Preparation H

Sunday 10/5 – 14 miles planned.

Just got back from a wedding in Big Indian, NY. No tv, internet or cell all weekend, and it was awesome. Foliage not at peak but still very colorful.

We get back in the afternoon, around 1:30 or so. I heat up some thin spaghetti and some chicken & veggie stew-type stuff that I made before we left on Friday. Very easy to make, for those interested, but it involves 2 cans of cream of chicken/mushroom soup. A guy I used to work with once told me that using a can of soup in a recipe is a sign that you’re honest to goodness white trash, so every time I make it I always feel like I should put on my ‘coon-skin cap.

I have a little bit of pasta, rest for a while and set out around 4:15. Forgot to hit the running store on Friday, so I only have one Gu packet. My route will take me up 3rd Ave, through downtown Brooklyn and over the Brooklyn Bridge. If I time it right, I may be in for a nice view of the sunset. Getting to the bridge involves a lot more pedestrian dodging than I would like, but that’s the way it goes down here. I try to stick to the bike lanes but hit the sidewalks when the car traffic gets thick. The pedestrian walkway for the bridge is in the middle and above the car lanes. Here is the approach looking toward Manhattan.

Waiting to cross the Brooklyn bound car lanes, I see a car about to enter the Manhattan bound lane. He clearly doesn’t want to go into Manhattan and is looking to back up. A cop directing traffic walks over to the car and tells him to enjoy a nice ride over the bridge ’cause he’s not letting him back up. A cop near me sees this exchange and is having a good laugh. Here’s a view looking at Manhattan south.

It’s a good incline from the base of the bridge to the Brooklyn tower. Lots of tourists out today. Most of them seem to be German. Not sure why that is. As of this writing, 1 Euro = $1.35 US but wouldn’t we be inundated with Euro trash from various countries? Why only Germans? Nearly halfway over. This is a shot looking north. Manhattan Bridge in the background.

As I mentioned before, the pedestrian walkway is just above the traffic. Here’s a shot looking down on the roadway. As luck would have it, I caught Colonel Klink taking a leak onto the traffic below.

Looking up at the Manhattan tower. It’s crowded and it’s getting late, so instead of heading down into Manhattan, I’ll turn around here. Starting for home now.

My official NYC Marathon handbook came in the mail last week. One of the tips for immediately after the marathon is to “continue to walk for at least 20 minutes after finishing. During the marathon, blood has been redirected to your legs, away from your internal organs. Walking helps to redirect your blood and bring you back to you everyday physiology.” Mmm… Lack of blood to vital organs. That sounds perfectly safe. What a sport!

At the wedding this weekend, I collected some marathon advice from a couple of folks that had run it before:

1) Fort Wadsworth (the start of the race) is a sea of people pissing. Pissing in port-a-potties, pissing on shrubs, pissing on each other. “Bring a raincoat,” Cheese told me.

2) If on the Verazzano you get boned into running on the lower roadway, make certain you run near the center of the road. Stay away from the sides unless you want urine raining down on you because even though there are 1,500 portable toilets at the fort, you guessed it, people pee off the upper roadway. There’s no place for it to go but down. “Bring a raincoat,” Missy told me.

3) Don’t be upset or get frustrated by not being able to run your pace at the beginning. It’s crowded. It takes a while to stretch out. Don’t fight it.

4) Off the Verazzano and onto 4th Ave (Brooklyn) is one of the most awesome things you’ll ever experience. The streets are packed with cheering people and bands playing and if you put your name on your shirt, the crowd will yell your name. Don’t get too juiced. You need to save your energy for 5th Ave (Manhattan).

5) It might rain, so come prepared. “Bring a raincoat,” Cheese and Missy said.

Ran smack into the Atlantic Antic, but despite that and being desperately short on Gu, I made it home in fairly good time. Total distance 15 miles.

This weekend also marks one month until the big day. It’s kind of neat to look back and see how far we’ve come, you and I. Bloody nips, old-man breasts, headbands and shin splints. It’s all there. Do you remember?

Do you reeeally remember?