[Watcher]

Hi Treasur, FaithWalker, OffRoad, UrsaMajor.

Montreal was marathon #10 and I have New York City and Tokyo on my upcoming schedule. I need to find one for Fall 2025 and I'm always working on gaining entry into Boston to complete the 6 World Majors.

I have run 1,550 miles thus far in 2024 and have just surpassed 7,000 miles in year #7 of running. I have run 172 races of varying distances of which 45 have been half marathons which is my favorite distance.

I love the traveling aspect and I'm always hiking or enjoying the lake scenery in upstate NY on 3 or 4 day weekends. I was having coffee the other morning and a woman picked my brain for about an hour.

She only asked me about 5,000 questions and I answered them all. She marveled about my travels and I sensed she was ready to take flight herself. Maybe she was divorced or maybe it was just her time now to go explore. I used explore and she stole it from me. She was very excited.

Anyway she was on crutches and I think she wanted to travel with me so I put the brakes on that as I reflected how Ted Bundy used a fake cast on his arm to lure some of his victims.

She mentioned she had a lake house and all I could imagine was her wielding those crutches like nunchuks and me waking up like James Caan in Misery 😂.

[OffRoad]

As a crutch walker myself, she probably just wanted to live vicariously through you. For those of us who used to adventure, being unable to do what you normally do or did is very limiting. Listening to others adventures takes you back to your own.

And hey, I'm sure you are great pick up material. 

[Watcher]

Marathon #11 is in the books. 55,646 runners finished the NYC Marathon on Sunday to set a new marathon record. Perfect weather at 52° with sun.

Up at 4:30am, on the bus at 6am and arrived at the cold morning starting village area by 6:30am for my 10:20am start.

I have been battling plantar fasciitis in one foot since prior to the Montreal Marathon so I had to scale back my running in October and took a lot of rest days. So I taped my foot with kinesiology tape and added plantar fasciitis insoles to combat the problem.

The race starts on the Verrazano Bridge which is 2 miles long. Excitement and adrenaline carried me over so not a real issue at the start. Brooklyn is relatively flat so the first 13.5 miles are quite easy to knock out.

The nemesis is the Queensboro Bridge around mile 14. It's roughly a 2 mile span and the climb is steep. This bridge did me in back in 2022. I read an interesting running article last week that stated other people's pain is not your pain. So I just kept reminding myself of that mantra as I saw so many people walking up it.

We cheered as we summited the bridge, lol. My next concern was First Avenue which is a 4 mile stretch of an incline road and it offered me no problem this time around. First Avenue leads to the Willis Avenue Bridge and I navigated myself up it and made it through mile 20 knowing that I was running a good race.

The marathon really comes down to that stretch of roughly 6 miles starting at the Queensboro Bridge and finishing atop the Willis Ave Bridge. Conquer that section of the race and the race is yours.

I stopped briefly at miles 22 and 24 and had to force myself to get moving again as I was beginning to get sore legs.

I finished in Central Park and took an hour off of my time from 2022. This is my 3rd fastest time behind London and Chicago and this course is really difficult so I am ecstatic about the finish time.

The crowds were great and the course was packed consistently with runners making for a great atmosphere.

I have sore legs and I'm walking slow however I think I scared that plantar fasciitis away. 😂 Sometimes you have to show who's boss.

Four months to Tokyo on March 2nd.

[Flummoxed]

This is amazing to say the least, Watcher! Shaving an hour off your 2022 time is insane, and with plantar fasciitis to boot.

[Watcher]

Hi Flummoxed.

I have crossed over 1,800 miles run this year and will end up just a bit short of my high of 1,903 miles from 2023.

My ankle did me in at the end of 2023 and my heel was the culprit in 2024 on my quest for 2,000. I haven't run anything over 9 miles yet since the NYC Marathon and that appears to have helped my heel.

December has been cold and windy meanwhile I will need a big mileage January to push towards Tokyo. I was shutout of Boston, Dublin and the NYC Half lotteries for 2025.  :'(

The Abbott's have added a 7th World Major and I am in that lottery for Sydney eventhough I don't know if I even want it. There will now be the original Six Star Majors program and eventually there will be a Nine Star program once Majors #8 and #9 are added in the upcoming years.

I would be fine with Cape Town as a potential #8 however Shanghai will be a no go for me if it's selected as #9. Work would never allow me to travel to China.

