Napoleon Ostlund

I ran my first marathon in 1996 when I was 15. I’ve run 10 total, all over the U.S., but my top two are the Marine Corps Marathon in DC and the TCS New York City Marathon. I’m thrilled to be running them back to back, just seven days apart. It will be my third time running through the streets of New York; I ran the 2011 New York City Marathon, and I ran the NYC Half in March. There’s nothing like running in New York—the energy, the spectators, the whole atmosphere. Brooklyn is my favorite part of the marathon; the brownstones and the crowds are amazing, especially when runners come off the Verrazano Bridge. I live in Southern California, where I’m a general manager at a Sports Chalet sporting goods store. When I came to New York to race in 2011, I was a little nervous. Once I crossed the finish line, I couldn’t believe how well organized it all was. I couldn’t even tell that there were almost 50,000 people running the race. The part of the race that I’m looking forward to the most is seeing my niece, Journey, at the finish line. She’s a senior in high school in California, and her dad’s not in the picture, so I’ve helped my sister raise her. This will be her first time in New York, so she’s probably just as excited as I am, if not more excited.

I am so excited to run my first marathon with my breast cancer−survivor mother, who is also running her first. She ran many NYRR Mini 10K races during the 1980s, and I used to play with her medals when I was a little girl. I began running in college when I studied abroad in Italy—I loved running outdoors. I did my first half-marathon in 2012 and was inspired by other runners who were training for a marathon. I had always thought that a marathon was out of my league, but these people seemed so normal! So I set a goal to run the marathon when I turned 26—a year for each mile of the marathon—and I did it in May.

We were a party of four adults and one baby, and we stayed in the one-bedroom "aqua" apartment on the third floor, and rented the additional bedroom (which is on the second floor). It was plenty of space for our group, and the apartment was clean and comfortably furnished. Shahla even had a high chair for the baby to use, which came in very handy! The neighborhood itself is pretty industrial but still safe and comfortable. When you're at the back of the apartment, you can hear some noise from the subway that runs two blocks behind the apartment. It was warm in New York while we were there, and the AC in the third floor bedroom was quite old and stopped working by the time we left. But we alerted Shahla and she mentioned getting a new one for her next guests. The bathroom was big and while it was a bit rough around the edges, it served us fine. The tub is huge! The kitchen was pretty sparse, but still ample for preparing simple meals. Just two suggestions: we could not open the windows in the kitchen, and it would be helpful to open those to get a good cross breeze in the apartment - it was a bit stuffy at times. The other suggestion is to have a lock on the door on the second floor landing to secure the suite from the rest of the building. Since we were sharing the bathroom, we had to leave the extra door to the bathroom unlocked, which was right at the top of the stairs to the third floor. Having a key to lock off the whole suite would make it feel a bit more secure. Overall it was a pleasant stay and Tom was very kind and helpful!