Canberra....or Boston?

I'm facing a delimma with my next big race but before I get to that I want to say a big thank you again to those friends who left comments in my previous post. To respond briefly:

Ewen: it is a nice thought about the shorts and CR singlet, but it was too cold for that. I was actually in my full winter kit, gloves, beanie, long tights, and two long sleeved running tops. I found that zero degrees in NY at midday is not quite the same as a zero in Canberra, given the artic wind that works its way through the Manhatten jungle.
Tess: interesting you should ask about the push-ups. Rocky didn't do push-ups on the steps in Rocky I (or did he do them in the sequels, which I didn't see?) but there was a guy (at left) doing them on the steps on the day I visited the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I didn't do them myself.
Eddie: no I didn't see the G'day Australia thing but I did see Bindi Irwin on US television regularly. Our ABC says Bindi charmed the US and that is no exaggeration. I was asked about her and her father several times.
Vicky, Jorex, Strewth, Cirque and Rachel: thank you for the lovely things you wrote. I strongly recommend you get a chance to visit Ground Zero if you already haven't done so. I am including another photo from the 911 tribute center of a window from one of the planes that crashed into the towers.

******

Now for my running delimma. For the last few months I have debated whether to run the Canberra or Boston Marathons this year, after I ran a qaulifying time for Boston at last year's Canberra Marathon. Both marathons are run coincidentally on the same weekend this year, (Canberra 15 April, Boston 16 April).

I had seriously considered doing Boston, turning it into a super doopa family holiday at the same time. We had discussed this in the family but I had pretty much given the idea away due to the expense. I thought maybe I would leave Boston to the future when we are in a better financial position. And it wasn't that long ago that we did have a great five week family holiday in the US in 2005. So I thought no Boston marathon for TD this year...

...that is until my wife, Mrs TD, came completely out of the blue as we were driving home from work last week and said why don't I go solo to the US and run Boston. She says she knows how much running means to me and how much running Boston means to me. I wasn't quite sure I was hearing her right and I had just picked her up from her after work drinks! But she went on that she really wanted me to go without her and the family and just do what I had always wanted to do. Me going solo is something we can afford. Well, is this manna from heaven or what?

I've checked out www.bostonmarathon.org, have submitted an online application, and paid the US$150 fee. My training continues and I am fit and injury free. But Houston, we have a problem! - I've got a real bad attack of the guilts. I feel that I being too self indulgent, trying to fulfill a long-held personal whim. I feel that I am greedily putting me first and family second, for some silly race on the other side of the world.

Yet, this is B-O-S-T-O-N! It's one of the most prestigious and oldest marathons in the world; a race that I have dreamed of running for over 20 years. And with my Canberra time of 3.16 I have easily met the 3.30 qualifying time. Qualifying is something not everyone can do and there is no guarantee I can repeat it in the future. What should I do?

Woody Allen said he wasn't afraid of dying; he just didn't want to be there when it happened. I'm not afraid of dying either; I am just not sure I want to be there without running Boston!

USA 3

I've just arrived back home after my latest work trip to the USA where I had three nights in New York and one in Washington. The temperature in Canberra when I left was in the high thirties and in New York hovering around zero, which left me thinking is this a crazy planet or what! I did see my first North American snow in New York when I awoke last Friday morning to see the city covered in the fluffy white stuff (seen covering an old cemetary near Ground Zero in lower Manhatten).

With my work commitments out of the way, I spent my last morning in New York walking around the Ground Zero site and also visiting the September 11 tribute centre in Liberty Street. The picture at right shows the sun rising over a frozen Ground Zero with snow in the foreground. I had visited Ground Zero on a previous trip to NY but had never seen the tribute centre before.

To visit the centre is intensely moving and it is hard to keep a dry eye in the place when you see the so many photos of loved ones, young and old, that lost their lives on 11 September 2001 and when you see the many poignant artifacts. The photo at left below is of a NY Fire Department coat and helmet that belonged to a deceased firefighter who died during the collapse of one of the World Trade Centre towers. The coat and helmet were recovered separate from the remains and as the large tear at the back of the coat suggests had literally been torn from the body from the forces generated by the collapse of the tower. I was moved to write something on one of the comment cards at the centre as I finished my visit. This is what I wrote:

Dear Mr Terrorist
We will never forget what you did to us on 911 when you showed us evil in its most pure form. All you have done is stregthen our resolve to confront evil in all its forms, the very thing you sought to deny us.

On a happier note I had a great week in the USA, which was my third trip there in 14 months. I didn't seem at all bothered by jet lag as I had on my last trip there in September last year. I slept better over there than I do at home and I managed to get in some great runs in both Washington and New York. I had to confront an official wind chill factor of minus 10 in Washington and all I wanted to do was to get back to my hotel and get warm.

In New York I had a couple of wonderful runs around and through Central Park, the last one taking place with the park covered in snow and to the sounds of young people having a great time at the Wollman open air ice skating rink. That run was was an absolute delight and my only regret is that I didn't take my camera with me (sorry Ewen) to take some shots. While I was in Central Park I thought of all those great runners to finish the NY marathon there, including our very own Lucky Legs. After finishing with Central Park I had a great time dodging Manhatten's lunch time pedestrian traffic. The locals must have wondered who this nut was but I had a ball and frankly couldn't have cared what anyone thought. Think of those street scenes from Crocodile Dundee and you will get an idea of what I had to confront.

During my train trip from New York to Washington I did a four hour stopover in Philadelphia. I made the pilgrimage to the Philadelphia Musuem of Art where I just had to run the famous steps that were the site of that great scene from Rocky I where Stallone sprints up the steps thrusts his arms in the air and does a little dance to the sounds of 'Gonna Fly Now'. Even though the movie was released in 1976 I read that hundreds every year continue to do the Rocky thing and run those steps. Sure enough on the day I visited there were several people doing just that, including that dude from Downunder (below right).

