NYC Marathon Expo Report from Saturday!

(This post was originally intended for Saturday afternoon; however, after I finished the first version of this lengthy NYC Marathon Expo report, blogger.com was down!)

Incredible is all I can say! I would say that this is one marathon, despite the logistical issues that come from being in one of the world's largest metropolitan areas, that you must do once!

I caught a bus from outside of the Fairfield Inn in East Rutherford, New Jersey (which is just about .75 miles away from the Continental Airlines Arena where we catch the bus to Staten Island in the morning) and took it to the Port Authority of NJ/NY Bus Terminal.

Myself, two runners - including a blonde from Finland that was doing her fourth NYC Marathon - and their family or friends all took the bus and then walked together from 42nd St. and 8th Ave. to the Javits Center that is located at 38th St. and 11th ave.

Once there, it was incredibly easy to have your registration card reviewed and ID checked, pick up your race number and chip, go and get your bag and long sleeve T-shirt and be dumped right into the merchandise area.

I got myself another nice race jacket that is primarily orange with dark blue stripes down the side and I picked Waverly up a T-shirt that was of the same design of the T-shirt that all the runners. (She said that she'll wear that the day of their mile run at school, which I'll be able to attend during the Thanksgiving week.)

After that is when the fun began!

I began to walk around the expo and saw the Pace Team tables. I walked up to the 5:30 pace leader, he saw my ConocoPhillips Rodeo Run t-shirt and surmised that I was from Houston. He introduced himself as "Arlen" and I said, "And it must be Isham." I think he was a little stunned. I explained to him my relationships with the Striders, Steve Shepard and Tom Stilwell (the last two HARRA presidents) and that it was sort of my "job" to know these sort of things. We talked a little bit about the pacing situation for awhile. I told him that I'd make it back around after having a chance to think about it.

I talked to the folks from the Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which is in October. (I mentioned about possibly doing God's Country so that I could get a visit into my grandparents in June and they kind of tried to talk me out of it, but not to do theirs instead.) Their course, which ends in Scranton and goes through 11 Pennsylvania towns, is almost a complete downhill but is a Boston qualifying course as well. One of the two gentleman knew the other co-owner of a running shoe store that was co-owned by a former co-worker of mine who was my first inspiration into the sport.

At the next table were the folks from the New Orleans Track Club, the 2005 hosts of the RRCA National Convention. I got a chance to meet Chuck George and he told me to make sure that I told Steve Shepard "thanks" for some support that the club offered to their running members after Hurricane Katrina. They said that they were looking forward to bringing a good contingent over in March for the 2006 National Convention in Houston.

I spoke to a couple of guys who were manning the table at marathonsoftexas.com. It is a site of the Austin Marathon Foundation project and they will give out a medal to anyone who completes Dallas White Rock, Chevron Houston and Freescale Austin. However, I told him that I had e-mailed somebody on the site to find out what they were going to give away but that I hadn't heard from anyone. He said that the female that was in charge of it would be there at noon. I cycled back around but I never saw the person that they were mentioning.

I saw an 8-minute video of the entire course that was presented by the sponsor, ING. Pretty interesting! I got a picture on the "ING bench" that will be available online in a few days. (I'll post the link when it comes online!) Best Buy and Tylenol 8 Hour were doing the same things.

The following items may be out of order a little bit, but I did buy a belt like I saw Suzy Seeley wearing last Sunday to put my Gu packets as well as a credit card, cash and my bus ticket back to Jersey. I also bought some $6 "Texas" socks. The flag shows right at the ankles! [Nobody noticed them!]

I saw Ultra Marathon Man Dean Karnazes signing his book, "Ultra Marathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner," at the Runner's World booth. He is only about 5'9", but - as you can imagine to pull off a 263-mile run - in incredible shape.

Just down from him was a young lady who had one of the most vivacious smiles in the building. She was featured on the cover of the December 2004 issue of Runner's World. You may simply remember her as the blonde who has the medal leg. That's Sarah Reinertsen. At the time of that article, she failed to achieve her goal of being the first woman with a prosthetic leg to finish an Ironman. Well, in Kona this year, she did it in 15:05! I told her about Waverly doing the half and she signed her promotional card as follows: "Waverly, Run strong and go the distance! You can do it! Love, Sarah Reinertsen" [They had a special on Sarah early in the marathon coverage that Waverly said she saw.]

I talked at length with Alan Brookes, the race director of the Toronto Waterfront Marathon. He also saw my shirt, being from Houston, and commented that there were a number of Striders that had gone up to Toronto and had recently contacted him about getting pictures for their club newsletter. Who knew? I didn't. I remembered while talking to him that he had posted a comment on my running blog when he saw a post that I made about the showdown between 70-something runners Ed Whitlock and Joop Ruter. He said that he was coming down to Houston to work the Marathon Expo there. If you remember, stop by and tell him, "Hi!"

As I was wandering around, I saw Runner's World's Bart Yasso, told him that I enjoyed his presentation at the HARRA Summer Celebration and that we were looking forward for him to come back to Houston in March 2006 to speak during the Friday luncheon at the RRCA National Convention. It was funny watching him walk off and people from various marathons offering him race brochures having no clue as to who he was!

Continuing my way around the Expo, I saw Dick Beardsley autographing at the New Balance booth. Beardsley, who will turn 50 in March, was the runnerup at the Houston Marathon in 1981 and 1982 and he was describing about how the marathon then was on a freeway, all on concrete (obviously) and was a couple of "out and backs." I told him, "It is still all on concrete." Just the Sunday before, he had run an impressive third in the Marine Corps Marathon 8K. He finished second behind a mid 20s runner and a younger 30s runner and said that he was pretty stoked about that. However, he said that the hill at the end just before the finish line got the better of him. I told him that we were looking forward to a couple of individuals in his marathon training camp operations, Rich Benyo and Jan Seeley, coming to speak at the Convention in March. Extremely nice guy!

The last person that I met, at the Tylenol 8 Hour booth, was Chris Carmichael, who is Lance Armstrong's personal coach. No, I didn't ask him about the "B" sample from 1999; however, I did ask him if we would see Lance in any running events in the future. He explained that Lance was a competitive individual and not to be surprised if you saw him enter a 10K here or there or a sprint triathlon. I also asked him a question that he reminded me that Runner's World had asked him regarding what kind of time that Lance would run in a marathon. He estimated "approximately a 2:40" but that Lance had some limitations biomechanically as far as running goes. Interesting stuff regardless!

As I was leaving the Expo, just inside the building and as I was walking toward the Bus Terminal, I thought the individual wasn't just your average everyday person. It wasn't. He had a media badge, but I couldn't figure out quite who it was because he didn't fit to me. However, when I got back to the hotel, looked up a picture of the individual then I realized that it was 1968 Boston Marathon winner Amby Burfoot who now works for Runner's World. Duh! And I didn't take the chance; however, we were walking two blocks from the Javits Center. He might of thought that I was a stalker or something!

How else do you learn more about the sport - and cover it - than knowing who the movers and shakers are and how to approach them and glean the information that you need to share with your audience.