, that no matter what happened, I would run this race. First of all because it is in my city Thessaloniki, secondly I am emotionally attached to this race since it was the first race in my running career and thirdly running at night in the center of the city crossing the beach and Tsimiski with people and fooling around the shop windows are a beautiful sight that, combined with the lights and the night magic of the city, send your mood soaring.
So in Thessaloniki, on the day of the race, the weather was particularly good, I would say a little warmer than usual, but very good for your evening run. A lot of people participated, but few spectators and I would say not so demonstrative. Probably most of them also seemed indignant that the streets of the city were closed, while pedestrians with strollers or alone became one with the runners who were running. In fact, only I saw 2-3 cases of indifferent pedestrians who were in their own world almost colliding with runners who were running, while I also read about other cases of runners who collided and fell down injured. Coming from London, of course, where there was a lot of chaos and the spectators became one with the runners and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun, in Thessaloniki the opposite was probably the case, while the mistakes and omissions were so many that it is better not to mention them further because we will be spoiled. However, in general, the organization combined with the street culture of the city gave a mixture of abandonment and misery. I don't know what's wrong, but in Thessaloniki at least we want many, many years to reach the levels and street culture of other peoples and cities.
In the race itself I was in very good shape which was reflected in my final time with a new personal best and half marathon time of 1.33 with an average pace of 4.24 min/km. What made me especially happy is that I met a lot of friends, later with some of them and my wife and I drank some beers and had a little fun, and I was even more happy with the fact that I met and greeted with listeners of Podcasts who either recognized me or read my name on the number on the front of my jersey and approached me. Really beautiful moments that I confess always positively surprised me.
So on November 3, with a flight from Thessaloniki via Istanbul, I started another transatlantic trip to the city that they say never sleeps, New York. A trip that was a lifelong dream and now the time has come to make it come true. Don't stop dreaming can be said by me too and it may be considered by many as a cliché expression and by some others as unrealizable, but at least my dreams one by one, slowly and steadily took shape and the more I grew up the more one of my goals and dreams was coming true.
So after a long journey that lasted a total of 14 hours, we arrived at 12 midnight in New York, where my very good friend and travel agent Giorgos Karagiannis was already waiting for us. We immediately headed to the hotel and from there straight to bed, since early Friday morning we would go to the fair of the organization to get the number and from there the program called for walks and a tour of the city of New York.
THE New York is located on the east coast of the USA, in the northeast of the country. The city center is built on Manhattan Island at the mouth of the Hudson River in the Atlantic Ocean. New York consists of 5 large departments (called boroughs in English). Each of these constitutes a separate county. The five boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island were consolidated into a single city in 1898. Over 800 languages are spoken in New York, making it the most linguistically diverse city in the world, and it welcomes approximately 62,000,000 tourists. the time.
Names from the city's bridges, skyscrapers and parks are known around the world. Undoubtedly the landmark of New York is the Statue of Liberty, which in 1886 was placed on Liberty Island, south of Manhattan, as a gift from the French Republic. Other attractions are the Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Square Garden, the UN headquarters building and the huge “Grand Central Terminal” train station, built in 1903. The New York Subway is the largest subway system. in the world, with 472 stations in operation, which operates on a 24-hour basis, with 36 lines.
The Guggenheim, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) are also world-famous, but there are dozens of other notable attractions such as the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, Central Park and more.
The tragic event with the twin towers and what happened on September 11, 2001 also went down in history. A September 11 Memorial & Museum was created on the site, for the 3000 victims who lost their lives during the terrorist attack, and a museum operates for the visit. In 2013, the construction of the tallest of the new buildings of the World Trade Center, One World Trade Center (formerly the "Freedom Tower") was completed, which with a height of 541 meters is the tallest building in the Americas and the Western Hemisphere, while other buildings are completed and under construction.
