New York City Next Year

This is one of those posts where the Cast of Characters page will come in handy.  Please refer to it as needed.

Over the weekend, Bret ran the New York City marathon.  Richie accompanied him to New York to coach him, feed him pancakes and jump on the course at mile 17 to pace him.  Bret finished in 3:01:17.  That’s a few seconds faster than Richie ran it last year.

Richie sent out an email Monday night congratulating Bret and (among other things) saying quote:

“I’m making it a point to say that I’m looking for a new opportunity to compete and bond with good friends and athletes. I’m in for 2011, its something I need to do – who is with me?”

The email was sent to me, Bret, Justin, Steve and Ken.  Ken is not yet worthy of a paragraph on the cast of characters page, but he is the only one of us who has actually broken 3 hours in the marathon.  The email was quickly followed by a reply from Bret saying he’s in.  Next came the email from Justin congratulating Bret which said (among other things) quote:

“Great effort, race and reward!! And [Richie] is a great motivator; when he’s not calling me fat, disgusting, slow and lazy. So coach; I’m in…”

With that, I was swept up in the moment and applied for entry to the 2011 New York City marathon as well.  Hopefully, Steve and Ken will join in so we can have a nice wolfpack at the start.  I know Richie is shooting to go under 3 and Brett probably will too.  If I can hit my 1:25 goal at the Gasparilla half marathon in February, then I’ll throw my hat into the sub 3 hour ring too.  It would be nice to run it with the guys and break 3 together.

My first chance to get in is the lottery, but if that fails I’ve got a couple of charity options.  It’s awesome to think about it from a year away when I don’t have to train for it yet!