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NYC Half Marathon 2009

It was still dark when I got up at 3:45am knowing I had to meet Catherine and Lisa at their hotel by 5:30am. I wanted to be sure I either found a taxi or caught a subway in time even though at that hour I figured there would be less traffic than normal. Somehow I made it out the door by 4:35, got to the main avenue and caught a taxi right away and was at their hotel by 4:50 am! Better early than late! I ran into two guys, must have been in their early or mid twenties, who had just gotten in from a long night of partying! They saw my equipment and asked what I was doing so I told them that I was there to film a runner for the half marathon. They had no clue there was a race about to take place but they were intrigued. They asked me if the runner was "any good". I had to supress a chuckle and told them a little about Catherine. They wanted to stay to see her but it was really early and she wasn't due downstairs until 5:30 and they decided it was time to get to their room before they passed out. It was an amusing start to the day!

Around 5:25 I went to Catherine's room and she was just about ready to meet her fellow athletes in the lobby to catch the bus to the offices of the New York Road Runners (NYRR). I followed Catherine, Lisa and Hosea to the bus and we were taken to NYRR along with the other elite runners. It was here that the athletes picked up their race bags where they would put the items in that they wanted at the finish line. They also put their numbers on their bibs and made sure their trackers were on their shoes. Once that was taken care of many of the runners warmed up by jogging laps around the block until it was time to go to the start.

The start of the race was at Central Park East Drive at 87th street and there was a sea of people milling around, looking for where to drop their bags, where to line up, saying goodbye to loved ones and stretching, drinking and chatting. It was so full of energy and at such an early hour! It wasn't even 7am! I missed following the elite athletes to the start so Lisa and I ended up running through thousands of people to get to where they were. There were "corrals" set up and where we came in was at the very back. We ran through all of the different corrals and it was probably close to a half mile into the course that we found the actual starting line!

Finally it was time for some ceremony and Mary Wittenberg got up on a podium and introduced the three headline female athletes: Catherine, Paula Radcliffe and Deena Kastor. They each spoke to the crowd and acknowledged how good it was to be there. Then they all lined up. It was awesome to see the three of them standing there waiting to hear the gun. Then they heard it and off they went. I stayed for a minute until they were out of sight and then had to race to get on the bus so we could get to the finish in time, before the atheltes!

We had a police escort to make sure we made it but it was the slowest ride you can imagine! Jane Monti, who is one of the key people involved in organizing for NYRR, finally had to get out of the bus at a red light and ask the officer in the lead car if he could speed it up a bit! He did and we got there in time. I set up at the finish line and waited. We did not have a live feed to see the race so had to rely on some updates that came over a speaker now and then. I have to say it is quite exciting standing there waiting for the runners to cross that finish line. The men first; Ethiopian Tadese Tola defended his title and the other men started to come in after him: Morocco's Ridouane Harroufi second and American Ryan Hall third. (I briefly interviewed Ryan and he is such a nice guy; I'm glad he did well!)

Finally the first woman could be seen in the distance and it was Paula Radcliffe. She was running to see if she was fit enough to run at the World Championships in Berlin next week! She won the race (1:09:50) by a good margin. Then came Mamitu Daska (ETH) in 1:11:04 and then I saw Catherine coming down the stretch. She placed third (1:11:56). As each of the top three men and women came in, they were draped in their country's flag and then took a victory lap back down the last leg of the course where they hi-fived fans and you could hear the cheers from afar.

Of course after the race many people would ask Catherine if she was disappointed in placing third and as always, her answer was no. She was quick to congratulate the other women ahead of her and happy to have accomplished what she did!

As Catherine was cooling down, a young American girl walked up to her and they exchanged congratulations. I was immediately struck by the way she looked up to Catherine; you could see the admiration in her eyes. I knew I had to speak to her. I learned her name is Ilsa Paulson and she is a very young but up and coming athlete who has been very inspired by Catherine. I spoke with her and also with her parents and her parents told me how Ilsa meeting Catherine last year has been so instrumental in her own development as not only an athlete but as a person. It turns out that Ilsa is very religious and felt a calling from God to pursue her running so she dropped out of college and moved to NY to train full time and run. Her parents are extremely supportive of her but Ilsa has found that some of the other athletes are not as supportive. Some feel she should have stayed in school and done the college track and field route and some do not approve of her devotion to her religion. But meeting Catherine inspired her to stay true to her own beliefs and live her life in what ever way is right for her. It was truly awesome to hear how much this young girl has been inspired by Catherine. She considers Catherine her role model in so many ways and I am so fortunate to have met Ilsa for both the benefit of the film as well as myself. This young girl was the first American woman to cross the finish line, placing 6th just ahead of Deena Kastor who placed 7th!