So on Friday morning and after having our breakfast we headed to the exhibition of the organization which was not too far from the hotel where we were staying. Of course, the first thing I did as soon as I left the hotel was to get a SIM card to have internet on my mobile phone, so in no more than half an hour we were at the exhibition. After we entered the building, just before entering the main area I was surprised to see him eagerly waiting and welcoming all visitors New York Marathon volunteer legend Barbara Rubenstein. A sweet 92-year-old presenter please, that I had read in some articles about her, since she has been a volunteer at the race for 31 consecutive years and waits for all the athletes both at the exhibition and at the finish line. Of course I took a photo with her and proceeded to pick up my race number which by the way was significant for me since it was my birth date with another two in the middle. 19272.
After getting the number, I went to see the rest of the exhibits, starting of course with the clothing of the official sponsor of the event, which was New Balance. I liked a couple of things that I saw and I took them and after browsing the rest of the booths the time passed and we decided to go to the hotel that was nearby to get rid of the many bags we now had in our possession. From there we continued our walk going back to the exhibition area to cross the High Line Park, which since its opening in 2009 is one of the most unique parks in New York. The elevated walkway stretches for approximately 2 kilometers and receives an average of 8 million visitors per year. From there we went to Chelsea Market (Chelsea Market), a multipurpose area with unique restaurants and shops where we stopped to eat something. Later and because the time passed we made a quick pass through Greenwich Village and through the famous 5th Avenue which is one of the most expensive and commercial streets in the world, we slowly made our way back to the hotel, since of course we made a couple of stops at something commercial.
Saturday morning we got up early again, of course something we were used to during our entire stay in New York. I don't know, but this time probably the jet lag affected me more because every night after 5 the eye was a shrimp. So on Saturday morning we would take part in the 5 km race, more like a fun run and to have fun and at the same time I would also do the 25 minute run that I had in the program and as I usually do the day before the big race . The 5th would start in front of the United Nations building and the crowd was huge! I would run once again with my wife and I would try to enjoy it as much as I could and on the occasion we would also admire some of the sights of the city. The finish was the same as it would be the next day in his big race Marathon. Thus, finishing at 5 kilometers, it was impossible not to travel tomorrow and bring images to mind of how it would be tomorrow with more people, of course this time finishing after 42 kilometers! The only thing I didn't like was that they didn't give any medal to the 5km finishers, but also no t-shirt and that spoiled both me and my wife, since you had to pay for the participation and not even one small amount. In Boston on the contrary, they had given both a t-shirt and a medal.
From there and after we finished the 5 kilometers and were relatively close we took a walk outside the Natural History Museum and immediately after that we went and entered the Museum of Modern Art, one of the most famous Museums in the world. In general, I don't usually go into museums, but we had gotten a package of tickets that had some attractions pre-paid and that's why, since we were there, we decided to go in.
New York's Museum of Modern Art, which first opened in 1929, is considered to hold today one of the most important collections of modern art in the world, with works by the greatest contemporary artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, by Cézanne, Dali and Jackson Pollock.
From there we passed by Madison Square Garden, home of the New York Knicks basketball team, who even had a game on the same day against the Boston Celtics, but the tickets were very expensive since for some crap seats started at 200 dollars each and of course we decided not to give them away. Maybe on another trip I'll see an NBA game, which of course is a great experience.
On the way back to the hotel we also saw the central train station (Grand Central Terminal) an impressive area with many restaurants and shops, right outside the Chrysler Building (Chrysler Building) and from there since it was getting dark we went to its most famous square Times Square at the intersection of 7th Avenue and Broadway. Famous for its many illuminated signs and advertisements, it is one of the busiest pedestrian streets in the world, the hub of Broadway theaters and an important center of the global entertainment industry. Times Square or the "Crossroads of the World" is one of the most touristic attractions in the world, attracting approximately 50 million visitors annually. You really are left with your mouth open by what you will meet and what you will see in this square. It feels as if all the people of the world, all the entertainment and all the strange things of the world have somehow shrunk and fit right there in one square.
Relatively early we also arrived at the hotel and immediately rested and slept since the next day waking up would be very early because we had to eat and go to the area which fortunately was near the hotel to board the buses that would take us to the starting point of the race .
