Some extra stuff like maps and elevation profiles...
Sunday, October 28th, a storm hit. It had many names: Hurricane, Frankenstorm and superstorm were some of the names given. It started with a Tropical Storm named Sandy. She grew and grew and hit Jamaica and the surrounding area as Hurricane Sandy. This was a very interesting storm given the time of the year. She was raging at the end of Hurricane season right as the winter storm season starts (even tho it's not winter yet) and like the movie "The Perfect Storm" conditions were all ready for a super storm. From the East comes Sandy while the West had a massive Nor'Easter coming. The Nor'Easter had a lot of cold air that dumped between a foot and 2 feet of snow in the West. Add to that a lot of meteoroligical stuff that I don't know or can spell and we have The Perfect Storm.
There were different models but as the days progressed it was obvious that things weren't going to go well. Everyone knew things would get ugly. We had water and food and I made sure Elizabeth got gas for the car. She did this because we were at half a tank but also to shut me up. She learned a lesson on that one but that's for later. I made sure my mom was set and also my sisters family tho they live in Manhattan and not in the evacuation zone so it was more of a formality.
Well, the storm came in on Sunday. Jim, Gail and I ran on Sunday morning. Wind was slowly building but it was beautiful out.
Having a dog means you can't just hunker down so I was still outside. Lee wanted to walk the dog with me and having kids changes your mindset. We usually walk together when we can but this was different. As the winds started, we had to make a decision. Elizabeth wanted to go with me in case something happens, it's always better to have a buddy i.e if a tree falls on you but I nixed it. I had my phone and the headphones too and I wanted her to stay at home with the kids. What if something happens to the house? And if something happens to me, who will take care of the kids? So, the kids and Lee stayed at home while I walked LC. Lee and I on Saturday morning took care of the lawn furniture (flipped the table over) and brought the garbage cans into the back porch and other some such.
Sunday after my run, I was walking LC and there was a big commotion on Commonwealth. Heavy winds caused some electric wires to touch and one caught on fire and FDNY was called in. They shut the electric down for a whole block and this was pre-storm!
As I was walking him, the winds were getting worse and you can already see the damage. Trees were falling. Commonwealth Blvd was hit hard. Lots of trees fell. I walked him a few times that day. We just didn't know how bad it would get later in the day and into the night.
The last walk of Saturday was pretty bad. I kept seeing lightening but I didn't hear any thunder which is why I guess LC wasn't scared. Later I found out that all the lightening wasn't lightening but rather it was transformers exploding. I kept expecting our electric to go down. I mean the trees on our block were swaying like crazy but we stayed up during the whole storm. On the other hand, Sunday at 10:30 am we lost our TV/Internet and phone. Time Warner Cable (TWC) took a hit. We had electric which was great but listening to the storm on the radio is NOT the same as watching it on TV or on the internet. The kids were going a little crazy but they at least has the Wii. During the night, the house shook a lot. Kids were a little worried. Me, I sleep the sleep of the just so as soon as I got into bed, I was out. The rule of the house was to have the phones almost completly charged at all times. If a phone was down to 70%, it had to recharge.
The next morning, we all went to walk the dog. The kids were a little stir crazy and we all wanted to see the damage. During the middle of the night, I went to the bathroom and saw some of the damage and I wanted the kids to see it. Our neighbors got a new fence put in, about 6 weeks ago when I was in Ohio for the Air Force Marathon. Now, 2 major sections were missing, the gate was gone and a section had a hole punched in to it. Trees down all over the neighborhood. The news reported a grim picture which started with family from Israel texting me about a huge fire in Queens and are we ok?
Far Rockaway in Queens was hit badly by the water surge. It was a full moon and the storm struck during high tide. People were warned to evacuate but some were to "smart" to do that. Breezy point in Queens got flooded, then a fire started and it jumped from house to house and 111 houses were destroyed. Staten Island was hit bad. New Jersey where the storm made landfall was ravaged. In Long Island, 91 percent of homes lost power. Bellerose Village in LI was completly dark. Lower Manhattan was flooded. A Con Edison power station blew up and all of lower Manhattan went dark. All the subway tunnels were flooded. Actually all the tunnels were flooded. The city that never sleeps, napped.
My mom lost her internet,phone,tv and my sister lost power. They live on the 16th floor near the Flat Iron building so it was interesting for them.
All NYC schools were closed the entire week but Jessie's school chose to re-open on Thursday. With all the Jewish holidays, they couldn't afford not to.
