long island marathon 2015- the running part

We were in Long Island, NY during an unseasonably warm weekend and it was beautiful!  Brightly colored flowers- tulips and cherry blossom trees and blue skies!  The mornings were cool so when Dave, Steph, and I walked down to Mitchel Field to pick up our race packets I only wore my jacket for about 20 minutes before stuffing it into my bag.

The RXR Race Expo was alright.  It was more than just a bib pick-up at a local sporting goods store, I mean, there were booths and vendors and a few things to look at.  Similar to the concept of the Disney expos, not as big or interesting.  I couldn't figure out why there was a windows and doors company with a booth there but okaaaaay....

After getting through the unimpressive expo building, we went across the street to visit the Cradle Of Aviation Museum.  This museum showed the whole history of aviation and focused on Long Island's contributions to aircraft production throughout mainly WW2 and the aviation heritage of the area over a 100 year span.  It was pretty amazing, very well-done, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

We met up with some friends of mine that lived not too far away up there.  Austin and I went to college together and he and his wife Lauren have been living in New York for several years now.  We went out to eat at a local Italian place (mmmmm carbs!) and made plans to meet up with them during and after the race the next morning.

Sunday- Race Day!  I met Steph downstairs in the hotel lobby around 7:15, expecting a long walk back to the expo area for race start.  We found out that the start line was actually steps outside our hotel!  Like, in the road right off the parking lot!  So we stayed inside where it was comfy and warm, used the real bathrooms, then went out about 15 minutes early.

I was not nervous about this marathon.  I remember there was so much more hype over Disney (and that it was my first one!) during the Dopey Challenge.  I honestly didn't think much about this race until after the 2 day flight up here was over.  Before the Disney marathon, I was getting pre-race butterflies- a feeling in my stomach like I was standing on the edge of a building with no railing looking straight down.  None of that this time.  Of course, there wasn't as much pomp and circumstance, if you will, on James Doolittle Boulevard in front of the Marriott that morning either.  The crowd was alright, a combined total of around 3,600- almost 3,000 of them were running the half.  That left a tiny group of us for the full!

 Steph & I waiting to run!

They gathered us up, the national anthem was sung, and the gun went off!  I ditched my jacket right away- the temperature was almost 50 and I figured I'd warm up quick.  The course was crowded to start- everyone was sort of moving along together down the road, past an area called Museum Row (where we were the day before), and around Mitchel Field.  The course wound around through a sort of industrial area and then into a quaint little downtown area.  I was enjoying it!  There was lots to look at- there were musicians, bands, and DJs every other mile or so, and water stations were plentiful.  There was no Powerade or Gatorade or anything yet in the first 6-8 miles though.  The on-course support from the locals was pretty good, especially through the Main Street part (don't know if that was the real name of the downtown road but let's just go with it).  Mile 8 called for a bathroom break just before the medical stop.  My left knee was starting to feel a little sore but I figured I'd be alright as long as it didn't get worse.  At Mile 10, the half marathoners peeled off at an exit ramp off the Wantagh Parkway- there were so many of them leaving!  I stayed with a group of about 4 marathon runners as we continued straight.  Then the whole mood of the race changed.

The spectators were gone.  The music was gone.  And 13 miles of parkway lay out in front of me.

A big thing that kept me going was Austin sending me the occasional text message giving words of encouragement- he and Lauren were at mile 16.5 waiting for me.  My knee was feeling sore still, but I hit the half marathon marker 13.1 in exactly 2 hours.  This gave me hope!  I knew I was making excellent time to beat my goal of 4:24 (13 minutes faster than my Disney time), for a moment I wondered if 4:10 or 4:15 was possible!  Perhaps!  I moved along.  I followed a pack of guys for a while as I did my run/walk intervals.  For several miles I passed/got passed by one in a Pink Floyd shirt.  I just used them for pacing for a while until they pulled ahead.  

Don't know these ladies (so the sign wasn't really for me) but I had to stop and take a picture!

Because of the turn-around at mile 16.5, I started seeing the leading runners on the other side of the median.  First I saw the wheelchairs, then the first place runner was- no kidding- like, over a mile ahead of the one in 2nd place!  I kept glancing over looking for Steph- her goal time was 3:40- but after a while the trees in the middle got in the way and there were times I lost sight of the road.  I passed by a few homemade car crash memorials, that was good and depressing.

