Haile and me
It was 3 weeks ago that Sr.LG ran the Berlin marathon. No running records were broken... which of course is not surprising, since , as Clem pointed out in a comment on the blog, all members who have their best record-breaking years still in them, were no shows. So what's the president and eternal Queen of SLG to do? She has to go look for other members of course.
Rumor has it that a runner from Ethiopia was interested in becoming an SLG member. He went through great lengths to find us, and actually stayed in our hotel. We had a chance meeting at the check in counter, and this runner, Haile Gebrselassie showed me quite an impressive running portfolio. He seemed very eager to join SLG and although I could not consult with the founding fathers, Dora, Clem, Gil and I thought that this runner could add something to our club and we signed him up immediately/ The rest of course is history. Yes, we did have a new record!!!! Haile broke his own world record that he set last year in Berlin by 23 seconds, finishing in 2:03:59!!!
This, of course is the poetic interpretation of how I got my picture taken with Haile, but I thought it would be a good way to get you people curious about the blog. I fared much worse in this perfect marathon and I am not going to dwell on the why and what ifs. All I can say is that Berlin is a very interesting city, the marathon course is beautiful, shaded and extremely flat and the weather was picture perfect.
Besides that, it felt really nice on Friday night, when SLG'ers from two continents, with fans, family and friends in tow all showed up at the bar of the Marriott Hotel. Even though there were less than half the runners of our great Chicago marathon two years ago, we were all extremely happy to be there. Dora, came with her friend Geert, who at 39 was running in his first marathon. Gil brought his sister Gloria, a veteran marathon runner who seemed poised to do well.
And here we are, sans Clem (who was staying in a diffrent hotel) on the way to the start.
As I mentioned before, my marathon did not go as planned. It was really nice to shoot the breeze with Gil and Gloria while we were waiting for the starting gun to go off. The three of us stayed together for a couple of miles, and then Gloria took off. Surprisingly, Gil and I stayed together until mile 5 and then he too was gone. Just before the half way mark, I got lightheaded. I stopped, walked a bit, swore and started jogging again. From the 24th kilometer on, I walked part of almost every kilometer that was left, and that's a lot of kilometers to be walking in. I had hoped to break 3:50, after the 20 km I realized it would be great to finish under 4 and I finished in a pitiful 4:17:09
Clem and I were the first people back to the hotel. Clem also was disappointed! Then the waiting began. How would Gil have done. Did he finish with his "broken" hip? Would he look OK? Would he feel OK? I guess we all got worried for a while, but then there he was, all smiles and walking in with his sister. Everybody was so relieved that he had finished and that he looked well, nobody even thought to ask him about his finishing time! It wasn't until later that we realized that Gil had beaten the reigning king, Clem. He had done the impossible. The CIMYC trophy was coming back to American soil!!!!!
And here we are. Gloria, the winner of our little group with a time of 3:37:50. Congratulations to Gloria. King Gil finished in a time of 3:42:09 and immediately announced his retirement. Too bad, considering that this result qualifies him for the Boston marathon..... BIG 5 ANYONE????
Clem finished in 3:46:06. More important than this result is that he knocked of marathon #92, in his quest to run his hundredth marathon in July of 2010! Mark your calendars, SLG'ers! Lief's time of 4:17:08 also made her consider retirement. She even announced it right after the run. But other great women (like
Cher and Tina Turner) have announced their retirements several times, only to unretire. So who knows.
Then there is Dora, 4:28:30. Dora does not care about fast, or faster or slow! Dora truly enjoys running marathons and has big aspirations. More about that later. And next to Dora is her friend Geert. First time marathoner, finishing in a time of 3:58 and change but who cares about the "and change". (Even the Boston marathon qualifying standards don't care about the "and change", but more about that later...). Congratulations to Geert, who according to Dora, still has a runners high, 3 weeks after the marathon.
So, it was Another Fine Day for SLG!!! And this, together with the fact that the CMIYC trophy came back to this side of the ocean, calls for a celebration. So, for all of you who can make it on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008, come for a party and help us crown the new King at SLG headquarters at 22 West 76th street. This counts as an official invitation, so please let me know whether you can make it. !!!!!
And here we are, sans Clem (who was staying in a diffrent hotel) on the way to the start.
As I mentioned before, my marathon did not go as planned. It was really nice to shoot the breeze with Gil and Gloria while we were waiting for the starting gun to go off. The three of us stayed together for a couple of miles, and then Gloria took off. Surprisingly, Gil and I stayed together until mile 5 and then he too was gone. Just before the half way mark, I got lightheaded. I stopped, walked a bit, swore and started jogging again. From the 24th kilometer on, I walked part of almost every kilometer that was left, and that's a lot of kilometers to be walking in. I had hoped to break 3:50, after the 20 km I realized it would be great to finish under 4 and I finished in a pitiful 4:17:09
Clem and I were the first people back to the hotel. Clem also was disappointed! Then the waiting began. How would Gil have done. Did he finish with his "broken" hip? Would he look OK? Would he feel OK? I guess we all got worried for a while, but then there he was, all smiles and walking in with his sister. Everybody was so relieved that he had finished and that he looked well, nobody even thought to ask him about his finishing time! It wasn't until later that we realized that Gil had beaten the reigning king, Clem. He had done the impossible. The CIMYC trophy was coming back to American soil!!!!!
And here we are. Gloria, the winner of our little group with a time of 3:37:50. Congratulations to Gloria. King Gil finished in a time of 3:42:09 and immediately announced his retirement. Too bad, considering that this result qualifies him for the Boston marathon..... BIG 5 ANYONE????
Clem finished in 3:46:06. More important than this result is that he knocked of marathon #92, in his quest to run his hundredth marathon in July of 2010! Mark your calendars, SLG'ers! Lief's time of 4:17:08 also made her consider retirement. She even announced it right after the run. But other great women (like
Cher and Tina Turner) have announced their retirements several times, only to unretire. So who knows.
Then there is Dora, 4:28:30. Dora does not care about fast, or faster or slow! Dora truly enjoys running marathons and has big aspirations. More about that later. And next to Dora is her friend Geert. First time marathoner, finishing in a time of 3:58 and change but who cares about the "and change". (Even the Boston marathon qualifying standards don't care about the "and change", but more about that later...). Congratulations to Geert, who according to Dora, still has a runners high, 3 weeks after the marathon.
So, it was Another Fine Day for SLG!!! And this, together with the fact that the CMIYC trophy came back to this side of the ocean, calls for a celebration. So, for all of you who can make it on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008, come for a party and help us crown the new King at SLG headquarters at 22 West 76th street. This counts as an official invitation, so please let me know whether you can make it. !!!!!
posted by Lief at 8:24 AM
1 Comments:
Can't wait to hear the gory details of the story: I'll be at the party!
Tom
8:49 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home