NY MARATHON!

I just came back from running the New York Marathon. It was such an exciting, inspiring event, with so much to see... bands, costumes, and oh-so-many spectators. And (coming off a back injury) I only came in about an hour and twenty minutes behind Lance Armstrong, and about an ahour and a half ahead of Katie Holmes, so I'm pretty pleased about all that.


The course takes you through all five burroughs of New York City. You start on Staten Island, run through Brooklyn, Queens, the Eastside of Manhattan, up to the Bronx, and then end up in Central Park. Over 38,000 people raced, including some blind people and some amputees. When you see those folks going for it, it makes you feel like you have absolutely no excuse not to crank through and do well.

During the race, an older guy who'd run ten marathons and was on my heels basically the whole way, loaned me his nasty, sweaty, dirty polypropylene shirt to wear. And I was cold, so I accepted it. You already have to be slightly delusional to run this race, but while you're racing, you get even MORE delusional, and willingly put on strangers' sweaty clothes.

Check out photos here and here.