Sponsored Team member Matt Hamer takes on the New York Marathon

After York Marathon, I was fully excited for the big Apple. Having booked through a tour operator earlier in the year (Sports Tours International) who took care of everything, I was ready to go to NYC and aim for a similar time, around the 3:30 mark. 

Now I should pre-face all of this and say, I am not a great flyer. Considering I’ve ran many races abroad, this is one of the reasons I would never try and run a personal best when not in the UK. This time round, my anxiety was going crazy. I think I lived off a diet of whiskey during race week to try and calm my nerves. I also did near, zero running in the lead up. Not the best start! 

Having landed in JFK, we were met by our tour operator who informed us it was ‘unseasonably warm’ and that NYC was the best marathon in the world. Spoiler, this would not be the first time we heard these words. 

Day 1 (Friday) we went to the expo which was very very busy and picked up some must have NYC swag. We did the majority of our walking this day - however so much so that come Saturday, I didn't do the 5K Dash to the Finish shake out, as my legs felt battered (the diet of whiskey probably did not help. On top of this I was mainly consuming pop tarts and twizzlers) 

We did spend the morning watching the Pro Men and Women though and caught a Broadway show in the afternoon. 

Race morning - and it is an early start in NYC. 4:30am I was up to get ferried to the start before the Bridge shut. I have to say, the organisation was incredible for the sheer number of runners. However It mean’t I had about 90mins to kill in the start village. This did fly by though and it wasn't long before everyone found out how unseasonably warm it actually was. 

For some reason, even though the app, the expo, the tour operator, the morning news - everyone was touting the weather but I never clocked what that would actually mean. Until I was struggling to breathe through the humidity! It was … brutal. Coupled with an already tricky course it wasn't long before I was trying to just hold on and finish. 

However the weather was only 1 side to this marathon story. When they said it was the best race in the world, I really think it could be. I’m not sure there was ever a point where the streets were not lined with people cheering. The crowd was just unbelievable. And trying to take it all in was a little overwhelming at times. 

I finished in 4:11:16. (PB 3:13) But I wasn’t disappointed. The experience of the whole thing is what I'll take away the most. And even afterwards, the city is abuzz with everyone proudly wearing their medals - I’ve never had so many strangers congratulate me. You can tell the city really loves to celebrate the marathon. 

My goal now, is to try and bottle up all that NYC energy, and use it to springboard straight into winter training.