| Ted Corbitt Wiki Page | Map | Elevation Map |
|---|---|---|
| ME | ME (splits) |
Mitch Strong was very excited about this race too but then at 1 point told me that he won't be there because of recovery from Cancer. I told him that he has to be there. Meanwhile Ritchie said that anyone doing the 50K would also get something and Mitch was there!!!
Shishaldin by the way never made it ;(
Hammad told me that he's picking me up. OK... Makes life easier for sure.
Friday night had a sandwich at subway. Wasn't sure if I would regret it. Finally went to sleep. I say finally because the whole week, I SHOULD have been trying to get more sleep but something was stressing me out and I was getting my usual 4 (or a little less). Friday night into Saturday, I got 5. Oh well.
Woke up, ate and got ready. Hammad got there and we left. Pretty easy to get there tho we did take a wrong turn and I'm not exactly sure if we were facing oncoming traffic or not but who cares. We got there...
Check-ed in and started saying hello to everyone. Phil was volunteering for a few hours. Trishul and wife were there until the start. Caught up with Ryan and Jamey and Mikey and "Oh Snap guy" who is actually known as Michael. Saw Mitch and another Cunninghammer. Saw Grant. Snuck up on the Fred's car and scared Matet half to death which I call "a good start".
So, now to describe the course and the race itself. So, it's a loop. The first loop was a short 1.2 mile while the rest were the Ritchie normal size. Ritchie declared this race to be a 24 hour race but would allow people to start 2 hours early and would take his sweet time packing up to give us something akin to 27:30. It's doable (for me) but I don't like tight deadlines and well, I had some disappointments recently (Skydive and Forbidden Forest). And then he sent another email... The town was not too happy and this is what they came down up: No easrly start. In fact can't start before 8am so we would start at 8:08am. He also had to promise that he would be out of there before noon so he had to make sure to get stuff done. He wanted to be out by 11:45. Still, he told us that we would "work something out". Stress... That's all I need.
The course went around in a clockwise fashion. The channel of water or whatever you want to call it would be on our right. We would then go up to the street. There's a street between the 2 parks. Once there, we would basically do a U-turn and come back on the other side of the channel. We would never cross the street into the other park. So, now the channel is on our right again and eventually, we take a left at the lake and keep the lake on our right all the way to the parking lot of the Valley Stream Pool. That's it. The little tiny elevation to the street, we refered to as the 3,000 feet of elevation mountain to be walked going up and down. When I say "we", I mean me and my group.
One other thing about the loop. Going out, runners were supposed to stay on the left and bikes on the right. Once we turned around and came back, it was runners on the right and bikers on the left. We called it England going out and America coming back.
Anyway, the first loop was only 1.2 so Ritchie had us walk over a bit to the start of the first loop. I knew that time was tight so I wanted Ritchie to let us go but instead he spoke about Ted Corbitt. I must say or rather admit with shame that I did not too much about him. I only knew the name sort of. I mean there is a NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K, so who cares except Ritchie was talking and talking and then some other people talked and the Sri Chminoy people sang a song about him that was written by Sri Chimnoy. Can we please start already?!? And then more talking. Finally he said a very low key "go" and we did.
I must say I wasn't oo happy with Ritchie wasting time like that but since then I changed my mind but that's for later.
We started and finished that loop. I mean it's only 1.2 miles. It was Jamey and Ryan and Mikey and me. I was trying to get Ryan and Jamey together because I figured they could work together as a team at TGNY. Mikey would be with us, then goto pee and would have to catch us. Every loop was like that. Even when we would start by walking, he had to mad dash to catch us. In retrospect, we should have gone slower to let him catch us but the reality was that a) we were worried about the time and b) Ryan was driving that part as he was really nervous. Why? He did the TGNY 100K the first year and the following year (last year) he DNFed at 80. He wanted to finish before he get tired and lost it. Oh well.
We were having a good time. We saw people obviously. Dionida showed up in the AM after her run and that was cool. She also showed up in the evening, dressed nicely and hugged me and took a pic of me. I tried to save her from the stench but she had none of that.
