I have a feeling that Hammad is going to sign up. I don't know.
I don't like to follow the weather the week before the race but I did. Rain Monday through Thursday and dry for the race on Friday. Yay...
Friday woke up to threat of rain. I decided to ignore the weather report. I'm not really sure why I chose to challenge the weather gods. I was being stupid. I convinved myself that it will not rain and since it will not rain, I did not need a windbreaker or anything.
We got there without a problem and found parking. Ran to the restroom and the lights weren't on so it was romantic seating only. Wonderful. Thankfully, phones all have flashlights built into them.
It was raining and thankfully, Hammad had black garbage bags which I took one to wear. Turned out, we were parked in the far lot, so Hammad moved the car to the closer lot. Not sure that he parked legally but no one said anything so...
I found Albert Lione, Bob from BUS races and Shishaldin Hanlen who was walking with Bob. I eventually found Ryan as well. Well, we started. It rained on us for something like 2 hours or so. It then got very hot and humid. Ryan ditched his see through recycling bag pretty fast. I held on to my black garbage bag for longer.
Ryan and I were wondering when we would lap people. Around the 3rd or 4th loop, we passed Hammad and Heather. Hammad met Heather on the course. She was doing her first Marathon. She also happened to have sat right near Ryan on the shuttle. That meant that anyone taking the shuttle had to finish in 5:45 or less otherwise they would not be riding the shuttle back.
We eventually lapped Albert Lione as well.
Master of understatement: Ryan gets that award. He stopped to pee at the small restroom and when he came back, he told me it was a mess. Hm... I had to pee eventually too and he gave me the following advice: When you go in, stay to the right as the left stall is a mess. Hm... Ok... I went in and went to the urinal. Unfortunatly I also saw what he was talking about. Someone took a dump all over the floor of the stall on the left. How could someone miss the pot so much I have no idea but it was horrible in there.
We ran into Heather. She had to ditch Hammad because he needed to walk a little and she needed to get the shuttle. We kept leapfrogging with this beautiful red-head and I talked to her some. Turns out she came from Italy to do this race. Nice... Didn't see Hammad. Oh oh.
I was drinking water and Gatorade and some coke here and there and taking watermellon. Once in a while, a pretzel or too just for something different.
Volunteers were awesome as usual. The weather did get quite warm and some of the huge puddles were in fact drying up as we came around.
We were talking about the Ted 100s every so often and Ritchie when who do we run into? Ritchie... Both he and Ryan were wearing the Staten Island 6 hour race shirt. Ritchie accidently called me Jamey which of course was a big insult to Jamey, a big compliment to mee and a funny joke to me as well.
We started leapfrogging a Marathon Maniac every so often too. I of course offered him to be my sugar daddy and pay for my races but without any reciprocity but he declined. Sucks.
We leapfrogged a couple too. The guy was doing the spartan 5K the next day. We let them finish in front of us. We finished and got the crappy food. Used to be better food... I started talking to Shishaldin as I was worried about her friend Bob. She, Ryan and I went to eat the good food. Pasta and delicious garlic bread and other stuff. Shishaldin came in 2nd female overall after missing first by a minute and a half. She blames taking a long time to drop her pants when she went to pee. Oh well. By the way, check out her instagram. She's NYCMuncher. She posts pictures of her amazing abs and food too. She's a foodie. I told the kids about it when I got home and they were going crazy about her abs and what was her current food post: Donuts.
Bad news alert: Min wants to do a Marathon and she's seriously considering this race now for next year. I may have to do this race yet again...
Ryan and Shishaldin went to the shuttle and I went to Hammad's car. I changed clothes into long sweatpants and a regular t-shirt. Chafing was minimal. Both armpits had some small hotspots.
I also moved hammad's car so he won't have to walk so far. I then saw him. It was 6 hours in and he had 1 last loop to do. That means he was going faster then Staten Island. NICE!!!
He was with Kathy and when they ran into her boyfriend, he told him that he has to come with. I went as well. The 4 of us did that last loop together. And since I was wearing normal clothes, I chafed badly down south. Sitting hurt for a few days afterwards. My t-shirt was soaked as well.
Made sure Hammad ate and then asked him if he wants to drive or does he want me to drive. I figured he was hurting. His reply? "You could drive if you really want". I then knew how much he was hurting...
Still, as much as he was hurting, he was giddy like a little school girl which was awesome. He needed this. He did it.
As I said, I may have to still go back...