NYC!

Recently Mr. B and I celebrated our two year wedding anniversary. Our initial plan for celebrating was a road trip to watch the Packers at Lambeau. However, one morning about a month ago, I learned that Mr. B had booked us a weekend trip to New York City instead- over the weekend of the New York Marathon no less! Of course, the Packers would be fun...but a trip to watch the New York Marathon would be incredible!

Oh hey New York!

On Saturday morning I had hoped to catch the Dash to the Finish 5k, which included some of my favorite professional runners: Chris Solinsky, Shalane Flanagan, Molly Huddle, Ben True, Sally Kipyego, and Lopez Lomong (just to name a few). Unfortunately we got a little behind and missed the elite race (but Nick Willis won the men's competition in 13:47 and Molly Huddle won for women in 15:27 - interviews, more results, etc., are here ). I did get a picture of the masses running:

One thing you can't see in this picture is the ridiculous number of people running and taking photos of themselves! Some even had those things that you stick your camera/phone to the end of so it doesn't look like a selfie (like this thing)

 

Okay- I am all about documenting memories, etc, (even though somehow there are no pics of Mr. B & me together from our weekend) but seriously, why would you run 3.1 miles holding that thing?! Do you need that many photos, or worse, a video of just your face, bobbing in and out of the frame?!

Sorry. Rant over. 

Mr. B and I were staying in midtown, about 1.2 miles south of Central Park, so on Sunday we ran over the park. One thing we noticed on our way was how windy it was- just a stiff headwind until we turned for home. I have a feeling that contributed to the somewhat "slow" times. Anyway, we were at the park pretty early and if we had wanted to could have snagged a front row seat to the finish. Security was understandably tight- even with just our running clothes we got wanded by police before entering the park, and all bags were searched before people were allowed near the course. We finished our run down 5th avenue (I was staring so hard at the amazing displays in those high end shops that I was afraid I'd run into the glass like a little bird).

We went back to the park after changing into warmer clothes, and positioned ourselves near what I believe was about mile 25.5 (just an estimate). We arrived just in time to see Kim Smith, a runner from New Zealand, pass by en route to a 6th place finish. Here are some of the elite runners I was able to get photos of, including links to some articles about them:

Julia Stamps Mallon: Bad Ass.

Ryan Vail, top American man.

Never giving up: Meb Keflezighi- great post- race interview is here

Yuki Kawauchi- finishing marathon #9 of 2013, also works a full time job and is not a "professional" runnner

Wesley Korir- 2012 Boston Champion and maybe future president of Kenya

The environment around the race was really great- though some people were oblivious to the fact that a race was happening (I saw a girl try to just walk through the crowd of runners...um, bad idea), most people were super excited! I know it sounds very naive of me, but I just didn't realize how big this race is! I think I read that over 50,000 people started the race- almost 5x the number that start the Twin Cities marathon (12k in 2013). I can't even imagine dealing with the logistics of something so big. Personally, I'm not sure I'd enjoy a race that huge, though I'm sure it would be an amazing experience!
**
Running last week:
Monday: off
Tuesday:5
Wednesday:5
Thursday: off
Friday: 7.5
Saturday: off
Sunday:5.25

I clearly didn't follow my plan for running, so this week I'm not making a plan and am just focusing on getting 5+ miles in on at least 5 days (including a long run on Saturday).

Do you prefer larger races, or small ones?
Who is your favorite or inspirational elite runner? Do you follow elite racing at all?
-I love Kara Goucher of course, but I also really admire the runners who aren't "big names" or maybe don't have shoe contracts, but keep running and competing at a high level- Jason Hartmann comes to mind.