Cheryl is an amazing runner and last I saw her was the Shore to Shore where we ran for a while until she smoked us. She gave birth to a beautiful girl about 9 months ago I think. I saw her pre-race nursing her baby. Later, to the group, I referred to her as the Mobil Hydration Station and if there's a need, she can always hydrate and that colustrum is very healthy for you. It was a joke. A joke born of crazy amount of respect to nurse a child which in a way depletes you and then to run. I think she nursed mid race too. That is a BADASS if I have ever known one. Major props.
Hammad: Initially I saw him at the race start and during the race, the loop being so small, we would see each other across the channel and across the lake. He looked good. Until he didn't. Came up on him and before he saw me, I saw he was limping. I asked him how he's doing and in true Hammad fashion, he told me that he was doing just fine. Dude... Just saw you limping... And then I didn't see him anymore. Later, he told me that he wanted to drop at mile 13 but continueed on. I stopped seeing him for a while during time, he tried to fix his issues.
Michael the "Oh Snap Guy": Ran with us for a while. He walks way to slow for an ultra but could run. He was doing on and off. Stayed with us as best he can. Disappeared once and looked for us while we didn't know where he was. Then he was with us again.
Matet: Oh My God... When she's good, she's good and she was GOOD. She lapped us twice. Like a speed demon that one.
Lunch was pizza and I had 1.5 slice. Jamey actually managed to eat a 1/2 slice but also had a huge sitdown. Nick Palozza was there with the pizza and of course Mikey could not help himself and made some comments. Thankfully, neither Nick nor Ritchie realized and all was calm in the world.
Mikey was getting annoyed because he would stop to pee and then have to catch us at which Ryan would want to start running. Eventually those 2 dropped Jamey and me. They were moving. They lapped us twice. I was sure they were going for a sub 24.
Raina showed up during the day at 1 point. She was sure she could not stay with us but we just walked a lap with her and by that I mean that she and I walked while Jamey kinda jogged slowly. She brought him rice which he asked for. It's kinda funny that with all the sports he has done in highschool, he has a certain degree of modesty so that he had to go to the bathroom to reapply anti-chafe agent. I too have a certain degree of modesty but had no problems putting gloves on and sticking my hands down my pants. Now, I mentioned the race location to the family in hopes that they would visit but I wasn't counting on it. Still, when she left I asked her to text Elizabeth and tell her that I was ok and that if she does come then I won't mind a spicy chicken sandwich.
Dinner was pasta with red sauce and salad. I piled some pasta into a cup and took it to go. Delicious.
Out of the blue, around 8pm, Amer showed up and stayed with us for a few laps which was awesome. I hooked those 2 up for the following weeks AquaRun which I could not attend. Amer swam and Jamey ran - they got 2nd place for men's relay. Nice! It was nice to see him tho truely. Sad to see him go.
It was about 9:40pm and I knew there was no family visit. Lee isn't going out at that time. We just rolled into the aid station when I see Jeremy and Jessie AND Jessie has a Wendy's bag with her. What?!? I thought they came by themselves but I hopingly asked and YES! Lee was here and the dogs too... Here's what happened. Marcello the handyman was at the house since 10:30am and finally left around 9:30pm. Elizabeth had gone to HomeDepot twice. Anyway, he left and they packed up the dogs and drove over. Wow... The dogs were so excited to see me and of course smell me and all my wonderful scents of sweat and food and all the salt that was on me. We started going and I reached into the bag and there was onion rings? OK... No!!! Spicy Nuggs (like the commercial) are back! Those spicy nuggets are so good and that sandwich was heavenly.
It was Jamey and me. Not sure if Michael was with us. Elizabeth remarked how dark it was and why wasn't I wearing a headlamp but the reality was that it was lit and I didn't need it. Ran so many damn loops that I knew the course anyway... So they did 1 loop and were prepared to leave. I said goodbye and continueed. I was with Jamey and I suddenly heard bells behind us. What?!? Turned around to see Jessie barely hanging with onto Missy while Lee was flying with Lily. She had her jacket tied to her purse, her hat connected to it and her hair trailing like a comets tail behind her. Apparently, Jessie wanted to go for 1 more lap and grabbed Missy so Lily "had" to chase. Awesome...