After arriving back in Australia I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Sekhmet and Blkbox for a cuppa at the Sydney domestic terminal. You are an inspiration guys.

Surprinsingly I seem to be suffering more from jet lag on my return to Oz than when I was in the States. I have suggested to my boss that perhaps I need to go back to the States and return home via London to reverse the process! I am still waiting for her to get back to me.....

Urambi Hills

I had a delightful couple of my runs with my Saturday group yesterday and today. Yesterday's was over our familar Pink Arrows territory in the Mawson/Isaacs area to the "Green House" and return. I ran with my running buddy, Michelle, for about the last half of it. Michelle and I did a little bit more than the others, finishing with a 17k effort overall.

Today a few of us from the group did a nice little gallop from MacDonald's in Tuggeranong to the Urambi Hills area and return for about 10k's all up. It was a nice run, even though Michelle and I did get los....er....were a little unsure of where we were at one point. We completed the run with a coffee at Macca's and that was nice too (their cuppachinos can be surprisingly good at times). I rode my bike to the start of the run at Macca's and then home again later and it was a really puffy morning to be out and about in Canberra. It was lovely and sunny with the bird life in full bloom and the sun rising over Lake Tuggeranong. There was nothing really special about this; just another beaut morning with good friends like the many others we have done before and will do again. But as my endorphin and caffeine hit mixed nicely as I rode home on the bike I thought again how sometimes even the most normal and the most rehearsed can be the most enjoyable.

I'm off overseas again for work this week and leave for the USA tomorrow morning where I will spend one night in Washington and a few nights in New York. I will be back Sunday week, hopefully with a post about my running in the Big Apple. I have been so lucky to have had so many opportunities for travel and this will be my seventh overseas trip in less than a year. Travel really does broaden the mind and, as my darling wife keeps telling me, my mind needs lots of broadening!

Oh, just remembered. I have just started wearing "Skins" and find them an absolute boon for relieving the post-run aches and pains I have suffered with for years. I am going to wear them on my 20 hour flight tomorrow to NY where they are supposed to be good in keeping the blood flowing for travelers in sardine class. I usually like a wine or two when I travel and if they can keep it flowing too that will be an added bonus.

Thank You

I'm just back from my Chrissie holidays in Brisbane. I had a beaut week in my home town, doing all the usual holidays things, catching up with loved ones, getting a little time at the beach, some swimming, shopping, reading etc. I also ate too much - thanks Mum! - and am paying the price. I'm hoping some adjusted New Year's resolutions will sort out that little(?) problem - see below.

I also did some running and caught up with some great Cool Runners who I have got to know over the years. I saw Eddie, Tesso and Shane at the Brisbane Road Runners 10k on Christmas Eve (actually at 6 am on the Sunday). My early indulgence with Christmas Cheer resulted in a sluggish 43.50 effort for me but it was good to be out running just the same after my drive up with the family from Canberra (as an aside, thank God for portable DVD players. I only counted one "Are we there yet?" for the whole trip, there and back).

Regarding the Christmas Eve run, I also have a secret confession to admit which Tesso and Eddie would not be aware of. I woke up on the Sunday morning and was shocked to see the time was 5.40am and I would be really pushing to make the start of the run at six. I dressed, gobbled down some fluid, and drove into the city at warp speed, only realising when I had got to the West End start and couldn't see anyone that...um...I had failed to reset my Ironman Triathlon Timex (which I use as an alarm clock too) when I crossed the border the day before. Instead of rising at 5.40 I had actually risen at 4.40 am and arrived for the start just after five - an hour before the run was to begin! The Chardonnay or four the night before - thanks Dad! - also didn't help matters.

Being a Queenslander, for years I have had to cop all those awful southern jokes about visitors needing to wind back their clocks 100 years when crossing the border into Queensland. In my case, it would have helped if I could have actually remembered to wind back the clock to begin with! Twit-a-saurus in extremis!

In addition to problems with clocks, I also had difficulties with the weather in Brissie. Being from Brisbane of course I know that the place is hot and humid, beautiful one day, perfect the next, and so on. And being the ever prepared Tuggeranong Don, of course I travelled to Queensland without any cold weather clothes at all. So what happens? I find that it is one of the mildest summers I have encountered in the capital. Come Boxing Day, with its miserable cloudy, drizzly stuff, I am finding it cold and wishing I had brought a jacket with me from Canberra - of all places. What gives!!

Anyway, the atmospheric conditions and time might have been inverted and twisted respectively, but I did find the natives very friendly. I did a really nice 13k with Eddie one morning, which I followed up by a speed work session at Pat Carroll's group where I caught up with Tesso again and also met Clairie. I saw both of them again during my final run in Brisbane, an 18k group effort from South Bank to St Lucia over the new bridge to Dutton Park, through Highgate Hill, West End and then back to South Bank. I was relieved to find I was hot and sweaty after this run, the way I should feel after a run in Brisbane!

My sincere thanks to Tesso, Eddie and Clairie for making me feel welcome in Brisbane. It was also great to meet finally Cirque and to have a cuppa with her. It is always a special treat to run with and meet like-minded running souls.

As for those new year's running resolutions: (1) lose weight - thanks Mum, again! (2) do a sub 3.14 PB at the Canberra Marathon, (3) forget I am turning 46 this year, and (4) gain a better sense of time!

I also want to pay homage to the Year 2006. It had its challenges on the personal front, but it was one of the happiest and most satisfying years I have experienced. I met some incredibly fantastic new friends, all through running and blogging about running. All in their own way have brought tonnes of insight, inspiration and fellowship to me. They are very special friends. The next two words are plain and common but are gems nonetheless: Thank You.