Autumn Flexes It's Muscles - New York Marathon Part III Queens to Manhatten and the Bronx

Another couple of pushes completed and only 4 days until the Christchurch marathon. The 18km push completed on Monday was a tough session with a northwest head wind to contend with on the Mitcham Road up slope. These tough conditions saw the average speed before the turn around on Mitcham Rd at only 11.7km/hr. Following the turn around the average speed got up to 19.4km/hr with a maximum speed just under 25km/hr. The average speed over the 18km was 14.6 km/hr.

Todays session had more favourable conditions with light breezes and the sun shining. The body felt pretty so I kept going for a total distance of 21.5km and again averaged about 14.6km/hr and total time about 1 hour 23. After yesterdays rough weather today was notable with a frost and a good sprinkling of snow on the foothills, see the photo below looking up Elizabeth street. Another point of interest was a herd of heifers that followed and past me as they ran their cow lane next to Mitcham Rd. And I thought I was going fast!!

Elizabeth St, fresh snow on the hills in the background

With my recent form my aim is to complete the Christchurch 1/2 marathon in less than 80 minutes.

New York Marathon Part III - Queens to Manhatten and the Bronx

With the long haul through Brooklyn complete you have completed half the marathon and you then cross the relatively small Pulaski Bridge into Queens. You are not in Queens long with only 3.5km of roads. From Queens you are delivered to Manhattan via the historic Queensboro Bridge. This bridge is a nasty little hill that gets you when fatigue can start setting in. Of course where there is an up there is also a down. This down hill ends with quite a sharp left hand corner with plenty of haybales. You keep turning left until you go back under the bridge and start heading up 1st Avenue. There are plenty of people around this part of the course and plenty of noisy support. In 2015 I had a Silver Fern on a small black flag and I got recognised and they yelled their encouragement to the kiwi. 1st Avenue is a long straight 5km that takes you to another small bridge and leaving Manhattan Island and into the Bronx. Here you are greeted with African American street music that is loud! Like Queens you are not in the Bronx long with only about 2km to travel to you last small bridge that takes you back into Manhattan.

Queensboro Bridge over East River to Manhattan