The weather throughout our stay there was remarkably warm. Every day I walked around in a short-sleeved T-shirt, since the temperature was 20 to 23 degrees, which is not particularly good for marathon race, since in combination with the high humidity it would make the effort of all the athletes difficult which is what happened.
I would have 5 with me in the race gels and 5 saltsticks. Two hours before the race I drink 500ml of water with electrolytes and another same bottle half an hour before, as well as a gel a quarter of an hour before the start of the race. So I take the remaining 4 every 45 minutes or so, the same as the salt sticks. The only problem here with hydration is that before the start you will definitely need a toilet.
As for her hydration me during the race just like in all other Marathons in the United States is the one thing that should not concern anyone. It had from the 5th kilometer to the 40th every 1600 meters, stations that gave water and isotonic Gatorade. Classically, as soon as one station ended, the next one started! At two stations at kilometers 20 and 29, gelatos were given out, and because they had different flavors, the volunteers who gave them out wore corresponding colored hats. They also gave out bananas at kilometers 33 and 37, but I personally didn't get to eat, just as I didn't use the organization's gels since I had my own. However, with so much energy replenishment, you'd have to be pretty dumb to say the least to run out of energy or crash into a wall. There were also chemical toilets along the route from the 5th kilometer and every approximately 1.5 kilometers.
There were toilets along the entire route starting from the 5th kilometer and every 1600 meters.
THE New York City Marathon is one of the biggest and most impressive events in the whole world and it is the biggest Marathon in the world! It is one of the most successful Marathon races that the last time it was held normally, in 2019, had achieved a world record with 53,627 finishers! Just to remind you that the event took place in 2021 with half of the participants, while in 2020 it was canceled due to a pandemic. A spectacular event at a festive pace, with thousands of fanatical supporters who along the entire route transfer their energy, lifting all the runners with their enormous power towards the finish line.
The race is organized by New York Road Runners and has been held every year since 1970, with the exception of 2012, when it was canceled due to Hurricane Sandy, and 2020, when it was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When the event began in 1970, only 127 men and women took part and did a few laps of Central Park. Then only 55 athletes managed to finish, while only 100 were spectators of the race. Six years after 1976, the route of the race was changed and now it passed through all five districts of the city, which skyrocketed it in popularity and in the number of participations. A total of 2,090 runners then ran through the streets of the American metropolis and 1,549 finished. The winner of this first official race was Bill Rogers, who won three more times in the following years. From 1976 to 1986 the race was held at the end of October, while later it moved where it is to this day to the first Sunday of November. Also known, many charities rely on the marathon to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.
The route starts from the Verrazano Bridge and crosses the five boroughs of New York, Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan, ending in Central Park (Central Park) where the finish is!
Waking up at 4 in the morning, a classic breakfast of 2 slices of bread with honey or jam, a banana and a bar, and with me I took two figs, another banana and a bar because the race would start at 9, mine coral at 9.45, so there were plenty of hours until then. Waking up very early in the morning at 4 wasn't the slightest problem since as I mentioned before every night the eye opened around these hours by itself and I felt full of sleep. As for my diet, although I mentioned it in an earlier Podcast, I will say it this time as well, that my diet plan for the last three days was as follows:
Breakfast: 6 slices of toast with turkey, lettuce and tomato
Tithe: 10 rice wafers and 2 bananas or 10 rice wafers with jam and 1 banana.
Lunch: 150 grams of chicken, 500 grams of rice or spaghetti and a salad
Afternoon: 30 grams of protein and 7 slices of bread with honey or jam.
Dinner: 10 rice wafers with honey or jam.
This gives about 3,300 calories daily. A slight increase in weight you should not worry because it will be lost after the match.
I had my things ready like every time since the day before and so after I got ready I went to have my breakfast, together with the rest of the athletes, but this time there were clearly fewer of us in the hotel than in London. More or less everyone knows what works best for themselves in terms of nutrition and food before a match, since everything will have been tested in some of the training sessions. In general try not to experiment with anything new and whatever you do should be tried and tested.
