Englishmum

It's a big day for my husband Pete tomorrow (Sunday 6th November).

He will participate with approx 37,000 other runners in the ING New York City Marathon...a gruelling 26.2 miles.. The temperature won't be ideal either - far too hot for runners...it may reach 75f, just as it did today.

He has been preparing for ages; I feel like what my mum would call a 'grass widow' as every night and weekend he goes out running, and has also completed four New York Road Runners Club half marathons in the boroughs Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and the Bronx.

Personally I couldn't do it as I dislike running. I'm amazed at his tenacity though - but for him it will hopefully be just a 'one-off' so I get to see him again! Just a couple of years ago he was terribly overweight (obese in fact) and I was really worried about his health....yet once he'd decided to do something about it he joined a gym, went running when he didn't go to the gym and lost 100 pounds in weight in six months.

He's hoping to try and pace himself in the marathon to finish in about four hours; it starts for men at 10.10am ET.

All of the runners wear an electronic chip on their shoes; this year they can be tracked real-time as they go past certain markers and it can be instantly accessed on PCs and Blackberries. If anyone would like his name and # please send me a PM...

PS: Going to bed early tonight...have to drive him to Secaucus, NJ as they have to board the buses at 6.00am for Staten Island where the race begins, so I'll come home again and head off for Central Park late morning.

Please wish him the Best of British luck!

http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/home/index.php

PPS> We would have stayed in an hotel in NYC tonight but the prices are ridiculously expensive this weekend ($500 per night - even at lower quality hotels and most want a two-night minimum) :scared: Just like airlines have peak prices at Christmas, Summer hols the NYC hotels get away with charging the 'rack rates' as demand is so high this weekend.

geary11

good luck mate!! and good for him going for it,i don't weigh much,but i know i defiantly couldn't do it!! i'd fall at the first hurdle! and go for a beer!

elfman

Good luck to Pete - I have huge admiration for people who run marathons, and half marathons, as my Mrs has done. I don't think I could ever do either - I have enough trouble after dragging my aching bones around the astroturf in the Hoboken adult soccer league for an hour each weekend.

elfman

Blimey, the NYC marathon must be tougher than the others - bad enough having to run 26 miles in one go without having to jump over stuff on the way. Is this a recent addition to make it more exciting? What will we see next - the athletes having to run along greasy poles spanning pits full of burning coals?

britvic

Englishmum how PROUD are you Good for him and best of luck, just amazeing.

Bob

Good luck to the guy....sounds brutal out there...

Englishmum

Just arrived home from dropping Pete off at the Giants Stadium Arena.....thick fog and visibility down to a few yards and the entrance to the NJ Turnpike to get home was closed off by a huge truck parked there and no 'diversion' signs....driving round in circles until I could find an alternative route.

If it's on TV where you live, if you see a guy in a red shirt marked "PETE" and the # 7719 on his bib then that's my man LOL!

If anyone wants to track him as he runs in real time then go here:

http://www.ingnycmarathon.org/training/dtip17.php

and PM me for the surname - not comfortable putting it on an open forum.

Right I'm off to bed for an hour or two.....

nethead

Sorry I'm a bit late, but good luck Pete.

Celtic_Angel

ooh good for him! how did he do?

Elvira

Yes please - how did he do?

And how is he feeling this morning?

ladylisa

oh wow, looking forward to the update. Good for him losing his weight and getting fit like that, is he more confident now he's fit?

Englishmum

Pete did amazingly well!

I took the train into NYC and I overheard a woman sitting across the aisle with an English accent speaking very loudly into her cellphone....she was obviously going to watch the marathon too, so I informed her that I'd got my large "England" flag with me. We got chatting and it turned out that she too was going to watch her (Irish) husband Patrick in his first ever marathon, so we decided to go along to Central Park together. Lorraine currently lives in South Carolina but was staying in friends in NJ for the marathon. She is a marathon runner too but didn't win a place in the NYC 'lottery' (there are different ways to qualify).

We went to what she thought would be a less crowded spot for spectators (approx 84th St) but it was such a warm day (mid-70s F) that many people were watching the runners too - but eventually we got a roadside spot. It was fantastic - the atmosphere was so joyous and positive.

At this point it was about the 24th mile and the runners were desperately tired....more than a few of them slowed down to a walking pace at this point. We cheered and encouraged as many runners as possible, especially if they had a disability or those whom had written their names on their shirts....if they hadn't done this but wore their country's flag then we would shout "Come on you Swede!", "Go for it you Aussies!"...it was like a United Nations....I can remember we were cheering on people from Trinidad, South Africa, New Zealand, Berlin, Mexico, Finland, Holland, Ireland to name just a few. Of course we really shouted loud for the Brits...some had Union flags, others with English, Scottish or Welsh flags....some of them really appreciated it and rewarded us with a warm smile or a thumbs up. We recognised a lot of runners wearing shirts representing various British charities, especially those for cancer, the RNLI and some people were running in memory of lost loved ones.

Some highspots were seeing runners wearing silly costumes...lots of fairy's, a bunny girl, two guys dressed as the Blues Brothers (they must have been boiling hot!) a British guy dressed as a drag queen complete with Brunette Lily Savage-style wig LOL! The most bizarre sight of all were two huge (larger than life-size) glass-fibre rhinoceros heads trotting along the route where all you could see were the lower legs of the guys inside them...with a Union Jack flag flying from the horn of the first one!!!

Well......sad to say out of the many thousands of runners (approx 35,000 actually ran on the day) - I didn't spot Pete and Lorraine didn't spot Patrick...I was getting real-time text messages from the NY Road Runners Club to give his progress at split-times but one didn't come through...I waited for some time then got a text to say that he had completed the race...grrr.

Anyway.....Pete did fantastically well (If I was American I guess I would say "awesome" LOL!). His official recorded time to complete the 26.2 miles was 3.42:53 (net time...ie. the time to cross the start line as he was behind so many other runners in the line-up - was 3.41:40). Poor Pete was totally exhausted after the race and had thrown up....it took me ages to get to the meeting point and he just looked very pale and wan and has a few blisters on his feet. He's having a rest today and working from home and is in high spirits. I don't think he's planning to do another marathon - but it's early days LOL! All of the results are on the NYRR Club website:

http://www.ingnycmarathon.org (Pete's No. is 7719)

In today's "New York Times" there is the list of those who completed the marathon...it runs to ten columns of names....Pete's name is 1 1/2 columns in....as Bruce Forsyth would say "Didn't he do well!".

I'm very, very proud of him.

britvic

Amazeing !!! Well done Pete

Elvira

amazingly well
fantastically well
"awesome"

... well that's a start! May I add:

brilliant
outstanding
incredible
superlative
WOW!

etc!

anotherlimey

Well done to him.

Wish I could do that.