Suddenly "everyone" was jumping on the bandwagon. Either here or the double challenge. What that meant is that I would see a bunch of people that I haven't seen in forever. Nice...
Unfortunatly, covid rules still apply so no no to driving together. Sucks.
The drive there was uneventful. Took approx 50 minutes as it's at the tip of Staten Island, almost into New Jersey. I get there and it's empty. A few parks people were there so I went to talk to them, making sure I'm in the right place, where can I park and of course, where are the bathrooms. Unfortunatly the bathrooms were locked. That really sucked. Kate and Albert both pulled in at that time, in seperate cars. Meanwhile, another parks person got there and she had the key to the indoor plumbing so that was awesome.
Jamey showed up followed by the Freds and Hammad with Jackie. Bunch of others started showing up too.
Julia and Alexis showed up together. They took the ferry in. I felt bad about Julia. She asked for a ride to either the double or this one. I told her that I am doing this one but that I cannot give her a ride. With Covid and stuff going on at home... Hell, I would have loved to have gone with Jamey or the Freds but we all feel the same. I also have a feeling that Julia may not be doing the whole Covid thing too much anyway. I have not travelled anywhere but I know she was in Nebraska and some other state doing runs. Quaranting anyone? Still, felt bad.
Bootin and a bunch of JRunners showed up. It was nice to see them. Bootin was worried about this race and so went out there a week before and ran a loop to see what it's like. He sent me the elevation maps and stuff.
We set up our stuff somewhere and the JRunners set up shop right on top of us. Oy. Jamey brought a few jugs of water and they just proceeded taking water from there without even asking. Seriously?
At one point, I saw someone looking at me and without thinking, I waved. She waved back. Hm... Later, I went closer and finally recognized who it was. Mary Harvey. Talked to her a little and I'm glad I did. Our last meeting left a bad taste in my mouth.
I briefly saw Shishaldin Hanlen and as always, she is awesome.
Race started. We went. I wasn't sure what to expect. Bootin was going to do the MCM 50K Virtual here as oppossed to running both. Makes sense I guess. I still hate virtual. Turns out his intention was to run with Kalman the whole race. They would do 4 minutes run and 1 minute run if I remember correctly. I think they went out too hard but that is irrelevant. Or is it? In any case, Bootin seemed to have gained a lot of weight. More on that later.
We ran. All is good. Finished 1 loop. Maria and Mike were behind us. Jamey is with me. We started loop 2 and I'm embarassed to actually write what happened next. We got lost. How do I know? Because we suddenly found ourself at the finish line. Damn it! Went back out. There is a certain area that at the start of the loop, you go right. Later when you come back, you make a right turn there. Well, turns out that the arrows they had were in very strong black color on a light color background and therefore it was translucent. Instead of going right, we made a left turn and circled. Damn it! To make it really bad, the parks department people were right there and SAW us(!!!) going the wrong way and didn't say anything. We (meaning me) screwed up and the guy who followed us did the same thing. Bastards...
Whatever. Keep your head in the game. This race did have 2 very interesting things going on tho... 1) The RD ran some loops too which is awesome. Why is this awesome? You can give him instant feedback... 2) Unlike Richie who does partial loop count, in this case, if you leave before the 6 hours are done, that loop will still count. That is great if you need it or really sucks if you don't because you could have gotten another 2 miles... Let that percolate there. Anyway, we told him how we got lost and next loop it was fixed.
I should mention Chris Calimano. I met Chris at the double Ironman and saw him at TGNY and Skydive. He is a very nice guy. He owns the course record here with 40 miles. He ran so beautifully here, constantly passing everyone. Gerald Tabios and Matt Katz both did some loops with him but I knew he had it. That's until he didn't. At one point, he looked terrible. I mean real bad. Later I found out that he didn't bring his gels and took some other gels that he has never tried before. That's a no-no folks. Apparently, he threw up for about 2 loops (4 miles) until he finally got it out of his system. His goal of 42 miles went out the door but he still won the race with 40 miles. Nice...
A little more about the loop... Beautiful... Some not technical trail, then it seemed like we ran on the beach (paved path 25 yards from the water), then back to roads and paved trail. Saw a bunch of Eagles. NICE! Also, folks ran into a buck and they all took a picture with him.
Bootin... He was running with Kalman. The JRunners group splintered apart but these 2 stayed together until Jamey and I suddenly heard him coming in at a dead sprint. I asked him what's going on to which he replied with his deafening, booming voice, "I gotta take a shit... If I don't make it, I'm gonna crap my pants". OK... Pretty sure everyone heard that.
So, he made it safely there and now he was presented with 3 choices. His fellowship with Kalman seemed to have worked so now what happens since they are apart? Here are the choices (in no particular order):
In my grandiose and NOT very humble opinion, he should have either just done his own thing or wait until Kalman came around. In typical Bootin fashion, he took off like a bat out of hell until he caught Kalman. Of course, that was the end of him. He stayed with him a little but all in all, he was done. Next we see him, he was in fact alone. What's going on? "I'm DONE! Finished!". Why? "I'm light headed, dizzy and feel like shit. Screw this...". Wonderful... Does he realize he has people he can count on in his corner? Does he appreciate that fact? Jamey immediatly told him to finish the loop and drink and rest at the aid station as he tends to get dehydrated. I told him to also eat a little to offset all the liquids. Anyway, bottom line, rest up and feed/hydrate and wait for us. When we get there, he can go with us. He reluctantly agreed. We were wondering if he would be there when we finished the loop.
