Miscellaneous Musings From A Road Warrior...

It looks like my current project will have me on the road - traveling to Southern California - once a month for the next few months. I have never traveled this often in the 16+ years that I have been working....

When I was in my late 20s, my job at the time had me traveling once every 6-8 weeks or so for 2-3 nights at a time. I was living in Dallas and I had the opportunity to travel to New Jersey a lot for a project with AT&T. I would burn the midnight oil by driving into New York City and hang out with my sister or go Israeli Dancing, staying out until well past midnight, going to work the next day and crashing when I got back home to Dallas. For some reason, I'm following a similar pattern even now. I was in Irvine for four nights - two of those nights I drove up to Los Angeles (about an hour each way) to go Israeli dancing. On Monday night I left LA at 11pm and got to the hotel a little after midnight. Last night I stayed in LA until midnight and arrived at my hotel at about 1:15am. I was still in the office by 8am the next morning. The problem in all of this...my kids are early birds so I will not get to crash and catch up on the sleep that I didn't get this week....

Talking about going back to being in my 20s, one of the nice folks I met at Israeli Dancing last night asked me how long I have been dancing. I stopped to think about this for a few seconds and then said that I guess I have been dancing for close to 20 years. She shook her head in disbelief - she said that I looked way to young...she thought I was in my 20s! Later in our conversation I told her that I don't know too many of the recent dances since I haven't been dancing as much since I had kids. Again a surprised look from her - you're too young to have kids!!! Maybe acting like a 20-something this past week made me look a little younger....

For those of you who don't believe in the power of Social Networking and the internet, this one is for you. My blog is fed over to my Facebook profile, and after I posted about my soaked run on Monday morning a high-school friend of mine wrote me a note that he was also in Irvine, CA for business this week. Whoa! We haven't seen each other in 18 or 19 years. We met for dinner on Tuesday night and it was great to reconnect with him. This reunion never would have happened without social networking apps....

Oh, yeah. This is my running blog. Right. While in rain-soaked Southern California this week I got two runs in. One on Monday morning in the dark and in the rain, and one on Tuesday afternoon. After the rain stopped - and tornado warnings lifted - the sun came out. My project schedule for that night's activities had been sent out already, so I slipped out of the office and went for a run on the Mountains to Sea trail - running towards the ocean. This trail is built on the creek bed that is used as a drainage system. Last month when I ran on this path it was totall dry. On Tuesday afternoon it looked like I was running on the bank of the Potomac River near Great Falls! The trail has underpasses under the roads so runners and cyclists don't have to dodge traffic. However, on Tuesday many of these underpasses were flooded so I had to cross the streets. Except for one which I could not cross - Interstate 405. I ended up having to trudge through a wet mud/sand mixture under the I-405 underpass. It wasn't all that bad, though - there was a Great Blue Heron perched on the bank by the underpass and I ran right near him. What an amazing creature....

Before I was a runner, I don't think I ever saw a Great Blue Heron. I now have seen them on many runs - on my community's lake, running along the C&O canal, while I was running in Boynton Beach, FL and now while running in Irvine, CA. I didn't know what I was missing before I started running....

Reflecting On 2009

Most of the blogs I read have already done a "reflecting on the past year" post... 'Tis the season, right?

I took a look back at last year's entry on Dec 31. I had just finished quite an amazing year with many feats in running - both in conquering the marathon distance for the first time along with setting some new PRs. But as amazing as 2008 was, 2009 really blew it out of the water:

• I finally surpassed the 1,000 mile marker for the year. Last year I fell 30 miles short and couldn't make it up during December due to falling ill with bronchitis during the last two weeks.
• Actually, 2009 was quite a healthy year for me. No real injuries (some hamstring pain after the NY Marathon, but I dealt with that much better this year). I had a few colds, but nothing longer than a week.
• I ran my second marathon - the NY Marathon on November 1. I ran this as part of Team Run To Remember, in memory of my Nana. I raised close to $6,000 (there's still time to donate here so you can rack up those charitable donations and reduce your tax burden!!!) and met some really great people in the process.
• For the first time, I started running with other people on a more regular basis. I started by going up to New York for a few of the team runs and then found a few running friends in the area to do some long runs with. Although 80-90% of my runs are still solo, I do enjoy running with others when we can schedule it.
• I ran my first race with my wife Sherry - the Rockville Twilight 8K. Again, going with the running with other people theme, I hope to continue to run a few races with Sherry!
• I set new PRs in the marathon, half marathon and 10K (alright...maybe 6 miles), and during the 10K I also ran a faster 5K and mile splits than my previous PRs in those distances.
• In blogging, I have expanded my audience by linking my blog feed and my RunningAhead log to Facebook. I love having more people reading the blog and following my progress, however, sometimes it's a bit cumbersome to read comments in two places.
• At work, I launched my largest project to date and started another project that will last at least 4 to 5 months. Oh...my company filed for bankruptcy in January, my division was bought out in August and I am now working for a new company.

There may be other accomplishments in 2009 that I may not have mentioned...I guess I have a few more days to remember them and throw them in the blog :-)

I also need to start thinking about goals for 2010. There are two things that I'm pretty sure about: a) NO FULL MARATHON in 2010 and b) I will be running the Cherry Blossom 10 Miler as I received a spot in their lottery.

The 2009 New York Marathon - Race Report

I've already blogged about the day before and the morning of the 2009 New York Marathon. I'm now lined up in the corral and ready to go!

My goal for this race was to first to run as close to an even split as possible. Last year at the Frederick Marathon, I ran a 2:13 first half and a 2:46 second half (where I started to fall apart around mile 16). This year, I was shooting for a 4:40 finishing time - which equates to a 10:40/mile pace. My strategy was to break up the race into three chunks - 10-10-10: the first 10 miles at a sub-150 heart rate, the next 10 miles by feel and the last 10K in smaller chunks to take me to the finish line.

The corral was pretty chaotic when I entered. I was in corral "G" - which was the last one. I saw one of the pace team signs about 20 yards ahead of me that read "5:00". I mentioned to ZF that we should try to line up a little ahead of that pace group since we were both shooting for 4:40-ish finishes, however, there was no way to navigate through the mass of humanity. I had already disposed of my sweatshirt and left it in a pile to be donated, but many people waited until they were in the corrals to take off their "throw-away" layers. Sweatshirts and sweatpants were strewn upon the chain link fence to our right and hanging off the top of porta-potties to our left...and some pieces just left on the ground for everyone to step on (and hopefully not trip over).

Finally, we heard the cannon go off (I guess they shoot it off multiple times for the different wave starts) and we started to slowly move forward. In a few minutes I was able to see the bridge again and all of the runners ahead of us starting out their race. At this point I saw two crazy costumes - one guy had a huge inner-tube looking thing with an ostrich coming up from it...another person in the adjacent corral had a tall Eiffel Tower costume. I don't know how they can run a full marathon with those things...

