I never try to recruit people to my races and my stupidity. I truly don't. What I do do, is tell friends which races I am doing. If they decide to do it, awesome. If not, that's cool too. When I told my crew about this one, Jeff decided to sign up for the half. He didn't feel ready for the full. We did go to Oyster Bay one day tho. Jim did 12. Jeff did 17. I went to Mills Hill, yuck, to get 18. It's the worst of the bunch.
Anyway, bottom line is that I was happy to have company. The Hamptons Marathon people really seem to try to make it happen. They know it's far and they went and got the Hamptons Jitney on board. You can can board the Jitney for free in Manhattan and they would take you to race site. Also, since parking at the start is tight, they suggested you park at the beach parking lot and again the Jitney would deliver you to race start/finish. How awesome is that?!? Still, Jeff said he would drive. I did sign us up for Jitney from the parking lot just in case tho. It's free so why not, right?
Hammad finaly decided to look at it and it's now sold out. Always has to wait till the last minute that guy. Jeff, I think, also wanted to sign Heidi for the half but they were sold out. They cap the race so it makes sense. Still, he signed her up for the 5K. Cool...
When I registered for this race, I looked at the calendar to see what's around. Hm...Rosh Hashana near by but not such a big deal. Rosh Hashana was Wednesday night. I knew we usually do lunch with my sister the next day, last year we actually went that night for the first time, so that wouldn't be a big deal. Still, this year Lee's parents were talking about meeting as well since they are migrating soon back to warmer climates. Decision was lunch at sister's house Thursday morning and and dinner at Elizabeth's brothers house in New Jersey Friday night. Oh oh... That doesn't bode well for me. I usually like to control what I eat before a long run or race and this possibly would not end well but sometimes you have to suck it up.
Thursday lunch was ok. Friday dinner too. Tasted a little of the meat but wasn't going to eat too much of that anyway. Ended up eating potatoes. I figured that would end well. Ate 3 baked potatoes and 2 sweet potatoes. We left from there late for an early am wake up but again suck it up. Got home, small walk for LC who went with us, and into bed. The alarm went off very quickly at 2am. Total sleep was 2 and a half hours. Yuck. Couple that with a stressful, traffic jam commute to there which took 2 hours and the quick drive home (45 minutes) and I was tired. Suck it up...The grand ole theme here it seems.
Jeff/Heidi were supposed to get here at 4:45 but were 5 minutes late. That's ok. The drive was awesome. Jeff literaly flew down there. I told them that I think we should head to the start (school) and see the situation. If we find parking, awesome. If not, drop Heidi off with our id's and then we would head to the beach to park.
Drive was truly uneventful till we got off the LIE and Jeff pulls in and then out of a gas station. He needed to "pop a Deuce". That's Jeff lingo. He decided the gas station wouldn't let him, so he pulls over near it and runs out. Sucks...
Rest of drive was worry free. Heidi told me her plan to bandit the half-marathon and that Jeff might run with her. Cool.
We are near the start and suddenly there are a lot of cars all in a single file. No good. We get to the start and find parking. WOW!!! Still, I made sure Jeff asked the cop there if it was ok and he said yes. Still, both Jeff and I needed port-a-potties so we gave Heidi our ID's and went. No lines!!! Still early I guess. We meet up and go inside to find Heidi. She sees Jeff and immediatly says "You're an Idiot! You signed up for the full!". He tells her she's wrong but she tells him that she went to the half line and they didn't know who he was. Also, his bib color is the same as mine and she got his at the full. Oops...
Heidi isn't happy and I watch. I don't want to get involved and she "seems" ok but I realized it was more like a pot slow boiling. She tried to get me into this by asking "if it makes sense to run a Marathon 5 weeks before a Marathon" and I just said to her that "she's asking the wrong person. I'm a witness for the defense, not the prosection...". Still, I don't think she got what I was saying and I kept telling her that she is asking the wrong person. Eventually, the pot boiled tho. She got more and more pissed and finally put down an ultimatium. Either you run this one or you run the New York City Marathon but not both... Oh boy...
And that was my cue to move away a little.
Jeff and I both had to visit the port-a-potties again unfortunatly. Stomachs in a twist. Then later the porta-trees. Heidi wasn't very happy because she really was signed up for the 5K even though she planed on doing the half. That being said, she didn't eat breakfast or drink coffee and therefore couldn't go too. That and Jeff's booboo and she was not having a good time.
