The NYC Marathon

Have you ever told your friends that you were going to run a marathon next year and they laugh at you hysterically? I've had this exact experience multiple times. I'm extremely out of shape and I always have been. My dad tells me that I have the perfect build for bike races and running. I might have the right build, but I don't have the right lungs or ankles. Yesterday was the NYC Marathon and that brought on the annual joke of saying "Next year is my year!". It was my first time going to the marathon. I knew it was a big deal, but holy shit there was a lot of people watching other people be athletic specimens. The NYPD is awful at traffic control. I've learnt that through the Halloween parade and this marathon. The reason I wanted to go to the marathon finish line so bad was to see one of my favorite YouTubers cross the finish line. Have you ever watched a Casey Neistat video? The guy made short films everyday for over 530 days, everyday straight. I mean that's fucking crazy. My roommate is also a big Casey Neistat fan so we had been preparing for our moment of glory for awhile. One of my goals when I moved to the city was to have an interaction with Casey. He's notorious for just going about his day around the city and talking to his fans if he runs into them. I knew he runs up and down the west side highway everyday, but I think it would be invasive and fanboy behavior to go sit and wait for him. I knew the marathon was my first chance to break my Casey Neistat seal. Although we had plenty of time to prepare for our big day, my roommate and I over-dicked it. That means we had so much time that we put it off too long and just totally forgot. We were weeks ahead and now we were hours behind. We knew Casey would finish around noon. We didn't leave the apartment until 10:30. Now that seems like plenty of time, right? Well, we still needed to find poster boards, make the posters, find our way to Central Park and actually get a good enough spot to hold our signs against the barrier to get Casey's attention. First, get some poster board. Blicks? Closed! Okay, where else sells poster board? Michaels, great! So we go into Michaels and ask a worker, "Do you guys have any poster boards?". Of course he responds "No.". We felt stupid as shit. Luckily, they had really thick paper that would 100% do. Funnily enough, next to the thick paper was a sign that read "Support you favorite NYC Marathon Runner". We went to check out for our paper. My roommate was trying to use a gift card. Of course the self checkout wasn't letting us use a gift card and I made the mistake of asking a lady for help. She was very kind but also very manic. It was a 5 minute mistake. Next, we actually had to make the signs. We went up the Michael's escalator, found flat surface inside and started to draw. I had brought my paint pens, thank god. The next mission was to get on the Uptown One Train and get to the finish line. Surprisingly the train wasn't too busy on the way up. We got to Columbus Circle and discovered the closest entrance was on sixty-first street. We walked up two blocks, entered the park and started to look for our vantage point. Initially we found a decent spot, but it would be hard for us to both get our signs out in the open. We looked across the way and say plenty of open spots. We had to find a way over. We jumped over some small fences, cut through a small field, got on a path and found our spot. We were pretty sure it was ticketed, which we didn't have, but we evaded the guards anyway. We had been tracking Casey's times online and he was set to finish at 12:09. Perfect, it was 12:05. My anticipation was growing and I was getting nervous. And then, then it happened. he ran by us. He gave us no high five, no smile and not even a look. It was slightly disappointing that he didn't even notice us. We were screaming at the top of our lungs. Although we only got a video of him running swiftly past us, it was well worth our time. My favorite part of the day was seeing people 400m out from the finish. They all looked so miserable until they realized they were so close to the finish. Some would soar like a bald eagle and some would just have the biggest smile. It was over. All that they had built up working for. It made me so happy to see people have everything payoff. Anyway, have a fabulous Monday and I'll see you soon!