Wish I Had A Cabin...: November 2007

Ryan Shay Tribute

And while in NYC at the Olympic Trials for the men's marathon, both the Notre Dame and running community suffered a great loss with the passing of Ryan Shay during the trials.

Here is a nice tribute to him

Please say a prayer for his family and new wife.

New York City Marathon

So, I have now made it to two marathons in less than 2 months- and again, I have not yet run one- and do not see it happening soon ;) As part of the new role I am in I joined the Chicago Marathon team in NYC for the Olympic Trials and the marathon- it was a gorgeous weekend- a bit chilly, the wind and the clouds would normally settle in by the afternoon- but it was still a good weather weekend considering it was the first weekend in November- unreal! Every morning it looked like this...

If you look just to the left of the picture you can imagine Conan O'Brien- as we were walking to check out a non-existent cheering zone 3miles away in Harlem (just ask, I can tell you the story some time) - we ran into Conan and his family- very cute! So after we stopped and had a quick chat with Conan we continued the quick walk to Harlem - we then stopped on our way back to cheer on a Kellogg friend, and now husband to my ND room mate, Brian- he says the hills were a bit much- but hey, Chicago is not known for its hills- and he did all of his training there. But he did really well! Congrats on a great finish!

As we watched Brian pass at mile 24 we continued back into Central Park- where I quickly got us lost- I felt like we could use some off-roading I guess bc all of a sudden we realized we were on dirt and not the pavement- luckily a squirrel showed us the way out and we made our way back to the finish line with time to spare. Oh, about 2 hours later Mr. Tom Cruise arrived at the finish line to await his "amazing" wife's finish- while holding Suri- she really is adorable! And do not fret- at no time did Tom take his aviators off- or stop chomping on his gum-

And after 30 minutes or so- we (well Tim, really, then me- because it didn't look like her in my opinion- Katie and I are close you know) saw Katie and her posse running towards the finish line- she crossed around 6:05, but adjusted for her chip time I think she was just under 5:30... right behind Lance- who we heard was running into the arms of some 12 year old as he crossed the line 3 hours earlier... yuck

And here is one last shot of Tom praising his "amazing" wife at the finish line-
The one thing I just could not get over was that as she crossed the line and did the PR thing- no one ever got her a bottle of water or gatorade- I mean really folks- help a girl out.

Thanks to Tim who waited with me at the finish line to "watch the finishers" which really means "wait for two hours in the cold to see Katie and Tom" - while everyone else had returned to the hotel for a beer :)