We finally crossed the starting line at around 10:30am and started to climb up the Verrazano Bridge. What an awesome way to start the marathon! I was lucky to be on the left side of the bridge as I got a good view of the NY skyline. It was definitely windy on the bridge - part of me wished that I would have kept an outer layer for this portion of the run, but I knew I would warm up very soon. I had to keep telling myself to slow down - I had tons of adrenaline running through me and easily could have tried to attack the bridge, but I knew it would be better to have a slow mile up and a faster mile down. I was able to hold to this strategy:

Mile 1 - 11:18 / avg HR 163 (false HR readings? adrenaline?? all uphill???)
Mile 2 - 9:51 / avg HR 145 (more like it!)

Immediately coming off the bridge, we were met by hundreds of screaming spectators in the first block welcoming us to Brooklyn! It seemed like entire communities were out - kids lining the streets with hands out for high-fives, bands playing every few blocks, people with signs encouraging their friends and family members - and encouraging strangers with the names that they had on their shirts (or in my case, since I had "FOR NANA" on my shirt, I had many people encouraging me to run for Nana!) It was truly AMAZING. What was absolutely insane, however, was that this continued for the majority of Brooklyn. All 11 miles of it - with the exception of about 1/2 mile through the ultra-religious chassidic Williamsburgh area.

I asked ZF, who had recently run the Rock-n-Roll Seattle Marathon, if that race had as many bands playing. She laughed and said that there was no comparison...in Seattle there was either a band or a cheerleading squad (and mostly cheerleaders - not bands) every mile or so, but what we were seeing in Brooklyn was some kind of music playing (rock band, DJs, bongo players, bagpipes, marching bands, chiors, etc.) every few blocks.

Mile 3 - 10:40 / avg HR 151
Mile 4 - 10:34 / avg HR 152

Around this time the three color groups converged. I looked to the other side of the road and saw Coach Jeff and his wife running. I called out and ran over to him. We wished each other good luck - I thanked him again for all of the coaching support! - he snapped a picture and we were off again.



It was also around this time that my left foot started to have little spasms. Kind of odd, since my foot wasn't hurting at all leading up to the race and this didn't happen during training. I let ZF know that I had to stretch it out. She went ahead and I went to the side of the road to stretch for a bit.

Mile 5 - 10:52 / avg HR 150 (included stretching my foot, so I must have run the other parts pretty fast...)
Mile 6 - 10:33 / avg HR 147
Mile 7 - 10:46 / avg HR 149

At this point I was running completely solo - and I would for the rest of the race. Every so often I would start talking to other people on the course. There were two guys who live in Florida who saw my shirt and asked me about my connection with the Alzheimer's Association. I told them my Nana's story - arriving in Ellis Island 100 years ago in November of 1909, living in Brooklyn most of her life (we were close to her 'hood while I was telling the story...whoa!) - and then we started talking about the other marathons we had all run.

Later on I met two women who were running for the charity The Lunch Box Fund which provides lunches to school children in South Africa. I asked how big their charity team was and they told me that I was looking at the team! I don't know if they had tried to register an "official" charity team or not...but either way, they had a cause that they wanted to run for and made it happen. It definitely puts things in perspective - if you want to do something, you don't have to wait for it to happen...just make it happen!

Mile 8 - 10:43 / avg HR 152
Mile 9 - 10:55 / avg HR 151
Mile 10 - 10:44 / avg HR 149

I was now done with the first third of my 10-10-10 marathon strategy. My average HR was in the low 150s and my pace was right around 10:41. Pretty much where I wanted to be. Since my HR was a little on the high side, I decided to try to keep to this pace until the 59th Street Bridge and then see if I could ride the excitement of First Avenue up to the Bronx.

Mile 11 - 10:54 / avg HR 155
Mile 12 - 10:41 / avg HR 153
Mile 13 - 10:37 / avg HR 158
Half Marathon Split - 2:21:30

My Half Marathon split was pretty spot on - about 90 seconds slower than the 2:20 I was shooting for, but so far I wasn't over-taxing myself and I had plenty left in the tank for the second half. I was taking a GU every 45 minutes and drinking plenty of water. Well, perhaps a little too much water, as I really had to pee by this time; however, all of the porta-potties that I ran past had lines - and this was New York City so there were no trees to go behind to take care of business.

At this point, we were entering Queens. I was looking for fellow running-blogger TK who lives in Queens and whose normal running route is over the 59th Street Bridge. I didn't look at my emails since I had left Maryland, so I did not know exactly where she would be. It ends up that I had missed her since I was in the last wave of runners. However, looking for her in Queens gave me more purpose at this part of the run which helped. Also, at this point of the race I heard my phone go off - I had a text message from my sister. She had arrived in the city and was waiting for me at 71st Street and 1st Ave in Manhattan.

Mile 14 - 10:51 / avg HR 159

At around this time, I started to feel a little pain in my right calf. I was telling myself to run through it and the pain will go away - just like it did with the pain in my left foot a few miles earlier. We were about to ascend onto the 59th Street Bridge - which meant I was very familiar with the remainder of the course as I had run it two weeks earlier. I tried to take it easy going up the bridge - just like with the first mile of the course - I could run a slower mile up the bridge and then take the downhill a bit faster to make up for it. For some reason, I ended up getting boxed in a lot while on the bridge - perhaps the course is a bit narrower here as they only use one side of the lower deck of the bridge for the marathon (the other side of the street is empty - likely for emergency personnel to get through...just in case).

For me, there wasn't too much that was memorable on this bridge. However, for teammates JM and TA, this bridge - and this point on the course - will be a lifetime memory and the start of a new chapter of their lives. As they were on the bridge looking at the Manhattan skyline, he proposed to her! Congratulations guys!!!

Coming off the bridge I was anticipating the "wall of sound" of cheering spectators lining the ramp onto First Avenue in Manhattan. I saw the people there, but the cheers were not as loud as I was expecting. Perhaps the cheering was louder earlier and the spectators were just tired by then? I'm not sure what happened, but I have to say that the folks in Brooklyn did a better job greeting runners off their bridge. Manhattan - you have a bit of work to do to catch up with Brooklyn for next year...

One thing that did excite me coming off of the bridge was a long row of porta-potties - many of which showing the lock "on green" meaning they were vacant. Score!

