Ridiculously Overdue NYC Marathon Post

Alright, so it's been exactly a month since I ran the New York City Marathon, and I'm sorry for keeping you waiting. Needless to say it's been a crazy month with lots of fun happenings and news so that's my excuse, but more on that later, for now let me get into the marathon coverage.

11-1-2009

My friend Sarah lives in Brooklyn and was kind enough to let me crash on her floor the night before the run. It wasn't as bad as it sounds, she has an Areobed so I was actually quite comfortable, plus she made a killer chicken noodle soup. I didn't have long to enjoy the bed though as I had to get up around 4:15/4:30 so I could be out of the house by 5:00 am. Before I knew it I was up and waiting on a subway platform wondering what the day would hold.

Just getting to the start line was a bit of an epic journey. I started in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn, a short 15 min car ride from the start on Staten Island. Unfortunately I couldn't drive to the start. I had to take 4 or 5 different subway trains, get on the Staten Island Ferry, take a coach bus to the starting village and then follow the masses to my starting area. Luckily, the man upstairs was looking out for me that day and blessed me with the nicest New Yorker I've ever met, Erin. Erin, a fellow marathoner, was waiting for the train on the same subway platform that I was in Park Slope. The only difference between her and I was that she was a local that knew where she was going and had run the marathon 5 times before. At the first subway transfer I kinda followed her to make sure that I was going where I should. I thought it best to say Hi and she kindly agreed to sherpa me to the start line. Soon, because of Erin's knowledge of the subway we arrived at the ferry. We boarded and our journey to the start was almost complete. By this time it was 6:49 am and I got a wonderful surprise text message from Becky letting me know that Chad and Heather had baby Gavin earlier that morning. It was great news and I thought about it a lot during the run.

Finally, by about 8:30 am, over 3 and a half hours after it started, my journey to the starting village was over with. Erin and I milled around the enormous starting village for a bit, took in the pre-race church service and then met up with her other friend Andy. They were both great. Erin had some duct tape which she always used to put her name on her shirt so that people could cheer her on throughout the run. Andy and I followed suit, and it paid off big time through the whole race. People were chanting Go Clay, and cheering me on the whole time, I was very thankful that she had the tape and talked me into it.
The chrome duct tape crew, I would normally label who's who, but I think you can figure it out.

Before I knew it it was time for everybody to get into the respective corrals so we parted ways. Waiting for the start wasn't as bad as it could have been. The race was very organized and I didn't really get in my corral until about 10 minutes before the start so I didn't have to wait around too long. Suddenly there was a loud cannon shot, and we started inching towards to start. It was pretty crazy. The sheer volume of people participating was astounding. As we started to move, I shed the warm throw away clothes that I had been wearing (they collect all the clothes left behind and give them to the needy) and got ready to run. I was feeling good. I had warmed up a bit, the legs felt fresh, the weather was a bit overcast but the rain had stopped and it was in the 50s. It was all systems go and there was no turning back.

I'll leave you hanging with that. More about the actual run tomorrow.

Spoiler alert... I survived.

Less than 72 hours till the NYC Marathon

Seems like only yesterday I was in a hotel room in D.C. reading my email, when I came across the message from The ING New York City Marathon saying that I'd been selected for the 40th running of the event.

Well, that was over six months ago and now the race is right around the corner. I'm feeling pretty good. I feel like my legs and lungs are in shape and should be able to handle the distance. I had my annual check up with my cardiologist today and he said that my heart was looking great and shouldn't give me any problems either. I'm injury free and my joints have felt great on my long runs. All that said, it's a bit daunting as this is my first full marathon, and that whole fear of the unknown thing is creeping into the back of my mind. 26 miles feels like a pretty long ways.

I remember standing at the start line at my first half marathon having a similar feeling. Just not knowing what to expect makes it a bit nerve racking. Although, now having done 6 halves, they no longer really hold any mystery to me and I pretty much always know what to expect, which is one of the reasons that I'm stepping up to the full. It should be quite the adventure and I'm really looking forward to it. From what I've heard about the route and the fans, it's going to be an epic, memory filled run.

