Running 26.2 miles is hard. But not hard in a Western States 100 or Badwater kind of way (not that I have run either, but I can only imagine).

Yesterday, I ran 26.2 miles through the five boroughs of New York City, along with about 37,000 other folks. The NYC crowds, more than 1 million strong, carried me. It was a true cultural panorama, running though practically every type of neighborhood and being cheered by people of every ethnicity I can think of.

A sage friend and running partner of mine, Brendan, who is a former world-class runner, has told me that no matter what the distance, you are not really racing unless you don't know if you can finish at the halfway point, and I think he is right.

At 13.1 miles yesterday, there was a guy with a very loud megaphone...he was saying that the good news was that we were in the top 2,000 runners, the bad news was that there was a 65 year-old man and 65-year old woman ahead of us.

I picked up my pace, but the thing that I know from experience is that the rules of math are suspended during a marathon and the halfway point is actually at 20 miles. At 20 miles, I didn't know if I could finish. But I never walked, and the crowd forced me to keep going...at mile 22, I decided that I should stop feeling sorry for myself, quit jogging, and actually race the last four miles.

Over the final four miles, I think I passed at least a couple hundred people...but as much as I like passing people in general, I take no pleasure in passing someone who has hit the wall, and with miles to go, is nearly crying in agony and is limping or otherwise dragging themselves towards the finish line. From experience, I know exactly what it feels like to be that person.

But before I get to the results, I would recommend a peek at the World's Longest Urinal (WLU) (of course I used it!) located near the starting line. It's much better than waiting 45 minutes (no joke) for the porta-potties, which most of the women do. Despite the presence of the WLU in the pre-race gathering area, the actual starting line area is a giant urine-fest as everyone keeps hydrating right before the race. Men were urinating every which way, and if you claimed your shoes were not splattered by some of it, you'd probably be lying.

I finished 888th at 3:06:47, or 19 seconds faster than my time at Boston earlier this year. The competition, of course, was fiercer at Boston, where I finished 1,126th out of 18,319 (top 6.1%) vs NYC: 888/37,000 = top 2.4%.

But 100X more impressive is the following:

1. The winners yesterday beat me by *nearly an hour*...they ran at a sub-five minute mile average pace the entire way. The guy who finished second ran a blistering 4:22 mile at mile 16, which is one second faster than the fastest mile I have ever run, (on a track, in high school) and I thought I was going to die at the end of that mile. Despite being a proficient runner these days, I highly doubt I could run one sub-five minute mile, let alone 26 of them consecutively.

2. Yesterday, 76-year old Francesco Benelli won his age group with a time of 3:33, and 72-year old Ginette Bidard won her age group at 3:46. Such times at those ages are beyond anything I can imagine.

After the race, I showered and we headed to JFK. I felt a bit sick but not nearly sick enough for the ER, and Holly was a rock as always. We boarded on time, then taxied, but then waited 3 hrs 15 mins as there was a weather-related full ground stop on all outbound domestic traffic at all NYC area airports. While sitting on the plane, I reached by cell phone my wise friend Zab, a doctor and a veteran of more marathons than you would believe, who told me to drink beer and OJ...which was, as always, fine advice.

Fortunately we slept a bit on the plane. Got home and to bed at 1:30 am today (felt like 4:30 am because we were still on NYC time!) and then back up at 6:00 am and into work by about eight. Speaking of work, time to resume it.

Special thanks to Louie and family for house and pet-sitting (Emma is the #1 fan of Louie and Lynn's precious daughter) and to Ty for restaurant and hotel recommendations (which will be the topic of my next blog entry).