Mile 15 - 11:27 / avg HR 162 (up the bridge)

Mile 16 - 12:27 / avg HR 161 (includes the porta-potty break and a brief stretch of my right calf)

I was now on First Avenue in Manhattan which was lined with spectators on both sides of the street. The throngs of fans rarely thinned out over the four mile stretch of 1st Ave - it seemed that there were people cheering you on constantly from the 59th Street Bridge to the Willis Avenue bridge 70 streets later. The best "pick-me-up" for me was seeing my sister at 71st Street. She had made a big sign - which I had spotted a block and a half away - and was cheering for me like crazy! She brought some extra GU, Larabars and socks - none of which I needed at the time, but I was very appreciative that she brought things for me. Actually, the one thing I really wanted to eat at that point was a banana and she didn't have one with her. We took a picture together and decided we would meet again on 5th Ave and 98th Street.

I continued up First Avenue with some more spring in my step after seeing my sister and with the encouragement of the cheering crowds. My fastest mile of the day was right here on First Ave - Mile 18 in 9:41. When I saw how fast I ran that mile, I decided I needed to slow it back down. I also decided it was time to eat the Larabar that I had on me to get some more calories in my system for my body to burn. My calf muscle - and lower hamstring - was really starting to hurt by this time, so I convinced myself to stretch it out after I finished with mile 19. After a quick calf stretch on a lamp post, I continued up to the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx.

Mile 17 - 11:45 / avg HR 161 (stopped to visit with my sister!)

Mile 18 - 9:41 / avg HR 169 (my fastest mile on the day)

Mile 19 - 10:53 / avg HR 168 (while eating a Larabar)

Mile 20 - 11:26 / avg HR 168 (with stretching my calf muscle)

I knew that the distance spent in the Bronx was a little over a mile. I had just stretched and felt pretty good so I felt I could get through this stretch pretty well. The problem was that after entering into Manhattan again, the pain in my calf and hamstring started to get a lot stronger.

Mile 21 - 10:27 / avg HR 172

Upon entering Manhattan from the Bronx, I stopped at the first water station to walk and stretch again. Once I was walking, though, I didn't want to start running. I decided that from now on I would try to walk for a minute and then run for 10 minutes. This strategy worked and got me running again. In this stretch I saw two more teammates of mine - first LC and then a few minutes later AE. Again it was nice to speak to someone while running to help get our minds off of how much our bodies were hurting at the time.

The other thing that kept me going here was that I knew my sister was waiting for me at 98th Street and Fifth Avenue. I had reached my 10 minutes of running when I hit 101st Street, so I kept going until I reached my sister. Somehow, I still had a smile on my face!

She started to run with me up Fifth Avenue towards the park. I wanted to save some energy for Central Park and the last two miles (and plus, it was time for me to walk anyway, right?) so I had her walk with me for a few blocks. She now had a banana for me and started to peel it, however, at that point I thought I would hurl if I ate a banana. My sister asked the runners near us if anyone wanted the banana and someone immediately yelled "ME!". I was not the only runner my sister helped out on the course that day!

Mile 22 - 11:59 / avg HR 165

Mile 23 - 11:55 / avg HR 158

Mile 24 - 11:56 / avg HR 164

I started to run again as I entered Central Park. I knew there were two miles left to go, but whenever I ran my hamstring really hurt. I was going to try to run as much as I could here, but walk up some of the hills if I needed to. I loved running in Central Park during my training, but now I could not soak in the beauty of the park and the magnificent crowds that were there to cheer on the runners. I had to focus on the task at hand - finishing.

By this time I knew that my 4:40 goal was gone. However, as long as I didn't injure myself I would likely be able to finish with a new PR. I crossed the mile 25 marker and RedG showed somewhere in the 4:37 range. If I could manage a 10:00/mile pace over the final 1.2 miles I could still finish in the 4:40s.

Mile 25 - 11:12 / avg HR 165

I started to push myself as I exited the park onto Central Park South. The crowds were amazing and the energy was electrifying. However, I could only run with the pain for so long - about half way up Central Park South I needed to walk for a block or two. The spectators in the crowd were yelling for me, "Do it FOR NANA!", "Don't Let Nana Down!", etc. With encouragement like that, how could I walk? Of course I got started again and turned the corner into the park.

Once I re-entered the park, I knew there was not much left to the course - and that the ending was uphill. My sister told me that my parents were waiting at the finish line - in the bleachers at Tavern On The Green (I have no idea how my mom finagled her way into the bleachers, however, it did not surprise me one bit that she did...).

I turned on whatever "burners" I had left and booked it to the finish line. I saw my parents in the bleachers on the left side of the course and waved and blew a kiss their way - and then crossed the finish line.

Final Chip Time - 4:51:25

I walked around immediately after the finish to catch my breath and calm down. I then went to get my finisher's medal. The medal was a bit disappointing to me. I was hoping it would have the NY Skyline or the NY Road Runner's logo of a runner in front of a big apple. Instead there was a big 40, since this is the 40th running of the New York Marathon. I'm sure this is not an issue for most people, but given that I just turned 38 this summer and for the first time had some difficulty with my birthday (facing the fact that I'm getting OLD), I'm just a bit sensitive to someone draping a big 40 around my neck. Come on, I'm not 40 yet...get that thing away from me!!! OK, I do love my medal. But this was definitely my first reaction to seeing it.

My plan now was to exit the park, get to my friend's apartment on 70th and Broadway to shower, get my bag and take a cab down to the post-race party at Columbus Circle where my family would be waiting for me. The New York Road Runners had a different plan for me though. I couldn't just "exit the park". I had to walk past tons of baggage trucks with the other hundreds (thousands?) of runners who had just crossed the finish line. Runners were herded like cattle all the way to 77th Street. At least they gave us a bag of food to eat - a PowerBar, an apple, a Gatorade, water, almonds and a bagel.

Exiting the park and getting to my friend's apartment took close to an hour. I spoke to Sherry and she let me know that my Aunt, Uncle and Cousins from New Jersey would not be able to stay much longer at the post-race party so I would not be able to see them :-( I felt bad that they made such an effort - especially with the kids - and that I did not get to see them and thank them for coming to cheer me on.



The next hurdle was that there were NO empty cabs going southbound from my friend's apartment. I thought about taking the bus - but I had asked some of the people waiting at the stop and they mentioned that the last bus did not show yet. I was only 12 blocks away from Columbus Circle - so I decided to walk to the party, bag in tow. I finally made it and celebrated with family members and teammates!



Overall, I really enjoyed my New York Marathon experience. The marathon itself was wonderful - such energy from the screaming fans along the entire course and it was amazing to see how many volunteers they had working the race. The scope of this event is so huge and everything seemed to go smoothly. It was a bit of a bummer to have to wait in the starting area for so long and to have such a slow march to leave the park, but I guess that's what needs to happen to get so many runners staged to start the race and exit the park without much chaos.

I also felt that this race was extra special given that I ran for a cause and with Team Run To Remember. In addition to making the training runs easier by running with a team, I felt that I wasn't out on the course by myself and every time I saw one of my teammates I got a lift. Running with a charity team is definitely something I will consider doing again.

