- February 7, 2025
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Four times Keri Harris had entered into the lottery system to have a shot at running in the New York City Marathon. The first three times her name was not chosen. It wasn't until after the fourth try that Harris received the good news — she would be running the coveted 26.2 miles through all five boroughs of the city in late 2017.
Throughout the summer, Harris trained, sometimes with her husband Jeff Harris, other times with friends, some days she ran alone. Many of those training days consisted of getting up at 5 a.m. to beat the rising Florida temperatures. And though Harris recalls the training as "brutal" she was finally running the course she'd been hoping to complete for years.
"Once I got into running I thought if I can ever get into New York City it's going to be amazing," Harris said. "My best friend got to run it and told me it's basically the best race."
Harris didn't grow up running but took it up eight years ago when she was 30. The New York City Marathon was her second, the first being a Disney marathon.
Part of Harris' motivation for running this particular marathon was because her parents are from Long Island. That meant Harris traveled across the Verrazano Bridge, a part of the marathon course, countless times.
"I always thought how cool it would be to run over that bridge," Harris said.
On Sunday, Nov. 5, Harris was among the 50,000 people who were going to partake in the race. Harris was running it solo, though her husband was there to meet her at different mile markers. She noted having a cheering crowd the whole way was a major motivation.
This year, security at the marathon was increased due to an attack where a person drove a truck into a busy bike lane in Lower Manhattan killing eight people and injuring at least a dozen.
Harris said she could see the tightened security and that there were moments when she wondered about safety.
"It's on your mind for sure," Harris said. "But the police presence was amazing."
Harris started the marathon around 11:30 a.m. She finished six hours and eight minutes later after pushing through rain, hurting knees and hills that weren't a part of her usual Florida conditioning.
She had run the New York City Marathon.
"Overall, it is probably one of the best experiences of my life," Harris said. "Because for one, I did it all by myself."
And now that Harris is back at home in Port Orange she isn't done running. She's got a 5K coming up and the Key West Marathon in January.
On the days she's not participating in a race, Harris can sometimes be found pounding the pavement on one of her favorite routes: the road down to the beach. Because at the end of the day, Harris simply enjoys running.
"It's just a good time for me mentally to be alone and go though all my thoughts," Harris said. "If you had a bad day and you run, you almost forget you had a bad day. It's almost like therapy."
