It's Almost Race Day!

Thanks so much to everyone who has supported me every step of the way. I am now very close to my initial fundraising committment, but every dollar over that just means more money for research for pediatric cancers. The deadline for donations isn't until December 15th, 2005 so if you haven't donated yet but want to, there is still plenty of time. It feels good to be doing something about this disease however small, especially since way too frequently someone I know well gets diagnosed with some type of cancer.

Last Saturday, October 29th, I completed my last long run before the Marathon, running 20 miles in just a little over 3 hours. It was a relatively cold day, but I much prefer that to some of the summer runs where I was drinking over 3 litres during the run and several more before and after. It went very well and was one of the least physically impactful long runs I have done.

I will be leaving for New York Saturday afternoon. There is the race expo at the Javits center which is open and free to the public (9AM-5PM) where I need to pick up my race number and ChampionChip which is an electronic RFID tracking device which records the official times whenever I run over a sensor mat which is located at the finish and several other intervals. Then during the evening, there is the pasta dinner at the Tavern on the Green.

I have to be on the buses to Staten Island at 6:45 AM, so I should be at the start around 7:30 where I will wait the 3 hours until the open field starts. I have heard that because of the amount of people there, sometimes it takes 15-30 minutes after the start to cross the starting line. From the starting line to the finish, I hope to take just under 4 hours which will be a significant accomplishment for me. In addition to Fred's team, I am hoping to hook up with the 9 minute per mile pace team, which, if I am able to keep up with the leader, should get me to the finish within 2 minutes of 3:56.

Again, thanks so much to everyone for all your help and support!