However, I'm not sure when I will run another full marathon again. This distance is really brutal for me. I definitely ran a better race this year than last year, but I still fell apart during the later miles of the race. For now, I think my limit is about 18 miles or 30K. Half marathons, here I come!!!

2009 New York Marathon - The Morning of the Race

I have a few moments this afternoon to blog about the morning of the race...the actual race report will have to wait (sorry folks!). However, more time elapsed from the time I woke up marathon morning to the time I lined up in the gate than during my running of the marathon itself...so there is plenty to talk about!

As I mentioned before, I woke up before my alarm. I had set my watch alarm for 5:35am - which was actually 4:35am due to the switch from Daylight Savings Time. When I woke up, I looked at the time on my friend's cable box and it said 4:25 - I wasn't sure if that was with "falling back" or not...I took a look at my watch which showed 5:25 so I realized that the cable box automatically turned the clock back.

I had laid everything out the night before - running clothes (shirt, shorts, socks, sleeves and hat), RedG and the HRM strap, my water belt, bodyglide, nipple tape, tissues (for both the porta potties and the sinuses), GUs and a Larabar, pre-race food (a bagel, a banana and a single serving container of peanut butter), my throw away sweatshirt (vintage 1990 UofM Greek Week sweatshirt which I probably have not worn in over 15 years - why it was still in my closet I did not know...). I decided not to wear the throw away sweatpants that I had - my friend's apartment was really warm and it had seemed warm enough the night before so I did not think I needed them. I had put my subway card and a few bucks in my RoadID pouch on my shoe also so I would not forget these essentials. As a result, getting ready in the morning was very quick...I had enough time to strip the linen from my friend's sofa bed and fold it back up before leaving.

I walked out to the subway where I was going to meet teammate LG at 5:15am. As I was crossing the street to the station, a car pulled up beside me, "Are you going to the marathon start?" (umm - it's pretty obvious, don'tcha think?) "Do you want a lift?" he asked me. The driver did not look like he was about to run the marathon, and I was wondering what the guy was up to. A bit sketchy if you ask me...even on the Upper West Side. I politely told him that I was meeting other people - thanks, but no thanks.

I met up with LG and we did the subway thing. It was nice to be underground as it was drizzling a bit outside. There were two types of people on the subway and walking around New York at that time. Those in running gear who were getting to their assigned spots to travel to the starting line of the marathon, and those in Halloween costumes who were traveling back home after a night full of partying. Even though the marathoners outnumbered the party revelers at that time, it was still quite a scene.

We made it to Union Square and boarded the team bus. I had met about half of the Team Run To Remember members over the past four months during the various training runs and meetings I came up to New York for, but there wasn't anyone in particular I was planning to sit with on the bus ride. As I boarded the bus, someone from the back yells, "Go BLUE!" upon seeing the big maize and blue M on my sweatshirt - so I went to speak to this fellow UofM runner, BE. He is another out-of-town team member - from Cincinnati - and graduated UofM last year. Also in the back of the bus at that point was teammate JR who I had not met before but immediately started discussing the various iPods we had used - and needed to replace - due to our running madness! A few minutes later another teammate that I had only briefly met before on a training run, CW, sat down next to me and we congratulated each other on our fundraising achievements (she raised over $20K!!) and started to discuss the nerves and adrenaline that were pumping through us at that moment.

The bus took the long way around to Fort Wadsworth - out the Holland Tunnel into New Jersey and then to the Bayonne Bridge into Staten Island. I guess the Verrazano Bridge closed at 7am and the bus driver didn't want to chance not getting over the bridge in time.

Once we arrived at Fort Wadsworth, there was a small sea of people being dropped off of busses and waiting in line to enter the "runner's village". It must have taken us about 20 minutes to get through this line and enter. Most of the team stayed together and gathered in the common area before dispersing to our different color start areas. We posed for a group picture - there were 3 or 4 people taking photos with everyone's cameras...one of the "photographers" was a foreigner who would say "PERRRRRFECT" each time he took a photo. It got a laugh from the entire team every time!

A few of us went to get some food and coffee - unfortunately, we trekked through a muddy patch of field instead of following the non-muddy streets...we knew which way NOT to take back to the team site! While looking for bagels, teammate TA met Tara from last season's The Biggest Loser and took a picture with her to show to the rest of the team...very cool!

We all got back to the group and ate, schmoozed and tried to keep warm. About half an hour later, the group started to break up to head toward their different color areas - and some of the runners in the earlier waves needed to hit their starting corrals. It was definitely a bittersweet moment - we were all about to embark on this awesome event that we all had spent the last four to five months preparing for. However, this also marked the end of the team being together.

As someone who was a bit of an "outsider" at the beginning - I'm not from New York and I am not active in the NY Alzheimer's Association chapter - I found that this team gelled very well. I think it was a perfect size - large enough to raise a sum of money that justifies the hard work needed to organize the team and also large enough to sustain all of the training runs/meetings of the team, but small enough that all the members get an opportunity to meet everyone in the group and that the team could take on its own identity without having sub-teams or cliques. I really enjoyed every moment that I had with this team - from my Central Park training runs in August and September, to the meeting I attended when Liz Robbins spoke about her book, to the training run over the last 10 miles of the marathon course, to all of the time spent in the hours leading up to the race. I will really miss the members of this team, and I hope to keep in touch with many of them (and perhaps run with them again!).

I went to the orange runners area and met up with my college friend ZF. She immediately recognized the UofM Greek Week sweatshirt (and was pretty amazed that I still had it!). She had been hanging out in one of the tents with another friend of hers for hours - they had arrived at Fort Wadsworth at 6:30am and it was now about 9:30. About 10 minutes later we heard the cannon go off and we were able to see the runners on the bridge. WOW!

We took a quick Brightroom photo with the Verrazano Bridge in the background. I'm not sure why I did this - I definitely will want the memories, but Brightroom charges so much for the photos it's ridiculous! If they charged something reasonable I would consider purchasing the prints or buying the downloads...but until then it's going to be screen captures with the "Copyright" message going across...

Then it was one last trip to the porta-potty (and thank goodness I brought my own tissues...too much information???) before heading to the corrals and lining up for the start of the New York Marathon!

The Hours Leading Up To The NY Marathon...

I'm still collecting my thoughts from the marathon, so I'm not going to post my race report yet. However, since I did not have a computer with me in New York, I never got a chance to post about what happened leading up to the marathon.

The Cranky Knee

The main event in the 36 hours leading up to the big race was....a cranky knee.

Yes - a few hours after my last run on Friday afternoon, my left knee started to hurt. UGH! The more I walked, the worse it felt. Unfortunately, I wasn't getting much rest since I was going up and down stairs trying to pack and get ready to go up to New York. I iced my knee for a bit on Friday night before going to bed, but it was still cranky on Saturday.

