The marathon is a race of endurance that tests your physical and mental strength. First, I drove with Steve on Friday to Dripping Springs, TX to attend Blake and Meredith’s wedding.

Blake’s gettin married

The Tornado entourage had already arrived in NYC the day before – Leno Rios, Jennifer Brown, Anne Nguyen, Stacy Holden, Anna Helm and Amabely Lopez. A Tornado cheer squad also followed them from Houston to New York. Anne Finke, my friend from the 2008 Ironman Brazil, had her family join her in New York as well, for her marathon debut. We were set to run another big racing event together, but I was still in TX. Early Saturday morning Steve kindly dropped Trey and me off at ATX for our flight to NYC. It was a great relief meeting Anne N. at the expo, which by the time we arrived was beginning to break down. I sought shelter from the chilly wind under a tent and waited for the rest of the group to arrive later on the ferry. runner’s village, so I continued to wait under the welcoming tent wasting energy trying to keep myself warm on the frozen ground.

I called Anne N. to get an update on when they’d be arriving. There were able to retrieve Anne N’s phone number, who sent Anna and Leno to meet me with food and warm clothes.

Part of the contingent in New York.

After waiting for what felt like a marathon, it was time to do what I came here to do – run a marathon through the streets of New York. The crowd of runners started to thin out and by chance I ran up alongside Leno on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge. The Queensboro Bridge stretched across the East River for a mile and dropped us into Manhattan at mile 16. The course quickly turned direction as I crossed the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan at mile 21.

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The Big ‘Sour’ Apple