Running from a Hurricane

The pictures are devastating and the stories are heart breaking. Anybody who has friends or family (or even total strangers) living in the greater New York City Tri-State area knows that Hurricane Sandy cut deep. So deep in fact, that I'm not going to be so trivial to go through how we "survived" it's brunt here in suburban DC. Frankly we didn't loose power, didn't have any flooding, and didn't suffer any real inconveniences. But even if we did, it would be nothing compared to the devastation a few hundred miles to the north.

Instead I will recap my day at the 2012 Marine Corps Marathon. This was my 24th marathon and my 5th MCM. It was the first time though that I was hesitant based on the weather. I've run races in pretty bad conditions in the past (2006 Hyannis in 20 degrees w/ snow and wind or 2006 Harrisburg with cold driving rain the whole race), but this time it was the uncertainty of exactly when the storm was going to hit that was the cause of some concern.

It was an early morning call time, and I hit the road at about 530am. As I drove down into DC I saw a few rain drops but nothing consistent. All the reports were saying that the storm was going to really hit toward the back end of the race. I got a parking spot right in front of the Farragut North Metro station and caught a train to Roslyn. Up in our tent (set up by our favorite running store, Pacers) I got myself together and after meeting some more teammates we headed down to the start line, near the Pentagon. This is the part where you say, but didn't you use the porta johns?  Yes, several times but they were close by, clean and had no lines...so no really good stories there.

When we made our way down to the start you could tell it was going to be a windy day but our only hope was that it would serve us as a tail wind as much as possible. One of the the best parts about running this race 4 other times is that I know I don't need to rush to get into position and thus I didn't actually jump into the corral until after the starting gun and gone off. Once we got going the race was on and I felt very strong through out the first four miles. Mile 3 (near Lee Highway and Spout Run) was a little fast but overall I felt good and even a little warm. In retrospect I should have not worn the short sleeve compression shirt underneath my sponsor's (PCI Communications) shirt, but I survived.

The one thing I noticed very early on was that I was more thirsty then usual when I run and I tried to make up for that by taking a cup of Gatorade and a cup of Water at every stop. More on this later.

Once we got up on the Key Bridge I really felt like I was in a groove and getting up the hill at MacArthur Blvd. was also not a problem (due in part to previous races and the fact that we run that hill at least once a month during training). I always love steep hills on courses because you get a real feeling for who can hack it and who can't. I heard lots of complaining going up that hill, but not one peep for the hand cyclists or those pushing trailers for disabled runners.

Once we started the decent into Georgetown I got the urge to "go" so after a few blocks on Reservoir Rd, I found a house under construction with a nice PortaJohn in the back (see and you thought there wouldn't be a potty story). 45 seconds or so lost and I was back on the course and actualy sticking to a decent time. This as opposed to last year when I went out so fast that I caught and passed the 3:45 pace group in this same area.

Georgetown flew by and we were out on our way to Potomac Park and Haines Point. Last year I noticed that during this time there were still a lot of runners bunched up and that hadn't changed this year. It surprising that after 9 or 10 miles we don't separate a little more but it did provide me with another opportunity to "hug" the crowd. If you're not familiar with this it's when you stay very tight with the sides of the course where the crowds are greatest. To me their cheering helps propel me forward. It's not the most economical way to run as you do end up covering more distance then staying tight in the corners but I'm a junkie and always will be for a cheer.

It was during this stretch that I really noticed the winds picking up and to no surprise when we hit Haines Point they were out in full effect. Luckily they served as a tail wind for the first half, but when we made the turn where the Awakening used to sit, all bets were off and the wind was trying to drag us back at every gust. Haines Point can be very desolate, even with all those runners so it was great to see Ed and Eileen's signs again this year. To be clearer, I got to see the sign they made for me...which I missed last year among the throngs of runners.

After Haines Point an out and back along Independence Avenue which is one of my favorite parts of the course because it's so thick with spectators. Then it was back to the Mall which was the point where my last two MCMs have fallen apart. In 2008 my stomach finally gave out and I had to make a pit stop at the Smithsonian Castle and last year my hamstring cramped up before I made the turn in front of the Capitol Building. This year, none of that, and I kept pushing on to the Bridge. In fact some of my splits in this part of the race were faster then in the first 10 miles so I was stoked.

On to the bridge and I started to feel those twinges in my leg that tells my brain that the hamstring is starting to go. But I still felt ok otherwise so I kept pushing on and I was almost all the way across the bridge when "bang" I felt it completely cramp and I had to stop. A coach/spectator helped me stretch it out and in a minute I was back on my way. It sucks to have to loose that time but it helped me later on so I'll take it.