Finally it was time for the awards and people were lining the park near the finish area. There was music and people dancing in the grass and it was a very festive time! The weather was a bit hot and humid but there was no rain so it was great! Awards were given to the top ten men and top ten women. Young children from a local running club presented the top 3 prizes; 3 boys to the men and 3 girls to the women. They were adorable. Some of the winners threw their flowers to the crowd but Catherine did not. She followed the little girl that presented her with her award and handed the flowers to her. The look on the little girl's face was priceless. Catherine spoke to her and asked her to promise to work hard in her training and do well in school.


After the ceremonies were finished, the athletes hopped on the bus and went back to their hotel. Catherine did her usual soak in the tub and packed up to go but when she went to the athletes lounge she got a little sidetracked. Ryan Hall was sitting on the sofa with some very strange "pants" on! It turns out that the race doctor had these pants that look almost like a cross between a space suit and hockey goalie pads and they are attached to a hose and a pressure system. The pants contract and expand and massage the legs. Catherine wanted to try it so she hung around and waited for Ryan's session to end. Watching Catherine get into this pant-like contraption was hysterical. They looked like they would swallow her up but, once it started working she really liked it!

Finally it was time to go, but before heading back to Philadelphia, Catherine and Hosea wanted to stop for lunch at their favorite Italian Restaurant. After lunch, it was time to get to the train. Catherine stopped a few times along the street to look at handbags because it just isn't right not to stop and look! She absolutely loves to shop!

The train ride home was crowded so we each sat separately but we were all exhausted and glad to have some quiet time. As I left Lisa, Catherine and Hosea I knew I could look forward to next month when Catherine would once again run the Philadelphia Distance Run. I'm still feeling inspired from meeting Ilsa and her parents and knowing how much she has been inspired by Catherine!

New York, New York

I've been debating whether or not to come up to New York for the NYC Half Marathon for a few weeks now. Last year I came up with a crew and we filmed Catherine shopping at Niketown, one of her favorite activities :) I also filmed her at a Q&A/Autograph session but I was not here for the actual race. So I really wanted to be here but I was torn between obligations at home and this. With both of my sons leaving for college in a week, there is much to be done to get them ready. To top that off, the younger of the two had his wisdom teeth out yesterday at 3pm. He was feeling REALLY good immediately after it was over, but once the novocaine and anesthesia wore off, he reassessed and was definitely NOT feeling very well at all. I won't go into the details but let's just say that he was quite under the weather. A few weeks before, he was urging me to go to NY and do what has to be done, assuring me he would be fine to take care of himself after the "minor" procedure of having all four wisdom teeth out. I finally agreed and scheduled the trip. I was very excited knowing that the field for this half marathon was excellent to begin with, and at the last minute Paula Radcliffe announced her entry as well. But after seeing my son around eleven last night, I was not so sure he would be ok. After a bout of hugging the toilet bowl, he began to feel better around midnight and I knew my trip was still going to happen. After all, he could always call his father, my friends, his grandmother or if need be, I would only be 90 minutes away. So after finally getting to bed at 2am, 5am came all too quickly! (should I have gone to sleep at all?)

Well, I got packed and ready to go and headed out to the train. Fortunately, traffic was good to me and I caught the intended train and off I went! I arrived in NYC around 9:20 am and hopped a subway to the Warwick hotel where Catherine, Lisa and Hosea Rotich were staying (as well as the other elite athletes). I ran into Catherine just as I arrived and she was headed out for a nice pre-race massage. I hung out with Lisa for a bit and we stopped into the hospitality lounge to say hi to some of the NYRR organizers and then I headed down to pick up my credentials for the press conference. Originally, the women’s elite runner press conference was scheduled for Thursday August 13th, but since Lornah Kiplagat had to withdraw they moved it to Friday along with Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall who were originally scheduled to have a separate press conference on Friday anyway.

It was a small group of reporters and the elite runners in an informal, round table format. There were three tables; one athlete at each table; Catherine Ndereba, Hendrick Ramaala (South Africa) and Tadese Tola (Ethiopia). Later, Deena Kastor (USA), Ryan Hall (USA) and Paula Radcliffe (UK) joined as well. It seemed a lot of the reporters were interested in asking Catherine (as well as the other athletes), what they thought of Paula running the NYC Half Marathon this week and then potentially the marathon next week at the World Championships in Berlin. They also seemed very interested to know how Catherine felt about the fact that Paula was running. As usual, Catherine graciously stated that it doesn't matter to her; the better the field the happier she is to be among good competition and that it would not change the way she races at all. She runs her own race no matter who is in the field.

