Saturday, June 10, 2006
Saturday, June 10
It's June 10 ... Four days since the last post ... More randomly thinking:
- I won the lottery for the New York City Marathon on November 5 ... I'm pumped for the event and way ahead of a training schedule since I finished the Madison Half-Marathon two weeks ago (May 28) in 90 degree heat.
My time in Madison wasn't great, but I finished without a trip to the ER. I've competed in 8 half-marathons and 3 marathons and never seen a scene like the Madcity Marathon. I've read stories about the Boston Marathon from '04 or '05 when the temps were above 80 and people were dropping like flies. Same in Madison '06. I saw seven people getting help between miles 8 and the 13.1 finish. It was simply too hot for the race and since it was in the 50s and 60s until that week, nobody was used to the heat (as evidenced by the sweaty people on the right).
As for NYC, my training is good. I did 5 miles last night in 90 degree weather at an average of 8:20 per mile. I'll take it. Tomorrow is the Tejas Triathlon -> simple workout, but a fun diversion. It's in New Territory, so not too far from the house. I'll blog about the tri on Sunday.
To say I'm excited about NYC is an understatement. To date, my best participatory sports memory is crossing the finish line of the New Orleans 1/2 Marathon in '05 at the 50-yard line of the Superdome. I was just short of a PR. What makes that cool is the events that had taken place in the Superdome prior to my participatory sports moment. The Jordan shot in '82, the Bears in Super Bowl XX (click the link for the Super Bowl Shuffle on Google Video), Keith Smart and Indiana in '87, Favre in '97, and me finishing the half-marathon in a building that meant soo much to the national sports scene. Today, the Superdome stirs different images in people's minds. And, writing about it will just make me sad. Sad on a number of levels. It's not about the destruction of a building and the loss of life. It's about failure on a number of levels: cultural, governmental, and natural. It's probably a topic for another day.
Now with a finish line in Central Park (photo right), this promises to be the top participatory sports moment of my young life. Over the next few months, they be more about the training and stories about trying to find a hotel. And since I'm going to work with the folks at Katy Fit, they'll be training stories to tell. Once I finish the NYC race, it'll be time to consider LA in March of '07 - think about it, marathons in the four largest cities in America.
-30-
- I won the lottery for the New York City Marathon on November 5 ... I'm pumped for the event and way ahead of a training schedule since I finished the Madison Half-Marathon two weeks ago (May 28) in 90 degree heat.
My time in Madison wasn't great, but I finished without a trip to the ER. I've competed in 8 half-marathons and 3 marathons and never seen a scene like the Madcity Marathon. I've read stories about the Boston Marathon from '04 or '05 when the temps were above 80 and people were dropping like flies. Same in Madison '06. I saw seven people getting help between miles 8 and the 13.1 finish. It was simply too hot for the race and since it was in the 50s and 60s until that week, nobody was used to the heat (as evidenced by the sweaty people on the right).
As for NYC, my training is good. I did 5 miles last night in 90 degree weather at an average of 8:20 per mile. I'll take it. Tomorrow is the Tejas Triathlon -> simple workout, but a fun diversion. It's in New Territory, so not too far from the house. I'll blog about the tri on Sunday.
To say I'm excited about NYC is an understatement. To date, my best participatory sports memory is crossing the finish line of the New Orleans 1/2 Marathon in '05 at the 50-yard line of the Superdome. I was just short of a PR. What makes that cool is the events that had taken place in the Superdome prior to my participatory sports moment. The Jordan shot in '82, the Bears in Super Bowl XX (click the link for the Super Bowl Shuffle on Google Video), Keith Smart and Indiana in '87, Favre in '97, and me finishing the half-marathon in a building that meant soo much to the national sports scene. Today, the Superdome stirs different images in people's minds. And, writing about it will just make me sad. Sad on a number of levels. It's not about the destruction of a building and the loss of life. It's about failure on a number of levels: cultural, governmental, and natural. It's probably a topic for another day.
Now with a finish line in Central Park (photo right), this promises to be the top participatory sports moment of my young life. Over the next few months, they be more about the training and stories about trying to find a hotel. And since I'm going to work with the folks at Katy Fit, they'll be training stories to tell. Once I finish the NYC race, it'll be time to consider LA in March of '07 - think about it, marathons in the four largest cities in America.-30-
