The excitement for the 2017 TCS NYC Marathon is building. Less than 3 weeks to go! On Tuesday, we crossed a major milestone. We got our race assignments….

So, I have been assigned to Green Wave 4 Corral E. It sounds kind of crazy. Right? Well, the way the NYC Marathon works is that there are 3 different color corals (Orange, Blue, and Green). Each color has 4 Waves (1-4) and each wave has 6 corrals (A-F). Got it? The color you are in determines where you start. Here’s what it is going to be like.

See the color lines? The Orange and Blue start running up the Verrizano Bridge’s upper deck. The Green (my color) starts on the lower deck. By the way, I got this image from Runnar Gundersen…a 38 year NYC Marathon veteran. He’s got a great web site to help with getting ready to run this marathon. You can view it by clicking here.

The Orange, Blue, and Green Wave 1 starts together. Then, the Orange, Blue, and Green Wave 2, etc. Each color has a slightly different route to get to the 5K mark. Then, they both run up 4th Avenue in Brooklyn together. However, until mile 8, the Orange and Blue runners must stay to the left and the Green runners on the right. It sounds more complicated than it will be come race day. After all, I just need to know where to go to wait. Once I get started, it will be the typical game of following the leader all the way to the finish line.

I’m a little bummed that I will be running the lower deck. However, by running in the Green wave, I will be on the right side of the street in Brooklyn for a picture I really want to take in mile 7. During this mile, we will pass by the street my mom first lived on! She lived off of 5th and 7th Avenue. So, we will be one block off. However, I am planning on getting a pic at that intersection. So, Green isn’t all too bad.

Anyways, as for last week’s running…I really need to get over this cold ASAP. I only got one run in…

I got 3 miles in last Wednesday! It was slow on purpose. I was still nursing this cold and hoping to run 23 miles on the weekend. So, I kept my marathon intervals of run 30 seconds, walk 90 seconds. Although, for the last quarter-mile I went with a run 1 minute, walk 1 minute intervals.

As you can see, I was decently consistent! I was happy that mile 2 was less than 13 minutes. This mile usually wrecks my finish times. So, even though I believe I can run faster than this, it was what I needed this run to be.

On the weekend, I fell victim of over-scheduling myself again. We went up to my parents place to finally celebrate the summer birthdays. It was lots of fun. There’s a small play area where they live where Colton can play and go down a slide (which he loves). So, the day was fun. However, were there for most of the day. So, that meant no 23 mile run on Saturday or Sunday.

On Sunday evening, we got to see our friends Josh and Wendy who were out from Colorado for a wedding. We got to have dinner with them at Downtown Disney. It was lots of fun to get get to actually hang out in person with our friends. They got to meet Colton for the first time. It was fun to see Colton instantly bond with them! Such a fun night.

I’ve got one last long run left to finish before the marathon. This weekend, it will be 23 miles or bust. The wife knows how much I need this run. So, we’re both doing our best to make sure I get that run in. After all, if it doesn’t happen this weekend, it’s not going to happen. I am a little bummed that I won’t get a 26 mile training run in before the NYC Marathon. But, to miss 23 as well would be bad. I’m really hopeful that I will be reporting on my 23 mile run next week. Wish me luck!