The latest physical challenge this time on US soil was a great success today. It was a very early start following the previous nights birthday celebrations to travel by train from the Bronx to Coney Island for the race start at 9am.
The Marathon Man was enthusiastically greeted by the fellow runners and NYRR event organisers with the starter making special mention of the Marathon Man and the potential limitations presented by running in the cape. I thought it particularly amusing when one local guy commented that the Marathon Man was "totally bad ass".
The race started by running 3 miles along the Coney Island Boardwalk with a number of the boards being loose and posing issues for some runners who took a spill. Heading away from the water the journey then took us along the main road with cross streets such as Avenue O, Avenue M and Avenue N to keep us entertained on the alphabetic street name count back. As it was early Saturday morning in one of the most prominent Jewish areas in town there was a very large Jewish gathering making there way out to honour the Sabath. The highlight of the run was on entering the beautiful Prospect Park. I had to pinch myself with the incredible scenery and the Saturday morning baseball games only having ever been seen on TV before today. It was really rewarding to see so many people get a kick out of seeing the Marathon Man. The beautiful scenery did not lessen the pain of the final few miles with the last mile inevitably seeming to go on forever. In the end it was very exciting to flash across the finish line in a personal best time of 1 hour 48 minutes and 55 seconds. There certainly is lots of improvement ahead though pleased with the effort in Brooklyn!
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