That Sunday, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. in a panic. Outside, the leaves had turned bright yellow, and a faint ray of sunlight forecast a brisk, beautiful morning. Today, my mind would be emptied of readings, homework, issues. Because today, a friend and I would be joining 47,000 runners, half of whom are international, in a long-awaited, heart-pumping event known as the 2011 ING New York City Marathon. Stretching over 26.2 miles, the race would take us through all five boroughs, to neighborhoods I had never set foot in during my four years in New York. Starting at the Verrazano Bridge in Staten Island, the course wound for 13 miles through Brooklyn, over the Pulaski Bridge into Queens, then over the Queensboro Bridge back onto First Avenue. From there, we would make our way up East Harlem into the Bronx, then circle down onto Fifth Avenue before stumbling through the bottom of Central Park toward the finish line.

By the time I got onto the Staten Island Ferry, I was in a frenzy. No matter how hard one trains, the marathon is always an unknown beast. The legs could decide to cramp, the body could decide to stop moving. Then there is “the wall”: an infamous phenomenon that often occurs at mile 20, when a runner has spent all stored energy at the earlier miles and simply can’t push forward even a single step. Hence the saying that the last six miles of a marathon is half of the race. It is yet another reason why the NYC Marathon is so famous: it draws the best crowds, as deep as five rows of spectators along Fifth Avenue, whose decibels of cheers propel a runner forward even when her muscles have begun to fail.

The runners themselves are a quirky bunch. Aside from the elites (whom we caught only a quick glimpse of as they did warm-up laps around the Starting Villages), this year featured a runner-juggler and a New York Times cartoonist, who not only finished the race but did so while drawing fun sketches and tweeting them. Now that’s a creative exercise!

The race is a showcase of perseverance. The male winner of the NYC Marathon, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, broke the record for the course with a time of 2:05:06 (that’s an average pace of 4:47 per mile!). 46,795 runners, or 98.6% of all starters, finished, including 12 men and women in the 80-84 age group and 40 in the 75-79 age group.

For recreational runners like I am, the NYC Marathon was dear because it afforded a rare chance to be treated like celebrities, in a city and a race already famous for their celebrities. It doesn’t matter how long one took; the cheers went on, and the volunteers waited patiently at the finish line, tin blankets in one hand and medals in another.

Such hospitality is why New York has one of the most popular races in the world, and why many first-timers chose it for the challenge. Despite the post-race pains, the New York thrill is why those who have experienced it just gotta come back.

* Pictures are courtesy of the ING New York City Marathon gallery here.

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