NYC Marathon 2011

When I knew that I was coming to New York for school one of the first things I was excited about was the potential of running the marathon here. Unfortunately, you have to enter a lottery which you have a low chance of winning. After 2 years of applying unsuccessfuly I joined the New York Road Runner running club and ran 9qualifying races starting in February 2010 in order to get a guaranteed spot in the marathon. Fast forward over a year and a half later, past my nine races, the birth of our first kid, a lot of training and there I was, about to run the 2011 NYC marathon. My dad, brother, and sister-in-law came out to run as well. Actually my whole family came out to either run or watch the race.

We had to be at the start area on Staten Island by 7:30am even though my start time wasn't until 10:10am. There are three seperate starting areas and start lines because two of the groups run on the top of the Verrazano Bridge and the third group is on the bottom level. There were 47,000 runners so the start areas were full of port-a-pottys.

My dad ran with a camera and took pictures throughout the race. This is at the starting line

After crossing the bridge the course runs through Brooklyn. This the first time where you see some of the 2 million plus spectators. Kate and I went down to watch the marathon last year and noticed that some runners had their names on their shirts which made it fun to cheer for individule runners. Shortly after I came off the Verrezano I was confused and had to turn back when someone called out my name; I'd forgotten that I had put my name on my shirt. It was fun. For the rest of the race whenever I needed a little pick-me-up I would run closer to the side for some spectator to cheer me on. At one point one of the other runners that I had been running close to for a couple of miles turned around and said to me "I'm going to pretend that my name is Jason".

There was a steady line of spectators all along the course.

Water stations every mile. Don't worry all of those cups were made from recycled products

After running through Brooklyn you cross into Queens. It was interesting to experience some of the different feelings of the neighborhoods. From main streets with small local stores to tree lined Brownstone neighborhoods. From Queens you cross the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan. No spectators on the bridge meant it was quiet as you gained elevation going across the bridge, but just as you hit Manhattan you are hit by a wall of noise from the fans that seemed to be 5-6 people deep as you ran up 1st ave.

Some of the fans. We'd set up two places where they were going to be so they could take pictures. Even though my legs felt like they were going to explode as I came closer to both locations I forced myself to keep running so I wasn't walking as I passed them. The only problem was they were not at either spot but were somewhere else altogether.

You run up 1st ave. all the way up the island of Manhattan and cross into the Bronx only to turn around back into Manhattan and down 5th ave along the edge of Central Park.

Bridget was more excited about these balloons than the runners.

I don't know what he's wearing under that coat.

I'd sort of given up on seeing my family on the run, so I was surprised when I spotted them and relieved that I was running at that point. They were just inside Central Park within the last 2 miles.

Learning from experiences from my last marathon I knew that there would come a point where I would start to ask myself if the pain in my legs, the tightness in my quads and calves, and the fatigue was really worth continuing. Because I'd let myself ease off in past runs and having later been disappointed in my results, and also that I'd prepared for so long, I was able to mentally push myself past that point.

I did finish a bit slower than I wanted to, but I was still happy with my 3:45:39 finish.

We all met up after. It was so much fun, worth all of the training and waiting. The combination of the fans, the number of runners, and all with New York City as a backdrop made for an unbelievable experience.

Sweet Land of Liberty

In anticipation of Halloween a couple of months ago we started thinking about what we could dress up as and more importantly what we could dress Bridget up as. We gave up pretty quickly on trying to think of a family theme and decided to just focus on B and this is what we came up with. We thought it was funny considering she is the only one in our family who was born in the US and as a bonus it was probably one of the first things she saw while looking out the window of the delivery room (which I'm totally sure she did). Kate made the dress and sash herself, the torch is a flashlight with a napkin taped to it, and we found the crown in Times Square at a tourist store. Bridget was all about dressing up. She kept the crown on and held onto the torch which I didn't think she would. I think it turned out really well.

On Halloween day Kate brought Bridget into the city to take pictures. As I look at these pictures it reminds me of the "Stay Puff Marshmallow Man" from the Ghostbusters walking around, maybe that's what I should have dressed up as.

Bridget meeting one of her admirers who shortly thereafter licked her face. His tongue was half the size of her face; she thought it was great.

Me and a couple of NYC landmarks

Kate and Bridget with some of New York's finest

Of course we took her out trick-or-treating. We started at about 5:30 and went for about a half hour. She loved walking around the streets with all the other kids around and the occasional person giving her candy seemed to work for her as well.

Jackpot!

Kate and I took turns going out with Bridget while the other one stayed home to hand out candy. Our neighborhood is funny in the way they hand out candy. Everyone just sits outside on their stoops and the kids go from stoop to stoop for candy. Kids can get a lot of candy fast, so lots of kids come trick-or-treating here. We must of had over three hundred kids come by before 7:00 when after already making one run to the store for more candy we realized that we were out of candy and Bridget had not had dinner yet and was running only on excitement and candy (typical Halloween diet)

Inspecting the haul.

The Great Pumpkin

Last week we went with some friends to a pumpkin patch in NJ.  While we were waiting for everyone to arrive we let B run around and explore. She loved playing among all of the gigantic pumpkins and kept trying to pick up the regular sized ones. 

She was really excited when she discovered some Bridget sized pumpkins.

We took a hayride around the farm and saw some nice views of the valley where the leaves are beginning to change (That's right, the leaves are just changing now and we will be able to enjoy one last year of trick or treating without snowsuits).

They dropped us off at a pumpkin patch where everyone got to "harvest" a pumpkin to take home.

All of the kids loved riding the mini tractors. B took the tractor driving very seriously! She also couldn't decide which one she liked and continuously got on and off every tractor within range.

Chasing her friend Sam through the straw maze.

B wasn't sure how to feel about getting all muddy.

She got over it pretty quickly. Having fun is much more important!

All About B... and a little P

As you will be able to tell from this post we have completely stopped taking pictures of each other and are only taking pictures of a more interesting/willing subject.

One of her favourite things to do is get on our bed and play on it. Sometimes she will lay down for a second or two while she catches her breath.

"Aww, shucks"

We let B feed herself at every meal so she usually ends up messy with crazy hair.

B loves walking to the park by our house. She actually wore this coat last year but because she is still small it fits now too. Such a little girl.

Walking to the park. Sometimes she insists on holding hands with both of us.

While everyone back in Canada was celebrating Thanksgiving we were enjoying 80 degree weather so Kate took Bridget to Central Park for the day.

Lately Bridget has increased her growling especially while eating.

While the weather was still nice the girls would come into the city to have lunch with me. Bridget's Garden is in Madison Square Park, which I walk through twice a day.

Union Square Park has a large playground with lots of kids. Bridget was in heaven.

Getting in "the zone" at one of her shoots. She loves going to shoots. They are basically play dates with a bunch of other kids followed by people working really hard to entertain her.

First encounter. Clowns 1. Bridget 0.

Not her Halloween costume. It's one of the outfits was wore at a shoot. The other one was Tweety-Bird

Kate's second cousin Peter came and stayed with us for a week. He won the wicked lottery so we got to see the show from front row centre. He loved it so much he went to two other shows.