If running the New York City Marathon sounds tough, try driving it. Post reporter JEREMY OLSHAN, who is competing in the 26.2 mile race today, limbered up with a road run last week.
I had set out to break the course record of two hours, seven minutes and 43 seconds, set by Tesfaye Jifar of Ethiopia in 2001 – driving my 2001 Honda Civic.
Jifar averaged more than 12 mph as he zipped across the five boroughs – that’s a sub-five-minute-mile pace. I sputtered along in my Honda through bumper-to-bumper traffic and other hazards at an average speed of just more than 8 mph, roughly a seven-minute-mile pace.
My Honda blazed through the first mile in 3:46 – take that, Roger Bannister!
A Bay Ridge building fire slowed me down. Then in Fort Greene, a garbage truck. In Williamsburg it was an endless stream of pedestrians. Crossing the Pulaski Bridge into Queens marks the halfway point. I looked down at my stopwatch, disgusted that nearly two hours had passed. I soon started to cruise at a steady three-minute-mile pace over the 59th Street Bridge, then up First Avenue and across to The Bronx.
Accelerating back into Manhattan over the Madison Avenue Bridge, Fifth Avenue proved to be as rough as the veterans say.
I rounded the park and pulled into the finish line. Three hours, one minute, and 52 seconds – a time that would have just placed me in the top 500. I doused my head in water and collapsed on the horn.