So there has been no contact with HER son's since September 2022. Yes they are still HER son's. Their choice of course. In November I received a Red Flag email from a pharmacy.

HER youngest adult son used my email to order a prescription therefore I received the 3 emails. The order, the delivery date, and delivered status. His name and my email. I would guess this is acne medication again as the medicine is purposely kept blank after the first three letters. Idk

Then on Christmas Day I was checking my work status on my work phone and noticed someone left a simple Merry Christmas text. I looked up my planner from 2023 and confirmed it was from his phone.

So this is most likely her anchor check since HER children can do nothing without her permission. I am not replying. There will be another attempt as per her pattern.

I have always felt after CS ended things would flare up however we are not close to it being over yet. Soon but not close. He should be a senior in college but this is criminal New Jersey so I don't need to know since I'm the male perpetrator.

So I either have one or four more marathons until CS ends. I have Tokyo 2025, then there will be 2 in the Fall of 2025 and one in the Spring of 2026. That's the CS flowchart.

Since last contact I have run 8 of my 11 marathons. They (She) want's something. This has nothing to do with Merry Christmas.

[Watcher]

Well Japan has come on gone. I went for two weeks and I should have gone for three. I think I let the potential language barrier intimidate me with my planning and that fear never materialized.

The flight was brutal. It was 13 hours direct flying over and 15.5 hours with a connection at Los Angeles on the way back. A lot of time dedicated to just traveling hence the need for 3 weeks I believe would have been better.

Well it's a beautiful country with wonderful people and food. I pretty much stayed in Tokyo and visited all their top attractions from museums, temples, shrines etc....

The train system was easy to navigate since the signage was also in English however it did take me some time to figure out the restaurants. Sometimes people spoke English and sometimes I just had to figure out the Japanese but everyone was so friendly and helpful.

Meanwhile riding the trains was quite the experience. They can really pack it in at times lol.

The highlight of my adventure was Mt. Fuji. This was a 2 hour bus trip to Mt. Fuji and since I had the marathon and I had enough of sitting from flying I did not plan any other tours that required extensive travel. The total trip lasted about 10-12 hours.

The tour took us to station #4 and the scenery was both cold and breathtaking. The skies were clear and Mt Fuji was visible. They have 5 stations but #5 was closed since it was snowing up there.

Afterwards we took a cable car ride above Hakone Volcano where the steam rose from the cliff side with the strong smell of sulphur. Absolutely beautiful. Then that tour finished on a pirate ship sailing on Lake Ashi before boarding the bullet train back to Tokyo. Definitely worth it.

Cherry Blossom season is in a few weeks so I missed it. Some trees were just beginning to bloom and it must look amazing at peak season.

The weather was really good. High 40's to low 50's for the most part. Very cool in the mornings. Then marathon weekend arrived and we got hit with heat and humidity with the marathon hitting at a very hot 68°.

There were 38,000 runners and Tokyo Marathon has different rules. They operate on gun time. So it took me 16 minutes to cross the start line and that time counted against me however I wasn't concerned.

Tokyo also has strict cutoff times at 12 locations and that concerned me a bit. Fail to meet a cutoff and the course is roped off and your race is over. Once I hit 18 miles I knew I didn't have to worry about failing to meet the cutoffs.

It was a very hot race, I ran a good 18 miles however there were severe water issues. There was absolutely no water left between miles 14-24 which made running a challenge.

I finished and it usually takes me a few days to appreciate it since I was a bit disappointed with the conditions.

So that was marathon #12 and my 5th World Major, only leaving Boston left now, which I am always working on.

Next up is the Wineglass Marathon in October which is a much smaller race but a destination type of marathon where one is supposed to enjoy the Fall colors while running in the countryside. With my luck it will be brutal hot as usual lol.

I am going to wait and see if I add another larger one in the Fall. Oh and of course it snowed the very next day after the marathon. Overall a great experience.

[readytofixmyselffirst]

Hello,

Glad that you enjoyed Tokyo. We went there in November, 2023 ands it was so nice. Just like you we went to Fuji and it was a clear day as well. We only made it to station three. I also like the bullet train and even though I asked, I could not ride in the same car with Brad Pitt as apparently he wasn't in town that day. LOL

The city is pretty and so clean. I enjoyed my two weeks and your post brought back great memories. I also like to read your marathon adventures as I can't run even if I thought about it. My doctor told me, "I gave you enough knee to run out of a burning building." So my days of running are over.