Jamey's plan was to actually do 80 miles and then leave but he changed his mind to the 100K + 1 extra loop. It was night time, and we ran into Hammad who told us that Tomsky was here. What?!? I thought he may have been delusional. I knew Tomsky was going to be there at 6am and if he was here, why didn't we see him. Apparently he was chasing us which made no sense as he could have gone in the "wrong" direction which would have made more sense. He told us that he's the only one wearing a headlamp which was not true as I did see some people with them. In any case, we just got to the aid station where a huffing and puffing chasing Tomsky showed up. That was pretty cool.
He helped out tremendously. He did some loops with us and some with Hammad who desperatly needed the company. He was going to do his last loop with us but went with Hammad instead which was fine. He ended up with 13 miles which was great. Jamey tho had enough. He had 2 blisters, one on each of his little toes, pop at the same time and his toes were on fire. He decided to do 100K and that's it and that was fine.
Hammad told me that Matet was doing bad. Knee pain and she was going to sleep in the car. I was worried. I saw her later and she told me that he just doesn't listen and that her back hurts and that she was going to sit in a chair. She later got up and ran well. She finished the 100K right in front of Mikey and Ryan.
Some time later, Mikey and Maria left. Turns out that Mikeys stomach was burning from all the acid (pizza, pasta with red sauce etc). Didn't even say bye which sucked.
One of the problems with hundred milers is that as people finish, it gets lonely. Here, most people were only doing the 100K or perhaps a little more and so it got really lonely. I picked up Michael again and we stayed together. Here and there, I was by myself and caught up to the 2 laps that Mikey and Ryan had on me. I then needed a sitdown due to all the food I was eating. Every lap, I was eating something which is really not my style but I did and I needed to "let it go" as the song says. I then sat down for a minute too and Ryan again got a lap over me.
At 1 point, Michael needed a sitdown and I was going to wait for him but he told me not to. That he would go slow and we would meet up again. He got another 3 more loops or so and decided to stop. He had reached a distance PR and was happy with it and was happy with stopping. I think, I could have gotten him a hundo finish but he was happy and that's all that counts.
It got lonely. Ryan and I hooked up again. I realized he wa just using me as a tool but that's what I do so I guess that's ok. I'll send a bigger bill to someone. Anyway, we were together until day light when he decided to take off. I commented to one of the volunteers, someone I see at Alley Pond all the time, that I wonder if Ritchie was going to bring breakfast or cold pizza was it. I should mention that we call her the non-Jewish Jewish mother. She is just awesome. She was there Saturday AM and then Saturday PM into Sunday AM. She walked over to the deli and bought me an egg and cheese sandwich. The bread was awful, caroway seeds?, but the egg part was delicious.
The following may be a little out of chrnological order but I don't care.
I started talking to a twenty something year old black guy wearing a nice sweater, sweatpants and shoes. We walked 2 laps together fast. He asked what this was about and I told him about that it was about Ted Corbitt and then it hit me and I vocalized this to him. Most people only know 2 black runners. They all know Usain Bolt and some perhaps know about Carl Lewis. He remembered hearing the name but didn't know who that was. Shame. I told him that he should know the name of the black athlete "who showed the master race and it's leader (Hitler) what the garbage sub species (black people) could do". Anyone who embarasses Hitler like that, should be known! I then told him random things that Ritchie told us at the beginning of the race. Remember how annoyed I was about Ritchie delaying the start with useless things? Well, some if it stuck. Ted Corbitt is considered one of the pioneers of the ultra running community and the dude was amazing!
