It’s noon on Saturday, and surreal that in exactly 24hrs, I’ll be running somewhere in Brooklyn or Queens on my way towards Central Park. Hopefully I’ll be doing well, keeping things at a good pace. Actually, since arriving in NYC, I’ve become less nervous and more excited about the marathon tomorrow. Saw lots of people walking around midtown Manhattan carrying their distinct Asics marathon race packets. Went to the Expo yesterday to pick up my race packet and bib. It was in the Javitts Convention Center (never been there before) - the expo was big, well organized, and a gave me a huge boost in excitement. I got my bib, race shirt, visited the booths, and bought some obligatory souvenir gear.

They had some pretty cool things at the expo, but by far, the absolutely best thing was the picture below (click on photos to view full size):

At the ING Marathon Booth, there was a video (filmed with “NYC Runner Cam”) taking you on a high-speed tour of the entire 26.2 miles, complete with mile and km counter, names of the neighborhoods, course info like “4th ave in Brooklyn, longest straightaway on the course” or “routes converge at Clinton Hill”, etc…..all the way to the finish. It was an incredible visualization tool, set to great music, and I have to say I was feeling pretty emotional by the time it got to the finish. They had the video playing on a loop. The booth was always packed with runners, standing/sitting around the video monitor, silently focused on the screen. It was mesmerizing.

We’re about to head off for lunch, then I’m going to check in at the hotel.