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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

MARATHON UPDATE

As you can see from the ticker to the right, the NYC Marathon is a little less than five months away. Each week, and sometimes more than once a week, the marathon organizers and sponsors send out emails to the race participants. Recently I've received information about training schedules, running clubs in NYC, cross-training tips, and transportation to the start of the race (which is on Stanton Island). To date all of the information has been extremely valuable and some of it necessary.

That is until today.

This afternoon I received an email from the marathon-people about the "Finish Line Banquet/Reserved Seating" for spectators. Hosted by The Tavern on the Green in Central Park, the Finish Line Banquet provides spectators with a breakfast and lunch buffet, open bar, TV viewing of the race live, and bleacher seating at the finish line. And what might such an event cost?

$250.00 US

Are you freaking kidding me?

Bleacher seating alone costs $75.00.

It simply blows my mind to think that folks would pay more to party during the marathon than I paid to run in it. It also makes me mad to think that they are selling tickets at the finish line. Call me crunchy, or slightly old-fashioned, but I want my family and friends and the families and friends of the other runners at the finish line cheering me on. I do not want to be surrounded by a individuals attending an up-scale frat party while running the last mile of the race.

I'm hoping D can sneak into the bleacher area and watch me run across the finish line. I'm also planning to pick up the K during the last mile of the race and run with her in my arms over the finish line.

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Training: I'm running 5 days a week now and averaging 15-18 miles per week. I need to get a couple more miles in this week than I did last. Training officially begins a week from this coming Monday.

Getting organized: I think I'm finally starting to nest. I've spent this week organizing the K's pictures into an online account that friends and family can view. It'll be a private account. Let me know if you'd like access. I'm also organizing and sorting through baby clothes, selling more stuff on Craiglist, purging clothes from my closet, and getting rid of books through Book Mooch. I need to reorganize my book shelf in our office.

Reading: just finished New Moon the second book in the Twilight series. It was a fun, quick read. Perfect summer reading.

Watching: D and I finished watching Lost. We're now trying to catch up on Heroes. And, I'm embarrassed to admit to watching, The Bachelorette.

3 comments:

ChickenUnderwear said...

You are gonna receive a lot of advice from the NYRRC about the Marathon. Much of it will be about what you need to spend money on. I have run NYC 17 times.

I wrote an article for my track clubs newsletter on what the road runners club will not tell you.

http://whatyourdonotknowbecauseyouarenotme.blogspot.com/2008/05/november-2007.html

The VIP viewing area is not so full after the 3 hour mark in the race.

See ya in Staten Island

Becky said...

I would love to look at K's pictures :)

nora said...

I am thinking about trying to attend, since Eric will be running it for the first time too! :) Don't be too mad about the prices - think of it as a world-class premier sporting event (which it is)... would it surprise you if there was a $250 brunch at the Kentucky Derby? Or think of it in terms of pure supply and demand... if the brunch was $30, then like 10,000 people would want to get in, and that's just not very practical! Might as well make it $250!

I like your idea of carrying K across the line! That's cute!