Re: Kirsty's NYC Unoffical New York City Marathon

Thank you so much, Kirsty, for sharing your NYC Marathon experience. Your report is both eloquent and touching. What a wonderful idea to improvise as you did!! I just had to share this with the Sunday running group and I know they will enjoy your comments. I suggest you send your e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel. It really is quite newsworthy and is a wonderful example of runners showing imagination and resilience in the face of significant disappointment.

Congratulations to you and.Julie. You two have a unique PR: Running a one borough marathon in NYC!

Jack

PS: Love your outfits!

Hello all,

I'm sure you know how disappointed I am that I did not get to run the NYC marathon. :'( Mayor Bloomberg greatly underestimated the scope and extent of the hurricane damage and the affected areas' ability to recover. Five million were still without power, water was becoming an issue and line ups for gas were hours long. The emphasis on relief and recovery should have been made from the start. Instead, thousand of race participants including Jeff, Brielle and I treked to NY to show our support for the city and recovery, only to arrive to hear of the change in plans.

What to do? Run 26.2 miles in NYC anyway. Which is what me and Julie from my running group did on Saturday morning. A lot of other runners had the same idea. We put on our race bibs and off we went. We ran a loop around Central Park, crossed 72nd street west to the Hudson River, ran to the
George Washington bridge, ran south along the Hudson, up to and back across 72nd to do another loop around Central Park and finished at the Finish Line.

Photo attached. The weather was a comfortable 49 degrees, sunny. When we ran along the Hudson River, we saw busted up boat docks (but boats that were fine) and the usual type of storm debris.

When they saw us run by, many New Yorkers stated how sorry they were that the race was cancelled. We thanked them and mentioned that as Floridians, we understand how difficult the aftermath of a hurricane is to deal with. 've had a feeling about this race from the beginning of the week. The NYC
marathon is equally about the spectators and the runners. Without the cheers from the average 2 million energized New Yorkers, the race would have lacked the spirit that makes this race so special. So, my official NYC marathon is still on my top 5 list and I look forward to officially running
it in the future.

Note, my kilt is in honor of Mum.

Thanks for all of your good wishes,
Kirsty