NEW YORK — Before the members of Team Allied Services and You take to the streets of New York City for the Marathon, there's a different kind of marathon to get through.
"So it was like a 4 a.m. wake up. Step one," explained team member Erica Zangardi of Jenkins Township. "Step two, get dressed. Make sure you have all your stuff: your bib, your raised belt, your bracelets, all the good things. And then get onto the bus. But to get to the bus, you got to meet up with your friends and walk down probably about 15 minute walk to meet up with all of ally. And we got into our silver charity bus. Silver charity bus brought us straight here."
To the Pre-Race Village, where all the runners wait until it's their turn to head to the starting line.
"Because there's over 50,000 entrants, so we have to start in waves, so 50,000 people starting at one time would be quite a crazy time," added runner Lynn Dzielak of Throop.
Many of us from Team Allied Services were in the final wave at 11:30 a.m., but when it was other members' turn to start, we made sure to give them a proper send-off between our race-prep to-do list items.
"We have quite a long to-do list, so we did some mile dedications. We plan on writing those on our arms," added Zangardi. "We do have to do our hair. We're gonna have a little special race here going on, maybe some bubble braids, maybe some glitter on our face, just things to kind of hype us up and get us through the next three to four hours."
Something else that happens inside Race Village is it's really cold when we all get here around five in the morning, so people wear sweatpants and sweatshirts. By the time they run the race, it's time to take off those layers. So there are donation bins where you can donate the clothes that you wore.
"Get our gear all together. When we ran training runs, you know, we got to know each other on a different level than seeing each other just at a race or on TV or wherever," said Russell Keeler, a team member from Kingston.
Before we have too much time to psych ourselves out.
"This was a challenge waiting to start the start," said Keeler.
Then, it's finally time for the final wave to get to the starting corrals, where all the emotions come together.
"Happiness, joy, excitement for the kids, and so proud of this team," said Jim Brogna, team member and Allied Services Vice President.
Then, it's time to take it to the streets.