Gear wise, I'm good to go as well. My shoes are broken in, I've got my favorite socks ready and I found an armband case for my phone so I can use that instead of my iPod. My new myTouch phone has all my music on it, has a running app that interrupts my music every half mile with a nice voice that tells me how far I've run and what my pace is. Plus when I'm done, I'll be able to call Becky and hopefully won't have a too hard a time finding each other after I get out of the finishing corral.

So that's it. I think I'm ready. I'll put on my 'I think I can' hat Sunday morning and just start running. I plan to sign up for a pace group so I can finish with a goal time of under 4 and a half hours. Wish me luck.

Long Overdue Post

My Bad.

Lots of stuff to report as I haven't posted in a while, but I also don't want you to have to sit and read for the next hour, so I'll briefly mention what's been going down in my world and in my bike riding, and then I'll go into some more detail in upcoming posts.

First of all, congratulations go out to Clint, who won the Frost Mileage Challenge for June. His consistency has paid off and he handily beat Chad and I for the month. Things have been a bit busy for the three of us it seems so pictures and results were slow to come in this month, but that shouldn't take away from Clint's victory. He was able to stop the mileage train that Chad was on for a while and now each of us has won a month. July is the last month that we'll be doing the mileage challenge as the century ride is in August so being that's it all tied up, July should be interesting.

I'm back in a pretty good groove when it comes to riding. I went through a spell of being uninspired and not very motivated a few weeks back but now I'm back on it. A ride up in Ithaca with my father-in-law Larry got the juices flowing again. I was a bit bored and burnt out with the lame roads I was riding around Meriden and the beautiful scenery and roads up there drove me to look a little bit deeper in my own backyard for better routes. Since I have taken up riding in a group ride out of our local bike shop on Monday nights and it's been going well. The first time out, I went with the "C" group. They ride at a fun 13 or so mph pace and we had a great time. I found some spectacular roads that I had never been on before that were literally less than 10 miles from my house. As I had a pretty easy time with them, the next time I set out with the "B" team and was more challenged for sure. We averaged about 18.8 mph for 33 miles and I had an awesome time. Riding with a group is drastically different than chugging along by your lonesome and I'm loving it. Still a bit nervous that I don't know all the proper riding etiquette and what not, but I haven't pissed anyone off yet, and I'm making it pretty well known that I'm new so maybe I'm getting some slack.

I'm still out of a job, so it's been a few weeks but it's the summer and I have a couple things working so not in any sort of panic. As a side project even before I was laid off I was starting an online retail store so this has given me a chance to get that off the ground and I even made my first sale already. You may recall my post after Memorial Day not only did I talk about the 100 Miles of Nowhere, but in that post I also talked about the greatest backyard game/sport ever. Cornhole. My new online store offers everything you need to learn and start playing Cornhole. If you haven't heard of it yet, you soon will, and if you're that guy who likes to have everything first, go to http://www.CornholeU.com, get your gear and bring Cornhole to a neighborhood or tailgate near you. It's awesome.

Besides that, I've been looking for a job, working on securing financing for the movie and trying to enjoy the summer. Weather's been a bit dodgy here, but riding should really pick up in July. Oh, I almost forgot. Another reason that my mileage has suffered is that I now officially have to split time between riding and running. As you've heard me mention, the speed of cycling has made running seem a bit more tedious, but I've been on some great runs lately and realize that it'll always have a spot in my training routine. That's good news too, considering that I found out about a month ago that I was selected to run in the 40th running of the New York City Marathon. It's that Cadillac of marathons and I'm really excited to have the opportunity. I'm a bit scared as this will be my first full marathon but I will have six half marathons under my belt by the time November 1st, race day, rolls around and I'm now really motivated to get out and jog a bit.

Lastly, great news on the fundraising front. I have officially crossed over the halfway mark to reaching my goal of raising $3,000.00 for the LIVESTRONG Challenge. Thanks to a great supporting email from Kim, Todd's sister-in-law who is battling breast cancer right now, and the support of Becky's California relatives, I'm at $1,605.00 and going strong. I have a motorcycle rally in support of the cause coming up later this month and I'm hoping that with you're help will put me over the edge. It's a great cause and I can't tell you how much your support means to me and to the overall fight for a cancer cure.

Thanks for catching up, more frequent posts to come.