 |
| The starting line at the New York Marathon |
With 10 days to go for the New York Marathon, I feel great. The scorpion bite (if that’s what it was) has healed. My neck has healed. I have no aches and pains as of now. My fingers are crossed.
With more than 50,000 runners running the New York Marathon, I’m certain that the starting line will be nothing but chaos. It will be cold, probably rainy, windy, probably wet and mostly miserable. Most runners will expend nervous energy by walking aimlessly and talking non-stop. Restrooms…ugh…will have lines 100-long. Banana-peels will be everywhere. The announcer will be making multiple random announcements to encourage wave after wave of runners. Pop music will blare through multiple loud-speakers. TV and radio personalities will be scattered throughout the starting line. A few politicians will inevitably exploit the cameras to get their face seen and their voice heard. It is the nature of politicians!! I will love every second of this chaos!
I am scheduled to start in the blue wave number 2, corral F at 10:15AM. My best guess is that I will start the race at around 10:30AM. Since I am taking the 7:15AM ferry to Staten Island, I will probably have a couple of hours at the starting line. I hope to find a quiet, warm place and relax. My chances are slim to none that I will find a quiet place with 50,000 other runners. I’ll soak it all in (pun intended if it rains). It will be the second of six marathon majors I want to run. Number three is scheduled in London in April, 2016!
For my taper run today, I ran an easy 4 miles around the Parsus office. I picked up the tempo just a bit in the final mile to get my heart pumping at 150bpm. It felt good; relaxed and good!