Saturday started out with not too much moving around - I was driving up to Wayne, NJ for four hours, and then taking the bus in from Wayne to NYC. However, after that there was lots of walking - from the bus to the subway, from the subway to my friend's apartment, then back to the subway and to the expo, to and from the pre-race feast at Carmines, etc. All through the walking around the city on Saturday afternoon, my knee had this cranky pain. I iced it again on Saturday evening, hoping that it would feel better by Sunday morning. I knew that I would just have to run through it on Sunday if it was still there - but I didn't know how long it would be before the pain would get really bad.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, the first thing I checked when getting out of bed was my left knee. It felt fine. The ice had done its job. Thank goodness!

Expo Anxiety

Every email that I had received in the past week mentioned that we needed to have a printed copy of our Runner's Registration Form to get into the expo. I printed mine immediately and ensured it was in my duffel when I packed for New York. I decided to take the subway from my friend's apartment to the Javits Center - which meant walking about 4 blocks over and 3 blocks up (with that cranky knee...). As I stood directly across the street from the Javits Center, it hit me...I had left the darn Registration Form in my duffel bag at my friend's apartment. Oh NO!!!! I called up my friend to see if he could find an internet cafe or Kinko's near the Javits Center so I could go in, pull up the email and print it out. All the Kinko's in the area were closed on Saturdays and no luck on Internet Cafes. He suggested some of the hotels near Penn Station, so off I went, walking back towards 34th Street and 7th Ave. After a block of walking, I decided to call Coach Brian - did I really need the Registration Form? He informed me that there was a special services desk at the expo that would look up my information and print the form for me. No need to go back and get the form. Saved! Thanks Coach Brian!!!

The expo was definitely a lot more impressive than the expo at the Frederick Marathon :-) However, I didn't get all jazzed up about it. Perhaps it was because I was there so late in the game (I arrived about 3:30pm on Saturday - it has already been open on Thursday and Friday and was closing in less than 2 more hours) so there were no speakers or "events" happening at the time I was there. I was interested in purchasing a Mizuno Breath Thermo top, but by that time there were no more in my size (I'll have to pay full price at Fleet Feet sometime soon...). I did purchase a hat for Sherry and a pair of running gloves that had the names of all five boroughs on each of the five fingers - I know I'm going to love running in those this winter!

Pre-Race Dinner

Team Run To Remember held their pre-race dinner at Carmine's. It was a great chance for the team to celebrate our accomplishments - over $325K raised and 75% of the team running their first marathon - and to give our appreciation to our wonderful coaches. There were some speeches at the beginning from board members of the NY City Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association and also a special appearance from David Hyde Pierce who is a big supporter of the Alzheimer's Association. David Hyde Pierce started off his speech with a comment like, "you all are the only skinny people at Carmine's..."

I soon would understand what he meant. There was a three-course meal - first course was garlic bread and three types of salads, second course was four types of pasta dishes and the last course was dessert. All of the family-style portions were ENORMOUS! At a normal dinner I likely could have stopped after the salads. But of course I loaded up on pasta too. And had a little bit of the desserts. I was stuffed.

Since I was so uncomfortably full, I wanted to walk a bit to help digest. I started walking with teammate LG and a few of her running friends who were all going to the Upper West Side. We were going to walk to the subway station on 50th and then all go uptown. However, when we got to the station, we found out it was closed. Back to the 42nd Street station we went (and yes, my knee was still cranky at the time). Except at that point it started to rain.

Party Pooper

I finally got back to my friend's apartment and was quite wet from the rain outside. They were having a little Halloween party with friends that night - their apartment is a few blocks from Central Park and you can see the pre-Marathon fireworks from their window, so they invited some friends over to celebrate. It was nice to meet their friends and schmooze. I would have loved to join them in their wine, beer and other drinks, but I stuck to water. At around 10:15pm I reminded my friend that I needed to get some sleep and would appreciate if they would continue the party elsewhere around 11pm. It wasn't a problem with him - or with the guests - but it just felt odd to be kicking my friend out of his own place so I could get some sleep.

I was really tired by then and crashed pretty quickly. I had set my watch to go off at 4:35am so I could get to the subway by 5:15am. The team bus was meeting at Union Square at 6am. As usual with my anxious anticipation, I woke up before my alarm went off.

To be continued soon with the marathon day experience....

All Packed And Ready To Go!

I have packed up my duffel - with likely a bit too much and also likely something missing (I almost ALWAYS forget something when I go out of town!).

The plan is to head out as early as we can tomorrow and drive up to our friend's place in Wayne, NJ. Sherry and the kids will stay there on Saturday while I take a bus into the city. Once I'm in the city I will drop my bag off at my friend's apartment and then hit the Expo to get my bib and timing chip!!!

I'll have an hour or so to hang out before the Team Run To Remember carbo-loading fest at Carmine's.

Then back to my friend's place to get my stuff ready for the morning and to crash.

I don't know if I'll be able to post a blog update before the marathon...I'll try to post a quick one after the marathon with my time and then hopefully by Monday night with a full race report.

Now it's time to hit the sack!

The Final Run Before The Big Day!

I was feeling a bit antsy today (ummm - taper!) so I went out for a 3 mile run at lunchtime. I did my usual 3 mile lake loop - which was the same route that I used for my first run in the training program for this marathon on June 29. It's a nice close to my marathon training with "bookends" of the same route.

I ran with RedG but without the heart rate monitor. It was just me, my footfalls and the breeze of a cool, overcast autumn afternoon.

3.21 miles in 32:17 - a 10:04/mile pace (for those scoring at home...June 29 was run in a 10:40/mile pace).

I thought a bit more about strategy for the marathon. I'm thinking of using the 10-10-10 breakdown. For the first 10 miles I will try to keep my heart rate under 150 - and hopefully closer to 145. I know this will be pretty difficult after mile 5, but the more I can keep my heart rate low during this part of the race, the better I'll be later. The next 10 miles will take me to the Bronx, and with the exception of the 59th Street Bridge, this should be a sea of cheering spectators. I intend to "let go" of the HRM monitoring here and just run by feel - still not trying to over do it.

The last 10K I have broken into smaller chunks: the Bronx, from the Madison Ave Bridge to where Central Park starts, along 5th Ave until the entrance to Central Park (uphill), entering Central Park to exiting the park at Central Park South, along Central Park South to Columbus Circle, and finally Columbus Circle to the Finish Line! At this point I will likely focus on these six pieces and try to get through each one with a countdown.

If I can hold to my strategy, I should do well and feel good after the race.

Getting Ready - Where/When/How To Find Me On The Course

The Alzheimer's Association team coaches sent out a spreadsheet where you enter your predicted finishing time and your start time and it calculates when you'll arrive at each mile on the course (OK, I will NOT be running an even paced marathon, but it is a good guideline to family and friends who want to see me).

