Back in the Sunshine

Today was a day of travel. Slow, unhurried travel without the anxiety of having to be somewhere by a certain time. Just a specific distance to cover. A marathon of a different ilk.

I have had many memories of yesterday's run course through my head in the 24 hours since I finished. I plan to take tomorrow off to recap it and post.

I was relieved to see the NYCM organizers had my time printed correctly in the New York Times today. I was worried when I saw the Athlete Alert email that went out to a few of you. The alert was correct up to the final time which came out 5 hours plus, which was way wrong.

Anyway, the official time was 4:46:44. Hey I beat Katie Holmes! In fact Susan and I must have passed her somewhere along the course because we were the last to start and she ran much slower than we did.

I saw many medals around necks in the airport today. A proud crowd heading home in glory. As Mrs. T asked, "What other day would you ever wear your medal?"

4:46:39 Unofficially

Runner Susan and I had a wonderful day together today. Well I did completely and Susan did for all but five miles. At Mile 21 some wheels got loose on her. Otherwise we stuck together. We worked well at staying ahead of the 4:45 pace throughout those miles. At 21, coming into Manhattan from the Bronx, Susan said go for it and leave her to suffer.

I did, on her second request, leave her behind and found plenty of gas in my tank to power through the Central Park hills and finish with a new PR, 4:46:39 unofficially. That bested the old time by about 3-1/2 minutes.

I felt best about running the entire race and not walking; and surprised myself by my ending strength and speed.

There's a lot more to recount but I am done for the day and turning in.

Night all.

US Olympic Qualifying a blast!

I woke Mrs. T up at 5:30 and we hopped a bus to Manhattan at 6 a.m. By 7:30 we were in Central Park watching the U.S. Mens Marathon Olympic Qualifying Race. First sighting of the pack was just after two miles. From there we migrated south to the 6 mile mark to see them shortly after Ryan Shay collapsed.

After they moved through there we somehow got on the wrong side of the race course and found ourselves at the finish line in front of a jumbotron with all the VIPs in a restricted area. Now let me tell you that I have an uncanny knack for doing this on purpose. This time it was entirely by accident. Needless to say we stayed there for the next 1:45 to watch the race on the big screen and see them come by four times.

After Ryan Hall finished with a record time win we somehow got within five feet of him as he left his post-race on course interview right there at Tavern on the Green. It was way way way way cool!

From there we visited a friend, went to the Museum of Natural History to see butterflies and then went down to Greenwich Village to have lunch with Runner Susan, M., Amy and L. at Otto Pizzeria. We had big fun and planned our race for the morning.

Back now in Jersey I am exhausted from all that standing and walking. It'll cost me tomorrow, I am sure, but today was a blast.

Euros wipe out Expo

I made it to the North in good shape. Flight got in early. Had nice lunch here in Jersey with my brother. Took NJ Bus transportation to Port Authority. Walked over to Javits Center for the Expo. Checked in very quickly. No line! Got my chip scanned, goody bag and turned my way towards the souvenir merchandise. What was left of it. The Europeans and others from around the globe who came in early scarfed up all the more popular apparel items in the most popular sizes. Damn, I hate that the dollar is so cheap to the euro.

I did pick up a gray windbreaker that I'll want tomorrow. It is supposed to be windy and sunny. I didn't see any hot boots for Runner Susan or anything in her color. I remember seeing pics of her closet and there was no ING orange in the collection. She may not be too happy. Maybe she'll settle for pink.

I ran into Tom W. from the Track Shack at the expo. He is here as a hired pro to help run the logistics for tomorrow's International Friendship Run.

Took the wrong bus back to NJ but we got off about a five minute drive from the house and B. came to pick us up. Big spaghetti and meatball dinner did me just right.

Sadly ... no photos yet.

Time to go

I did 30 minutes easy on Tuesday in a drizzle worrying about the same stuff coming down in colder temps in NYC. Fortunately it still looks like superb dry weather, slight cloud cover on Sunday and temps from low 40s to mid 50s. Perfect.

I am packed. All that stands in my way of flying to New York tomorrow is my 19-year old college student in his dorm who is charged with taking us to the airport at 7 a.m. tomorrow. That's shortly after he usually goes to bed. The only thing working for me is that he can't have the car this weekend if he doesn't get up and drive.

I am going all runner geeky tomorrow wearing last year's Marine Corps Marathon heavy long sleeve mock turtle neck participant shirt.