The Joe Nation 2007 NYC Marathon Log

Um.
I've refereed soccer games in 95 degree conditions. I've run races (not a marathon) at greater than 90 degrees. I've done 100 mile bike rides at 110 degrees plus. I'm not that tough.

You gotta be ready.

There must be times in the great State of Georgia when the Bulldogs are playing in some pretty tough conditions.

Brutal? Yes.

Anyone able to stop when they want to? Yes.

I've been thinking about the ten thousand people who were left out on the course three and half hours in (that would be about the 20 mile mark for me) to do what? Hail a cab to the finish? It's a disgrace. I predict a limit on the number of participants allowed and tougher qualifications to get in.
(NYC is limited to 30,000 and you have to finish nine qualifying races to get a number for most of the slots. Some are awarded in a lottery but that is far less than the 10,000 runners left on the Miracle Mile.)

===
This is the last week of the long run. I have two choices: I can run a 20plus by myself on Friday or I can go to the Staten Island Half and run a 13 with about 8000 runners and test out my drinking ability at the tables along the way. I'm torn.

Joe(I'm ready. I wish it was tomorrow)Nation

I defer to your experience but, I still smell lots of lawsuits if more people had taken sick or died.

I don't know that they'd win. Marathons routinely have people fizzling with body temp issues, even in much milder weather. Has to do with a certain balance..
There is personal responsibility, and I bet people have to sign something..

The fellow who died had a mitral valve prolapse problem - not entirely unusual.



On your choice, Joe, I can, hah, as usual, see either side. Slight bias to the 13 and drink station thing. Not that I'm any expert, just re the restoration from the 20 and the 26 to come.

They probably do have to sign a waiver, run at their own risk, but the potential for messiness, waiver or not, was there and if nothing else, they'd want to avoid the negative publicity of several people dying. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. At least IMO.

I'm sure the waiver I signed several months ago contains language which prevents any kind of suit but I'm sure someone would try to find a way.

There are always problems. You have 30,000 runners in the NYC ING. 29,000 of them won't have any problems at all.

Joe(I'll be in the middle of them)Nation

Running in the rain yesterday morning was er, refreshing. It finally got colder here as well. Loped through the five mile loop I used to gasp at the end of and then trotted over to the Six train.

No running today. Big run tomorrow or Sunday or a little of both.

Joe(Where's that schedule?)Nation

A little less than seven today. Went out easy for two, kicked it up a notch for three, then rambled on home. I'd like to do a long one, but things have
gone through the looking-glass at work and I'll probably be spending a lot
of time there this weekend.

Went back to bed early this morning, the rain was coming down in rivers. I punched up the radar, set my clock for seven and IT was still raining.


It still is, (8:45) but now I say " Screw it, let's go."

Joe(how wet can you get?)Nation

Now that's dedication!

Well, it was raining when I left the apartment, but by the time I got out of the subway at the North End of Park, the storm had blown through and by blown through I mean it was still blowing through. The winds were at 13 miles an hour and gusting to 26. (Later on how I know that.) I decided to run up Fifth Ave again and visualize the finish and I did, but in the middle of that run, which is about two miles to Fred's Statue, I decided I would do the Staten Island Half Marathon tomorrow.

So now I had to figure out two things: how to limit my mileage to about six for Friday in order to be rested for Sunday and ... what to do in Cental Park for the next two hours until the Runner's Club opened for registration.

I went for a long walk, jog, traipse, something I haven't done in a long time.
I went a half a lap around the reservoir. Bad idea. Wet Sand in Sneakers.
I went to the tennis courts and watched people trying to play tennis with the wind blowing the ball all over the place.
I ran down to the Castle.

And up the stairs. Okay. I did not run up the stairs.

And enjoyed the view.


The castle is a full fledged weather station which is what it was built for back in the 1800's, but now you can push a button and a robotic voice reads out the current conditions including the winds. That's where I got the 13 mph gusting to 26, who knows what they were the hour before?

I surprised me that there was not more color in the trees, but maybe I am still thinking of the Octobers of my Connecticut youth.
Could my brain still be wired into that time frame even now?

There were a few birder in the Ramble/

And the mounted police horses made a nice clopping sound as they headed down the Bridle Path.


I ran down to the Boathouse and then up the hill and around the Guggenheim to the Runner's Club but I was still too early. So I walked down Madison Ave like a wet tourist and got a coffee at Dean and DeLuca and finally found some fall color at a flower shop at 85th Street.


I have my number for tomorrow. I catch the ferry at 6:30am. I am going to run about six miles before the race, then do the race at my marathon pace.

