Yesterday was the most wonderful day in NYC: the NYC Marathon. No, I didn’t run it. I am not crazy enough to pay to rip all of my toenails off and poop my pants. JK, I am crazy enough, but I’ve entered 4 times and I’ve never won the lottery. Anyway, on Marathon Sunday, the buzz in the New York air is palpable, and it is the only time when New Yorkers take their earbuds out and voluntarily speak to strangers, cheering them on in the ridiculous physical feat of traversing all 5 boroughs in rain, sleet or snow. Yesterday, it was rain. Lots of it.
My marathon day always consists of many traditions, none of which involve running: first, I wake up early to watch the start of the race on TV and listen to all of the personal interest stories. I love a good sob story early in the morning. Then, I grab my marathon sign, which I worked hours on tirelessly the night before, and I go to the east side to cheer on the semi-fast runners (not elite, not stragglers). I try to spot all of my friends running by stalking them on the TCS Marathon App, then I proceed down to Maya for brunch. I knew 15 people this year!
Brunch involves of 2 hours of unlimited drinks and unlimited tapas. I stuff myself and continue to binge drink and eat as runners stream past the windows, huffing and puffing. After I am huffing and puffing solely due to the overdrive my body is doing to digest the feast, I go back out to the street for my favorite part of the race: cheering on the stragglers. Then, I continue to drink and celebrate 50 thousand people who did amazing things, me not being one of them. Let me break down my day further.
Sunday morning, I set my alarm and woke up at the crack of dawn. Crack of dawn = 8 am, when all of the actual marathoners were already on Staten Island, but no matter. 8 am is early for a Sunday for me. I slipped on some lululemon in solidarity, then went into the living room to turn on ABC. Thankfully, I was able to get my dad’s cable login, specifically for marathon-watching purposes. He told me to test out his login by logging into Fios and trying to pay his bill. I didn’t fall for that.
Anyway, I started watching the great news anchors at their posts throughout New York City, and I watched the wheelchair race, which had already begun. Feeling a bit guilty that I wasn’t running, I did a mini workout in my living room, because 5 minutes of jumping jacks and crunches pretty much equals 26.2 miles of running, right? After about 45 minutes of intermittent squats and lunges, I took a quick shower and got back to the TV just as the commentators were telling Meb’s life story. What an inspiration. Then, just as Shalane was about to cross the finish line (TOTAL BAMF), I left the house to go watch some of the marathon IRL.
I walked ten blocks to the bus, so, basically a half-marathon, and then went across town to 1st Avenue. Then, I walked another 14 blocks, so basically a full marathon. I was trying to track so many runners this year. Unfortunately, I don’t know whether to blame the weather or my inability to use technology, but I only found one of my friends!! Extra kudos to Kerong for looking fresh-like-mile-1 at mile 16.5. You killed it!!
After unsuccessfully trying to find 8 more friends, I went in to Maya for brunch, ready to stuff myself to the gills. We had a reservation for 16 people, and 15 of us showed up. Not bad, friends. There were 4 couples in attendance, one of which is getting married next weekend. Talk about dedication to Marathon Sunday!! Also in attendance was our Marathon Sunday Long Island/Jersey crew, aka my high school best friend’s aunt and friends, who we binge drink/eat with every first Sunday in November. We love getting together to stuff ourselves and cheer on runners.
This year, my friend’s aunt brought her best friend who has a daughter who just wrote an amazing book, This is Really Happening. Ok, full disclosure: I haven’t read it yet, but I’m sure it’s great. She brought me a SIGNED copy as a thank you for organizing brunch, and I promised to read it ASAP and review it on Goodreads. I will blog about my addiction to Goodreads in the near future.
The author of the book, Erin Chack, is ALSO a senior editor for Buzzfeed. Talk about a coincidence – my main goal on marathon day is always to get on Buzzfeed for my signs! Ever since my 15 seconds of fame, 4 years ago, when I was featured on Buzzfeed (#30!), it has been my ongoing goal to make a reappearance. You can see some of my previous signs in my post about my own Half Marathon Training from earlier this year. I owe my friend’s aunt for making that connection, or shidduch, as they say in Yiddish. It’s WHO you know, not WHAT you know, after all.
We went outside after brunch and continued to cheer on runners/stragglers and take some fun photos. BUZZFEED, ARE YOU THERE!? IT’S ME, EMILY. Maybe that’ll be my sign next year.
After the NYPD cleaned up the streets, told the remaining runners to proceed to the sidewalk so they could take away the road barriers (and take more photos with me, obvi), we went on to the next bar. The remaining 6 left standing from brunch went on to Pig & Whistle in midtown and chatted some more. Then, I went to the West Village to congratulate some friends from my run club who also ran/cheered all day. It was an awesome day filled with yelling, cheering, and walking. I may not have run a marathon, but I did scrape the whole back of my ankle open by wearing the wrong socks with my boots. Does that count? Check out my battle wound below. Until next year! Maybe I’ll actually win the lottery this time and lose my toenails! If so, y’all better come out strong with some signs!! And all of those who ran yesterday, Happy Medal Monday, wear that hardware with pride!
