A race against father time....

It was a day to remember.



The sun was splitting the New Jersey's sky and the weather was set for the day according to our fantastic door man. The taxi (aka robbing hood!) man dropped us off at Central Park and we registered in plenty of time.

The place was jumping - in NY it's the week before the ING Marathon and the place is all set for the big race. The Americans do things well. Land of the brave was belted out out by a tenor with an amazing voice and the American's stood silent.

The race was slightly larger than I anticipated - about 6,000 - 7,000 registered - I'll find out later how many finished. In the penn at the start my nerves were building, a Coors hydration strategy of Saturday night began to feel like a very bad idea especially as everyone around seemed to be skinny and very athletic. It was at this moment I met Geoff. He was from New Jersey and messed up his morning alarm arrangements, woken up late and thrown a coffee down before heading out to the race.

Geoff had taken up running the year before and now having just turned 40 was loving it and racing regularly. His date with destiny is this time next year when he is a guaranteed starter for the 2010 ING New York Marathon. He was planning 'anything under 35 minutes' I was planning finishing......

We set off together, blethering about our running exploits and dodging the large crowds round about. My theory was to hang as close to Geoff as possible until the jet lag got the better of me. He turned round at three miles and checked on my well being - I responded that I was fine and sweating Coors!! About 4 miles gone and he started to pull away.

I began to tire and plodded my way home. I finished in a respectable 35.55 for the 5 miles which was 520th overall and 60th in my age category - I was chuffed. Geoff finished 10 places ahead of me but described his race as a dog. He also advised that now he was 40 he had moved up a running class and his results had improved.

I meet some great folk running and Geoff was another example of a great guy and I wish him every success in next year's race.

We had a brief excitment later in the day bumping into a movie set with The Rock and Samuel Jackson doing their filming bit - I got told off for taking a picture.....



More cheesecake awaits......