April 2009: A First At Seventy
By Jim Taylor
I suppose if Kerrie Woodham can be a “fat chick to a marathon runner” Jim could be an “old cock for a marathoner” eh?
My inspiration to do a marathon came from Elizabeth a New Zealand girl we met in China doing her first marathon and I completing the half marathon on the Great Wall and a challenge for me to do when I turned 70 and retired.
I said to Margaret “London or New York”. She said “shopping better in New York!”. My contact in 2006 with Carole Mills for an entry for 2008 New York was under way. For me it was New York or bust. I was totally focussed on the overseas marathon. However, there was a lot of water to flow under the bridge, including shifting down from Wairoa to Seafield Road, building our own house and sorting out this retirement thing.
After the shift to Hawke’s Bay and the settling in etc etc I came along to the Club at the beginning of last year when my first Wednesday walk happened with Liz holding my hand. She also introduced me to Gordon who handed me the Saturday morning programme. My focus was still on a build up for New York in November as I continued to train with the Rotorua bound walkers.
No I was not doing Rotorua! A sudden change of mind, a late entry and I was, with Gordon’s encouragement, committed. As I was doing the training “why not” he said. “Get one under your belt” he said. All good experience for the big one.
Apprehension was the emotion as we waited for the starter’s gun. Would my old legs last 42.195kms. Well all went well until 30km – then my body started protesting – didn’t exactly want to go on strike but announced a go slow protest. My thoughts at that stage were some people call this “fun”, and if this is “fun” they must have a miserable life.
Up until this point I had been walking with Sharon so she carried on while I got sorted out, I became more determined that I was going to finish, whatever! Relaxing was the key for me, I just followed two other walkers for a couple of kilometres then felt much more comfortable and set off to catch Sharon which I did and we crossed the finish together. Wow my first marathon!
It was hard but very satisfying. Some reflections of that memorable day. No mean effort circumnavigating Lake Rotorua, I felt quite chuffed. Now without realising I dedicated the race to my father because he was on my mind for much of the event with me thinking he would have been proud of his boy completing a marathon. He was always very supportive of my sporting participation as a youth.
Now what I couldn’t get over was the transformation from sweaty red faced puffing Saturday morning walkers to beautiful scrubbed up Cinderella’s ready to party!
New York! New York! New York! The Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, Manhattan, Broadway, the Underground Rail, Twin Towers, Ground Zero, Yellow Taxis, Central Park, New York Marathon, Rod Dixon, Allison Roe.
We found New York a very vibrant and cosmopolitan city with all of the above living right up to their reputations, almost familiar but still very exciting to experience. And yes, sirens of police and ambulance sounding with various pictures quite regularly.
The New York Marathon described as the biggest and best in the world, almost 40,000 competitors 26.2 miles.
November 2nd 2008 quite a day. Up at 2.45am after about 2 hours sleep, down to the lobby to meet others at 3.30 then we had to hail a yellow cab and get to the Manhattan Public Library where we queued up in the dark before being herded onto buses (like the Jews in the Second World War). I have never seen so many buses, it was all very orderly. The logistics of getting the marathon on the road were quite mind-boggling. We were taken to Fort Wadsworth where we assembled at three separate areas - Orange, Blue and Green – this is at 5.00am still very dark, windy and cold where we had to hurry up and wait. We had a big tent for shelter and could move about to get bagels and coffee for breakfast. It was a long cold wait!
It was really a marathon before the marathon started. We were numbered according to our expected time for the event hence my high number 47,991 with the faster competitors having lower numbers so it was 10.30 before I crossed the start line! The start was very orderly. The three waves all simultaneously swept around onto the huge two mile two storey Verrazano Narrows Bridge (WOW what a bridge!) from Staten Island.
The athletes have the right of way! The streets are all blocked off to traffic. The city embraces the race with 2,000,000 spectators and oh so many bands with their amplified music I certainly had a feel good “hey! I’m a part of this and it is special”.
The course proceeds through all five Boroughs of New York, starting from Staten Island. After crossing the bridge we walked and ran down First Avenue in Brooklyn five miles straight. We can hear the rumble of the Underground in the centre of the wide thoroughfare. We pass into Queens still a lot of spectators as we head to the half way mark (13 miles). We then proceeded to the Queensborough Bridge also very impressive as it passes over Roosevelt Island across the East River into Manhattan. We pass very close to the Bentley Hotel where we stayed and Margaret was stationed cheering me on. We continued down First Avenue across the Harlem River to the Bronx for one mile then back into Manhattan down Fifth Avenue to Central Park with the last three miles through the beauty of the rich autumn colours of so many deciduous trees and the road still lined with spectators.
Cental Park was at its glorious best – and quite a fantastic place.
Five hours and forty two minutes I crossed the finish to receive my gold medal!!!
A great feeling having accomplished a long-held dream.
I do want to acknowledge the Saturday morning early birds who have made it all possible for this to happen. You are a great team and of course a mention to the Wednesday sprinters. Thanks guys!
