The real race at the NYC Marathon is getting to the front of the toilet line

The New York City marathon was the culmination of months, or even years, of physical and mental preparation for more than 60,000 runners who dashed across the five boroughs on Sunday.

But before the run, participants had another important race to complete: the race to the bathroom.

Rows upon rows of purple, plastic portable toilets were stationed around the starting villages on Staten Island, where tens of thousands of runners waited for the race to begin. Doors constantly slammed shut as long lines of people in running shoes and cozy warm-up gear passed in and out of the stalls.

“It’s like the porta-potty company’s Super Bowl,” said Paola Yepez, 26, as she waited for the toilet before running her first marathon.

I was doing the same. My stomach twists in knots when I think about a half marathon I ran a few years ago. I needed the toilet before the race. But the line was so long I had to jump over the gates to get to the start. This time in the toilet line, I wanted to know how other runners were managing their uneasy stomachs and full bladders.

Using the facilities before the race is essential. Urinating or defecating outside of sanctioned toilets can lead to disqualification from the marathon and suspension from future races, according to New York Road Runners, which organizes the event.

One elite athlete went viral earlier this year when she kept competing after soiling herself at a HYROX race in Beijing, prompting outrage, disgust and vicarious humiliation. The pressure was on as runners queued up in front of the portable toilets on Sunday.

“We have a big responsibility on our plate,” said Angelo Martinez, CEO of John To Go, which provided more than 2,000 portable toilets and 46 hand washing stations for spectators and runners.

“When it's game time, [we’re] making sure that they can get ready to run the whole 26 miles and not have to worry about making a pit stop,” he said.

Martinez said John To Go started to prepare for the New York City marathon almost a year in advance. The company spent months investing in more toilets, making staffing plans and mapping out the transportation route. Deliveries started around 10 on Saturday night, he said.

“While the city's sleeping, we're delivering portable toilets and getting ready for the event, where it can be a seamless launch when they start running the race,” he said.

As a longtime runner, going to the bathroom before a race is one of the biggest sources of anxiety for me. I’m always paranoid that I’ll need to go mid-run and either suffer for miles or lose time using a toilet on the course.

As I waited with other runners, they told me about their training, their racing strategies, their goals and all the pre-race fuel sloshing around in their stomachs: gnocchi with pesto, pizza, coffee, bananas, sandwiches, sushi rice.

“After all the carb loading, I'm seriously considering going Keto, because I'm over it,” said Brian Dagliere, 36. “It sounds great, the carb load, but one way to describe it is, to me, it's disgusting. It's just a lot.”

Jodi Renert said her full bladder provided a welcome distraction.

“Waiting in the bathroom to pee is taking away my anxiety to run 26.2 miles,” she said, clutching a big bottle filled with a nutrition-packed drink and resisting the urge to cut to the front of the line.

“ I have to pee so bad,” Renert said. “Like, I shouldn't be drinking this, but it's got, like, all my carbs and electrolytes.”

The whole scene was a little ridiculous. While many New Yorkers were still in bed, we were lining up to flush the nerves — and the waste — out of our systems before we voluntarily ran an absurd distance.

The toilet line leaves a lot of time to marinate on every ache, pain and tummy rumble that could get in the way of achieving a hard-fought goal. Lisa Endrodi said she felt “awful.”

“Scared. Nervous. Yeah, all those emotions. Anxious,” she said.

Marathons have become a mid-life obsession for the 53-year-old, who traveled from the U.K. for her third 26.2-mile race.

“ My husband thinks I'm mad,” she said as she waited in line for the loo.

Going to the bathroom before a race is essential, she said.

“Especially for a female,” she said. “Most definitely. Yes.”

Running 26.2 miles is not a normal thing to put a body through. In my quiet moment of solitude inside the stinky stall, clutching my packet of tissues and bottle hand sanitizer, I remembered I was merely a human with basic biological needs that no amount of training could overcome.

Every person in the toilet line has their reason for running the race. Getting sober. Recovering from cancer. Checking a goal off the bucket list. I was there with my fiance, preparing to run my first marathon. We were racing together three weeks before our wedding, and we had committed to crossing the finish line together.

After multiple trips to the toilet, our starting time arrived, and we had to trust that our bodies were ready. Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” serenaded us as we ran side by side across the Verrazano Bridge. That’s when I began to lose a different fluid from my body: tears of joy.