I had a good time!

That is what I say when people ask me how I did in the New York City Marathon. It was the slowest marathon I ever finished, but I had a good time. I stopped and hugged my family, embarrass some friends, and even stopped to take some pictures. I stood on the top of the Verrazano bridge and felt like the King of the World, I was. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. I had a good time.

Now my friend Ricardo, he had a good time. He finished the race more than two hours faster then me. But we are more different than that, he said he would have preferred to have run on the lower level of the Verrazano Bridge. "What", I said, "the lower level is dark, you can't even make believe you are on TV and you are likely to get peed on". "So what", he said, "there is less elevation gain. You can run a faster race".

THAT never accrued to me, I hardly even notice that the bridge is up hill. But wait, Ricardo was more right than he even knew. If you run on the lower level you are actually running a shorter race. We have all been told to "Run the Tangents". To not run down the middle of the road, but to get to the inside of the turns. If the lower level is 20 feet below the upper then you save at least 20 feet of running. Maybe a lot more, but I am incapable of such math.

I would rather run higher and longer and get look at some sky for the fist 2 miles of a marathon. I am also glad there is room for both of our strategies. We both had a good time, except I had two more hours of it.
;-0