As in London Marathon it also had 3 different starts here and they were depicted with a different color. It was the blue, green and orange start and each one follows a separate route until about the 13th kilometer where they all join together. Based on the planning of the organization I started at the orange start at 9.45 and based on the planning again I had to take the bus at 5 in the morning. Of course, none of this came to pass, because I, in a way, made my own plan.
Because there were a lot of people, of course they didn't take into account what time my number said to take the bus. So because at 5 in the morning it was too early, I and the rest of the Greeks who were together went to take the buses of the organization at 6 and of course it was a mess. We boarded after about 45 minutes and finally and the trip to the starting point in Staten Island took about an hour and twenty minutes. So at the start of the race we found ourselves at 8 o'clock in a huge space with many more athletes all ready to enter the battle!
In general, getting to the starting point of the race takes time and basically patience, because consider that at the same time more than 50,000 runners go to the starting point. Relatively long journey until you reach Stark Village, where you face a great waste of thousands of athletes ready to pour into the streets of New York.
Also what you saw there from the feed was something else, the unique and I would say similar to that of Chicago, but only in America you could see that. Before the start, the athletes were offered countless amounts of isotonic drinks, bananas, coffee, tea, breads, hand warmers. You also hand over the bag that you will take at the finish very easily, but I didn't give anything because my wife would be waiting for me there.
Usually in these events and especially because you have to be at the start early in the morning, most athletes wear an extra blouse or fleece or some kind of jacket and shortly before the start of the race they leave it on the side of the road and it is impressive how many clothes are collected and are then given to various charities. This time, however, the weather was our ally and, as I said before, it was unusually warm for the season. I personally had a disposable raincoat with me, but I didn't use it at all since the weather was perfect.
I was in the company of 3 more Greeks who, however, had a start at 9.10 and so after I tricked some of the volunteers at the entrance of the corrals, somehow hiding my number, I entered the same corral with my friends and so instead of starting at 9.45 I started half an hour earlier at 9.10. We said we Greeks have our own way of doing something like this....
In each corral there were not many people, but there were many toilets, so best just before the start a visit there to freshen up and be 100% ready. After we walked about 200 meters while listening to some people speaking from the organization's microphones and then the National Anthem of America, the start was given for our own wave.
The New York City Marathon begins on Staten Island, and runners immediately cross the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge. Our now blue wave passed under the bridge which is 69 meters high and a little more than 4 kilometers long and had no spectators at all along its length. The black point of the whole route for me was the start, because because we were passing under the bridge my watch lost the GPS signal and until the 11th kilometer I was running at a crawl without having any clue or rather the watch was showing that it wanted to and indeed the map took me out into the sea. I won't hide from you that this pissed me off a lot, which I also mention in a Live I did on Instagram and in general I threw a lot of candles. So for the first time in a race I was running for how long with no indication of my pace and distance covered, so I was going by instinct and experience, but I had the impression as I found out later that I was going a bit faster than normal.
Crossing the Verazzano Bridge we enter Brooklyn and I pass 5 km in 23:32 and a pace of 04:43. In terms of hydration and energy intake I had no issues the whole way since I kept my protocol consistent. I passed 10 kilometers in 47:38 and an average pace of 4:46. A little later he also fixed the watch since I had been working on it up to that point and it got on my nerves.
In total, the route crosses 5 bridges, of which two are particularly long in length and have no spectators at all.
Brooklyn is mostly flat and the total 12 miles passes through Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Park Slope, Fort Greene, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The course then enters Queens by crossing the Pulaski Bridge, which is the halfway point of the race. There the half marathon was completed in 1:42:37 with an average pace of 04:52
From there, the difficulties of the route began, as everyone who has run this Marathon knows that the second half is the most difficult, due to the large inclines it has, which was made even more difficult by the high temperature and humidity .