We walked to the start and Jeff started asking about my pace and I realized what he was really asking and I told him that we can start together and if he wants or needs to leave me that it would be fine with me. Cool. He's happy, I'm happy, Heidi not so happy.
We start. The elevation map says that the course is kinda flat. It's not. It's beautiful but it seemed like we were constantly either going up or down or up. The course itself did loops a lot so it was hard for us to tell where we were exactly. If you know the area then it would be easier I guess.
We ran and I kinda expected that we would drop Heidi but she was always behind us. Never to far. I pointed out to Jeff that it would be nice if he would get Heidi water without her asking at aid stations and he did and slowly her anger dissapted. At least it seemed that way to me.
Well, on we go and Jeff peels off to use the port-a-something. I don't know if it was the tree or bush but his stomach wasn't happy and he was much more happy afterwards.
Well, we got to the half/full split. Left turn for the half and right turn for the full. Jeff definitly going for the full. I turned to Heidi and asked her if she wants to come with. She ran so well the last weekend.
The previous weekend, on Saturday, I picked her up and we ran with Hammad 7 miles. She ran great. That evening I get a text from Jeff asking if I mind that Heidi comes with on Sunday. I got no problem... She ran the water with us for 11 miles. Awesome. She really did do well. We stopped then and I waited for Jeremy to get there to run another 7 with him. This is because I am tapering, right?
So, Heidi didn't say no right away. She started with "you think I can etc....?" and again, talking to the wrong person, I told her that she can. I don't convince people to do stupid stuff but I am an enabler and I knew where she was. Well, she made the right turn with us and immediatly started with "what the hell did I just do..." and "I'm starting to have pain...etc". As soon as she made the right turn, I told Jeff that we are now forgetting pace and the job now is to escort. The miles clicked on. We told jokes. Well, I told my only 3 jokes...And I distracted. We were all on a nice long run...That's all.
It was a beautiful day and the course was gorgeous and it wasn't too hard to distract. I even told her that I'll carry her on my shoulders at the finish. That got a smile.
We started talking to guy who had huge circles on his blue shirt. Dude was crazy bleeding from his nipples. And later another guy who was suffering from the same thing. We met this woman who was about to join the 50 staters and she knew some maniacs. Awesome. A new Facebook friend. Also, we (me I guess) annoyed these 2 woman and unfortunatly for them, due to their pace and Heidi's pace we kept leap frogging with them. If they were nicer then they would have enjoyed our company... Sucks for them. They had a car leap frog them so we always knew if they were behind us.
I told people that Heidi actually was signed for the 5K and people were amazed and shocked. That helped.
During an aid station around mile 20, I managed to get a "clementina soda". It was good. At the aid station, one of the volunteers told me she knew Paul Arroyo and that was cool. Jeff/Heidi had sour patches and were happy.
I found an armband used to carry cellphones on the course and later a Nathan belt that holds bottles at your lower back. Cool.
I started asking for a soda about mile 20 and Lo and behold around mile 23, someone who started getting to be annoying, had one for me. I told his wife to be careful as I was about to kiss him.
We ran. More loops. Getting closer. Finally, the last loop at mile 24. Got our picture taken. I think at about mile 18, Jeff had enough of the shirt and so he was topless. Everytime, we got to volunteers or spectators, he was screaming "where are the cow bells?!?".... People loved him.
Almost there. Jeff was hoping initially for under 4:30 but I calculated pace and knew it wasn't happening. Under 5 more reasonable. Not to dar away but the pace got worse and I calculated under 5:05. It is what it is. I was loving the day and didn't care.
We saw the finish line and I told Heidi to get on but at this point she just wanted to finish. We ran together. I usually sprint at the end but it would not have been cool. We all finished together.
Heidi did it. As is, her official time was in the 5K results with her being DFL or Dead Freaking Last. Person before her did it in over 2 hours. What?!?
We got this special muscle milk for her and some ice and they wrapped it around her knee. To the car and the drive home. Great drive with friends. All had a good time.
That's all that matters.
Lee got annoyed at me and told me that "if something happens to Heidi, it will be my fault". I didn't convince...I enabled. She wanted this...Still, the only injury Heidi had were 2 blood blisters that caused her discomfort and to walk funny. I told her to take a needle, pour alchoel on it and lance it. Pain free in seconds. Awesome...