When we made it into Crystal City you could really feel every gust and none of them were behind  which really sucked. I'm not sure how the wind seemed to move in several directions at once but it did make for a tough slog. Also the course was a little different this year in that it didn't fold over itself in Crystal City until you got to 12th Street where it crosses under Rt. 1 (and you make the turn back on to Army Navy Dr.). This was great on the way out since you didn't have runners passing you going the other way but on the way back you also didn't have the motivation of seeing everybody slower then you still having to take on those winds.

From there it was on to the Pentagon and up onto Washington Blvd. Here I walked a little and ran a little until we saw the mile 25 marker (heading down into the Pentagon South parking lot). At that point I picked it up and ran it on in to the finish. At the finish line there were a few notables. One) the MC announced my name as I came to the line. That has never happened at this race so I was stoked. and two) as I finished my 5th MCM, I became eligable to join the MCM Runners Club which gives me garranteed entry into the race for future years! No more waiting online for this guy.

My finish time was 4 hours, 4 minutes, and 36 seconds. I did break my previous MCM best time of 4:07:06 (2011) but I fell short of my goal of running all three marathons this year in sub 4 hours.

Hey remember earlier when I mentioned that I felt "thirsty".  Yeah well it's called dehydration and I was suffering from it all day. Normally when this happens, you go to the Medical Tent and get treatment. After this race, I went back to the beer tent, vomited, and started drinking.

Onto figuring out marathon #25. I'd like to be special and if possible another state crossed of my list. but either way I know that it's just another race in my hat and I'm going to keep on doing this until my legs fall off.

Are Drinking Stupid Juice?

I don’t know what they’re putting in the water these days (although yesterday at the indoor pool the answer was rust-colored), but lately there has been a lot of drinking going on down at the old stupid trough.

We’ll start with the man suspected of trying to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square over the weekend. Police arrested Faisal Shahzad while he tried to board a plane to Dubai yesterday. Let’s go back and look at a few facts in this development. Shahzad, a newly naturalized US citizen, bought a used car off of Craigslist for cash. No real shock there, lots of people do it. In fact if you’re looking for a nice used car check out this ad. Then he takes the car and goes though the trouble of removing the VIN tag from inside the windshield but doesn’t bother to take it off the hood or the rear axle (any basic internet search will tell you they’re written on those places too!) So now its time to commit your crime. You’ve got your SUV loaded up with gas tanks, timers, wires, etc. You park your car on a busy New York City street and then decide, now’s a good time to pause in font of this bank and change my shirt. I’m sure that banks in this country don’t have security cameras that are on all the time and I’m sure changing my clothes in front of one out on the street won’t arouse anybody’s suspicion. Fine. I’ll even give that to him, maybe in his little world that wouldn’t have caused any great uproar but next his bomb doesn’t work and his plot is foiled by the very brave men and women of the NYPD. I guess it’s time to get out of town. Now the reasonable thing to do would have been to lay as low as possible and travel very inconspicuously. Not our friend Shahzad, he made a v-line for JFK and bought a last minute, one-way ticket (WITH CASH!!!) to Dubai. I’m sure that might seem low key to somebody of his stature but I get pulled over for extra security if I buy a round trip ticket to Wichita! Next time you plan your getaway you might want to try the bus or even a used car from Craigslist (see above ad) and drive to California for a few months, or you know until things died down. This guy certainly wasn’t a rocket scientist but he wasn’t a brain surgeon’s stand in either.

Locally, arrests have been made in the murder of DC Middle School principal, Brian Betts over the last few days. Great work and congratulations goes to the DC Police and the Montgomery County Police for cracking this case and making the arrests. But was it excellent detective work or a really stupid criminal (and his mother) that really got the job done? I have no doubt that the police did the best they could and were really close but it was stupidity (in my mind) that put the biscuit in the basket if I may borrow a phrase. You see police caught a break in the case (and a fourth criminal) when one of the alleged murder’s mothers used Betts’ credit card yesterday to charge $100 worth of food at a supermarket. Really, the guy is dead for almost a month, police are actively investigating the crime and you don’t think that they might have been “tapping” the guys credit cards? What’s worse is that the idiots (either the kids of the mother) kept the cards around the house! The police are out looking for this guy and anything attached to his name (car, credit cards, detachable penis) I’m sure they wouldn’t care if you used it to buy groceries (the credit card not the appendage). Do me a favor. When your sitting in the trial listening the charges, make sure not to duck when your kid leans in and smacks you upside the head for being such a dumbass!

Puff Daddy....Puff on This.

Check another one off the list. The 40th running (and my first) of the New York City Marathon is done and Bloggerman crossed the line (this time!). A little sore but very happy to have had such a great experience for marathon #18.