So, if you want to cheer for me this weekend, this is likely what I'll be wearing (with bib 56258):


And here is where I'll be when (approximately):


You can also get email notifications of when I cross the timing mats by signing up here (and I'm bib number 56258!).

One Last Run In New York Before The Marathon

When I first received my materials for Team Run To Remember, I was a little bummed out that I would not be able to participate in most of the "team" activities. There were weekly training runs and periodic meetings throughout the four months and since I was an out-of-towner I would be missing out on these.

I decided to try to come up for at least a few of these events and planned to get to a group run in August, a meeting in September (which I went up a day early to hit another group run) and then today's group run in October - where the team would be running the last 10 miles of the marathon course together.

I wanted to get 30 miles in this week - and so far I had about 16.5, so I was hoping for a little over 13 miles. Since the group was running 10, I decided to get there a bit early and run the 59th Street Bridge into Queens and then back into Manhattan. Coach Brian was more than willing to do this with me :-)

One thing about the bridge - it was windy. It was a 42 degree morning, but with the breeze up there made it feel about 10 degrees colder. I'm glad I wore my Frederick Marathon pullover - since the temperatures were still in the 40s I almost didn't wear it, but with the wind on the bridges I'm glad I had it on.

After the bridge, Coach Brian and I saw the Alzheimer's group. There was actually another group running the last 10 miles of the marathon route as well this morning...it was a much larger group with coaches, pace setters and each of the participants wore bib numbers. A little over the top for a training run, but they were out there for the same reason we were - to get familiarity with the course and gain some confidence.

First of all, I must say that running with others really makes the time go by quickly. It did not seem like I ran for over 2 hours this morning. Hopefully during the race I'll be able to find other people around me to chat with...or maybe even try to run with other team members.

I really like the members of the team that I have met. Today I ran with Coach Brian, JM, LJ and MC and in the past runs I have run with Coach Jeff, EE and MM. Everyone I have met on the team is very friendly, wonderful to run with and talk to. It will be sad to not have the team after the marathon in a few weeks...although I can definitely see keeping in touch with some of my teammates.

As for the run, for me it was very worthwhile. I think on marathon day I will be breaking down the last 10 miles into four parts - 1) 1st Ave, 2) The Bronx, 3) Getting to Central Park and 4) Central Park...the home stretch. The first part - going up 1st Ave - is a little over 3 miles. I hear that the crowd support during this stretch is amazing, so this portion should go relatively well. The Bronx is pretty short - a little over a mile...maybe a mile and a half - and I hear the crowds will not be as good here. This will be mile 20 in the race so this will be tough. However, the bridges are not steep and I actually like to run near water and over bridges...since there are two of these in about a 1 mile span I think I should do OK in the Bronx.

Part 3 is getting to Central Park. This is only about a mile, but today it seemed to be the part that dragged on for me. Maybe there will be crowd support on race day...I'm not sure. If not, then 5th Ave from 138th St to 110th St will be a tough mile and a half.

The home stretch and last three and a half miles is Central Park. The first mile or so is down 5th Ave - or should I say UP 5th Ave?? There is a pretty constant incline at this point - the race's elevation chart shows about a 100 ft rise over about a half a mile. Soon after that you enter the park. Once I enter the park I know that I'll be running on adrenaline. For today's run, this was mile 12 and 13 for me and these miles were run at 9:27 and 9:33. I don't expect to run that fast when this is mile 25 and 26, but I know it will be a "pick-me-up" to be in the park and nearing the end.

The stats for me - 13.7 miles in 2:16:32, a 9:59/mile pace. My PR for a Half Marathon was run in a 10:11/mile pace...so in the span of a week I have beat my 10K PR and HM PR during training runs. Wow!

One thing I may mention - the second and third toe on my right foot has some pain when I try to bend them. I felt this last week after my long run and it hasn't really gone away. The pain isn't bad - I can still run on it - but whenever I try to bend those toes it definitely hurts a bit and they are tender to the touch. I'll continue to monitor them and have them checked out after the marathon if it doesn't get better.

I Got My Bib Number!

I checked the NY Marathon page and I have been assigned bib number

56258.

This means I'm in Wave Start #3 (10:20am), in the Orange group and in Corral G.

I'm not surprised I'm in wave start #3, as I believe the starts are staggered by projected finishing time. I'm also excited to be in the Orange group as I'll be running on the top deck of the Verrazano Bridge.

However, I'm a bit surprised that I'm in corral G. The last corral. Not that I'm all that fast or anything, but I'm thinking there are going to be plenty of runners with times in the 5+ and 6+ hour finishing times. If I'm planning to finish in around 4:40, I'm going to have to do a lot of weaving through traffic...

My Attempt To Get On To The 59th Street Bridge - From A Garmin's Perspective

It took me three tries to actually find the pedestrian path of the 59th Street Bridge this morning - I took two paths on the 59th Street side (which I found very quickly to be wrong) and then finally went over to the 60th Street side and found it.

Here's how my frantic antics looked from the Garmin satellites:

Team R2R Meeting and 59th Street Bridge Run

Continuing where I left off with my quick trip up to New York...

I had planned to meet up with two friends from my High School trip to Israel in the late afternoon. LH was going to be in the Chelsea area of town, BS was on Houston Street and I was in midtown. Hmm... It looked like Chelsea was the most centrally located, so I picked a coffee shop for us to meet at and let them know where to meet (interestingly enough, neither of the locals wanted to pick the spot to meet...so leave it to the guy who has never lived in NYC to pick the place??? thank goodness for Google Maps!).

I got there about 3:45pm, but I had a conference call at 4:30pm. I had hoped that the two of them would get there around 4 or so, we would all hang out together, I would take my call outside and then come back in and join them. What ended up happening was that both of them let me know that they would be late, I took my 4:30 call in the coffee shop and once it finished around 5pm they both showed up.

The three of us hadn't been together in over 21 years (it makes me feel really old saying that). However, there was no awkwardness to us being together again - it seemed so natural hanging out. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to spend together and it went really quickly. I hope to see them again the next time I'm in the city!

I head crosstown on the subway to get to the Alzheimer's Association meeting. I get on the train, and sitting there is my cousin's husband - what are the odds! (luckily I told my cousin that I was coming into town for a quick visit but was not going to have time to get out to Long Island to see them...otherwise I would have been busted!)

I made it to the Alzheimer's Association's office in time for the meeting. On the agenda was a guest speaker - Liz Robbins a NY Times journalist who wrote the book A Race Like No Other about the NY Marathon. I decided to go buy the book on my lunch break, and I started to read the Prologue and Chapter 1 after work. I haven't been this excited to read a book in a while - even though I have tons of things going on right now, I should be able to find some time to read this and get through it quickly (or at least quickly for me!).