As I approached Mile 16.5, a small crowd had gathered along the course.  I saw Austin and Lauren up ahead cheering and I had to stop for a photo!

Seeing them really cheered me up!  There was some much-needed energy at the turn-around point.  My knee was really getting stiff but I made the u-turn, got some water, then gave them one more wave as I saw the Mile 17 sign up ahead.  

At Mile 20, I lost it.  

I got though 17 and 18, which felt like the longest miles ever, with my knee feeling like it was about to explode.  I slowed down my run/walk intervals.  I walked whenever I got to the bridges to enjoy the shade underneath.  It was hot!  I've got to give it to the kids volunteering at the water stops- they were fantastic!  They were so attentive, running back and forth, keeping the road clean, and immediately being able to give me water or Gatorade- whatever I mumbled a request for as I stumbled through the station.  They offered lots of encouragement as well, I appreciated it so much.

At Mile 20, I was walking and another runner caught up to me and we walked and chatted for a bit.  He'd run Boston, had a personal best full time of 3:30, and was also struggling.  That made me feel a bit better.  I trudged along then broke off when I saw the medical tent.  I had to get some Biofreeze or something for my knee.  I think they gave me something like Aspercreme, but whatever, I took it and rubbed it all over my left knee.  There was a guy in the tent laying on a lounger looking pretty rough as well.  I took a deep breath and hit the road again.  2 miles later, another bathroom stop and I tell you what, it felt AWESOME to just sit down for a minute!  I perked up a tiny bit after that, then headed toward the on-ramp and Mile 23.

Let me tell you this one very important detail though- I'd added a bunch of Disney playlists together on Spotify.  Enough for almost 5 hours of music.  And?  Spotify's shuffle system sucked ass that day.

I heard the same 15 songs over and over and over.

The first time you hear Los Del Rio (the guys that sang the Macarena) and their version of Heigh-Ho Heigh-Ho (in SPANISH) it's pretty funny.  The 3rd time?  You'll lose your damn mind.

I swear, a pop version of "It's A Small World After All" came on at mile 22 and I just started laughing out loud.  

Delirious, embarrassing, laughter.

I made it up the on-ramp to the sounds of Ke$ha- AGAIN- and finally saw Mile 23.

5K to go.  That's it.

My knee was killing me.  I limped along over this stupid bridge alongside traffic to Carmen Avenue.  This area was nice- there were pretty houses and a park on one side and some more spectators.  I was glad to see some other people- there was a family out in their front yard blasting "Eye Of The Tiger" on repeat.  This also sent me into uncontrollable giggles.

Boston Man caught up and passed me.  I slowed my intervals down to 1 minute run, 1 minute walk.  I simply could not do any more from all the pain.  At this point the clock was telling me I might not even make my 4:24 goal, when I felt I was going to come in way under that at the halfway point.  

I kept pushing along.  

Mile 25 entered a golf course- I followed the golf cart path as it wound around.  It felt like forever.  Finally, Mile 26 and the crowds appeared!  I was so happy to see the end of this nonsense that my eyes started leaking a little.  I saw Austin and Lauren at the finish screaming as I ran by- I hit the finish line, relieved and hurting.  

The finish clock read 15 seconds before 4:24.

I did it.  

I got my medal and immediately veered off to the medical tent for some ice (which I had to sign a medical release for?) and the attendant there was very nice and asked if I wanted to sit a while.  I figured if I sat I'd never get up so I declined.  I continued through the finisher chute, got my goodie bag, and found a place to ice and stretch.

Austin and Lauren and Dave and Steph found me.  Steph missed her Boston qualifying time by 1 minute and was crushed.  I felt awful for her, too.  I didn't feel awesome about my finish time, even though it was under my goal.  Yeah, I finished but I'd have liked to finish strong and feeling good.  I could barely walk at this point.  I wasn't hungry- I wanted Powerade but they didn't have any sports drinks that I could find.  There was a Snapple booth in the finish area and they were giving out shot-size samples.  That sucked.  I just wanted to get back to the hotel, get clean, stretch, and take a nap.

