Project Gold: Race 3: New York City 2022 (Part 1)
Mumbai: (2 months earlier)
I am notorious for losing small things- this trait has prevented me from buying Bluetooth headphones. Yes, I am that person who runs with a tangled knot of wires at my throat. Over the years, I have stopped listening to music when I run, and I save it for the occasional long tempo and the last 45-60 mins of a race. So whilst packing for this trip, I dug out my shocking pink Ipod shuffle – circa 2015 (or maybe even older), that I had not used since forever! I examined it from all angles, the buttons moved, and I plugged in the headphones to check if the little square itself worked.
The first sound byte was the over-familiar riff of “Eye of the Tiger”, and my playlist revealed its age! It made me smile, bringing back a flood of memories- pre-race breakfasts with my boys at CCI on the Saturdays before all the Mumbai Marathons, that we had suffered together, moments of all the finish lines that we had crossed, some together, others separately. In the end, friendship always won. As I shuffled to the next song, it was the old classic—“Total Eclipse of the Heart” – and I wondered, what this song was doing in my running playlist?
And Tears.
Overcome with emotion, I realized how far I had come in life, and with my running.
Now, as a celebration I was about to embark on my dream project- Project Gold.
New York: (one day before the race)
I had bought new wired headphones (the Rs. 600 ones, as no other one was available- I suppose everyone has moved to its cool city cousin!) I carefully untangled these and put them in my race kit, in anticipation of the predicted hot race, the following day. I had not even thought of my Ipod in Berlin or Chicago, but the prospect of running a marathon in 25 degrees and the blazing sun at noon- was sufficiently frightening. I was preparing for the worst.
RACEDAY:
Reaching the start line (Staten Island) is like a marathon before the actual Marathon. I left at 6.20am, to catch the 7:00 am ferry for a 10:20 am race start. New York was running. The city was abuzz, either running, or dropping their runner, or preparing to get on the road to cheer on the runners.
(Of course, the more sensible way to reach the start line was to take a direct bus from Central Park.
But no, I wanted the full experience, so I opted for the ferry and oh boy, it was over and beyond my expectations!)
My friend Andy dropped me to the Whitehall ferry terminal.
And I was grinning from ear to ear– like a fool in love. I just couldn’t stop!
I waved a jaunty good bye, skipped to the ferry hall and was immediately lost in the sea of runners.
And suddenly, I was in tears.
It had begun, the completion of my dream, Project Gold.
This was the first step towards the start of the finale- The New York City Marathon.
We were all dressed as if it was a June day- shorts, vests and a cap. Over 2000 of us, in various shapes and sizes, and a few (stupid- IMHO) sporting the official marathon t-shirt which was full-sleeved! (first timers, I thought, clueless, and I rolled my eyes in my head!). Amongst those around me was a father-daughter pair, it was the daughter’s first marathon ever. Expressing my delight for her first race, it took me back to mine, way back in 2012- oh the joy, the pain and the freedom of the first! I was overwhelmed with gratitude. We all shared a common sentiment, of how lucky we felt to be running this iconic race, today.
And tears again.
On the ferry, the Manhattan skyline receded in the distance, and Lady Liberty waved to us. A British runner (who had visited Mumbai several times) and I grumbled, if we wanted to run a warm, humid race we could have simply run TMM, why bother with the TCS NY marathon? And then the conversation stretched the limits of reality as we wished for rain! With hope in our hearts and a prayer on our lips for the weather gods, we got off the ferry and scrambled into the yellow school buses waiting to take us the Athletes Village.
No tears, only enthusiasm, as we followed the volunteers to the large holding area.
Like an over-curious child, with glazed eyes and an over stimulated brain, I was almost giddy with excitement, soaking it all in. The green grass contrasted well against the brilliant blue sky. It was a gorgeous day. The air was laden with heat, weighed down with the stories of all 50,000 of us- each one with a unique journey, sprawled in the lawns of Fort Wadsworth, with water bottles strewn around, some sitting on newspapers, yoga mats and others on previous race blankets (I was showing off with my Berlin one!). Counters serving coffee, bagels, bananas, donuts – staple of all runners – were in abundance. And here we were, in the greatest city in the world- waiting to follow the one path marked out for us today, the 26.2 mile blue line across its 5 boroughs, over its 5 recognisable bridges.
It was only 8:30 am and already feeling hot. What will happen?
This fact should have brought me to tears- but I was too excited to care!
I was here and that was all that mattered.
Resting under the shade of the tent, I staying hydrated, I tried to calm myself down. Suddenly, at 9 am, I heard a cannon go off and I ran to the other side. I waited with bated breath and after a couple of minutes, I saw the first group of amateurs on the Verrazano-Narrows bridge! Once they crossed it they would be in Brooklyn!
Tears again.
It had begun. The race had begun.
The canon will be fired for me, too.
The next hour flew past, between seeing more starts, visits to the portaloo, runner-watching and a little pretentious stretching -it was too hot to warm up! And then I heard the announcement that I had been waiting for, “The gates for the Wave 3 start of all corrals will close in 15 minutes, please head to your corrals.” I jumped up, skipped, stumbled, almost tripped, as I made my way towards the Blue start.
Just outside the tent, I came to a crossroad with possibly the world’s worst signage. I stared at it, perplexed, one arrow indicated blue corral on the right and another, blue corral to go straight. I simply could not tell which way to go. (I have a history of mixing up right/left, and getting lost, so I thought best to ask someone-I could not make a mistake here!) I asked some of the volunteers which direction to head in, but they seemed just as lost as me. One smart-ass, stroked his chin and said, “Maybe follow the people?” Panic was rising, slowly, but steadily. So ok. Deep breaths and I followed his (ill) advice. In a few 100m I was surrounded by a horde of green bibs. Yikes! WRONG! I retraced my steps back to the junction, to enquire with another volunteer (I was really feeling very dumb at that point!). Just then, thankfully, a blue bibbed runner crossed me- so I followed him (no time for any errors now). “Blue corral gates closing in 5 minutes” we were warned, and my HR was reaching its max, but literally in the next 30 seconds I found myself surrounded by blue bibs! I was home- yay, yay, yay! Last minute race prep- a gel, with a swig of water, Fast and Up Activate and I was ready.
We walked towards the bridge (the race had not even started and it felt like we had walked at least 4/5 km since morning). I looked up at the sky, it was a beautiful day, just 10 degrees warmer than my liking.
I shook out my shoulders.
Cap on. Smile on. We reached the start line.
Lining up, in the distance, we could see the tensioned cables of the bridge gleaming in the sunshine.
Strains of Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” filled the air.
Tears again.
It was really happening.
My previous races, my kids, my friends – all flashed in my head- jumbled up.
“THE. TCS. NY City. MARATHON. Is. About to begin. 3-2-1”
And boom-I was pulled out of my reverie with the canon shot and we were off,
our hearts filled with gratitude, we thanked the universe for making this day a reality.
(to be continued…)
Masi
Love your persistence & endurance for the race after race as well as writing about them, Parul!
Parul
Thank you for your time masi. This comment means a lot.