Now there’s no leaving New York
I spent all of last week in NYC. For the first four days I was there with New Balance filming a commercial that will air in February. I’m not sure how much actual ‘face-time’ I’ll get as there were about 12 NB athletes from all over the place and I was not one of the main ‘stars’. The shoot itself was quite the experience and was a much bigger production than I anticipated. I think the spot is going to look really cool and I can’t wait to see the finished product.
The set of the NB production.
NB treated us well for the trip and then everyone was scheduled to leave on Thursday. I asked them to book my departure flight on Sunday to stay on my own so I could watch the NYC marathon. Let’s just say it would have been better to live cheaply and then upgrade instead of having the good life and then downsizing.
On Friday I did a workout through Central Park and saw a bunch of the marathoners doing some running and light strides. Two-time NYC marathon champ Marilson Gomes Dos Santos was watching me do a workout and gave me the look as if to say “you’re nuts for going hard two days before a marathon”. I’m guessing he recognized me from the World Champs last year because I was surprised it looked like he knew me. My workout went well but it beat up my left foot again, too much road in one week. The next day I was again running in Central Park and as I passed Marilson I gave him the “you don’t want to be racing me” look, complete with a head nod. He gave me the “I’ll see you on the line” stare right back. I’m sure he’s a nice guy but it was kind of fun to play head games with him when I’m not even racing.
The women’s race was really close. 1-2-3 neck and neck 39km into the race!
Here’s a shot of eventual winner Gebre Gebremariam right before the 40km mark. I was waiting for Bairu to come by and after a while I realized he must have dropped (he did at 22 miles). I was so interested in Bairu’s result that it didn’t occur to me until a little while later that I didn’t see Haile G go by either.
So back to my foot. It was really sore after Friday’s workout and I decided to not run again that afternoon. On Saturday I was scheduled for 30km but was ready to pull the chute if my foot was in too much pain. I strapped on a pair of NB 860’s (lots of cushion) and ran about 25 of 30km around the soft Bridle path and reservoir. Even after a 30km run my foot was feeling better. On marathon day I was running around the streets trying to catch glimpses of the race so this morning I relegated myself to the pool. Once again this will be a week where I spend plenty of time in the pool to heal my foot as I prep for the Tim Horton’s Casablanca 8km in Grimsby this Saturday.
I got to do some sight-seeing on this trip and one of the things I thought was really cool was the High Line. It’s an old raised railway that has been converted to green space. Right now it spans about 10 blocks in Chelsea but it’s going to be much longer in the near future. Here’s pic of the High Line and another one from the High Line looking into the city before sunset.
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FLOAT ON 
That’s a pretty slick looking track if it’s a real one or just used for the commercial
Havent been to NYC but hunch is they need more of those green spaces. that looks pretty cool how they re-did that railway..
I wonder how bairu’s pace was an what he would have finished had he not stopped
It’s only 130m and was only used for the commercial. It’s going to be set-up somewhere else, but not really for training.
Such a sad moment for Haile. Hopefully he thinks it through a bit more
Hi Reid,
Is recovery from a marathon (Toronto) typically 10 days for you and is that a normal protocal. Does Eric G have a similar recovery protocol or is this where Dave individualizes you program? Also, will your foot issue hamper training efforts for your spring marathon (in an attempt to run a faster marathon) if it does not stop flaring up and at what point would you pull the plug if necessary on national x-country to preserve an opportunity to run a sweet spring marathon with no interuptions? Finally, how much does Dave weigh in on these decisions?
All the best at nationals,
Scott (from Victoria, BC)
I said I wouldn’t run for at least 10 days after the marathon, if I needed more I would of taken more days. I actually felt ready after 5 days but Dave and I felt a good recovery was important at this stage. Eric took a little longer break to heal a nagging injury. I’m trying to get this foot thing under control so I’ll see how running once a day works this week and I plan on taking a little downtime in December… the main thing is to be ready by January to get into marathon training. If I need to take more time off or scale back to be healthy by January I will. I discuss everything with Dave (he re-inforced today that it’s best to heal my foot now and be ready for a Spring marathon) although he knows at this point I can read my body pretty well.
glad you got to the high line, see you in the park dude.
By chance one night I was walking under the High Line and recognized it and then later in the week I was visiting a friend who lived right by it so he took me on a little tour.
You know Gomes Dos Santos was just giving you the ‘why on earth did he ever cut that carrot top mop he was rocking last summer’ look.
Will you be posting the commercail on your blog? What spring marathon are you planning on doing? Or have you not decided yet?
The commercial doesn’t come out until February or so, but I’ll post it when it does. We’re still working on the Spring marathon.
Did you get to race Jenny B on the NB track? Who won the 130m showdown?