Thank goodness for the Geico booth giving out sunglasses!

We got a ride back to the hotel- it was too hot to stick around the finish line party.  Steph and I were both hurting- laughing and groaning as we attempted to get in and out of Austin's car.  I took a snack of chocolate milk and a banana in my room and rested up.  

The plan was to have about a 2 hour rest and then check out, head to the airport, and fly the plane along the Hudson River corridor and then over to Teterboro, NJ.  More on that later!

My stats:

Chip time: 4:23:27 
*The most popular finish time for this race was 4:24-4:29, with 39 runners finishing in that time frame.  The second most popular finish time was 3:48-3:53.
Place: 315/635, putting me squarely in the middle
22nd/26 in my age group

This was definitely not a beginner's race!  Even in non-Disney races I've always placed in at least the top 20%, if not the top 10%.  These people were serious and I felt a bit out of my league.  I decided after this to do no more small-size marathons.  Gimme something with 20,000 other people, please.  Or I'll go crazy.   

long island marathon 2015- the flying part, part 1

What an amazing trip!

Such a great learning experience for me and my student- we discovered new airports, new weather, new terrain.  I ran my second marathon in the middle of it all!

I wasn't sure to make this post more about the flying or the running part so I'm splitting it up.  This one is about the flight from Orlando to New York in my student Dave's Cessna Turbo 182.  Next post will be on the race happenings, deal?

Because Dave has not yet taken his Instrument rating checkride, I came along on this trip with him and his g/f Stephanie so that she could run the Long Island Marathon to try to qualify for Boston.  So I got to run the race, too!  

We departed out of Orlando on Thursday (the race was scheduled for Sunday morning) and we made the first leg to our fuel stop in Walterboro, SC.  Lowcountry Regional airport.  Cue the banjos.  Now, we're not exactly fancy city folk but I sure felt like I was rolling around in this little town.  The man working at the airport FBO could not understand what Steph meant when she said she did not eat meat, after we'd asked him for some suggestions for a lunch spot.  "Well, honey this is the South.  We got barbecue.  We have taters and gravy and mac and cheese... I guess you could just peel the skin off the fried chicken if'n you like that healthy stuff."

Seriously.

I can't make this up.

After limping in to town in the busted up '97 Crown Vic they lent us from the airport, we managed to find some edible food and then got the hell out of South Carolina.  We'd planned to go up to Norfolk, VA but there was some pretty bad storms just festering over the DC area.  

 This was the local "seafood restaurant."  In reality, a shed/carport with some fish in a cooler and a grill.  

The weather from Orlando had been a bit cloudy to start then cleared up nicely once we were north of the Palatka/Jacksonville area so getting in and out of Walterboro was pretty easy.  We picked up our IFR clearance in the air and had a smooth clear ride up to Raleigh.  The plan was to get to Raleigh and see what the weather to the east was doing.  We were sailing along happily around 7,000' above some little clouds.  The new consideration we had to look at was the temperatures.  The freezing level was right around 8,000' and as we worked our way north we started popping in and out of some build-up.  Steph wasn't comfortable getting bounced around in the puffier clouds so we thought about asking for a climb.  When we looked at the temps though, we realized we'd be at risk to pick up some ice any higher up- what with having to go through the clouds to get up and then to come back down and all.  So we descended down to 5,000' where it was bumpier but clear.  Weather looked to be building off to the west as we approached RDU but we made it in while the sun was out and things still looked good.  This sounds silly to anyone who doesn't do all their flying in Florida, but the 435' elevation of RDU was a fun novelty for us.  Ooooo so high!  

After we got in, we made the executive decision to stay put in Raleigh for the night.  It wasn't what we wanted and we first thought maybe we could have made it up to Maryland but as we were sipping margaritas at the local Chilis after we parked the airplane, a torrential downpour started.

And it did not let up for the rest of the night!

Let the drinking commence.

Dave got us a car and the 3 of us found a place to stay at the Marriott.  Raleigh is very pretty!  I did enjoy the drive around, everything was so green and hilly.  By 11 pm we had enjoyed dinner and drinks and I was tired.  I made it up to my room, got cleaned up, and then the shit hit the fan.

