Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But, living here I was concerned about all the very, very tired runners slowly walking home, or hotel, or friend's room because they did not have change or metrocard and could not use bus or subway. Does the pre-marathon info tell the runners to be prepared to use bus or subway to get back? Cabs are very hard to get in the end of marathon area since so many people want them. I send email to roadrunners club, but runners should not need to walk after they complete 26+ miles!

Thanks for the congrats - I've passed them along to Andrew.

Elainee, it is absolutely impossible to get a cab after the marathon. This year, however, we were surprised to find out that the MTA let all marathon runners get on the subway without paying! Just walk on through the gate! I thought that was really very nice. Most people were very happy to give up their seats for runners (my son included).

When he returned home, many people honked their horn and yelled their congratulations. Such kindness.

YAY, Andrew and GoTravel!! WOOHOO!! Here's some belated cheering all the way from TX!!

I also wanted to add that the NYC Marathon is the single largest One-Day revenue generating event for the City. Nearly 1/3 of the 37,000 runners are from other counties and visit, with their families, the week prior to the event.

I can't wait to hear from GoTravel!

Pix later this week.

Hey STW, congrats to your son, very impressive, and you must be soo proud!! I run 5 miles 5X a week so i can only imagine what it takes to complete that marathon, wow. How long has he been running, and how did he train for the marathon!

Looking forward to your pics, and also hearing from GoTravel.

Had a marvelous time and I am SORE!!!

Beat my last year's time by quite a bit so I'm happy but nowhere near Andrew's time!

STW, I didn't get your email!

We did however make it to the marathon website.

Go to www.INGNYCMarathon.org and on the right side under "Running The City Proud" click on "Photos". We are the third photo under "Friends and a tarp..". The two people on the very ends were runners from France that wanted to get their picture taken with us.

For those of you that don't know, you must be on the buses by 5:30AM at the latest for the trip to Fort Wadsworth. You then have to wait in the cold for the race to start at 10:10AM.

We took an air mattress, tarp (to keep the frost and dew off us), two sleeping bags, two blankets, and pillows. The temps were in the low 40s and I can honestly say, we were the most comfortable most warm people at the start.

Yippie, GoTravel! Congratulations on your run - you did it! Good for you! I'm sorry you didn't get my email. I just loooove that picture of you guys!!! It certainly was a bold way to start the day, in those temps. Did you pack up your stuff and bag it for pick up? Andrew wore some of his younger brother's stuff - quite the sight since he's about 6 inches taller, lol.

Ellen, Andrew began running cross country in High School and ran for fun in college. I think, inspired by seeing the Boston Marathon a number of times, he decided to seriously train for his first NYC Marathon in '04. So far he has two half marathons and two 26.2 marathons under his belt. He follows the training schedule provided by Roadrunners, but runs daily.

He told me that there is a marathon in Bermuda in January - hmmmm, not a bad place to run, lol.

My pictures turned out incredibly poor - I didn't spot Andrew early enough to get good shots of him and then my battery died! However, Andrew's GF took photos and she's sending them to me. I'll post when I get them.

Congratulations Andrew and GoTravel! What an accomplishment!

So who's the "we" GoT? You and hubby? And who else?

That's awesome that you got you photo on the website GoTravel! Congrats on completing the run! You people are something else to be able to do this remarkable feat.

Isn't it funny?

The photo is of one of my girlfriends, one of Mr.GoTravel's best friends, and my lifelong best friend who lives in Milwaukee.

We left everything behind knowing it was all going to charity shelters for NYC. I had just put brand new batteries in the air mattress we used a couple of times but everything else was brand new.

The marathon encourages the runners to bring warm clothes they will discard and they are picked up by race volunteers, laundered, and given to shelters.

Being in the back, we ran over thousands and thousands of sweat pants, sweaters, sweatshirts, coats, scarves, hats, and probably all 80,000 gloves!

Thanks for the photo link! It's absolutely wonderful that they donate all the "shed" clothing and gear to shelters. What a great idea!!

great photo ! thanks for sharing it - it appears all the runners were part of a wonderful experience - both on a personal 'best' level and as part of a wonderful group of participants and spectators !
Congrats -

GoT, which one are you....and what was your time?

Congratulations, BTW. I ran 16 on sunday and had a haaaard time.

I'm chiming in late, but congratulations to both Andrew and GoTravel!

GoTravel, keep making those time improvements and Deena Kastor is going to have watch out!

Thanks Chuck!

Are you ready for your run? I've decided I'm definitely running the MB half this year.

Go Chuck Go! Run hard and have a fantastic time! Literally!

Melissa, I'm the third from the right!

Cool! And what was your time??

Topping to say CONGRATS, GoTravel! And love the pic, too.

I did just under 10 miles this morning ~ i'm determined to run a marathon one day. I've been running quite awhile but woah, HOW did you do it? This might be an advil day!

STW, i wasn't familiar with Roadrunners until recently, sounds like the ideal program. I've subscribed to Runners World for several years however, and its very helpful, too. Looking forward to seeing your pics!

GoTravel, I am ready to run mentally. Physically I am nearly recovered from a recent injury, so we'll have to see what happens at OBX.

Ellen, I used this training program for my first marathon--it's a very comprehensive site:

http://www.marathontraining.com/marathon.html

Another really good beginner's program is this one:

http://www.halhigdon.com/marathon/Mar00index.htm

If you get hooked on marathoning, buy Jack Daniels' book Running Formula and Pete Pfitzinger's book Advanced Marathoning.

This year was the first year my brother hasn't run the NYC marathon in 25 years. He always finished in the top 20% of his age group and finished in the top 10% several times. But his knees have finally said no way.

I do walkathons, but never a marathon. Can't imagine running for more than a few miles, ever. But I'm more than happy to cheer them on...just finishing is an amazing achievement.