Some tangents here. We ran some with Kate who in typical Kate fashion told us that we were going to fast but as soon as she passed us, she made sure that we would never catch her. She kept looking back and would take off if we got close. I do NOT like being used as a pacer that way by the way. Ran with Julia a bit. Ran with Chris when he felt horrible. Matet had enough and told Mikey to hurry up and finish because she wants to get home. Hammad was doing fine but he started cramping up. Jackie started having headaches. I'm not sure if one became the excuse for the other but they both decided to stop especialy as rain was forecasted for the last 2 hours of the race.
They left. The Fred's left. It started raining.
Back to Bootin... He waited for us and together we all went. We had 20 miles and just needed 3 more loops. The three of us started running together and suddenly Bootin is ahead of us a little. Jamey wants to tell a joke and I realize that Bootin is suddenly 3-4 yards ahead of us. I stopped Jamey and yelled to Bootin, asking him what the hell is he doing? He stopped. I said to him, you already blew up because you went too fast and now what are you doing? Why the hell are you ahead of us? Sheepishly, he said "I don't know". Back in the fold, Jamey told his joke and we continueed. I was a little mad at his silliness but got over it. We finished the first loop. It was the second or third loop that again, he got himself into trouble. He said something like, "why are we going so slow bitches?" or something snarky like that... Hm... I looked at Jamey and took off. Jamey understood and took off too. When we were over 25 yards away from Bootin, who could not counter, we slowed down until he caught up with us and I then asked him if there were any other questions he needed answering... He said no. I think the point got through to him that we chose to stay with him, for him. That we have another few gears but also that we have common sense.
That being said, let me tell his story a little bit without betraying his trust. Covid struck his family in a bad way. Yes, everyone has horror stories, I know. That being said, without too much details, his wife was going through a difficult pregnancy and things weren't clear as to their eventual outcome. The fetus came out alive and ok and did not need immediate surgery. That being said, as soon as his wife delivered, he was thrown out of the hospital due to covid restrictions. It was a miracle that they let him in, in the first place. Once his wife was discharged, they had to make a decision as to whom would visit the baby at the hospital, as the hospital already told them that both would not be allowed. During that time, he was taking care of his stepson who was going through some things. Meanwhile his ex-wife refused to let him see his daughter. Anyway, bottom line, add an injury too and he spiraled down through the rabbit hole. He stopped running and gained a lot of weight. He went through a lot and I feel for him.
We finished 13 loops or 26 miles and he was done. Forget the 50K goals. I told him that the RD said something about circling the house if someone wanted a marathon. He said he was done. I told him to go talk to the RD already and stop the silliness. That he was going to regret this. He begrudingly agreed and ran the 0.2 miles. Meanwhile the timer screwed up and has him doing 28 miles. Oy. He never got it fixed.
Yisroel Pupko did extremly well and had a nice surprise that his wife and daughter showed up so he ended up doing another lap with his daughter. He looked very very happy. Matt Katz as usual was awesome.
Albert was happy with 24 miles. Had enough of the course and such. Kate told me that he refused to go together as no one goes in his Camaro. Yet, he agreed to drive Julia to the Ferry after the race which pissed Kate off. Kate did awesome. As usual, she complained about her foot and that we are too too fast but did more than us. Usual stuff.
Shishaldin Hanlen did 30 miles, her goal, took a picture with Jamey and me and bugged out. Mary did a Marathon and left.
Jamey and I went for another loop to get 28 miles. Maybe we should have stayed for 30 miles... But we were wet and had enough.
Danielle Coco won the womens race with 32 miles and she was awesome...
I met Esther Karfunkel from JRunners and she was awesome to talk to. She ran beautifully and was really awesome.
We were done. Now had to carry everything back to the car in the rain. I brought clothes to change into but it was cold and rainy and it wasn't happening. I thought about going to pee before I left but decided against it. Luckily I reconsidered. I really needed to and the 50 minute drive turned into an hour and a half so I'm glad I did. I also changed shirts at least.
Going back for a second regarding how awesome it is that the RD was running on the course... We noticed that someone took the signs out before the race finished. In fact, Julia and this other girl started gettnig lost and we caught them. Once we saw the RD, we told him about that and poof, the signs were back.
Drive home in the rain sucked but it is what it is. At least I had food and liquids with me.
You'd think that Bootin would check in and let me know he got home ok... He didn't. Does he not realize that I worry? I had to reach out to him, to ask if he made it home ok even tho earlier he was dizzy/light headed etc. Oy!
All in all, I enjoyed myself except for one thing. I felt like there were tons of people that I knew there. I mean, out of a race that was capped at 50, I probably didn't know maybe 3 or 4, yet I really felt alone. I don't know why. I was with Jamey at all times but still, an eerie feeling.
Lastly, I felt like there was a lot of drama there particularily on the female side. I won't list here the why/who/what except that it was palpatable.