Liz Robbins was great! You could tell that she really enjoyed covering the marathon, going to the neighborhoods and meeting many of the special spectators that make the crowds so amazing for this race, and diving into the stories of both the elite runners and also the everyday runners with not-so-everyday stories behind why they were running the NY Marathon. I had her sign my copy of the book and she seemed genuinely interested in why I was running (actually, it seemed like she took the time to speak to everyone who was there). She was also VERY excited to hear that I went to Barnes and Noble that afternoon to buy the book!

I was expecting there to be a bit more to the meeting - details on the pre-race pasta dinner? the bus to pick us up marathon morning? the post-race party? They gave us some of the information, but I guess not everything is finalized yet. We'll be getting more information in the next week. Since this is the first year the Alzheimer's Association has a team, I guess they are working through all of the details.

After the meeting, I went up to the 92nd Street Y for Israeli Dancing. This meant that I was getting even more exercise, but also meant that I would be going to sleep much later. Ends up that I got back to my friend's apartment at 11:30pm. I quickly crashed.

This morning, I was up before the sun. Not sure why my body thinks 5:30am is a suitable time to wake up - I guess my kids and my running schedule have trained me to be an early bird. If I'm up at that time, I might as well run, right?

I headed out on 69th to Central Park West, down Central Park West to 59th Street and then across 59th Street to the Queensborough (59th Street) Bridge.

I had told a few people that I intended to run over this bridge and back - it is on the marathon route at about mile 16 - so why did no one tell me how to get onto the pedestrian path???? I saw a sidewalk leading up from 59th street onto the bridge, but that became a dead-end. Then further down I saw what looked to be a little ramp, but that lead to the shoulder of the lower-deck of the bridge. I decided to go back up 2nd Ave to the 60th Street side. I asked a policewoman there and she pointed me to where the path starts down on 1st Ave. Finally!!!

I'm glad I ran the bridge. I've heard "The NY Marathon is flat except for the bridges and a few hills in Central Park". Well, now I know what to expect on the bridges - and it's a pretty significant hill. Maybe not the steepest of hills, but it's constant uphill for a good 1/2 to 3/4 mile. Of course the good thing about going uphill on the bridge is the coasting downhill after the crest of the bridge. Nice!

After going over the bridge and back I headed up 1st Avenue, trying to imagine this street lined with crowds cheering the runners as they exit the bridge. Up to 69th and back west to Central Park, through Central Park and finally stopped at Columbus Avenue. I looked at my clothes and they were drenched. What a great way to start the morning :-)

I'm now on the Tripper Bus back home. The WiFi on the bus is great - I've participated in three conference calls for work - and of course I have been able to blog!

It was great being in New York, but it will be really nice to be home with Sherry and the boys. Next trip to NYC is October 16-17 to run the last 10 miles of the marathon with Team Run To Remember!

Central Park Loop and Late Night In New York

Yesterday, I got into New York City around 2:30pm and immediately went to the Regus day office that I had reserved at 11 Park Plaza. It's nice to have the flexibility to work from anywhere most of the time!

My last conference call of the day ended a little after 5:30pm, and then off I went - with bags in tow - to the subway and up to my friend's apartment on 70th and Broadway. I was surprised at how quickly it took - I was in his apartment before 6pm.

I quickly changed into running clothes and then I walked over to Columbus Circle for the group run. It took much longer than usual for Garmin to pick up a satellite...it wasn't until I got to Central Park West and stopped to stretch that it finally locked in.

I was surprised to see so many people congregating into different running groups. There were even more running groups (some which were probably 50-70 people!) that we encountered while running the loop.

The Alzheimer's Association team had about 15 runners. Immediately from the get go (and without any prompting), the group split up into three groups running at different paces. I hung back with MM - who I ran with the last time I was in Central Park. We ran together for close to 2 miles when we stopped for water. Uur pace was somewhere in the 10:00 to 10:20/mile range which was an OK pace for me but a bit fast for her. At that point she decided to walk a bit and then slow down.

I decided to pick up the pace since this was my mid-week run where I sometimes do my speedwork. At first I was trying to do a fast 1/2 mile and then slow down for a 1/4 mile - like the Yasso workouts. However, I wasn't timing my 1/2 mile intervals...I was just going on feel. In the middle of my 2nd "interval" I saw the second pack of runners from my team. I caught up with them and decided to run the rest of the way with them. At that point they were doing closer to a 9:15 - 9:30/mile, which is about the pace I was running my Yasso intervals at. Except that I still had about 3 miles to go!

I ended up doing fine with this group. I think the last two miles we ran closer to a 9:00/mile pace (mile 6 may have been sub-9). The entire run was a little over 6 miles and for me a little over 57 minutes. I thought to myself that I should be able to kick some major behind in this year's Turkey Chase. Even though it's a hilly course, I'll definitely be able to aim for a course PR (current course PR is 1:00:33) and perhaps even a new 10K PR (current 10K PR is 56:14).

After the run, I went back to my friend's apartment for a quick shower and then met a high school friend for dinner. (I spoke to Sherry on the way and her remark was "it's almost 9:00 at night - you haven't eaten dinner yet???") I hadn't seen him in a few years and we had a lot of catching up to do. Things went much later than I had planned and I didn't get back to the apartment until close to midnight - whoa!

Today, I reserved an office at the Chrysler Building. I thought it would be really cool to work there - plus, the Alzheimer's Association office is a few blocks down Lexington Avenue - and I have a team meeting there later this evening. As I went to subway station, I was told that there was a track fire on that line so none of the trains were moving. Great! I decided to walk cross-town - through Central Park - and then take the subway on the East side. It's kind of ironic - at home, I never would consider walking a mile and a half to get to public transportation to get to an office...but in New York City it seemed extremely appropriate!

New York City - Here I Come!!!

I'm on the Tripper Bus right now - we're crossing over the Delaware Memorial Bridge on the way to New York City! There is wifi on the bus, so I've already finished one conference call and listened in on an internal webcast on the Nortel-Ericsson transition. Ain't technology grand!

My back is still sore, but feeling better this morning. We'll see how it goes this evening when I run in Central Park with the folks on Team Run 2 Remember. I can't wait!!!

Back Pain :-(

I went out for a 5 mile run this morning - 5:30am and all is dark. It was a cool and comfortable morning, but I felt a bit tight trying to start up.

At around mile 3 or so, I felt a twinge in my mid-back on the left side. Sometimes this will happen and then go away, but this one stayed...and it continued to get worse.

I made a chiro appointment at lunch today - ends up the muscles between the last two ribs had "locked up". After some cracking, massaging and electro stim, it's still hurting me - especially when I do any type of twisting action. The chiro told me to ice it this evening and by tomorrow it should feel better.