What I found most interesting was what happened after the press conference was officially over and the athletes left the room and went about their business. I was having my lunch at a table with some journalists and I overhead a discussion between two journalists about Catherine's career and her consistency and how there isn't anyone else out there right now that has the consistency to sustain a career over such a long period of time the way Catherine has. I wanted so much to grab my camera and ask "uh, excuse me, could you repeat what you just said and oh, can you look into the camera as you do?" I refrained but it was interesting to listen to them discuss all of the current women on the racing circuit and agree that Catherine’s ability to maintain such a high level of competitiveness over such a period of time in this sport is highly unusual.

After the press conference, I met up again with Lisa and Catherine and Catherine relaxed for a bit and spoke on the phone with her husband, Anthony. They were not speaking English but the conversation was very jovial and filled with a lot of laughing and smiling. Soon it was time to head over to the Hilton where Catherine sat for an interview for a local television station. While there, we met Liz Robbins, author of the book A Race Like No Other which is about the NYC Marathon. She was very nice and seems to be a big fan of Catherine’s.

Once the interview was finished, we headed back to the Warwick again and just chatted until it was time for Catherine to go to her technical meeting. It was at that point that I decided to bid them farewell for the day. I filmed her at a technical meeting last year and from there they would go to a dinner which I know they would not spend much time at because Catherine was itching to get to Niketown! I didn’t mind getting back to where I was staying (my younger sister’s place) early; it was a very long day on only 3 hours sleep! I found an excellent sushi bar and grabbed dinner and called it a day. It looks like the weather all weekend will be nice but by Sunday it will be much hotter and more humid so it’s a good thing the race is early!

Deena Kastor

L to R: Deena Kastor, Catherine Ndereba, Paula Radcliffe

NYC Marathon

After being away for a few days I'm back to work and thought I would take some time to update the blog since it has been awhile. While working on behind the scenes business items there is not usually much to report that would be both interesting to read about or write about!

On Thursday, October 30th I left for the Big Apple to prepare to capture some footage during the weekend of the ING New York City Marathon. Catherine's husband, Anthony, was to arrive on Friday morning in order to be there to support Catherine. He is now in school 5 nights a week working towards a masters degree, working full time and made the 19+ hour trek here. I wanted to get there the day before and hit the video store for some supplies before filming his arrival. His support of his wife is so great that he arrived on Friday morning and had to leave on Monday afternoon so he wouldn't miss too much school but could also be in New York for the marathon. To me that shows a total commitment and I wanted to capture that on film!

Anthony arrived on Friday around 2pm with his ever present smile beaming across his face! Despite his jet lag he was upbeat and genuinely glad to be there to support his wife! Their reunion was sweet and you could tell how happy Catherine was to have him there with her!

We had lunch in the hospitality suite along with Lisa, Mostafa and Hosea Roetich (who was also scheduled to run on Sunday)and I was amazed by all of the amazing athletes that would come in and out of the area. The field of elite runners signed on for this prestigious race was the strongest in the race's history and there were many others present who were not even running. I am always inspired by being in Catherine's presence and add to that some of the other biggest names in distance running. Almost all of these amazing athletes were very approachable; Lornah Kiplagat, (World Half Marathon record holder among many other titles) graciously allowed me to interview her and was very friendly, Tegla Laroupe (one of Catherine's role models), Deena Kastor (2004 Olympic Bronze medalist), freshly recovered from her unfortunate 2008 Olympic injury and just bubbly and adorable but not yet able to do a marathon; Contantina Dita (reigning Olympic gold medalist) who was so friendly and warm! I did not recognizer her when we first ran into her in the lobby; she was about to go out for a morning run the day of the marathon (she was not running because she had run the Chicago Marathon 2 weeks prior). Her hair was back and I told her that I did not recognize her without her hair down!

Mostafa, Constantina Dita, Lisa
Later when I saw her with her makeup on and her beautiful curly hair she was easily recognizable! Rita Jeptoo, another Kenyan distance runner, Martin Lel (winner of the NYC Marathon the previous two years who had to pull out this year two weeks ago due to a foot injury) was there as well as Paula Radcliffe. There were always warm greetings between Catherine and all of these athletes (except for Paula Radcliffe who kept to herself).

After lunch, Catherine went for a massage and I took Anthony for a Starbucks coffee that I had promised him before his arrival! He was completely jet-lagged but put was very valiant in his efforts to stay awake as long as possible! After the coffee I let him go back to the room and get some much needed rest! :) Lisa, Catherine and I went to get manicures and pedicures (I asked Anthony if he wanted to join us but he said he doesn't do "manicures" he would do a "womancure"!) Anyway, we had our nails done and then met Mostafa at a local Italian restaurant for dinner. Anthony slept through dinner and said he would catch up in the morning!