The trip was a blast from rocking the rental Ford Flex (nice Mexican car!) to the great place that Amy hooked us up with (YOU ROCK!). I also want to thank everybody who came out for dinner on Saturday (Mom and Dad, George, Leo, Annie, Elliot...also thanks for the cookies, Stef, Rebecca, and Josh). Actually, my Dad met James Gandolfini outside the restaurant just before we got there...cool. (more on celebs later).

The morning of the race was also really cool as I got to meet up with one of my Pacers Fun Runners, Danielle, after a trip on the Staten Island Ferry. I couldn’t believe that after living in/near NYC all the years growing up that I never had been on the Ferry until now.

As for the race itself...Brooklyn had huge crowds as always and I took off on a PR pace. Unfortunately NYC is not the race to try and set a record as I learned the hard way in ’05. This year, even though I was hurting, I had the pull to finish the whole way through and just kept smiling all the way through the finish line.

While my time of 4:05:38 didn’t set a PR it was really cool to beat a few of the “celebrities” who were running including Anthony Edwards, Alanis Morissette, and Tara Costa from the “Biggest Looser.” Actually I got to meet Tara on First Ave and the 70’s and we chatted for a while before I took off toward the Bronx. She caught me in Central Park and gave me a “pat of encouragement” before yelling, “Com’on Diamond.....Let’s go!” Sweet Kid...I’m very happy for her. Speaking of Puff Daddy...I also smoked (see there’s a pun there!) his 2003 time too.

I can’t thank everybody that helped me this weekend as much as I want but single out Debbie and Eric for watching the Mooks and the Boigs for helping to make the weekend special. Extra Special Thanks goes to Mrs. Bloggerman who not only had directions for everywhere we went but organized the better part of the trip including my mobile cheering section at 12.5, 18, 23 and at the finish. You Rock Honey!

“Non-Filer Syndrome”

So it seems that the replacement governor for the state of New York, David Paterson has a new scandal to deal with. First it was Patterson’s rise to prominence when, then-governor Elliot Spitzer was caught with the hooker. Now one of his top aides, Charles O'Byrne, is trying to explain why he had failed to pay years of Federal and state income tax. According to his lawyer’s it turns out that Mr. O’Byrne is suffering from a severe medical condition known as ““Non-Filer Syndrome.”

Seriously!

This is so stupid that you’d expect it to come from a certain Alaskan Hockey Mom but no, this is from an educated lawyer for the state of New York. Read the take in either the Daily News or the Poughkeepsie Journal.

This got me thinking that there are other instances in life where these “syndromes” would come in handy. Among them are:

Another way to dodge taxes: Not want to file syndrome
Sloughing off chores: Don’t want to take out the garbage syndrome
Not in the mood tonight: I have a headache syndrome
For the Glen Quagmire’s of the world: She’s only 13???? Syndrome
When you get pulled over: I wasn’t drunk when I got in to the bar syndrome
For my pup-a-lup and her snacking habits: But it’s not my poop syndrome
One more shot at our commander-in-chief: I’m Bush Syndrome

You Give Us 22 Minutes and We’ll Give You a Trip to NYC (DAY 2)

The Race

We headed into Manhattan in the early morning to meet up with Elliot and run a 5 mile race in Central Park. Parking was fairly easy to come by (see next section) and we walked a few blocks over to the race area. Not only was I surprised to see that this was not a small race (over 5,000 participants) but once the starting gun went off it was the quietest race I'd ever taken part in. It was so quiet that not only could you hear yourself think but you could also hear what the guy next to you was thinking! Lucky for everybody out there, Mr. Entertainment (me) was there to talk the whole way through. In the post race interview with some girl who stuck a camera in my face I even managed to get in some of POTUS' talking points. When asked why I ran the race, Bloggerman said, "If we don't run, the terrorists win!"

Ticket
What the #*+@! Why is there a parking ticket on the windshield when we got back to the car? We specifically moved it from one side of the street to the other and pulled up to make sure we were not in the "No Standing" zone. Oh we can’t park here because numb nuts over at city hall decided the only other sign needed along the whole block would be 500 ft down the other side.
Nice... Thanks for fleecing the drivers so that the empty suit wearing panty-waits at ABC can park in front of their building. We wouldn't want them to have to walk like the rest of us. They might forget all those great reality shows they were thinking of on the commute in!

The Game
Well we finally made it to Shea and had sunny skies and 2 baseball games to take in (they were playing a true double header to make up for the rain out). Thanks to Josh for hooking us up on the seats. We could see everything. Unfortunately that also meant that we could spend 3.5 hours in the sun and see the Mets drop the first of two.

