Hello soon to be NYC Marathon Finishers!

I’m sure some – ok ALL of you have begun your initial phase of FREAKING out. It’s completely normal. Just trust in the training you have done this season. You’ve trained through the 100 degree heat waves and an occasional hurricane and Earthquake. You already covered hundreds of miles in your training. What’s another 26.2? While some of you may be concerned that you may have been behind on training, whether it is the case or not, now is not the time to try and catch up. The only thing you can do by running more than the calendars tell you beginning today is greatly increase your chance of injury and/or make yourself tired and in less than perfect condition to take on the challenge. Maybe now is the time to practice some meditation techniques so you are less nervous on November 5^th and 6^th. Picture yourself feeling fresh and with infinite energy, but calmly waiting on the Verrazano Bridge. The gun goes off and you LET every other runner who chooses to do so to run past you, because you are going to run this entire race smart and the right way. You’ll see all those people as you pass them on your way to the finish. Picture just running easy and effortlessly. Think about how big the crowds will be, how much noise will emanate from YOUR millions of fans and the bands playing ROCKY and other songs just for you. Smile back at them with a distinguished look that you know exactly what you are doing and will continue to run the right way. Through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, and the Bronx. Finally, back in Manhattan you’ll come to that familiar place of Central Park. Let the memories of your first time doing a 4-mile, 5-mile, and full 6-mile loop come into site but feel how much better it feels this time, months and months after it all began. You exit the park for a quick period and see an enormous tv screen with YOU on it as you head back into the park at Columbus circle to finish the adventure (or is it just the beginning – the person who finishes the marathon is not the same person as the one that started). As you run up that final little hill before the finish on Tavern on the Green, some of you may begin to tear up, but all of you will have a smile on your face.