Thus continues my marathon crazy week! The foundation that I work for had 32 runners running in this year's ING New York City Marathon Sunday, November 4th. On Thursday evening our foundation and our runners were invited to Gracie Mansion for a cocktail reception and the chance to get our picture taken with Mayor Bloomberg.
We arrived right on time at 5:30PM and I have to say the house is gorgeous. You forget what regular houses look like when you're surrounded by towering concrete buildings all day! It's this beautiful old house right on the Hudson River. Right after we arrive this woman offers to take us on a tour of the first floor, explaining the history of the house, the rooms, the significance of the furniture present and the art. I love touring houses so this was right up my alley. And as we head off the front porch and in to the parlor she points out on the mantle a cannon ball that was actually shot from a British War Ship in the Revolutionary War of 1776 at this house. (Are you kidding me? How cool is that!!!!)
After the tour I had the opportunity to meet a lot of our runners, to meet our contact at the New York Road Runners, to meet one of the guys running in the US Men's Marathon Olympic Trials on Saturday and then to meet Catherine Ndereba! Not only has she won 4 Boston Marathons but she also won this year's World Championships. I talked with her about her running leading up to the marathon, and how she was feeling, if she was going to watch the US Men run on Saturday and little stuff like that. She was incredibly friendly and very nice and I was glad that I had the gumption to cross the room and introduce myself and not let an opportunity like that pass me by.
She finished 5th on Sunday in the New York City Marathon, while certainly not her best run, Wami and Radcliffe had a commanding lead when we saw them at Mile 11 and I knew then that they were going to be pretty hard to catch.
All of our runners that we saw at Mile 11 looked good and like they were having fun. It definitely made me miss running, or rather since I do run 3-4 times a week, racing! Not that I'm fast but I just love the thrill of competing! I have an inkling that another marathon may be in the not so distant future for me...if not in 2008, then definitely in 2009!
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