Meb and Tulu Win!!!

A big congrats to Meb Keflezighi for completing his heroic comeback by winning the New York City Marathon yesterday! And congrats to Derartu Tulu who won her 2nd marathon with an impressive kick in the last quarter of Central Park to win the women's race! Meb's story has been well documented, and he returned to NYC where 2 years earlier in the trials he suffered a stress fracture in his hip, which shelved him for quite a while which many thought would end his career. But he worked hard, and had a phenomenal racing year, culminating with unbelievably his first marathon victory. Ryan Hall finished a disappointing 4th in this race - he started out conservative, far different from his Boston Marathon performance where he took off like a jack rabbit and pushed the pace from the start, only to fall off due to the severe head winds. This time, he tucked in the lead group and was being as patient as I have ever seen him race, but could not respond to Ramaala's surge off the Queensboro Bridge and ultimately fell too far behind to catch up. But the Americans have everything to be proud of, with six of the top ten finishers and a very successful debut from Jorge Torres. Hopefully, many Americans will be inspired by these amazing performances, and this will be a successful push for American running. On the women's side, Paula Radcliffe suffered through an annoying hamstring injury to finish fourth, but definitely is far from over in her career despite a little break for baby Radcliffe #2.

A couple of other really cool articles I found on the New York Times website about the marathon. First one talked about fluid stations for the elites, and the chaos that ensues in the split second those great runners pass through. And an awesome piece on the Kenyan runners and their developing race strategy for yesterday's big race.

So got in a couple good runs over the weekend, but ended up with an impromptu rest day yesterday with the craziness of the weekend. Friday night, got in my switched tempo work. It FINALLY stopped raining, and decided to give it a good go since I hadn't really pushed the pedal to the medal in a while. Pretty windy outside, and did 1 up to the trails where it was going to be a little more shaded from the wind. Went out pretty hard, and certainly could feel it. Got past the one mile mark where the trail opens up quite a bit, and pretty much suffered a terrible death out running directly into the wind. Stopped at the 2 mile split, waited a couple minutes to catch my breath, then motored on back. Was going slightly downwind on the way back, and certainly felt a billion times easier so just rolled with it. Finished hard, was pleased with my splits but there is a ton of work to be done. 1 mile cooldown on the way back, stretching. Total mileage: 6 miles - splits were: 6:06, 6:10, 6:01, 6:04.

Hung out with my buddy Nick and his neighbors, handing out Halloween candy to all the kids. Had a pretty long night, slept in forever as a result. Saturday, woke up a noon (my God), ate a quick lunch and decided to switch out my long run till Sunday since I wasn't feeling too hot! Weather was GORGEOUS outside, and dressed up in a long sleeved shirt and shorts - just perfect fall running! Just bought a new Timex Ironman running watch with Ipod control (pretty awesome watch!), so wanted to try it out. Just let my legs dictate the pace, since I didn't have my Garmin to tell me how fast I was going. Felt great going out, no issues at all. Was windy again, so that was sort of a pain but worked through it. Turned around, was just cruising along clipping off miles. Last 2, saw a couple people on the trail ahead of me, competitive instincts took over and breezed past them. Kind of slowed down on the last mile, but saw my hot neighbor and her sister walking ahead so sort of picked it up again in my stupid ways. Did a quick cooldown, heavy stretching afterwards. Total mileage: 8 miles - splits were: 7:40, 7:33, 7:40, 7:35, 7:30, 7:25, 6:44, 6:45.

Went to the Blues game that night with my buddy Ryan from work, then met up with a group of people to go out for the Halloween festivities. Saw some pretty crazy costumes, and wished I would have been more proactive and dressed this year! Stayed out way too late, and Sunday was pretty much a wasted day as a result. Didn't run as I should have, but lost most of the day to picking up my parents from the airport and hanging out with them all day. Went to bed early to recover, and I will do a long run tonight since the weather is fantastic yet again and my legs feel good.

Central Park from above
Meb outkicking Cheruiyot past Columbus Circle