New York City Marathon Report

The story of my race report exists entirely in comments directed to me that I either heard or imagined that I heard from a handful of the million or so spectators lining the course from the southern edge of Brooklyn through Central Park.

BROOKLYN - MILE 10
"You look GREAT!"

QUEENS - MILE 15
"Good job, runner!"

THE BRONX - MILE 20
"Well, you're doing it..."

CENTRAL PARK, MANHATTAN - MILE 25
"I swear you are almost done..."

No celebration at the overcrowded finish line: Just a sigh and shake of the head. I dug deeper than ever before to run a near-PW time. Overall, I would summarize the New York Marathon course in one word: LOUD. My goals for future marathons include running faster on a quieter course.

Everyone is asking whether I saw Katie Holmes. No, but if I had I'm sure she would have been impressed to learn that my cousin and I envisioned her playing the lead female role in our failed screenplay. This was pre-Tom Cruise weirdness and based soley on her performance in Wonder Boys - I have never seen Dawson's Creek. Here is the New York Post's photo gallery of Katie running New York and Tom's bad bowl haircut.

Of Marathons and Heart Attacks

At least six runners at major U.S. marathons have died in 2006. While some physicians wonder if there is more to the deaths than mathematical inevitability and believe that racing 26.2 miles puts a heart at risk, the overall body of evidence is strongly in favor of the idea that endurance exercise is helpful in terms of cardiac health, says one doctor. His advice for runners with any history of heart trouble is to “train for the race, getting the cardiac benefits of endurance exercise,” then watch the event on television. New York Times story.