Thursday, February 9th, 2012 12:28:54

The Long Haul

My first marathon was New York in 1992. I trained with a group for months but had never gone a full 26.2 miles before the start of the race. Turns out that’s something you ought to do.
The New York marathon is a wonderful event — well planned, well laid out and with great crowds. We took a bus over to the start on Staten Island, where tens of thousands of runners gathered. After over an hour of waiting, the race began. As a slower runner, who was running for completion rather than time, I was near the back of the pack.

The course begins by crossing the Verrazano Narrows Bridge into the borough of Brooklyn. In fact, throughout the 26.2 mile course people lined up cheering the runners on.