Check, Check. Is this thing on?

It's been almost a year.

Maybe I'll start posting to this again.

It's not like I have all that much to do (unempolyed since March, one client at a fledgling consultancy) other than train for the marathon again this year.

Stay tuned, I might be into this again.

I am the happiest motherfucker in the world in this picture

The hardest thing I've ever done

I ran the NYC marathon yesterday.

I would give you the play-by-play but it would take HOURS. And I find long blog posts to be boring these days.

So I'll give you the synopsis.

Miles 1-18 were easy. And I mean I felt like I could have run all week long - until I hit mile 18.

It started getting really bad in The Bronx - I had already lost my friend Peter at that time so I was running alone.

I walked for a few yards coming out of The Bronx and that seemed to help.

The big boost was when I saw Sinbad waiting with a huge sign that she made at 22.5 miles in. She jumped in with me and ran to just about 26 when she was kicked out.

Saw my mom, cousin and friend Doof at about 24.5 miles - another boost.

I finished after my goal time but that doesn't matter - the fact is I finished.

Will I do it again?

Probably.

Some observations:

Don't trust that the bus you get on to get you to the start line knows how to get there.

There is no one peeing off the top deck of the Verrazano Bridge - it's a myth. At least they weren't doing it yesterday.

My Garmin shut off by itself for about 3/4 of a mile. And I can't do anything about it, but I'm still pissed.

Having your g/f jump in and run the last (almost) four miles with you is priceless.

My cousin took a picture when we passed, you can almost make Sinbad out behind the douche bag waving at the camera.

Here's the map:

This is it!

In less than 42 hours I will get on the Staten Island Ferry and make my way to the starting line of my first marathon.

I've been eating heavy carbs all week.

I've been drinking sickly sweet carbo loaded drinks.

I've been sleeping late and not running - at ALL this week.

Am I ready? As I said earlier in the week, it doesn't matter.

I'm excited, I'm scared, I'm nervous and I'm not hungry for any more freaking pasta or rice :-)

Wish me luck folks, next time you hear from me I will have peed in the world's longest urinal (thanks for the heads up on that Rich!) and hopefully run 26.2 miles in four hours or under.

Some recent running pictures

Staten Island Half Marathon (in which I actually ran 22 miles):

Grete's Gallop (half marathon in Central Park):

Finish Line

Eric and Peter after bagels and lox (it was the Norwegian Festival)

Countdown to the Start: 5 days 22h 57m 47s

Am I ready?

Does it matter?

I've logged 331.5 training miles.

I'm about 200 miles off the training schedule I committed to back in July. At this point, I'm pretty confident I can finish, not over confident. Just relatively sure.

My longest run to date is 22 miles and I felt alright after it.

Any last minute tips on anything form nutrition to keeping out of my head during the race will be greatly appreciated.

Torture

12.83 miles

8 times back and forth over the 59th Street Bridge (no one was feeling groovy).

The only solace in this day is that I knew it was the last long run I need to do before the New York City Marathon (in two weeks).

Oh, and it was fucking cold. And I mean like Antarctica cold. And windy. And it just generally sucked.

But it's over and when I have to run across the bridge during the race, I can think to myself, "That was nothing, I could do that seven more times." Or something like that.