I was by myself and it sucked. People started showing up to the park again but there weren't that many people with bibs out there. I saw Hammad and he only needed 7 laps or approx 10 miles to go. He again was bad but later I saw him again. He hooked up with this dude who was sleeping in the locker room on a cot and they were moving well. I needed 12 laps or 18 miles and I thought I would catch him. I did not. He was rocking it and he finished. I was there to see him finish. Well right behind him anyway.
Albert Lione came from Connecticut to volunteer. That was pretty cool and he was trying his damndest to come up with new ways to screw up my name. I thought it was funny. Patty in the AM did the same too so that's ok.
I hung with Dan for a little but he dropped me for his last lap.
Ryan finished a lap after Dan. I was still there and I was stressing badly. Finishing wasn't an issue. Time was. I had 2 loops to go and I went to Ritchie and told him to pack up but to please leave the mats for last. He told me that he cannot and that I should just go and we would talk next lap. Oi. Grant quit. Then ran. Then quit. Hamad told me he quit like 10 times. That being said, he told me that he was 10 miles short but now I wonder if it was more like 10 laps short AKA 15 miles short.
I finished a lap. Only 1 to go. I needed company. I was stressing. I came up on this black guy who was buff and at the 3,000 feet elevation mountain asked him to accompany me. He told me that he can't because he was recovering from a collapsed lung. I told him I'm running a 100 miles. Dude just looked at me, picked his jaw from the floor and gave me a fist bump and said go. Oh well.
I saw a husband and wife (white guys) a while back and I approached them. I asked for help. Just to escort me to the pool entrance. My last lap of a 100 miler. The woman. She was something. She could have just said no. She said "we are going this way. Not that way. It's ok. Have a good day" and left. I just stood there and said outloud "Is she a poet? Is she for real?". Whatever...
I then saw this black female runner. I know her! I know her from the YMCA. She does races. I stopped her and told her my situation and that I just need an escort and can she slow down for me please... She agreed and we went but then are my eyes deceiving me? I see Jessie. I thanked that woman and Jessie and I went to the finish. Lee was there. No Jeremy and no dogs. That's ok.
I went to Ritchie to make sure that I was truly done. Yes! I felt bad about Hammad. I told him to leave and that I would Uber home or ask Jeremy for a pickup. He showered and then took his new friend to the train. He then waited for me. Later, he told me that he likes to hang out anyway so it wasn't a big deal. I sure hope so. I made sure he was ok and we left. Got home and showered and during lunch, I felt myself crash. Quickly got up and went to living room. Lee saw me and told me that I must take a nap. I was already there mentally wise, just didn't reach the floor quick enough. We agreed on an hour nap. I laid down, grabbed the blanket and the last thing I remember was Missy going underneath to cuddle while Lily grabbed a spot on top of the blanket. That was it. I was gone.
Best part of this race weekend besides finishing a hundo which I desperatly needed? Family support and not pissing Elizabeth off. Also, minor chafe downstairs but that was all.
One funny thing that happened Saturday morning that I forgot about... So we were running together. It was Jamey, Mikey, Ryan and me and we see this woman wearing a Spartan shirt running with a topless, very muscular guy. They cut the course and were now ahead of us. Of course, my big mouth could not be stopped and I yelled "short...". They turned and od course I could not stop and continueed with that of course I'm only telling that to the guy and not the girl as she is the one who looks scary. Obviously that was a joke beacuse the dude was really muscular. We started talking. She was going to spectate at SOS the following day. Anyway, apparently, I looked familiar to her and we talked and she suddenly hits me hard on my left arm. She recognized me from the YMCA. I didn't truly recognize her until much later when it hit me: Sammy...
Last update about Hammad: In positive news, he PRed his 100K time by about 6 hours and 35 minutes which is HUGE! In negative news, Saturday was his wife Rina's 60th birthday. He just didn't want to give up a flat 100K that's 15 minutes away from home. He cleared it with the kids to celebrate on Sunday instead (anyone see anything wrong here?) and did the race. When he got home, he fell asleep and they could not get him up. Perhaps he could not get up physically either. In any case, family went to dinner without him and he was left in a major doghouse. Love that guy but he really does it to himself at times.
