NO SLEEP 'TIL BROOKLYN!!!

....as the famous Beastie Boys song goes. because what would a trip to new york be if i didn't first have to drive to a shoot in Santa Barbara for 2 nights only to get a call while i'm up there earlier today that my flight has been cancelled and the next available flight will get me into new york at 9pm?? OH NO NO NO, THIS IS JUST NOT ACCEPTABLE!!! long story short, a trip to new york will require me leaving an hour earlier than originally planned, now at the ass crack o' dawn, 6am, and arriving an hour later than originally planned, now 4pm, but still in time to keep my dinner plans and make my way to the halloween parade for some good laughs and a whole lot o' photos. oh but wait, "where are those extra two hours being spent?" you ask... why DENVER OF COURSE!!! WTF???

Bold, is Boulder anywhere near Denver?? please come save me from myself!!!!!

in case you didn't get the memo, i'm off to new york to run marathon #10. yeah, i guess this one's a milestone. started this odyssey in 2000 and here i am, seven years later, going for #10. this'll be my 3rd new york marathon, the only course i've ever repeated. the rest were (in order):

1. Chicago- it was not 90 degrees the year i ran, rather a brisk 50 degrees, yet still someone died that day at mile 24.
   
2. San DiegoRock 'n Roll - at the time, a pr, 5:29, but hey, isn't your second marathon always a pr?
3. Honolulu - it rained at the very beginning, then got pretty windy and later really friggin' warm. i entered and won a contest put on by Stewart Surfboards to publicly promote their boards in the most creative way possible. i made a 3ft. foam surfboard hat with their logo on it and wore it the entire way through the marathon. yep, 26.2 miles with a foam surfboard hat on my head. here is a pic of me with my grand prize, a 9'2" Colin McPhilips Noserider:
   
   
4. Los Angeles - i thought it would be rad (yeah, i said rad again) to run my hometown marathon. i have to admit though that nothing sucks worse than being all the way out in Leimert Park and realizing you still have to get your already tired ass back to Hancock Park and then Korea Town and finally downtown to the finish line. for those of you who aren't familiar with the greater los angeles area, translation: there's nothing worse than knowing just where you are and how fucking far you are from the finish line. let's just say, i was not singing Randy Newman's "I Love L.A" afterwards. plus, it's a pretty lame song to begin with....
   
5. New York (#1) - i was about 30 pounds heavier than i am now, and on the rag. ladies, i know you feel me on this one. from then on, i've been very careful to schedule races around the "monthly bill." sorry dudes, i know you can't deal with any mention of "the red tide," but it's a fact of life that us ladies have to deal with as much as you do, well, um, with, well sorry, there just isn't anything as aweful that you have to deal with, so you suck. this also happened to be the year P. Diddy ran the race. he only trained for two months, and he beat me by two hours. my only consolation was that he couldn't walk for a week, and i was singin' karaoke by that night, and no, it wasn't a P. Diddy diddy:



6. New Orleans Mardi Gras - pre- katrina. how lucky am i that i got to see this city, and on foot, in all its splendour? the race itself was after mardi gras, so not many spectators as they were all still pretty hungover i'm sure. aftewards i went to visit what family i have left in Misssissippi, and to visit my grandparents' graves. a really emotional trip all the way around. the marathon was the easiest part.
7. New York (#2) - i refer to this one as "the comeback." i was scheduled to run 3 marathons that year beginning with New Orleans, then the Mayor's Midnight Run in Anchorage, Alaska, and finishing up the trifecta in the big apple. that was until a mac truck decided to plow into me on the freeway:the green stuff all over me is from the gallon of fence paint i had in the back of the jeep. upon impact, it flew through the car and hit me in the back of the head. i was so lucky that i didn't break anything!!! just a chest contusion and major back injuries, but nothing broken. a month out from the Midnight Run, doc said i'd be lucky to make the plane ride to Alaska, let alone run the race. so i made the plane ride, but instead just moped around looking at glaciers:
   after physical therapy 3 days a week for 3 months, getting rear ended AGAIN in my rental car (not serious this time) and a relapse and more visits to physical therapy, doc still didn't think i should run new york. i did anyway, and i pr'd and all was right again in the world....
   


8. Las Vegas - my pr to date, 4:44:43. i had finally broken 5 hours!!! this was when i realized that i'm a cool weather runner. 35 degrees at the start with a high of 57. glorious conditions. never have i been cheered on by so many drunk people...
   
9. Avenue of the Giants - hands down, the most beautiful course i've ever run. my runners that i coached that season had bought me a plane ticket to run my dream marathon, and this was the little gem that i picked. you can't beat running through the redwood forest!! on a training run two months before the race, i broke my ankle. dumb move on my part. emergency room doc said there was no way i'd be able to run the race. so you know what i had to do..... yeah, not a pr, but if there was one race i didn't want to rush, it was this one. i literally talked to trees

my lifelong goal is to run a marathon on every continent, but so far, they've all been in the states, so it's gonna be a while. not to mention that i've got to get through this thing called an ironman next. so here's my question, will the marathon in brasil during the ironman count as my south american marathon??

you be the judge:

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