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Monthly marathon report: NYC marathon

Just a couple of weeks ago, I ran my 7th NYC marathon. This race holds a very special place for my wife and me. NYC Marathon 2010 was the first marathon we both ever ran. To learn a bit more about we ran ran that race, watch this great StoryCorps video about my wife's story—my inspiration for doing all these marathons, triathlons, as well as wacky races and competitions. 

One of my favorite parts of the NYC marathon is actually volunteering at the Expo the day before race—handing out bibs to runners. Speaking off bibs, I had a special bib this year with my name on it!

221 Likes, 12 Comments - Yasir Salem (@yasir_salem) on Instagram: "Follow me tomorrow as I run my 26th marathon overall, 12th marathon this year, & 7th #nycmarathon...."

There was a bit of hype this year with some of the runners and I was lucky and honored to be included in a Runner's World piece and TV promotions for the race.

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And this this fun piece on AM New York

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The race went really well. The temperature was just right and the rain held up. The crowds and bands in every borough were great as always. I ran my fastest NYC marathon yet (4:41) and came in just 2 minutes behind Prince Royce and 3 minutes behind Tiki Barber

Runner's World did this great follow up on their pre-marathon article:

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And there were a few other great articles on the NYC Marathon that I was also honored to be featured in: 

 

The medals were nice, as always.

 

And my wife and I celebrated another successful NYC marathon together. We plan to run this marathon as long as we're able to!

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There is no run quite like the NYC marathon. If you ever have the chance to run it, do it! It is my favorite run and is a special race for my wife and me. And if you every have a chance to hear the stories of any of the other 50,000+ runners that finish it every year, you'll see that it's a special race for them, too.

Monthly marathon race report: Rockaway Marathon

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October's run was the Rockaway Marathon in Far Rockaway, NYC on October 7.

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I ran my 2nd fastest ever. The run was on the boardwalk. The course was 4 loops of 6.55 miles.

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There was also a half marathon race (2 loops). There were about 50 runners total.

It took me about 1.5 hours to take the subway from lower Manhattan to the start (at the end of the A line).

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​Each loop began on the boardwalk at 102nd street, headed toward 57th street (where there was a water station, the other water station was at 102nd st), then down to 30th street, where we turns around and headed back up to 102nd street.

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Overall the course was very fast and the course was easy to follow.

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On my last loop, the water stations ran out of water, so I drank out the water fountains.

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The beach scenery was really great. I sometimes forget how NYC has some amazing beaches out there.

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There were also lots of surfers out.

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I took the new super fast NYC ferry back to Manhattan (only 1 hr!) and and was back home in time for a big lunch.

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Consider this marathon if you live close to NYC and you're looking for an easy, scenic beach marathon in October.​

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