Marathon Mania(cs)

So today, the Monday following the ING New York City Marathon, is "Marathon Monday Mania" on the Today show. Part of the madness is that you can get into the 2011 NY marathon before anyone! Sure you have to do a little song and dance, AND take a picture of you completing a scavenger hunt item AND post it to Facebook - AND THEN be lucky enough to have your name pulled from the drawing. We're not quite that ambitious just yet, but good luck to any of you folks out there who are!

One of our favorite parts about the NYC Marathon is the celebrity factor. I mean, can you even imagine...you're running along and then all of the sudden it's like, "oh hey Al Roker - what's the weather going to be like tomorrow?" Now, we've already paid homage to our hero of this race, but let's review some of the other celebs and how they fared...

Bobby Flay had a little marathon "throw down" of his own. He was hoping to beat four hours, and just missed it with an impressive finish of 4:01:37. Justin Gimelstob, professional tennis player and first time marathon runner had to beat 4:45 to win his bet with Andy Roddick to receive $10k for Gimelstob's charity. He crushed the bet, finishing in 4:09:58.

Our personal favorite celebrity charity story was Amani Toomer, former New York Football Giants wide receiver. He was the very last person to start the race, and for every runner he passed Timex is donating $1 to the New York Road Runners youth fitness program. Loves!

Subway + running too soon = ugh

Sal + Liv both got a little overzealous in support of Jared's fight for the cause and overindulged in Subway before our run yesterday. Actually - overindulged isn't the right word for a six inch sub on toasted whole wheat - we prefer to reserve that word for foods like hot fudge sundaes and chili cheese fries. Nevertheless, Subway + running don't exactly mix unless there's at least a 30 minute buffer in the middle [sidebar: Aw cuss! does that mean the whole swimming pool rule about waiting 30 minutes is really true too? We always assumed that was just something our parents told us to make our lives miserable.. jk mom] Anyway, for our marathon next year, Jared and we/us (ummm... Liv + Sal) share the same goal - to just finish the thing.

Moving along...lets talk times. Holy heck - the winner finished in 2 hours and 8 minutes! He would have finished, gotten a massage, maybe an ice bath, and chugged back a couple of mimosas at brunch by the time we'll finish. And of course - 5 out of the 6 winners (men and women) were Kenyans. God - why did you put all so much of the natural running talent in one country? Couldn't you have spread the wealth? She's got the right idea for her blog title, seems like we're always "Chasing the Kenyans."

Sigh.Who knows what's in the cards for us if when we finish our first marathon. Regardless, a major pat on the back to all of you runners from the NYC marathon - and hopefully we'll see you at the starting line (oh yeah... and finish line, too) in the future!

lylas,