Here is a course description graphic and here is a local copy of it.
This is a really cool interactive course map.
Man, so much to say here.
I have been trying. Tues night - 6 miles. Thursday AM or PM - 3 miles. Fri - YMCA hills. Sun - Long run. Last one was 20 1/4.
The book says my time should be 3 hours and change. Ain't going to happen. I lost 2 weeks due to tendonitis. I lost 7 weeks due to a broken toe in Aikido. I lost another week due to Plantar Fascia(sp?). As is it's still hurting.
So far, I have a completly blacked out toe nail and 4 others that are bruised. I got the Plantar Fascia. I got pain in the love handles. I'm exhausted.
Sunday is almost here.
I have so far run in 2 rain storms and 2 snow storms, one of which was an ice storm.
The sunday long run means waking up at 3:30 am, getting my stuff together and getting out there by 4:30/4:45. Pitch black and cold I get to see the sunrise. Gotta be home by latest 9 am since Lee needs the car to do a home care. Gotta get cleaned up b/c she is back by 9:45 and we run to chess for Jeremy.
Saturday, May 6th, started out normally hectic. My turn at Gym/Swim with Jessie while Elizabeth took Jeremy to soccer. Then home and lunch. My turn to take Jessie to Ballet and Lee took Jeremy to Swimming. I got a sticker. Then on to the expo.
Very surreal. All these runners and no one running. Picked up my stuff. It's official. Spent almost 2 hours there. The kids made me a banner. My wiseguy son, wrote on it, "810 to not DNF". Clearly he knows to much.
Sunday, work up early and took care of what had to be done. Mom came and right before we left, Lee woke up and took a shower so I got to say bye to her. It was her job to take the kids to my in-laws then onto a class. My inlaws were going to take Jeremy to chess and Jessie to the park. Lunch and then to the finish line.
They got there a minute after I finished. Cool.
I cannot believe it but the medical tent ran out of ice. I waited for a massage for 30 minutes and then the ice came. My knees were hurting.
It was cold in the morning. Had to walk almost a mile and I was freezing. Teeth chattering the whole way. Got there and waited for a port-o-potty. Then I also used to port-bush.
Before you know it, the race started. I went off and found my stride. Looking at my watch for pace, I realized in horror that I am at a 8 minute mile pace and immediatly put the breaks on. Had to do that quite a few times in the first 3 miles. On we went and eventually hit the Wantagh parkway. You start at the beginning of the Wantagh and if you are doing the half, you get of at W2. If you are doing the full you go to W5 and turn around.
So I am running with a pack of about 400 people when suddenly 399 got off the highway leaving me. In front of me there were 2 guys. In back there were 3. All together I could see 10. Very psychologically depressing. At one point, in front of me I saw this girl, Amy Gordon. When I stopped to use the port-a-grass, she did too. I think she timed it well because I was about 75 feet in back of her. Later, I saw her throw away her long sleeve shirt. Too bad for her she has very white skin because even though she put sunscreen on, I could clearly see her getting burned.
Eventually, she and I started talking and we ran from about the 12th mile to the end together. We talked the whole way. Her IPOD battery died and she was missing it. I kept mine in one ear. Hell, I had a spare battery just in case.
Turns out she is a nurse, married with a 3 1/2 year old son, Brian, who we saw later on the course. He decided to run with us. His dad eventually managed to grab him. Even though she drank a lot and needed to pee she could not and was worried about her kidneys.
The principal. There was this principal who ran the marathon trying to raise money for her school. Her goal was trying to raise $ 10,000. As is, she raised $ 26,000. She had a massive support crew. There were 3 cheering stations just for her. The last, at the W5 turn around was huge. Amy and I reached the turn around point when suddenly we heard, "She is coming". Man, the kids saw her and erupted. The noise could raise the dead. She was startled and I thought she was going to cry.
The volunteers were great. They treated us amazing. I thought I would be dehydrated - Nah. I used the port-a-potty, the port-a-grass, the port-a-bush and the port-a-tree.
Taking stock:
Knee pain - almost gone
Foot pain - almost gone
Here is the principal story. This is the original and this is a local copy . That's it.
