WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE AND WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING ME?

TRIP TO THE TRAILS- THE LAST BIG RUN (20 MILES) BEFORE THE MARATHON



October 7, 2006


These are the fearless and slightly chilled Team in Training New York City Marathon participants. I've never seen so much goose pimpled skin in one place; it was quite disturbing. But there we were, gathered in New Jersey in Johnson Park getting our mettle together for a 20 mile run. No, that is not a typo, TWENTY MILES of running.

My morning started a little before 6:00am.

Here I am leaving my building to meet my fellow Brooklyn teammates. As you can see I am bright eyed and bushytailed. You can see the garbage has not been picked up and the building could use a new coat of paint.

BROOKLYN IN THE HOUSE:

For some strange reason, I agreed to meet at Prospect Park. But the thing is, there were only three of us from Brooklyn heading to New Jersey for the run. Two of us, Piya (here on the left) and I live about a one block away from each other. So why Piya and agreed to meet Anne (she was driving) at Prospect Park (several blocks away) is a mystery to me.

The run was pretty simple; run ten miles out and turn around. The trail cut through the New Jersey country side. At times we were running next to a canal complete with fishermen. Other times the trail cut through the Blair Witch Project setting. Pretty, but potentially creepy.

A great bonding experience: running twenty miles together takes a long time. So in order to pass the time we regaled each other with tall tales, college hi-jinks, work, you know life stuff. None of which I would ever repeat. The trails are like Vegas, "what happens on the trails stays on the trails."

NEW JERSEY WILD LIFE: New Jersey is filled with wild life. Like Bambi here. Bambi and his brood were out in force that afternoon. We saw a lot of deer on the trail (ok I saw five, that's more deer than I've seen in the past three years). A few butterflys, a squirrel or two. But the most exciting moment of the day came around the 12 miles into the run. Piya looked down and saw this brown snake. Piya almost stepped on it. I didn't quite register that it was a snake at first.

The thought that went through my head: oh look at that oddly shaped stick moving across the trail. It didn't quite dawn on me that sticks don't move; I chalk that up to my laser like focus on my running.

Anne however had a different reaction entirely. Her's was more like this:

Anne took off like Olympic sprinter when she saw that snake. I didn't think Piya and I were gonna catch up to her. But when we did, we all had a good laugh.

And the good times didn't stop there.

The topic turned to dance specifically this one:


Ok, that's embarrassing enough, but to try and do this while you're running? Ok, little bit more embarrassing. Totally humiliation is having Coach Ramon see you trying to do the Macarena while running.

After that, the run was pretty much the same: trees, canal, fisherman, creepy twin joggers, flowers, dirt, rocks. When we made it back to the starting point, most of the team was there, enjoying bagels, chips, water, Gatorade, pretzels. They hooped and hollered as we came running in.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

-JP