November 1, 2009, Leaving comfort zones
Although today's ING NYC Marathon marked my 25th marathon distance race (and 9th consecutive New York City Marathon), it was the first time I ran a distance longer than the 26.2 miles, having elected to add a 3.5 mile or so jog to the Staten Island Ferry, and then a 3.5 mile or so jog from the ferry to the start at Fort Wadsworth. It's hard to believe that a 5 or 5 1/2 hour marathon distance race is a "comfort zone," but after dozens of such in the last few years... it ends up working out that way. And so, in preparation for a really big departure from comfort zone, the JFK-50 miler, I had to do something resembling an "ultra," today's mileage totalling 33 miles or thereabouts.
And the other (bigger) comfort zone for the marathon is that "American runners don't win the big ones"; indeed no American man had won the New York since Alberto Salazar did it in 1982 when I was in college, and it had been since 1979, when I was in high school, that six Americans finished in the top ten. Well, today, both of those comfort zones were smashed, as the great Meb Kaflezighi led a stunning showing by the Americans, finishing something like four hours ahead of... me. I take some comfort in knowing that if I duplicated my NYC best... Meb would have finished something like... three hours ahead of me. Plus... unless I'm mistaken, there don't appear to be reports of any deaths at this year's NYC... go us!!!
In other news, it appears that there are political capitulations all over the place... such as in Honduras (sort of), in Afghanistan,
and in upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District. Apropos of... well, never mind.
Let's justsay there was no capitulation on the streets of New York City today... nosiree.