I hope so, since tomorrow I'll be on a bus for 4-5 hours on my way to New York! And tomorrow evening is a group run in Central Park with Team Run To Remember!!!

L'Shana Tova!

...or Happy New Year! in Hebrew. Tonight starts the Jewish holiday of Rosh HaShana - which is the start of the new calendar year for the Jewish people. We are having guests tonight (honey turkey has been in the oven for the past few hours - yum!) and we have big meals on tap both tomorrow and Sunday. I need to remind myself to eat in moderation...

It is a step-back week in terms of long-run mileage. So tomorrow morning I'm going out for a 13 mile run before going to synagogue. I'll be meeting HH again - but this time in the neighborhood, not in Bethesda. For the third week in a row I won't be running alone...I can get used to this!

Actually, next week I will also be doing one or two non-solo runs. I'll be going up to New York on Tuesday afternoon - and the Alzheimer's Association team has a group run on Tuesday evening in Central Park. Then I may be meeting up with another running blogger for a run on Thursday morning. Sandwiched in that is a meeting with the Alzheimer's Association NY Marathon team on Wednesday evening. It will be a lot packed into a short amount of time, but I'm really looking forward to it.

I got two other follow-ups from last weekend's race - my Brightroom photos came in, and I won a $25 gift certificate to a local running store for predicting my finishing time! I had predicted a 2:19:45 (shooting for 2:20 and thinking I'd be hoofing it at the end) and ended up with a 2:18:59 chip time. It's definitely the start of a sweet new year!

Back From New York

I went up to New York this weekend with Sherry and the kids. The main purpose - to run with Team Run To Remember for a 7 to 9 mile training run in Central Park.

On the way, we visited my cousins in Central Jersey and a good friend of mine from UofM visited us with her kids at the hotel for a dip in the pool and for dinner. Unfortunately, after all the excitement, my 7 year old did not sleep well in the hotel room (so Sherry and I also did not sleep well either).

We got up early this morning and left the Newark Airport hotel around 7am, parked in the city and I dropped Sherry and the kids off at a bagel place near the park. She was going to hang out with the kids in the park - however, it was a cloudy and overcast day with a bit of light rain in the morning. Oy! It ends up that they did do the park (nothing else was open at 8:30am when they finished breakfast) and the kids finally settled in at a playground.

I met up with the team at the Columbus Circle entrance to the park. I spotted one of the team coaches who was holding one of the team's purple shirts and introduced myself. By 8:15, there were five of us there for the run - the two coaches, BH and JL, team members EE and MM and myself. In a team of 50 I was expecting a few more people to show up for the team run...oh well, I'll just have to meet the other members in the next few months.

Luckily, the team members who were there ran around my pace so we all stuck together. Our coach took us on a gravel/dirt trail around Central Park - past Tavern On the Green, up to the Reservoir, past tennis courts and softball fields, under a bunch of overpasses (every time we went under one of these MM would check out the echo!) and finally back to Columbus Circle. We ran about 5.5 miles together in about an 11:30/mile pace.

MM left the group at that point and BH, EE and I went down 59th Street to the east part of the park where BH explained how the marathon ends - where the runners leave the park and re-enter, where the baggage pickup is after the finish line and where friends and family meet up with runners after the race. I hope he reviews all of this with me in a few months, as I'm not sure I'll remember all of it!

The three of us crossed the park at Terrace Drive and wandered over to Strawberry Fields (there's a nice hill going up that way...) before exiting the park and finishing our run down Central Park West. The complete run was 7.6 miles (according to Garmin - BH's Polar with footpod showed closer to 7.5 miles) in 1:26:47 - an 11:25/mile pace. Here's the map of our run.

The best thing for me was that my average HR was 146 over the entire 7 mile run. My splits were pretty consistent on average HR - only miles 4 and 5 had an average HR over 150.

Running with the group kept me going at a pace where I could keep up a conversation - and therefore I never got going too fast. It was a wonderful social experience as well - I really enjoyed my teammates company and I hope to run with them again soon. I totally get why many people run with groups or with running partners. I don't think I'll be trying to find a regular running partner or group yet, but perhaps I will try to do a few runs in the area with some of my running friends.

Going To New York!

Tomorrow morning, we're loading the family into the minivan and going up to New Jersey and New York.

The plan - get to my cousin's in Central Jersey around lunchtime and hang out with them for a few hours (have the kids play and get energy out!). Then go to the hotel near Newark Airport - a college friend of mine and her kids will visit with us there - hit the pool at the hotel and then find a place to eat.

On Sunday morning we'll go into the city. I'll get to meet some of my teammates from Team Run To Remember as they do a 7 to 9 mile run in Central Park. Sherry and the boys will explore the park on their own.

After the run, I'll find a place to shower and then hook back up with Sherry and the kids. At that point we'll grab some food and picnic in the park! Then back home to Maryland.

I've never taken a running vacation before...this seems like a good first step!

How I Managed To Sign Up For The New York Marathon (and get accepted...)

I had no intention on running a marathon this year.  Really...it was not in the plan - you can read it in my blog.

However, there was one - and only one - way that I would even consider training for the full 26.2 this year.  The thought came to me last November when I saw this on the Ellis Island site:

It's the passenger record for my Nana.  She arrived at Ellis Island on November 8, 1909.  This year will mark the 100th anniversary of my Nana arriving in the United States.

Now, most running enthusiasts know what happens each year in New York during the first week of November (here's a little hint, for those of you who don't know).

So...I thought it would be a really cool idea to celebrate this milestone by running the New York City Marathon.  However, it's not easy to get a spot to run in the NYC marathon.  There's a lottery, so there was no certainty I would actually get in.

I started thinking about this a little more.  Another way to guarantee a spot in the NYC marathon is to run for a charity.  The more I thought about this, I decided that the perfect scenario would be for me to run the NYC Marathon while raising money for the Alzheimer's Association.  However, the Alzheimer's Association was not one of the charities for last year's race (I would later learn that they had never been one of the charity partners for the NYC Marathon...).

I continued to check the charities page throughout March and April to see if the Alzheimer's Association would be a participating charity this year.  Finally, the charities were posted - and the Alzheimer's Association was one of the charities.  WOW!

I sent in my application.  Again, I had to think it was a long shot.  They only take 50 runners.  The team is NY based (it's the New York City chapter of the Alzheimer's Association that is sponsoring the team) and I don't live in the NYC area.

Somehow, the stars aligned and I opened up this email on Friday evening, June 19:

So...this all means that on November 1, 2009, I will be running the New York City Marathon in memory of my Nana - exactly 100 years to the week of her arriving in New York, through the city that she called home the majority of her life, and raising money to combat the disease which took her away from us.

WOW!!!

So much for my plans to focus on Half Marathons this year...