NaBloPoMo 2020 Day 1: The Not-Really Virtual NYC Marathon

Tom could not decide which day he wanted to run the NYC Virtual Marathon. If you haven't heard, the Marathon was virtual this year because the regular version was, sadly, canceled due to COVID. 

So Tom paid $150 for the honor of running 26.2 miles all by himself on a route of his choosing. He would need to track himself online so he could prove he had traversed the distance. He had to complete the run sometime between October 17 and November 1. If he succeeded, then he got an automatic and guaranteed entry into the 2022 NYC Marathon. This is a very alluring proposition if you're Tom.

Due to rain forecasts and other important considerations, Tom decided to run yesterday, Saturday October 31. Cutting it close, in other words. Besides the timing conundrum, Tom took many terrain factors into account. He only figured out his final route probably 12 hours prior to race day.

I texted Audrey about all this and she made an excellent point -- there's nothing virtual about this marathon. "Virtual Marathon" is a terrible name. It's more of a DIY Marathon.

Anyway, Tom spent Friday afternoon taping powerbars onto bottles of water. Then he left the apartment and went around and hid the bottles in the bushes along his route. He's done this before, so it's not a brand new idea that is both inventive and somewhat questionable.

Saturday morning, race day, Tom was out the door at the crack of 8 am. He discovered somewhat early on that rats and/or raccoons had eaten his water bottle/powerbar stashes. Chewed right through the plastic and left little wrappings in a sticky pile.

Shit suddenly got real for me because I'd now be the one and only water stop along Tom's DIY marathon route. I raced out of the apartment, got myself a Citibike and careened up the West Side greenway. Tom was only ten blocks behind me so it was frankly really stressful. I butt dialed several people along the way who all started texting asking if everything was ok. One of them was a reporter for ABC News because, you know, if I'm going to do something I always get the press involved.

Bruce had agreed to meet me up by his place on the Upper West Side. He said he was already out on the path and Bernardo had even made a "Go Tom" sign. Except when I rolled in to the rendezvous point, they were nowhere to be seen. Turns out, they were on the west side path in Central Park. Ok, crossed wires there. 

Nonetheless, I managed to spot Tom and hand him water and carbs. The exchange took 8 seconds max. I packed all my cheering gear and water bottles up and left the marathon route, heading inland to meet up with Bruce. We had coffee. Frankly, I deserved a little break after my superb portable waterstop performance and the bike ride up was exhausting, especially with all the phone activity.

After that I went up to 95th where I was supposed to hook up with Petrina for a second cheering session. She comes flying down the path toward me on a CitiBike and tells me that Tom is right behind her. She parks the bike. I say, "act casual and he'll think you've been here for hours, if not minutes." 

Tom goes by like seconds later. And it was another extremely successful spectation. A small triumph if you will. We had hand clappers and a cow bell.

Petrina and I got more CitiBikes and rode down to where Tom said he was going to finish in Central Park. We were slightly concerned because he'd sent a text that said, "I'm running lo Luke." 

Petrina speculated that it meant his phone was running low on juice, which would not be good if we couldn't find him.

Turns out, the text was supposed to have been, "I'm running the Lower Loop." By the time we arrived, Tom had already crossed the finish line. And no worries, he had lots of battery life left in his phone. 

Tom climbed into another bush to retrieve a pair of sweatpants and another shirt. He had hidden them there earlier. Luckily, no wildlife or otherwise had eaten his stash: