“I’ve been a part of it – New York, New York”

I ask you, who leaves a plastic bottle with the lid screwed on so tight it has no give in it? That’s exactly what I was thinking and said, give or take a few choice words, when I stood on it and slipped at the seven mile marker. Fortunately for me, there wasn’t a TV camera in sight. I say fortunate because the scene itself would certainly have made good viewing on ‘You’ve Been Framed’. Unfortunately for me, I did myself yet another injury – the other knee this time – which means although I finished the race, I was disappointed with my time – 3hr 42. It also means I’ll now be forced to pull out of races I had planned for the next few weeks, in order to recover in time for Chile.

Despite this rather funny yet incredibly painful hiccup seven miles in, the largest marathon in the world was fantastic and the crowd were like nothing I’ve ever experienced – cheering for absolutely everyone. But I’m getting ahead of myself… The day of the race actually started for me some eight hours before this point, at 04:00 (no that isn’t a typo).

I’d heard getting to the start would be a nightmare and with my hotel based at JFK I didn’t want to risk being late. So, I booked a taxi for 04:00, thinking it would take about an hour to get into town but with empty streets and the driver seemingly happy driving at 100mph, it only took 20 minutes. So there I am, in the middle of New York, at 04:30.

I’d arranged to meet some of the others who were also in New York running on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis at 05:30, so whilst I waited I grabbed some breakfast - coffee and a cinnamon bagel – well, when in Rome.

We headed off to the start area to put our bags in. I don’t want to make it sound as though I didn’t enjoy New York, the incident above was nothing to do with the organisation, just some selfish runner and my unfortunate luck but I’m afraid the bag drop was down to the organisers and I’ve never seen it so poorly or dangerously done in my life. Thousands of people were pushing and shoving as panic started to set in that there was no way everyone was going to get their bag dropped off in time to make it to the start. Those who had dropped off their bags were forced to battle their way through the same entrance people were trying to come in. It was truly dangerous, with people getting stepped on and crushed, as masses of people tried to make their way in and out of the small entrance to the drop off point. After much shouting and upset from the crowd, the organisers finally removed some of the fences which at least relieved the pressure of the crowd build up, although did nothing to speed up the process.

Fortunately, I did make it to the start on time, although it was far from the relaxed and enjoyable starts I’d been blessed with this year up until this point.

Still, once we’d set off, nothing could take away from the atmosphere that surrounded the entire 26.2 mile course. It was amazing. With the start over the Verazano-Narrows Bridge from Staten Island.

With the route be very well designed to handle the 40,000 runners it had several different starting points with the runners merging onto the same main streets over the first few miles.

The highlight for me was actually about half way through. By this point I was actually in a fair amount of pain and a voice from the crowd screamed in an American accent “Thanks so much for running for Cystic Fibrosis.” It really spurred me on and helped me focus on completing the event. As regular readers will know, at the Great North Run I was remarkably close at the start to Paula Radcliff. I was a little further away from her this time but by the end of New York, she’d managed to really distance herself from me – what’s 6,000 odd people between friends?

All in all an amazing event to be part of with the crowds, atmosphere and location.