Welcome to the concrete jungle where dreams are made of!
Hope to post a recap, and interviews in a few hours. We leave for Seattle in 6 hours, so it's gonna be tight!
12:10 pm--We had to make a change...with the distance between the finish line and the Mandarin Oriental hotel on Columbus Circle, decided to stay instead of heading to the finish.
Porter finished 22nd in a time of 2:44:25, slowing down significantly.
11:30 am--Prepare for an epic finish; please follow the rest of the way on my Twitter feed!
11:23 am--Uh boy, Mary Keitany's lead is now down to 30 seconds as she enters Central Park!
11:10 am--Sarah Porter is at 1:52:37 at the 30 mark, a 6:03/mile marathon pace, currently in 23rd place.
11:00 am--At the half-marathon mark, former Husky Christian Belz is 28th at 1:12:30, exactly 2:25 pace!
10:48 am--At 25k, Porter is at 1:33:40, slowing down slightly to 6:02 mile pace.
Mary Keitany has lost about 20 seconds of her 2:20 lead, but she's still moving. Can she hang on?
10:40 am--At the half marathon mark, Sarah Porter is at 1:18:19, 2:36:38 pace...she is in 24th place.
Christian Belz is in 29th place in the men's race, going through 15k is at 51:10, 5:30 mile pace.
10:35 am--We are going to be leaving for the finish line momentarily, which is about a half mile away at Central Park.
Please follow us the rest of the way via our twitter feed (twitter.com/paulmerca70601).
10:26 am--Sarah Porter is still maintaining the same pace of 5:58 through the 20k mark, which she crossed in 1:14:10, in 24th place.
Meanwhile up front, Mary Keitany has a 2:16 lead on the second place runner...still on world record pace.
Joe Battaglia of universalsports.com described Keitany's effort, "to use a term first coined by @atoboldon in reference to @usainbolt, the marathon has officially entered age of "video-game times"
10:08 am--Sarah Porter is now in 24th at 15k in a time of 55:37, a pace of 5:58, picking up the pace. That's about 2:36 and change.
FYI, Mary Keitany is on world record pace, boys and girls!
BTW, former Husky Christian Belz is in 30th at the 5k mark at 16:58.
9:51 am--Sarah Porter just went through the 10k mark at 37:13, in 25th place...she's the fifth American, running 6:00 mile pace, or 2:37:19.
9:33 am--Mary Keitany is at 20:35 at 4 miles, and she's on a roll....meanwhile, Sarah Porter went through the 5 k mark in 29th at 18:54
9:15 am: The women's pro race is now underway!
By the way, you can go to INGNewYorkMarathon.org and track your favorite runners. You can also watch the race live on universalsports.com.
8:45 am: Hello and welcome from the media work room at the Mandarin Oriental hotel for paulmerca.blogspot.com's semi-live blog coverage of the ING New York City Marathon.
The professional women will get started in about 30 minutes, and the focus of our coverage will be on Western Washington grad Sarah Porter, as the reigning NCAA Division II champion in the 10000 will make her professional marathon debut.
Also of note, former University of Washington standout Christian Belz from Switzerland will be running in the race today. Belz is a two-time Olympian in the steeplechase and the 5000 meters. Belz, who retired from competitive running back in December, but is looking to run about 2:30 or so, according to one of the Swiss journalists sitting near me in the press room.
If there's any questions that any of you may have during the race, the best way is via my Twitter page (twitter.com/paulmerca70601), and I'll do my best to answer them.
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