The slacker marathon

Posted on November 18, 2010 by threlkeld

Here’s a brand new race: The Thanksgiving Marathon. It’s a trail run in Van Cortlandt Park on Thanksgiving morning. You can run a 10K, a half marathon, a marathon, a marathon relay. Or whatever. No one cares. No one’s timing you. You will have no bib. There are no winners. There are no awards. The course is marked with flour. It’s totally free.

If you finish, you’ll get a commemorative fork to use later in the day.

How fucking awesome it this? It’s pretty fucking awesome.

Please run this race so they do it again next year. Because I really want to run it next year.

It's forking awesome.

In other areas of New York racing, we had a lively discussion this evening on the NY Running Podcast. Among other topics, Steve of NYCRuns told us about a boutique marathon in Brooklyn that he’s helping to organize. We pondered the pros and cons of a second New York Marathon in the spring. Many of us plugged the amazing (and less crowded, and often cheaper) racing scene available outside of Manhattan, in Rockland, Northern Westchester, New Jersey, Long Island and Connectiticut. And Joe of RunWestchester proposed a club-based Ekiden in Central Park. This last idea is something I could get behind. Who’s in?

This podcast is for you, New York area runners. We’re aiming to make it a weekly thing (although we’re taking next week off for the holiday). Help us make it interesting and relevant by lending your ideas and voices.

Links:

NY Running on TalkShoe

The New York Running Podcast Page

Discussion thread for upcoming NY Running podcast topics on NYCRuns

Filed under: central park | Leave a comment »

A year ago…

Posted on November 18, 2010 by threlkeld

A blogger I follow had a short post up last night that was a look back through key times in her running life. Unfortunately, the post has disappeared. Maybe I’m not the only one who “Ambien posts.”

I like the idea, though. So here’s my walk backward along my blog’s November garden stones:

A year ago, I was injured with a tendon problem on my foot. This was three weeks before the California International Marathon. That would turn out to be a dreadful race, one that made me rethink everything.

Two years ago,  I hired my first coach. I was still on a post-race high from running 3:19 at Steamtown. I also had a cold.

Three years ago, I won my first age group award. This race was the culmination of many months of base training as I prepared to do my first proper marathon training cycle for a spring 2008 race (the More Marathon, in which I would easily qualify for Boston).

Four year ago, I was racing lots of local Turkey Trots. My race pace for a flat 5 miler was about 8:00. This blog was about six months old at that time. I was still fat and slow. But I was determined to improve. Four years on, I still am.

Filed under: coaching, injury, racing, training | 5 Comments »