We hit the car after the end of the game because we knew that if we stayed for the second game we wouldn't get home until after midnight.

Friendly’s
For dinner we pulled off just north of Baltimore and thanks to Mrs. Bloggerman's expert navigation (and Google Maps) we found yet another reason to get off at Joppastowne (in addition to the cheap gas). Unfortunately our diets had already been blown for the day so we opted away
from the ice cream and Fribbles for two salads... although after the next marathon, we're going back for sliders, motz sticks, and bacon-cheese waffle fries all on one plate. Yummo!

The Pup-a-Lup
A special thanks to the Boig collective who were gracious enough to watch Mooks while we wenst away. They rock and when we got home she was sprawled out on the bed enjoying her freedom! Well not for long as we had a (near) midnight stroll around the neighborhood and managed to come back with "more" in our bag then when we left.

You Give Us 22 Minutes and We’ll Give You a Trip to NYC (DAY 1)

So Mr. and Mrs. Bloggerman took a trip up to NYC to see our beloved Metropolitans play their final season in the open-air toilet bowl otherwise known as Shea Stadium. I’ll spare you most of the minutia to include the entire playlist on the radio on the drive up from DC (although I will say that we did get to hear the Schmoozer, Steve Somers, on WFAN when we crossed in to Jersey)

The Sign
The trip up was good and relatively traffic free (save the BQE) and we made it up to meet with some friends in Queens a little after 1230. After a really good Eggplant parm sandwich with all the orthodoxy walking back from shul we crossed the street to one of the best signs I’ve ever seen.

This is in response to a spate of pedestrian accidents in the crosswalk. Talk about signage that “tells it like it is”. Now all we need is the sign to sit next to the red light that says, “Hey Dumbass…you in the car…the red light means STOP and is not optional!”

The Rain Delay
We headed to Shea at 530p on Saturday for a 710p game in order to catch batting practice and tour around the stadium. It had just begun to rain but we were told that the storm would just be a summer thunderstorm and pass quickly. Not so fast. Come 645p the tarp was still on the infield and the rains hadn’t let up yet. About that time we took the time to appreciate the finer points of Shea that we might have overlooked in the past. This includes some of the area around the stadium including the old World’s Fair grounds. We also took interest in finding the “Most Obscure Player’s Jersey” that a fan was wearing. Plenty of folks have David Wright, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana jerseys but what about the Alan Zinter, Tony Clark, or Tim Tuffel’s of the world? Well we didn’t any of those but did actually find someone with a Danny Heep. What’s even better then that? She had it signed! BTW: This guy wearing the Dave Kingman was a close second place on our list! Around 715p the rains lightened up and we checked out our seats. Upper Deck but right over home plate….near perfect! The only problem was that the rain started to kick up again and we had lighting to boot. Instead of retreating back into the now crowding concourses we decided to hoof it up some 20 rows to the top of the upper deck that is protected by overhead awning. While up there we managed to pass the time by:

A: Taking in the car fire out in the parking lots in right field.

B: Hanging out with Cowbell Man

C: Watching the visiting Texas Rangers use the infield for the worlds largest slip and slide

Finally the team canceled the game around 830pm. We trudged down through the rain and out of the stadium stopping to pick up some additional free swag commemorating the final season of this dump.

Chinese and a Cookie
Since we were soaked we headed back to the hotel, changed, grabbed the car and headed to downtown Flushing where we heard there was a meca of Chinese food. We weren’t disappointed and were referred to a very modern looking place called Sunway Café. As somebody on a food board said (I read today) it looks like a Chinese Howard Johnsons.

They weren’t wrong but the food was really good and a huge variety of mostly good and greasy Cantonese fare (the kind of food I’d equate to a really good greasy spoon/diner when you’re up at midnight). We split a few dishes (Rice w/ omelets and raisins, baked chicken with black pepper, and then something I don’t remember the name of but is described by one critic as ”… an order of crispy noodles, said material wrapped in squishy rice noodle, served with a dollop of syrupy Hoisin sauce. Mellow greasy vibe.”

Finishing off the meal, a watermelon juice and bubble tea for the misses. Now to find a good cookie to finish off the night.

Not as simple as it sounds! You see evidently the rain has forced the shut down of some roads (with 5 ft of water!!) and the rerouting of others. After driving around and sitting in traffic we end up at a Pathmark over by our hotel. They have a wonderful looking bakery case but not a single fresh baked (today) cookie to be found as midnight rolls around. Bloggerman was starting to get huffy and the Misses was doing her best (G-d bless her) to calm me down. Alas, we found a diner nearby and dug into a very soft and pillow-y (thus good) chocolate chipper and dozed off for the night.

Tune in later today for Part II and updated pics here.