Background: A friend, Martin "Bodie" Bodek, was turning 42. One day he came up the whole "how cool would it be to run birthday in miles" thing all over Brooklyn. Not original as others have done this but nonetheless as you get older, it becomes more interesting. His wife mandated that in order for this to happen, he must have at least 1 babysitter at all times. He upped it to 2 babysitters. When he turned 40, and it fell on his birthday, I was one of those babysitters. When he turned 41, Jamey and I were 2 of the babysitters. That brings us here now. The way he organizes it, it's trivial to jump on the wagon and jump off, so you can come on at 2am and run 4 miles etc. His incentive: Run even a foot with me and I will treat you for breakfast. Still, he would prefer dedicated, in for the long haul, babysitters.
I must admit, when he turned 40, I had fun but said never again. I then ran with him for his 41st and it was less fun. Some stupidity and cold weather and a strong wind and it was a lot less fun. Here we are now and I was adamant about not doing it again. I don't like to repeat races and this really is just a training run AND I didn't want to do it AND it was the wknd before the 100 miler. Nope - doesn't make sense to do it. Kinda stupid actually.
He then asked me and that's pretty much all it took. Ain't I easy? Buy me breakfast and I put out. Wonderful. That being said, I'm NOT DOING 43 NEXT YEAR!
In any case, I'm not going to try to detail this as I usually do. I will include his race report here as he will have mileage by mileage or perhaps yardage by yardage updates.
So, start time was Saturday 10pm and the birthday boy was Ubering it and late. We eventually started. This year besides Bodie, Jamey, Adam Orlow and me, 2 others were planning on the whole distance. Joe Bootin and Zalman.
NOTE: This will be a little out of order. Sorry.
Joe Bootin: A nice guy who last year was a little rambunctious. This year, coming of his first 50K finish at Caumsett was determined to go all the way. Joe, like Jamey, is a big sweater and needs to hydrate A LOT! At Caumsett he bolted at the start and even though Jamey kept cautioning him to slow down, continued full throttle. Jamey eventualy had to use the port-a-pottie for a sit down and let Joe go. Well, he caught Joe doing a zombie walk. Walking in an ultra is ok. Zombie walk is never ok. He got him back up and up and they finished. We were both hoping that Joe kinda learned some things. This training run always has me worried. You have people who are only planning on a few miles and are perhaps fast and the pace can be harsh. I was worried. I shouldn't have. That being said, some of the runners were going quite fast up ahead and then returning. Joe was one of those people. Silly. Jamey said that he never saw Joe drink at all. I saw Joe give some liquid to a friend. I gotta believe that he drank too. Well, Salt caking all over his face, Joe unfortunatly bowed out. He was in a bad place. He later returned with the same salt on his face and the same shirt, 1/2 from the finish. Turns out he went to his girlfriends house and crashed on the sofa. At least he's ok. Hopefully he learned something. I don't know.
Two ladies joined us and I asked one of them if she was the one who fell last year. Turns out it was the other girl. Oh boy.
David Friedman and his wife were there with their kid. Joe gave their kid some water and gels I think around the marina.
Yisroel Pupko came with his sister who actually puts up with him. Pupko is actually awesome. Very strong Jewish Brooklyn accent with jokes every minute. Weird thing during the night is Pupko doing a mad dash in the opposite direction. Turns out someone threw a water bottle at him and he decided to chase their car down. We later saw him in the morning. He double parks his car, leaves the car on with the keys in it, and runs with us for a block or 2. Jeez!!!
On we went and we picked people up and dropped people off. This year, we could not make a pit stop at Yoni's house so we stopped at a Hospital. Security guard looked at us like we were nuts.
We eventually hit shore road underneath the Verazzano Bridge. Adam fell here last year so was very careful this year. We saw fisherman fish and some caught a fish in front of us. Another caught a Ray. Cool.
Zalman got real cold and made an interesting comment. I guess kind of insulting tho it's ok. He said, "And I always make fun of you for over dressing and such but here I am freezing". Great... So he knows what I feel like. I gave him my spare chemical handwarmers. Didn't give my gloves tho.
Adam at this point was really hurting.
Mile 36 was Bodie's mom's house and her delicious french toast. I walk in and say "Shalom Ima". She beemed at me and gave me a hug. The french toast was awesome. Jamey mentioned he wants to go lie down for a minute and I thought he was being crazy but he then decided on using the restroom. We heard a thump and figured he was klutzy until mom said that he's down. I ran there and there he was half up and half down and disoriented. Long story short, he was taking antibiotics and accoding to "the google" it messes up your electrolytes and can cause dehydration. Well, to a big sweater that means a disaster. He drank some OJ and went outside to lie down in the open air. I think between the dehydration and the stuffiness of the apartment (felt good to me), it was too much. He felt better after that.
Adam was already "off" before we got there and after warming up, just couldn't get warm as he got outside. Instead of doing the rest of the distance (6 miles), he went straight to the restaurant. One mistake I think Bodie made and I told him that was that he should have runners check in with him once they left. They are his responsibility too. Well, I forgot to tell Adam to let us know he's ok so we were kinda worried. He really did not look good.
Well, we made it. Jamey and I, even though we could use the food, opted in leaving right away. We had things to do. His daughter's Bat-Mitzvah is coming up and I wanted to catch (pun intended) some of Jessie's trapeze class.
Got home, showered and straight to iFly and from there shopping and all this other things. End of the day, Lee and I drove Jeremy to the Mineola station for his ride to Stonybrook. We drop him off and as I pull into our driveway, we get a text. "The LIRR is terminating at Hicksville. Previous train hit debris at Syosset. What do I do now?". We look at each other and I tell Lee to text him back and reverse the car. I drove to Hicksville, picked him up and drove to Stonybrook. Meanwhile, Jessie called to tell us that LC pooped on the carpet and isn't doing well. More worries. Lee drove back and I fell asleep. All I wanted to do was go to sleep early that night... We got home and Elizabeth cleaned up while I took him for another walk where he pooped again. Once at home, we were getting ready for bed when he looked like he was going to vomit. I tapped him a little on his back and belly and he burped and seemed better but we went for another walk where he pooped again. More worries.
Monday morning, I woke up early to swim and run. LC was tired and didn't want to get out of bed... Tuesday morning, he vomitted a little in to a bag as we saw he wasn't ok. Wow... Stressful few days.
That's it I think...