Thomas and Joe Nation are running the New York Marathon!!!

Laughs with David.

All right, me too. There is a happy woman.

http://littleheroesfoundation.com.au/Donations/NewYork-Marathon.aspx

My daughter is in the same program (or a very similar one). I'm running with her on Sunday. We're very proud of her.

Cool!

Have they finished yet ?

Yay beautiful Candace!

The organization is "Girls On The Run" (GOTR) and they try to encourage girls to have a positive self-image. They probably have a chapter in Atlanta. When I ran with my daughter, I got "left in the dust."

Yep, that's the one. It's a great program and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's about so much more than running. It would be cool if they had a program like that for boys too. Our school started a running club for boys but it's not as educational.

Joe (Congrats!) Nation - nice run on Sunday shaving 38 MINUTES off your 2009 time !!! [fyi - loved the 2007 training blog]

Welcome to a2k, GaijinDa..

Would that that be so.
==
Here are my times: 2007 -- 5:27:47
2008 -- did not run**
2009 -- 4:51:17
2010 -- 4:56:52
I did whack 36:30 off of my time in 2009, but in 2010 my time increased by 5:35 over 2009.

I can explain. I am 10 pounds heavier than Nov 2009 and I could not get myself to SLOW down in the first seven miles. If I were to put my mile splits up here, you'd see that I was as much as four minutes ahead of pace in the first eight miles and after that I never hit my proposed average pace of 10:40 per mile.

If there is one thing that marathon coachs tell you, it's that you have to stay in control of your pace in the early miles, but it's really hard to do that. I usually trot along at about a 10:00 per mile pace. (In half marathons, I am at the 12 mile point almost exactly at two hours.)
What happens in a marathon is that everybody is running
s l o w e r
than they normally do and, if you are an idiot like me, your brain says
"Hey, let's pass some of these people!!! Yea!! We're zooming!!!"
They are running at a marathon pace, I was running at a half-marathon pace..... not good.

I did get into control at about seven miles in (I was actually only 30 seconds too fast at the halfway point and was feeling really good.)
But..
going up First Ave I began to fade, running several 11:30+ miles and a few 12+ minute ones (21,22,23,24) I ran the last two miles faster but not on pace.

I'm still happy with the day. I had no problems: no aches, no pains, no cramps, no bunched up socks... . I ran the whole way, no stopping except to squeeze my sweetie at milepoint 23.5. (BTW She shoved me back onto the roadway!! ) and I drank about as much fluid as I wanted to without feeling thirsty.

Today is Friday. I did a short run from Grand Central to the Park yesterday (2.2 miles) and am going out later this afternoon to do a little more. Except for a slight splint in my left shin, I am fine. Ready to do it again.
==
Sightings: The woman with 1) a sign on her back saying "First Time Marathoner" and 2) a really great ass (not necessarily in that order) who had some kind of support team working with her. I saw her in Brooklyn, on the Queensboro Bridge, on First Ave at mile 18 and at Mile 21. Each time there was a different guy running with her for about a mile. One guy was wearing jeans and a white long-sleeved dress shirt. I started wondering if there had been a total of 26 guys overall. Really fine ass.
=
There were a number of people who wore there really heavy clothing through the whole run. I had on a cotton t-shirt and shorts. I saw woolen hats, gloves, a woman, again on First Ave, walking at mile 19 in a long winter coat. All along the entire route, including in the last half mile, I saw hats, scarves, gloves, earmuffs and sweatshirts on the roadway. (You'd think if they wore the damned gloves to the 25 mile point they'd keep them on for the finish.)

===There are always a lot of people running for other people:
"For my Dad" "For Eddie" "Hey, Mom! Here I am!" (That last one was directed, I believe, at a Mom no longer among us.) "For Kristen".

==There was a guy with a page from Cosmopolitan Magazine stapled to the back of his shirt. Someone was pictured but I could never get close enough to him to see who the article was about.
===
I saw several of my old favorite t-shirts. "I run like a girl."
It's always worn by some female zooming by me.

And my new favorite:
"How's my Driving? 1-800-555-1212)

Joe(winner of the Light Truck Division Award)Nation

** See the thread 'a good cry on the train' for the reasons why.

Especially when you're surrounded by runners who can't control theirs, either. Herd instinct can overwhelm even the most reasonable and resolute intentions. The next time I run a marathon, I plan to start in a corral for runners who are 15-30 minutes slower than I think I can run. That way, herd psychology early in the race will work for me, not against me.

Well ??? Did you win?? I had 20 cents on you pair and I can ill-afford to lose.

You were planning to be with a pacing group? Did you stick with them?

No, I didn't. The pace setters were much fitter than the pace group they were leading. The result was that they kept running every mile about a minute faster than they should have, then spent the next few minutes walking to get their average back in order. Around mile three, I got impatient with this and took off on my own.

The organization is "Girls On The Run" (GOTR) and they try to encourage girls to have a positive self-image by beating the pants off their fathers.

Doubting, Thomas?

limps in

Not just doubting, freezing too. Evidently I was more sensitive to the 40 degrees Fahrenheit (5 celsius) and the wind than Joe Nation was. And running faster was the only way I know of making myself feel warmer. I shall complain to New York Road Runners that they didn't serve grog at the fluid stations.