'Run around mahanttan' 50K-(1/31/2010) in honor of ted corbitt

some of the group posing on the Inwood park stairs

running next to the GW bridge...

running up the West side highway --in front of the Intrepid (mile 29)

the group at the staten island ferry terminal (@ mile 24)

Yijoo Kwon talks about his March 23 run across america for diabetes (www.koreanrunner.com)

the group at the start
The letter from Ritchie of Broadway Ultra Society came on Wed. of last week, announcing Dave Obelkevich's annual 33.25 (54K) Run around Manhattan in honor of Ted Corbitt's actual birthday (Jan 31 he would have been 91). Dave has organized and run this for 11 years!!! He is also known for finishing 33 nycms --he has the longest streak. This was a fun run, with coffee and donut and bagel stops along the way. Since I was planning to do a long run, and no race was scheduled, I was intrigued!! Yes, it was going to be cold, but i figured that if Frank came we would be in it together. We could do as much or as little as we wanted. Eliot read about it and jumped on the bandwagon! He would meet us at Dave's apt on west 97 street on Sunday a.m. before the 8 a.m. start! Eliot has just started running ultras, and grew up in China Town so was also intrigued --Frank relunctantly said he'd run but may end up as an ice cube:( (temp--high of 29 degrees).
We drove to the West side uneventfully and found a cheap ($18) parking garage, and met the group at dave's apt. on West end ave and 97th street. I did not let myself think of the long journey ahead --I just kept telling myself it was another long run.
We had a group of Korean road runners with us --one of them,Yijoo Kwon, is running across the U.S.-he made a short speech, and then Dave made a speech about Ted Corbitt and about his running route around manhattan, and we paid a small tribute to Ted, went outside and took some photos and were off about 8:15. We proceeded slowly (10 min pace) up the Westside highway and under the GW bridge and across northern manhattan to Dykman street --it was cold but the sun was shining and I had never run in this area before, so it was cool to be led by Grant and Phil, who liveand run in that area. We were accompanied by Dave's friend Alex, an engineer, on a scooter. He carried water and hot beverages, and generally cheered us on, and told us the mileage if we asked...he was an awesome addition to the run, as he also knew the route!!!
I ran with Ruth, Eliot, Bob Falk, Mike Tobin, and some of the other B.U.S. runners.
After about 7.7 miles, we stopped at Twin Donuts on the upper (186 street) East side.
After the group went to the bathroom, got drinks, donuts coffee...we set out again.
We went all the way down the east side to the nycm route and Marcus garvey park, and cut across to the East side at 90th street - at about mile 17 we stopped at Bob's bagels for about 20 minutes. I got a coke, a whole grain bagel and had some of Eliot's choc. chip cookies --I also had some expresso from Alex!!! The stops were welcome, even though it was tough to get going again after a cozy coffee shop and bagel store..we then went over to the East side drive and ran all the way down. Grant had left us, and Frank, Alijca, Phil and some of the Korean runners were well up ahead. Eliot and I ran together most of the time, even thankfully taking walking breaks (my feet were taking a pounding with the concrete)--he took some photos of us in front of the Brooklyn bridge, and then we jogged to the Staten island ferry terminal,where we went upstairs (24 miles!!!) and met the front running group (being entertained by a clown-haha). Frank said 'where have you been? we've been here for 15 minutes'!! But i reminded him that it was NOT race:) --we then waited for Dave (who had helped Joe in a fall) and then Alex fed us some wonderful hot tea!!!
The whole group then made our way outside the ferry terminal and went up the West side highway, past the Intrepid museum and chelsea brewing --Phil, eliot and I ran most of the way back together, and the last 3 miles went quickly even though I was hurting...(stiff)--we exited off the West side highway into beautiful Riverside park and back to dave's. Frank and a Korean runner, followed by Aljica, were the first to finish. Eliot finished with Phil and I, in fine shape!! His third ultra in 2 months.. We then went up to dave's and changed and had cookies and rootbeer and met his wife...what a great day I had!! This is something I never would do alone.
Even Frank was happy that I dragged him along --our second ultra in January, and this puts me over 210 miles for the month...