Get a MetriCard to get you back to where you are staying after the Marathon. You will NOT be able to get a taxi. Buses do not take currency bills or credit cards...you must have the right amount of coins...$2.50 I think. You need a metro card to get into the subway and there are machines that will take your credit card and give you a metro card but...the machines may not be working or not like your card. Be prepared. I am very tired of giving change to people wrapped in aluminum foil blankets who are trying to get on a bus without change or a metro card. I just do not have that much change in my very large, very full change jar we collect for the marathon.

uh, ok.

47,000 runners ... $350 million economic impact!

Our Marathon guests arrived this morning and are now at Javits picking up their numbers.

Good luck, marathoners!

As always, I plan to carbo load Saturday night in solidarity with the marathoners. For the first timers, you will have a ball - I know I did when I ran it in '83. The last part part through the park and then out and making that right turn back up to the park entrance is unreal.

I don't really understand this post. Assuming the runner has money, why would he/she not be able to get a taxi from near Central Park? OK ... you might have to walk a block or two.

Well ... who knows what problems one might encounter, but if I run across a marathoner who needs change, I'm available to give it, though I won't be on the Upper West Side after the marathon, so it won't help much.

Doug, if you've ever been on the UWS after the marathon, even or especially hours into the afternoon later, you'd know that there are often lone runners huddled under their mylar blankets waiting for taxis. There just aren't enough to go around on a Sunday afternoon when you also have all the extra visitors who aren't runners but still want cabs. Buses don't run well because of the extra traffic and street closures, and they skip some stops around Columbus Circle entirely.

The runners end up in different places depending on whether they go to meet prople, pick up things, after events etc, so there's no one spot for taxis to congregate.

I think it's actually a good idea for any big event in the city--Thanksgiving Day parade, 4th of July fireworks, New Year's eve--to make sure you have a loaded round trip Metrocard.

If you are running and need some time off of your feet on Saturday or if you just want to know more about the greatest tour of NYC ever invented, Channel 13 will be showing Run For Your Life, a documentary about Fred Lebow and the NYC Marathon a few times this weekend.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...your-life.html

I also don't understand this post. When my son ran the marathon a couple years ago we had no problem getting a taxi back to our hotel.
but, one thing to remember is to determine in advance where you will meet up after.

Oh! I understand this post completely! I ran the marathon several years ago with a niece and my Aunt. When we finished...and we walked and walked and walked and walked past the UPS trucks to find a taxi there was NOTHING......I kept walking us "away" from the race to try to find a taxi (one in our party was sick)....no luck. It was a nightmare and it made the experience of the marathon miserable. We finally took the subway (I would have done this from the earlier but one of the party was claustrophic) and we made our way back to the hotel. I really did think that if we made our way 3-5 blocks away from the finsih we could find a cab. I have run every "Big City" marathon in the country and I have to say that NY is the most difficult to manage regarding transportation afterwards.