That being said, it was on like Donkey Kong. Time to embrace the suck. He needed this. Do what you gotta do.
Jamey and I got there early and talked to his dad. Someone came after us and I wasn't sure who it was. It was Hershey Mandell. Spoke to him through Whatsapp and Instant Messenger so many times but never met him per se. Nice guy but heavy Brooklyn accent and very opinionated. I should mention that from what I gather, he was ostracized after he broke away from the Orthdox. I would be opinionated too. People started trickling in. Got nervous. Everyone went outside and nervous bladder said yo. I was on the fence hoping they would leave without me but in Bodie's defense, they did not. That was cool.
We went off and as usual, we started big. We lost people. We gained people. Hard to keep up. What was certain was that the finishers, as usual, would be Bodie, Adam, Jamey and me.
Different conversations. Different things going on. Meeting new people. Moishe Gamms only did 2 miles as he was heading to the Boston Marathon. Wow...
Great jokes from Yisroel Pupko. It wasn't bad. Good times. Still, not a fan of Brooklyn and not a fan of repeating the same damn course year after year.
It was foggy on the boardwalk. Binyamin took a stumble there and hurt his back. He was going to PR the distance that night and he did.
We stopped at the hospital for indoor plumbing only to find out that the indoor plumbing was closed. I got a soda while Bodie and Adam went elsewhere. I'm not sure what that means. I think they hit some port-a-potties.
Well the other thing that took a stumble was our speed. We were going slow. We weren't where we were supposed to be at the times that were projected.
Like last year, Bodie's stomach was not doing well. I should explain that. We started at 10pm. After eating Chulent and other stuff for lunch, the religious Jew's stomach is well... Sensitive. I'm not religious nor do I eat chulent but I sympathize. He got to a bad point but refused to "take care of it" because of the neighborhood. I did not know what that meant. I was told we were near 770. Still didn't know what that meant. Apparently in Gematriya, the mystical nonsenseical where they match letters to numbers to see something, it means prophet. I still have no idea what that meant. We were near where the Lubavitcher Rabbi lived. I'm including links about him and 770 in case you want to read about it.
The Coffee shop near by refused indoor plumbing and so we went in there. It was 4am-ish and the place was alive. Funny little conversation was had. I'm gonna let Bodie document that for himself once he finishes his write up.
We left and got to the best part of the story. The French toast at his mothers house. I gave Ima a hug and slurped down a few (4) french toasts. Jamey didn't faint this year which was good. Bodie went to take a nap. He wanted longer. I was adamant that it be 20 minutes long. Any longer and I didn't think he would get any firther. Woke him up and left. We didn't get that far before exhaustion over took him. He couldn't go any longer. Decision time... Either continue to Shore Parkway or take a short cut. I wanted to be out of there but I told him it was his decision and I would do whatever he wanted. Actually, we all said the same thing. We shortened the route and went straight to Spoons.
I will include his writeup here when he is done.
I. AM. DONE!