To keep the details manageable, I'm going to tackle the day (and days prior) in parts. First up--my trip to NYC!
And one more quick note before I begin: Big thanks to all of my friends, coworkers, and fellow runners for sharing their photos with me! The series of posts to follow would be far less complete had you smart people who remembered to bring cameras not shared your wealth, and I thank you.
At 6:30 AM on Thursday, April 15--exactly four days and four hours before the start of the 2010 Boston Marathon--I closed the door to my apartment behind me, giant backpack strapped to my back and bus ticket confirmation email in hand. I was on my way to meet a friend of mine visiting from Montana in NYC to check out the Big Apple for the first time. Goodness gracious.
That marked the beginning of the most eventful weekend of my life. Thankfully, as hoped for, the sights and sounds of the city served as the perfect distraction/replacement for stressing out about the marathon. Some photographic, notable distractions included attending a live taping of The Colbert Report,
checking out Rockefeller Center,
exploring Central Park,
and looking like an utter tourist in Grand Central Station.
As predicted, maintaining anything resembling a normal diet was quite a challenge in a new city. (Finding a place to run my scheduled five miles Thursday would have been up there as well, but I decided early on that walking all over the city all day would suffice.)
Brian, Chris (pictured above in blue), and I went to a lovely Thai restaurant after the Colbert taping. I looked through the menu at a bunch of new and tempting items, vaguely thinking that I had never tried duck before, and surely it wouldn't hurt to try something new with a few days yet to go before the marathon... even if it didn't agree with me, I would have more than a few hours to get it out of my system... and I was finally in my very most dreamed-of city, after all... what better place to try new things...
But it was there. Looming over me. Over Chris's right shoulder--sitting on the bar that stood alongside our table--was a business card holder. And on the cards in that holder read three words that would have meant nothing to me six months ago, but now--they watched, cautioned, advised:
TEAM IN TRAINING
For anyone not on my marathon team, that requires more than three words of explanation. My coach--Coach Rick, who I've mentioned in this blog a few times before--is now the coach of a team that consists of five different nonprofits: Boston Partners, Bottom Line, the Boston Debate League, Museum of Science, and The Esplanade. Before coaching this group that has affectionately come to be called The Coalition, Coach Rick worked with one of the Boston Athletic Association's larger legacy charities, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. And the name of their team? Indeed. Team in Training.
Coach Rick was watching over me. And I played it safe with a chicken dish. =)
Friday morning arrived shortly after our Thai meal (actually, as late as we ate dinner there, it may have arrived during the meal), and with it came the start of my three-day pre-marathon carb load. Chris--Brian and I's personal guide to a whirlwind tour of the city--found out about my Carb Quest and did me the great favor of taking it very seriously.
When the time came for Friday lunch, Chris marched me straight to a delicious pasta bar where I got to choose my own pasta, my own sauce, and my own extra additions. (Shut up; it was exciting.) =)
Our lunches in hand, Brian and I took to our usual role of trusting that Chris knew where he was going, and we followed him for several blocks to some location which we would only discover once we had arrived. And Chris took to his usual role of choosing the perfect spot. He took us straight to one of the red tables pictured here:
And so I sat--in the middle of Times Square--and carb-loaded for the 2010 Boston Marathon.
Life is good.
2 comments:
Great pictures! Sounds like you were still able to have a great time while still focusing on the marathon. Well done!
Thank you, Gary--that's *exactly* what I was hoping to portray! You just made my day.
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