Or, in this case, the bed.

Yeah.

I pulled back the blanket on my bed and there was about a 4" poo stain across the mattress.

OMG.

Now, the hotel front desk guy was very accommodating, he gave me a new room right away and comped the night (which Dave appreciated since he was paying but I told him I ain't doing this whole poo-on-the-sheets every hotel we go to)

Ya'll, it was so gross.

I had to pack up all my stuff, schlep downstairs, get a new room, haul everything across to the other side of the hotel and unpack it all again.  

And no, you sick bastards, I did not take a picture of the crap streak on the sheets.

In fact, I bailed out of that room like it was on fire.

Dave and Stephanie thought this was the funniest thing ever when I told them about it the next morning.  Har har.  Anyway, we got breakfast and packed up to head back to the airport.  Dave and I had gone over the flight planning and decided that Norfolk was not going to happen and he was trying to figure out a way for us to get to Frederick, Maryland.  No matter how you sliced it, the planning just was not working out.  We could head east but that had us going in to the storm.  We could head west but that didn't leave us with enough fuel.  Going north was impossible because the freezing level was 6,000' at this point with a minimum altitude requirement of 7,000' because of the mountains.  After looking over his options, I suggested to him that we fly up to Lynchburg, VA first, take a break and check the weather there, then head back east to Frederick.  This is what that would look like: 

It was out of the way but it was also out of the icing and the worst of the weather.  It was the best plan available.  I told him a lot of the flight would be in IFR conditions and he'd want a break anyway.  So we went with that.  It was raining when we departed RDU but the clouds looked pretty awesome on the way west.  The 90 degree angle there in the route was over Greensboro but ATC let us cut that corner and go direct.  Got some good photos of some mountains!

 RDU on departure

 So pretty and green!

 Calm, no bumps here!

 Shenandoah River

 Approach into Lynchburg

   Steph in LYH

Well, I was right about the need for a break.  Dave zoned out in a chair in the FBO for a bit while I looked at the next flight plan.  The good news was that the freezing level had gone up to 9,000'!  Yay!  We'd encounter some clouds on the way to Maryland but the majority of the stuff was back to the southeast.  Here's the route we filed:

 We took off out of LYH into patchy clouds.  (Another novelty?  LYH elevation was 938'!) This flight was about an hour and a half.  Here's some more photos of the scenery!  We passed over Shenandoah State Park.

 Leaving LYH- see ya!

 Shenandoah River again

 Moving along...

 Mountains!

 Look, kids!  A VOR!

 On approach to FDK

On final for FDK.  Over some sort of quarry- it looks pretty awesome

See how the weather cleared up so nice?  Yay!  Thing is, with that big Low pressure hanging around Virginia, we had a headwind the WHOLE FREAKING WAY from Raleigh to Lynchburg, to Frederick.  Sigh.  Anyway, we made it to Maryland, headquarters of the AOPA!  I took a picture...

We also had crab cakes from the restaurant at the FBO.  When in Rome...

We were in MD just long enough to fuel ourselves and fuel the airplane, then it was back up in the air again!  The flight to Republic airport on Long Island was going to be a couple hours so we wanted to get going.  It was looking like we'd arrive in New York just after sunset.  Dave filed the flight plan and when we picked up our IFR clearance, we heard the dreaded words "We have a full re-route for you, advise ready to copy."

Dammit.

Okay, so the new plan took us a little farther south, which surprised me since we were trying to stay a far away from DC as possible.  That weather system had moved off to the east and we were looking at clear skies all the way up!  We filed for 7,000' again and it was gorgeous the whole way!

 More mountains!

 Bye, Lynchburg.  Nice knowing you.

 Potomac River

 Baltimore

 Crossed the Delaware River, entering New Jersey!

 Cranberry bogs!

 I see New York!

 Got to overfly JFK airport

I'm so glad we got to fly into New York at night!  It was beautiful!  We landed at FRG at 8:45pm.  After that, it was off to the hotel and in to (a poo-free) bed!  I was tired, I didn't even eat dinner, just a small snack from my running fuel supplies.  The next morning we were planning to get up, get to the expo to pick up our race gear, and then visit the local aviation museum.  More on that, plus the race, next time!