After a short time in Queens, the race crosses the Queensboro Bridge and enters Manhattan where competitors run north on First Avenue for approximately 5 kilometers. Runners cross the Willis Avenue Bridge, where they enter the Bronx for about 2 miles. The course then re-enters Manhattan via the Madison Avenue Bridge for the last 10km. The second half was also slower for me and overall I would say I was more tired than usual and especially after the 30km pass that the I did it in 2:29. The many uphills took a toll on me and was probably the only race I was looking forward to. A month ago in London I remember finishing rested and even saying that I didn't want the race to end, but now a month later things and conditions were completely different. Here for the first time I saw a lot of dropouts relatively early on, as I noticed runners hitting the wall as early as the 25km mark, many cramping and even more compared to other races I've run struggling and walking quite a bit.
All along the route if you except when we crossed the bridges, the people were shocking. In some parts of the match, there were so many people that even I wondered how they all crowded so strongly to see this match. I was very impressed by the incredible number of music bands that were along the route. I really don't remember the number but I was impressed that I heard almost all kinds of music and in some cases I was very impressed by the passion that both the people around the bands and the singers themselves had!
After crossing Harlem, there is a slightly uphill section along Fifth Avenue that runs parallel to Central Park. The route then enters the park at around 40km, passes Columbus Circle and re-enters the park for the finish on a slightly uphill final course that drains your last reserves of courage and strength. A particularly difficult race, I'd say harder than one would expect due to the constant elevation changes and I wouldn't recommend it for someone looking to set a personal record!
In the last meters of the race, my friend Giorgos Karagiannis was waiting for me to give me one Greek flag to hold as I finish, which I did for the first time and I admit it felt great. Countless shivers of joy and excitement ran through my entire body once again, and I felt all these confused emotions in every cell of my body. A feeling that you can hardly describe and I'm sure most of you have felt it in every finish.
I finished in 3:39:17 with an average pace of 05:12, very tired, happy to finish but not so happy with my time. Place 4,878 out of a total of 47,743 athletes. 3,841 place out of 26,538 men, 361 place out of 3,595 in my age group and finally 5th Greek out of a total of 29 who finished. At the finish line and until you leave the athletes area there are a lot of photographers capturing your every moment, while one of the nice things they give you is a wonderful poncho characteristic of this race, but also a bag containing a bottle of water , a Gatorade, a Pretzel, an apple and a Biofreeze cream-gel.
As I usually do, I spent a few minutes at the finish just watching the rest of the athletes finish, since as I've said before I especially like to observe the emotions and expressions of all the other athletes, after a race where we all felt the same pain together.
I slowly headed towards the exit to meet my wife who was waiting for me and who I later learned from her that she was squealing to hear her at the finish line but I, with so many people and noise, didn't take it. There, shortly before the exit, they distributed to me the best I could have after finishing a Marathon, a chocolate milk and I even drank two bottles in one go.
We slowly made our way to the hotel, which required an hour's walk, but when you're walking through the world's largest square, Time Square, you don't care about being tired. In the afternoon we visited one of the most impressive buildings in the world, the Empire State Building, we went up in less than a minute to the 86th floor of the building to enjoy the unique view of New York at night. The same night which is for me and one of the best moments of the whole trip we went to a restaurant adjacent to the hotel, we enjoyed hearty New York Burgers, of course an ice cold beer and also a delicious piece of the famous New York Cheesecake. All of this, of course, in an atmosphere of joy and euphoria, since everyone from the group finished and so we didn't miss the opportunity to analyze from everyone's personal point of view the race, the route, the eutrapelas, but also to give our impressions of this event in general magic fight. However, it is so beautiful after a demanding Marathon race, that all the athletes are around a table, eating, drinking, laughing and commenting in their own unique way on everything that they experienced that day.
The next day, Monday, it was on the schedule to visit some of the most important sights of New York.
So in the morning we visited the impressive Statue of Liberty by boat, from there we crossed back to Manhattan and returning to the hotel on a long route that took us until the evening, we also saw everything else we could and was worth seeing in our short tour of the city of New York. So we first passed outside the famous Wall Street which has been described as the most important financial center of the world and from there to ground zero where the twin towers fell. We went up and through China Town we made a stop in the Little Italy area where we tried some of the most famous Cheesecakes at an Italian's patisserie. Salvatore was from Napoli and he had Maradona's shirt in his shop and in one of the frames he told us there were hairs from Maradona's hair. He even treated us to some sweets and we took several pictures together, since I, having lived for some years in Napoli, have a special love for the team, since I never lost a game when I was there.
