What.

Pretty much the only thing I had to respect about Palin was that she ran a marathon. But now that the HuffPo reported this, I can go back to respecting absolutely nothing about her! Thanks guys!
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Sarah Palin dropped out of a 5k race on Thanksgiving Day in Kennewick, Wash. The former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Governor quit the race because she wanted to avoid the crowds that were waiting for her at the end, according to The Tri-Cities Herald.

Palin was 1 of about 3,000 participants. The paper reported that her presence drew a "mass of onlookers." Palin announced that she would be running the race on Twitter.

The Mayoress Finishes Her 7th Marathon

What an amazing day. After an inconsistent training schedule, I was surprised by my strongest run yet - a combination of incredible support from friends, confidence of running this race for the 6th consecutive year, can-do attitude, and the "It's My Birthday" shirt that got tons of shout-outs along the course.

Thanks to Erica & Kirk for this amazing video at mile 7: http://onedayinnovembermarathon.blogspot.com/2009/11/highlights-from-new-york-city-marathon.html

And thanks to everyone who came out to support me & the 40,000 other runners: Alison, Flora, Anthony, Sydney, Marne, Pam, Angie, David, Chris, and my six-time Marathon Maid of Honor, Nicolle. And of course, everyone who blew up my Facebook page with marathon & birthday wishes.

Very special thanks to Lindsey from Toronto, who I met at the start and ran with for the first 16 miles, and Michael "The Power", who I met at mile 18 and ran with for 2. Congrats to fellow finishers Traci, Aida, Andy, Bixby, Chana, and Toby & the Shoe4Africa team.

As the "barefoot runner" Christopher McDougall wrote in my copy of his book "Born to Run": Running is pure magic.

Finally, Someone Designed an Ecard Just for Me

The NYT is All Up in Your Marathon!

Ho! Juliet Macur just called y'all out! Her article in today's Times about slow marathon runners, I must say, is awesome because it's good journalism. She does a good job of explaining arguments for both sides: if you are super slow, what the hell are you doing in a marathon? Versus: 26.2 is 26.2, regardless of time.

Being a six-time marathoner, I'm in the first camp. My PR is 4:02 and my slowest was 4:48, which turns out to be good in the grand scheme as the current women's average is 4:43. But in 1980, it was 4:03.

This year, my excitement at running NYC on 11/1 is very much undermined by the fact that I did not earn my marathon this year. After burning out last year, I took months out and was slow to begin training this year. I was pretty diligent in August, but September was completely off track (pun intended), until a few weeks ago when I just couldn't resist the unique opportunity to race on my birthday. I ran 18 on Wednesday and know I'll get through it, but nowhere near my dream time of breaking 4 hours. If I finish under 5, I'll be thankful.

The best argument for the speedies to keep the slowpokes is that they're funding the race (NYC cost $165 this year - robbery!). But guess what? Real runners don't need the bells and whistles that come with running a big race like New York. Sure, it's fun to have two million fans along the course (except the overeager fans who seep in from the sidewalks in Harlem and near Atlantic Street, STAND BACK WE'RE F'ING TIRED!!), as a purist, my favorite race was the Newport (Oregon) Marathon, just the runners and the scenery. It means more when you work hard.

Then again, if the New York Road Runners would finally enforce the "no headphones in races" rule, I'd personally recruit the walkers. Don't. Get. Me. Started. But for serious, if people who had "marathon" on their bucket list would look at it more like "writing a book" and less like "visit Berlin", we'd have a lot less tourists and a lot more people who respect the time, dedication, and heart it takes to run the race.


~Addendum~
Truth be told, I came back in and edited this post after reading the article's comments -- if you give it your very best, you deserve to be there. I didn't this year, I'll be the first to admit it. I'll still show up, but I have more respect for anyone finishing after me that sacrificed over the past months or even years to kick 26.2 ass next Sunday.

The Dallas Cowboys Just Became My Favorite Team

Since my professional industry is arts/entertainment and my religion is running, I'm particularly interested in the intersection of arts and sports. It's a rare one, to be sure. Back in '04 I wrote and produced a play about training for my first NYC Marathon, but since then, the arts/sports world has been quiet (who can blame them, I'm a hard act to follow)... until now.

The Dallas Cowboys are updating their stadium with contributions from a handful of artists. Says Cowboys owner Jerry Jones in Artnet news: "Football is full of the unexpected and the spontaneous -- it can make two strangers into friends. Art has the power to do that too, to get people talking, and looking, and interacting."

Beautifully put. Listen up, struggling arts organizations: the money may not be on stage, but it's still flowing on the fields.

10 Lessons Obama Can Learn from 43

An interesting article from Bob Woodward in last week's Post on what Obama can learn from W's blunders.

Here are a few more from yours truly:

1. Don't let your Veep boss you around.

2. Let your wife speak.

3. Don't let your daughters be idiots, at least not publicly.

4. Run a marathon.

5. Don't take so many vacations when you should be at least appearing to actively attack important matters.

6. Grammar and proper word usage are important. (But then, you already learned that from that old GOP Veep nom.)

7. Transparency now could save us from a lot of problems later on.

8. Popularity does not trump responsibility.

9. Make friends with the press.

10. Make friends with the Pressler.