Wednesday

Still resting my knee. Mowed the back lawn.
Since I am out tomorrow night with my italian lessons I need to do something, so I will walk for an hour, 4 miles before work.

It was pretty much this date a year ago that I went on the NY Marathon website and noticed that my track club had entered me, but neglected to tell or ask me, like they did a the year before.

Entry into the NY Marathon is by lottery. I made it through that way 34 years ago. I think there are 80,000 entries and they select about 35,000. Decent odds, and I made it in my first try. I missed the second year, but my track club called me in the middle of summer and asked if I still wanted to do it. I said yes, and they put me in. Then last year I missed again and the club never called, but on a lark I looked at my name on their website and I was entered. I was excited, and I had 7 weeks to train! I finished with about the same time as the other two: 6 hours.

You see I fast walk it. I can't run because of my herniated discs. The pain is just too great and lingers for two long and it gives me a strange hitch when I run sometimes, not that I run much.

So 4 years ago I came up with this plan to walk it at a little over 4 mph. There were no rules about walking it -- and they even had an early start, 2 hours earlier than the runners, so I would finish at "4 hours", along with the majority of folks, so I wouldn't be out there on my own with a cameraman following the last "runner" in.

While I don't consider myself "disabled", the fact is that my disc damage is not going to get better, so I lined up with other people who had disc issues, were in wheelchairs and on crutches. I was not one of the "fastest" there.

And it was a great event that first time. My cousin came to me me finish and it was 26 miles of smiles.

The second year they wouldn't let me start early because my time was so "fast" the year before, but I had joined the Achilles track club (for disabled runners, and I just wrote on my bib number, "OK for Early Start - Achilles" and they bought that at the start. That year I had learned to write my name on my shirt and everyone yelled, "Go Doug" for 6 hours. I walked with a former Olympic caliber athlete who had been a high jumper but after having her knees replaced could not run. We walked every step together, even though she had targeted 8 hours and we did it in 6.

Then last year I couldn't con my way onto the early bus but a very kind lady from Achilles, an angel, let me into the early start. It was another great race, and my cousin again met me at the end, but I decided that this was it. I couldn't be guaranteed an early spot, we'd had no rain for 3 years, and I "retired" from marathon walking.

But there is no greater single day sporting event for the amateur than this, IMHO. Seeing a million people or more all cheering is just wonderful. And seeing that finish line is priceless. It's at that point that I turn on my IPOD to The theme from Chariots of Fire.