I was very fortunate that my younger sister, Michele, lives in NY and allowed me to stay at her Manhattan apartment right in Union Square. It was my first year ever missing Halloween at home so I was very disappointed not to see all of the little kids all dressed up. However, I will say that when I got off of the subway at the stop near Michele's apartment, what I saw more than made up for what I missed at home! I had just missed a big parade but there were hundreds of people dressed up going to local clubs and just hanging around. It was fun filming all of this and having some of the people coming up right in front of the camera and act all crazy!

On Saturday I went to Tavern on the Green to do a location check and be sure that I had what I needed for the race on Sunday and to stop into the media center to get my location release signed. After scouting the site and doing some b-roll shooting, both inside and out, I met at the Hotel where Catherine and everone else was staying and Catherine's best friend Helen arrived. She is the woman who is blind and has received medals at the para-Olymics. It was very cute to watch her and Catherine together like little schoolgirls!

Catherine and Helen (disregard date on photo, camera not set properly)
We hung out in Catherine's room and I was able to film her and Hosea getting their bottles ready to submit for the race on Sunday. When Lisa, Catherine, Hosea and Mostafa went to the technical meeting, Anthony, Helen and I took at walk to Times Square where I had to run an errand. We had a nice time and then all had dinner back at the hotel sponsored by NYRR (New York Road Runners, the organization responsible for the race). After dinner, Helen came with me and stayed at my sister's apartment. We tried to make it an early night because we knew we had to be up very early for the race on Sunday.

We woke up at 4am on Sunday and were at the hotel by 5:30. Helen wanted to see Catherine before the buses left for the starting line so she and Catherine could pray together first. Praying is a huge part of both of their lives and is something that would never be left out. The athletes all had to be outside of the Hilton for the buses to leave at 6:30am sharp! We walked Catherine and Hosea to their bus; the elite runners were in a separate bus but all of the buses left together on time. Lisa, Anthony, Mostafa, Helen and I all went back to the hotel and had breakfast until it was time to take our walk to Tavern on the Green to watch the race. It was EXTREMELY cold at 38 degrees with and a slight wind which made it feel even colder! We got to Tavern and I did some more pre- race filming.

When the race started, Catherine was in her usual position at the back of the pack. Paula Radcliffe started off very strong and never looked back. Catherine placed 5th in the race and she was very happy with the way she ran given the weather; she does not like the cold very much and prefers the heat and humidity. We stayed in the Park Room to watch the race. The room was really nice and there were two flat screen televisions with seating available to watch the race. There was also a lovely brunch served. I filmed Anthony while he watched the race; I wanted to capture his nervousness before Catherine races and just the general mood of him, Lisa and Mostafa during a big race. When Catherine finished the race, the three of them went to the finish line to meet her. She had to go to drug testing and then they waited for Hosea who came in 9th for the men. When drug testing was over, everyone came back to the Park room for lunch. Catherine did not even look like she had run as you will see from this photo taken less than 30 minutes after the marathon!


After lunch we all walked back to the hotel. The streets were mayhem with thousands and thousands of people all trying to get somewhere! It took much longer to get back to the hotel than it did to get there in the morning! Once back at the hotel everyone rested until dinner. There was a beautiful invitation-only affair held at a place called The Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers.


Rita Jeptoo, Helen Cherono, Catherine, Lisa Buster
It was a beautiful setting overlooking the Hudson River and the affair was lovely.

Catherine and Anthony at dinner (disregard date on photo; date on camera not set properly)

There was a short presentation hosted by Mary Wittenberg (President and CEO of New York Road Runners) where highlights of the race were shown and the top ten places in the men's, women's and wheelchair divisions were honored. We were bused back to the hotel where I said my goodbye's to Anthony and Catherine and Helen and I returned to the apartment exhausted from the long day. I know how tired I was and I didn't even run a marathon! I give so much credit to the thousands of people who finished those 26.2 miles!

The weekend was long and exhausting but I got some really nice footage. Aside from that, I was amazed at how much work goes into the planning and execution of this large, prestigious event and how many elite athletes were present! It was a great experience and one that neither I (or my feet) are likely to forget! I took the train back home and returned to reality and a lot of work to catch up on. I am looking forward to getting the trailer put together and getting out to raise the money so I can return to Kenya and complete filming! (any suggestions on where to find money in this lovely economy are greatly welcome!)