Joe(21 days to go)Nation

Excellent pics. Central Park is a treasure.

So this morning I am pretending it's the morning of the marathon.

I laid out all my stuff last night - hat, glasses, (no earphones) jersey with number already attached, shorts with gels in the pockets, fuel belt (must fill bottles in a moment) socks, and shoes with chip already attached.

Baggage bag has a sweatshirt, long sleeved shirt and dry socks (I love dry socks after a race.) They have an area for us to keep our numbered bags. I have to find out how long after the race I can do a pick-up.

I want to do a few miles before and a few miles after the 13 to do about twenty for the day.

And I'm off to Staten Island.

Joe(no cellphone)Nation

17.5 for the day.

more later.

Joe(windy,,,,)Nation

Oh, that's all.

(17.5 miles? Dayum.)

Who is that (modest) man?

I'll fill in the details of the Staten Island Half tonight. I learned a lot of things yesterday.

Joe(Most of them good)Nation

got my ticket yesterday. Official race number is 12585.

Sunday was a day of lessons. I wanted to visualize what Race Day would be like so I didn't take my cellphone. (sorry, no pictures from me of the day.) I wore the jersey, shorts, socks and shoes I intend to run in and wore the fuel belt full of Endurance (the extra salty) Gatorade. (Mostly to check the results of it on my stomach.)

I got to the start WAY too early. 7:10 am for a 9:30 start. The volunteers were still putting up the tables. So I went for a run, which I had planned to do anyway. I carried my baggage bag with my extra shirt and socks and loped up the hills to the three mile point and then ran back to the ferry dock which is about halfway back to start.

I was wet. So I put on my dry shirt under my jersey and then wandered around aimlessly for the next hour and a half. Very bad idea.

more later.
Joe(gotta go)Nation

What area has been assigned the Zip Code 12585?

Medford, Duchess County, NY.

http://www.city-data.com/zips/12585.html

Fascinating swarm of data answering this question:

Next I'm going to put my zipcode in and see just how my neighbors live.

++++++
Where was I? Oh, yes. Wet and wandering. I stretched a good deal and watched four or five ships leave the harbor or arrive. I always forget how busy a port New York/New Jersey is, but it's hard to escape your attention as these huge ships sail by only four hundred yards off shore, thousands of tons of containers on each one.

Okay, what did I learn? Running without music playing in your ears leads one to think more thoughts. These thoughts are not always rational, uplifting or interesting. They can be hysterically funny at the moment and upon reflection later seem rather odd.

(At one point of the early run I saw a bunch of silverware in the road that someone had either dropped or thrown away. Several spoons, a couple of knives and a fork. That's right.

There was a fork in the road.

Har- de har. I did about ten minutes of brilliant comedy on that to myself, none of which I will repeat here, but I know people watching me must have thought I was completely out of my mind because of the way I was grinning)

I will start no race wearing two shirts ever again. It was 52 degrees at the start and one and half miles in I had to stop and strip to the waist to get rid of the long sleeved shirt. I hung it on a parking meter. It was gone by the time I got back.

I did the first six miles in a hour flat and the next six miles in an hour and four minutes. Too fast for the marathon. I will have to slow it down to five miles an hour in order to have plenty of steam to pump through the last six miles. I am in the process of writing out lists of splits (times that I want to hit at each mile.)
This is going to be the eyeglasses marathon:
five miles in about an hour,
ten miles in about two hours,
fifteen miles in about three hours,
twenty miles in about four hours
and run with whatever you have left for the next and final hour or so.

I must practice drinking while moving. The first two water stops I had real problems. I literally inhaled water through my nose at the first stop. (That is an eyeopener!!) and at the next I found myself unable to do more than sip tiny bits out the cup. I got much better throughout the race and was actually pleased at my ability to drink by the end.
(And I've been practicing while walking today and it's getting better but, of course, my respirations aren't in the upper levels either.)

My plan was to finish the race, get my chip cut off my shoe, get my baggage bag and go back out on the course. My right hamstring voted against that. What it told me was there will be no stopping during the marathon, walking while drinking yes, but nothing approaching the three or four minutes it took to get the bag. I was pooped and that hamstring kept saying "whoa".... .

This Friday's last long run (15-19) miles will be a replay.

Joe(I am doing more stretching now than I ever did before, even when I was doing yoga three nights a week.)Nation

You know so much now..
my memory of yore, never being a serious runner but reader, back then, was that recovery time between long runs was longer. I like all you're learning. Learning a curve, but you're doing well. Watchem zee hamstring.

Did you read Shorter's opinion piece? Not to tangent, I just didn't want to start a whole thread about it.