Thursday, September 20, 2012

New York Marathon - solo


How many bridges connect the island of Manhattan to Long Island,  mainland New York (otherwise known as The Bronx) and Jersey?

Don't know. But Vincent ran past ten of them on Saturday.

He didn't tell me he was going to run a marathon. He just did. On his own.

26 miles. 42 kms.

He also didn't tell me until well into dinner that night about what happened afterwards.  In this he reminds me of my father, who turns 80 this year, who sat down to lunch one day (this was a year or two ago) with my mother and me, under the tree in Cape Town, sipped some bubbly, cut his little chipolata sausages methodically, the way he does, chewed a bit and then told us, with some satisfaction, it seemed, that he'd just crashed his big BMW roadbike, and had come off, and would we like to see the bruise? That was the year after he was hit by a car (a slow Volkswagen beetle, thank god) on the freeway while training for the Argus Cycle tour. He likes showing off his wounds. And his bruises are spectacular.

Don't worry, Vince is fine. But I did stop eating. Takes a lot to make me stop eating.

But first, here is the first half of his story about running a solo marathan up and down the length of Manhattan.

I married him to exercise vicariously.

7 comments:

  1. Wow. how does one casually say, "of by the way, I ran a marathon today"? Am very proud of him tho, what an accomplishment.

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  2. My God man, does he at least partake in copious amounts of your delicious food after? I mean, if there were a good reason to run, besides a life or death chase, that would be the reason!

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  3. Vince, quite simply, is my forgheen hero..
    Grande cojones...

    Vince: Ran the Marine Corps Marathon, 1984--first & last.. 3:56. Washington, DC., mostly flat-out..

    But rather for you, the streets (and bridges) of NYC?

    YuDaMan, Vince!

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  4. Karen - sadly true. I have to get moving...

    webb - he manages to be quite casual about it. I am proud, too:-)

    frank - ha! I think he is spurred on partly by having to eat so many test recipes and desserts at the moment :-)

    pest control gold coast - pest control gold coast? Really? Will you be doing research in the Big Apple?

    Clarke - he is my forgheen' hero, too. Thanks for stopping by. I feel safer when you are in the hood :-)

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  5. Boy am I glad I'm not famous, I don't think I could take the exposure. ;-)

    A few comments:

    Franck: sadly, it's the other way around, I'm never very hungry after a long run, but hunger comes back with a vengeance the next day.

    Clark: no, youdaman, under 4 hours! I tackled no bridges and was happy to count them from below. And the hills of New York, even though I complain about them, are more like bumps, hiccups in an otherwise flat city.

    Marie: last sentence, funny, I thought the same thing about cooking. ;-)

    Ok, in all seriousness now, I have a lot less merit for doing this than a person who has never run before and manages 2 or 3 miles. It's really not the mileage that matters, it's what the run does to you, both physically and mentally, regardless of the length. :-)

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