I don’t know why I was startled to see the countdown clock on the NYC marathon website displaying less than two weeks till race day.
Hell, they’ve already sold out of lots of the official ASICS clothing on line (no, I don’t want a woman’s jacket in screaming neon yellow in XXL, damn it) and are advertising the 2015 race. They’ve moved on and I’m thinking I’m about halfway through my training. Time is indeed elastic and just a concept.
Mindful that I now have less than two weeks left I need to focus all my mental and physical energy.
These are three things I’ve decided through rigorous research that I will not do:
1. Squeeze in a training run, in a tuxedo, while appearing on a late night talk show.
Bill Murray interrupts his appearance on David Letterman for a training run.
-----
2. Fixate on those runners of all shapes, sizes and ages who will pass me.
From the hilarious theoatmeal.com comic
-----
3. Rely on a short cut during the race for a good finishing time.
Among those who start a marathon, some will not finish due to exhaustion, injury or sanity. Every year, there are also those who simply cheat. I don’t know how someone can hop a barrier, take a bus or otherwise fake it when they are surrounded by hordes of other runners, but it happens. Apparently, there is a point in the NY race where you can cross the 59th street bridge into Manhattan and ‘skip’ the Bronx and head to Central Park, and the finish line.
Perhaps one of the most famous cheats was Rosie Ruiz who won the 1980 Boston marathon, which is easy to do when you join the race very near the finish line, and was suspected of also cheating in the NY marathon. Being sighted on the subway during the race was a big clue.
Lucky for me, I'm not aiming to win the NYC marathon - I just want to survive it with a smile, reap the rewards of my persistent smart training and be able to go shopping the next day without Frankenstein legs.