November 7th, Wednesday (the day after election day and only 11 days after Sandy) another Nor'Easter was coming. Tuesday morning on the Railroad which was hurting as well, someone reminded me that the LIRR shuts down if there are winds over 39 MPH and they expected winds upto 60 MPH. I worked from home on Wednesday. I knew I would have no problem getting into Manhattan but leaving would be a problem. That evening the LIRR shutdown and when it came back up, my line (Hempstead) was still suspended. Thursday we woke up to 10 inches of wet and heavy snow. Jeremy had to be in at school at 7am that day so I woke up at 4:30 and started shoveling. Hard work.
Besides all that, Sandy knocked a lot of stuff into NY Harbor and there were power issues and suddenly Gas tankers couldn't get in and we had a gas shortage. It was a mess.
I tell you everything was going crazy.
Personally, I wasn't feeling great either. My stomach is having issues and I was very lightheaded and nausious. I was getting worried but decided against going to the Doctor.
Training was interesting...I always say I have 3 homes:
So I wasn't cross training that much... On the other hand, I was running a lot - definitly more than I expected.
I was doing doubles and biking again too. Suddenly no bike or swim and with the gas shortage, Jim wasn't going to pick me up so...
Had some triple days: One Friday that Jeremy was off, he wanted to go to Joey's house so we ran there. He had a hard time on this run so it kinda sucked on the way there but for me it totaled 5.8. The next day, I wanted to run 8 with Gail but since I needed to get to AP, it became 11.5. The next day, the 10 miler became 14. During the time that the YMCA was closed, I also ran with Jim and Gail during the week and got in another 14.
Bottom line, I got my miles in...I probably should have done more but I figured between the Marathon in October and these doubles that I have been doing, I have the miles there. Still not feeling amazing tho. My stomach is weird and I do get these light headed times. Also, the threat of shingles again is constantly on my mind.
Kinda conflicted through out all this as to how I feel: On the one hand, I'm feeling light headed at times. I told my boss one day that if I was in a car and a cop would see me he would assume DWI meanwhile I don't drink. It was that bad. Couldn't walk a straight line. On the other hand, it amazes me the shape I am in. A few years ago, I did too much and got shingles. That year, I did the Long Island Marathon and was attempting a second marathon that year: Wineglass. This year, I was attempting my first Ultra Double as a friend called it, run my longest distance (60K/37.2M) and I have never run this many Marathons in my life...This weekend will be my 11th and 12th since February. Still in general I feel great and it seems that my body has adapted.
The short answer is Friends. I was planing on the LIRR to either the subway or bus for the 60K and wasn't sure what to do about Brooklyn. Spoke to DD about this on Wednesday after the swim and he completly suprised me. He does that sometimes... He offered me his daughters car. Thought about it and Thursday called him and accepted. I also contacted Tomer asking if he can pick up for Gail and me for Brooklyn and to bring it to the 60K as he was also doing both.
The plan was to wake up at 2am, eat and get ready and leave the house at 5 straight to a gas station. DD only had about a 1/4 tank of gas. Ended up leaving the hosue at 5:15 and got gas and on the way at 5:30. A little behind schedule but since I always leave enough buffer time, I wasn't panicking. Pickup was from 6:45-7:45 at the NYRR office and I was sure I had enough time. Got into Manhattan and to NYRR no problem. Started looking for parking and nothing! Thank God, I filled up with Gas as I drove around for 30 minutes in ever growing circles panicking as I did it.
Drove 30 minutes looking for a spot!
Found a spot. NYRR is on 89th and 5th. I found a spot on 81st and 5th. Not too bad all things considered. Walked to NYRR but first took a break at the port-a-potties. From there to NYRR and it was still 6:30. Picked up my bib and shirt and got things somewhat ready in the heated office. Walked around and ran into Tomer who had my Brooklyn stuff. Unfortunatly, the Brooklyn Marathon people (NYCRuns) had the chip on the bib stuff and I was afraid to check it in. If it gets bent, then you have no time recorded. Decided on walking to the car and dropping it off. It was a good idea until I got back and saw the line to the port-a-pottie was huge. Still got on it and who do I see? Super Greg. I was wondering if he was gonna be there. Walked right by his house with the dog in the morning too. He drove to the subway and commuted from there. Talked a little and got stuff ready on the line. It wasn't pretty. Speaking of other not pretty things: Mary Wittenberg without makeup. She was running too. No makeup in this case means not pretty.
Did my buisiness and checked in my stuff. Got in line next to super Greg. Kamen Yotov was there as well. He was also going to do the double. Nice! Talking to Greg and eventually we started.
Just like at Caumsett, Super Greg ran the first lap with me. It was nice just talking. He then stopped to use the restroom and I continued. He eventually passed me - good for him! Next a Marathon Maniac, Ben, came up and we ran together for a few laps. He in general is much faster than me but it was his first ultra so he was taking it easy withing reason. He was hoping to finish around 6 hours. I told him running with me wasn't gonna make that happen. I think we ran about 3 loops together before he left. He knew he was being chased by his friend Caroline. I told him that as soon as I see her, I would trip her up and hold her down for at least 40 minutes so he can try to beat her. Didn't happen by the way.