Hope all is going well with you and keep posting.

Always,

(((Ready)))

[Watcher]

Hi Ready,

Absolutely clean city and not a garbage can to be found in public. If I was walking around with Starbucks then I had to take the cup back to my hotel for disposal.

There was very slight debris on the marathon course to almost non existent and they had many volunteers to tackle any garbage that missed the can or bag. Again well organized. I wear glasses for distance and worried about taking the train in the morning without them because I certainly won't run with them.

They had so many volunteers directing traffic once off the train so it was no issue. They even line up in a straight line waiting for a train. Well organized society. They just dropped the ball with the water issue during the marathon.

I went to the zoo and stood on line for 90 minutes to see the two Panda's, Lei Lei and Xiao Xiao. So well organized and up close and personal viewing at four different locations when the time came. Just a beautiful encounter.

I went to the Senso-Ji Temple on a Saturday and it was some experience. So crowded and exciting. I saw a Shinto ceremony at Meiji Jingu. Then I realized there were about 1,000 Temples and Shrines in Tokyo probably, lol.

I was able to do a guided tour of the Imperial Palace while Tokyo Skytree and Tokyo Tower look very nice lit up at night. Tokyo Train Station is absolutely stunning in beautiful red brick.

One does have to take the train to do anything. I don't know if I would be comfortable running on their streets or sidewalks. Meanwhile I was not taking a train to go run in a park. So I did the tourist thing before the marathon.

It's a delicate balance. I was doing the tourist thing but I had to save my legs somewhat for the marathon at the same time. I was easily walking 10-15 miles a day even with the train help.

My legs were tired from the flight and it took me a few days to shake them out. Ramen shops galore. I did try Sake, don't know if I liked it, but Suntory beer was incredible. I did try Wagyu Beef and loved it.

I should have added a third week and visited other locations after the marathon. I visited so many other museums. I think I did everything recommended for a Tokyo visit.

I did not see Godzilla and I thought I felt a tremor one morning. One does have to run with their phone for the marathon in case of an earthquake. The announcement prior to the start of a possible earthquake cancellation was a bit jarring.

So I landed at LAX and had an hour to get from Terminal B to Terminal 7. I had to recheck my luggage and go through security again. The Tokyo plane had been delayed because they had to de-ice it because of the snow. Incredible how the weather changed so quickly after the marathon.

Fortunately no missed connection but it cut close.

[Dragonfly33]

Hi Watcher, I read your previous posts when you were in the thick of your xw’s MLC because Ready posted on someone’s thread to read your story. I am amazed how you handled all those crazy $h!te your xw did and how you have moved on with your life and focused on yourself. I could never imagine myself being put in that situation. I thought my story was so bad but after reading yours, I thought WTF! lol I never imagined MLC could go down that $h!te road. Well done for your marathon accomplishment.

[Watcher]

Happy New Year.

So I completed the Wineglass Marathon in October. It started off great at 48° but it quickly turned into a very hot 66° run. I also wore something around my waist which was doing the hula as I ran so pretty aggravating overall but I finished.

Corning, NY is a beautiful Fall destination spot with wonderful scenery and the town is also very nice. I signed up to run it again next October.

I ran the Philadelphia Marathon in November with much better weather conditions at 36° throughout the race. This was on par with my London Marathon experience from start to finish.

After 3 years of trying I finally was accepted into the Dublin Marathon in Ireland also next October. So I am also looking forward to that one.

During the summer the court notified me about a triennial review of the support obligations. Neither one of us ended up requesting a review of our case so it went nowhere.

The shutdown occurred and I had to pay out of pocket for a bit. I talked with family court and one has to be like 10k in arrears before they can get into any trouble so I wasn't going to continue to pay out of pocket had the shutdown dragged onwards since the money is not reimbursed and now sits as a surplus in the account.

Then I was notified in December that CS will terminate as scheduled and I only have January and February left to pay. Fingers crossed 🤞 because the court does what the court wants to do and I will believe it when I see it.

It's been cold and especially windy here in the Northeast so I haven't been too keen on running much plus my foot is bothering me a bit. So I'm up in the air about a Spring Marathon. I had Rome scheduled prior to being selected for Dublin. Idk if I will be able to properly train for it in time with this weather and foot issue.

Other than that I am still kickboxing away and always trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon which continues to elude me.