The next day, Tuesday late at night, we had our return flight, so we spent the whole day walking around the city and in the shops for the last shopping, while we were particularly impressed by our visit to the Madame Tussauds Museum and the famous Hard Rock Café in Time Square.
In his next days Marathon it is particularly beautiful to see a crowd of people who took part in the race proudly wearing the medal and it is even more impressive when people who are strangers to you see you and congratulate you, while in some cases and while I was entering shops all the employees seeing me to enter with the medal around my neck they erupted in applause, cheers and praises! An incredible and unique feeling, my friends, that you only experience in big matches abroad! That's why when you ever run a race abroad never hesitate to wear the medal on your walks!
In the next 2 days after the race, at the starting point the organizing authority together with the sports sponsor New Balance continue to sell what is left of the products of the specific race, while if you stand for a few hours and in the queue you can write on the back of your medal the time you did but also your name, with the indemnity of course since it costs 25 dollars, which of course is not worth it for me because you can do it in Greece as well. I just went there to get the famous New York Times newspaper, since it had all the finishers of the race in it and of course my name.
What impressed me from this trip, from the city and the people were the following:
I felt as if all the places I walked and visited were as if I had seen them before. This is perhaps because through the many films we have seen, the images were not unprecedented, they may have been impressive but I want to say I had seen them before, even through television.
In general, the city has a lot of garbage and you see many homeless people and people in a miserable condition. I read that in the past the situation was much worse and that in the last 40 years it has improved significantly, but it still has a lot of garbage everywhere, many homeless people everywhere in every corner and at the subway exits a lot of excrement from the homeless with a natural consequence of the great stench.
Very accurate, but I also understand that the salaries are proportionally higher.
Very long distances and long avenues. This resulted in seeing in front of you a skyscraper that you want to visit but it takes no time to reach it on foot.
A lot of tsiagariliki everywhere throughout the city and as a natural consequence the smell from it is strong with every step you take.
And one last thing that really struck me was because I like to observe people, what I noticed while walking around the city was that my gaze did not intersect with anyone else's. You know when you're walking down the street and you keep making eye contact with the person across from you, that almost never happened to me in New York. It was as if they were all lost in their thoughts, they seemed to have a blank, alienated look and most of them looked only ahead and nothing else. It's a strange feeling and it would be especially interesting if a psychologist explained it to me at some point.
One of the things I especially like about these trips is that you get to know people, either locals staying at the destination or others you've been in the same tour group or hotel with. So this time too I met and kept in touch with remarkable people, I was particularly impressed by the character of each one and the story they carried either on a personal level or on a career level and I confess that once again I came out very happy after winning the acquaintance and I hope the friendship of Herakles, the Italian Flavia, the amazing athlete Tula and Aria where she even successfully ran her first Marathon.
The New York City Marathon is magical in itself! The thousands of spectators along the route, the magical route through all the neighborhoods of the city, the bands with their music, the flags of the spectators, the various signs held by the spectators with often funny messages, all this together in they make you feel incredible emotions. During the race it felt like there was an interaction of energy between the athletes and the city itself. Energy that the athletes and spectators gave to the city and at the same time all the energy that the runners received from the pulse and magic of New York.
Only positive and beautiful images can be taken and stored in the suitcases of memories and your soul from such trips and really the short time I visited and lived in the dream city of New York, I tried to listen and feel as much as I could the pulse city's. If nothing else finishing any Marathon is a major achievement, especially when you finish in a magical place like New York, among so many people and even more so knowing that I did 5 out of 6 and there was still one more to go to become a 6 Star Finisher.
So next stop Tokyo, in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. One more experience that I can't wait to live and it will be even more special for me since when I finish I will wear two medals, one of the organization and the big medal of the completion of the 6 Great Marathons of the World!
Thank you so much for listening to me!
Until next time, Be well, be healthy and always do what we love and what makes us feel good.
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