Now in this 4 mile loop, there were 2 aid stations: The first at the start/finish and the other at approx 2 mile mark. They both had bottles of coke present but at the second stations they refused to open them until I got to my 3rd loop. I was gonna take one and open it any which way. I mean seriously guys? Ok...Life is good until the first aid station runs out of coke. Argh! I stopped at a vendor and let him price gouge me at $ 3.00 per bottle but oh it felt so good. Later I bought another coke. Needed to happen... My stomach was on/off weird but held together for now.
Soon, a woman ran by me wearing high pink socks. I couldn't resist (of course) and asked her "Didn't you pass me once or twice already?". She wasn't sure and soon Inga and I ran together. Later she told me she was ready to stop and walk and my comments "forced" her to run. I had no problem getting chicked so we made a pretty good team. We actually ran about 20 miles or so together until the end but I'm jumping the gun.
We ran and ran and ran and talked...Oh the conversations we had. We talked about a lot of things but some of those things... See, I always say that when people run (or train) together they aren't male or female rather they are just runners so they can just do and say (almost) anything. I have said that to Anu and Ed when we drove together to the NYC Half-Marathon how long ago, to Adele on way to swim races and to Gail at more than one occasion. This girl, she said the same thing to me... How cool is that? I'm not the only one who thinks like this... Well, we talked about pooping and being regular and other GI issues and we talked about women and their periods. As I said, we had some pretty wild conversations.
Well at mile 25ish, my stomach had enough. Well, a little before that but whatever. At mile 25ish, we were at the start/finish and I decided I needed to stop at the port-a-potty. Better to rule my own destiny, you know what I mean? I told Inga she can either wait (I'll be quick) or go on. Since she needed to pee, she decided to wait. Cool... It was a relief and soon enough we were running again.
At some point and I don't remember if I was with someone or not, I ran near a driveway. I didn't pay attention and accidentaly kicked the part that slopes up of the driveway. Kicked it hard with my left foot. Luckily I have good reflexes so instead of a nasty face plant, I managed to get my balance and run on that narrow ledge for a few steps before jumping off. A guy saw me and all I could say to him was, "at least I didn't fall". I meant it! Right away I knew I did some damage to my toenails. Sucks but what am I gonna do...Also, at one point I felt a blister form on my foot but it didn't bother me to much so I continued on.
Here and then we took some walk breaks for Inga. She is actually a faster runner than me but undertrained. Being a flight attendant makes it hard to train. So here and then we walked. At one point, Kamen and friend passed us. Cool. Turns out we still beat them but that's ok. I never saw Super Greg so I figured he was doing well. Tomer I saw once when I was with super Greg. Ben lapped us once I think.
I generally hate NYRR and the fact that they ran out of coke didn't help their case but they did get one thing right - the timing of the race! We had a chip on our shoe and everytime we were close to the finish, a guy with a walkie-talkie radioed our bib numbers as a just in case. At one point, I realized there was a TV screen near the finish and I looked and there was my name with the number of laps completed and number of laps still to go. The best was the fact that my count agreed with theirs.
Slowly the number of laps remaining decreased until it was the bell lap. We ran. What else is there to do?
I think we ran about 20 miles or so together. Isn't that crazy? It pays to talk to people and to socialize and it was just awesome. I actually ended up driving her home too. She was gonna subway it and I was happy to have the company. Offered her a ride as long as she lets someone know she is going with me and as long as she is not a serial killer. Haha... The best thing? She lives not too far from Queens College which was on my way home.
Dropped her off and continued onward. Went straight to the YMCA. Took a shower and then we and the Balsans went out to eat at the Greek Diner next to the YMCA. My stomach was neither here nor there and I just didn't know what to eat. Ended up with bread-n-butter and then lettuce with a scoop of Tuna and a scoop of Egg Salad. I really wanted tea but I was afraid it would put me out. I was thirsty as hell but the cold water was chilling me like mad. Still, I drank and got cold and haven't peed so still a little dehydrated.
Elizabeth and Jeremy were supposed to go see Breaking Dawn but Jeremy volunteered at the YMCA today followed by an hour and a half of tennis followed by an hour swim and now he was exhausted. He was dead. Meanwhile Lee already bought tickets so she and Adele went and I got the kids ready for bed. Again thought of going to sleep early but ended up with between 10 and 10:30. Good news is tho, the wakeup tomorrow is for 3 so a little extra sleep.
Before I switch to part 2 of this weekend, I guess I should take stock of where I am...
What I am:
What I am not: