17: Magic Bus

Well, I almost had a little disaster on my hands. For those who've never run the NYC Marathon, you don't just take the ferry to Staten Island on the morning of the race and amble up to the start. There are 40,000 people who all need to be at the same place, at the same time, and the descent on SI is a highly orchestrated affair. You need to sign up for official transportation or you're not getting there. They close the roads and only official cars and busses can get through.

The real bummer about all this is that, with so many people to cart over to Staten Island, the procession has to start early. Real early. Like 5AM for some people. You get picked up in Manhattan, driven to Staten Island, and then wait in the cold for hours until the race starts in waves beginning a little bit before 10AM. Most people are pretty anxious the night before the marathon so they don't sleep anyway, and then they're up earlier than usual. It's a recipe for exhaustion; but go ahead and run 26.2 miles after all that!

Anyway, one of the great privileges of running as a guest of my amazing patron is that I've been invited to take their official bus over to the start. Their bus happens to pick up 4 blocks from my apartment and I don't have to be there until 6:15AM - so super swank! At least, that's how it was supposed to go...

I like knowing a plan is confirmed; but I haven't received any sort of communication from my sponsor about race day transportation. I started to get concerned so I sent them an email, just checking in. No reply. So I called - and it's a good thing I did. Apparently, oops, someone at HQ made a mistake and I wasn't on the transportation list, even though transportation had been outlined in my package.

My sponsor apologized and fixed the error - luckily there was still a spot open on the bus. Can you imagine if I hadn't called? All the regular transportation options through the NYRR are now closed. I might not have had a way to get there, though I suppose maybe I could have stayed over night at a hotel in Staten Island? What would I have done!

Hard to believe the marathon is just 17 days from today. I still have running to do. I'll take a nice outdoor jog along the Lake tomorrow here in Chicago, where I'm visiting on business for work. Then Saturday I'll be running 10 miles with a group. What else? I'm organizing a pep rally and fund raiser to take place a few days before the marathon! Details on that to follow...