Marathon Weekend (no pun intended)

...and what a fun weekend it was! Huan and I headed up to NYC on Friday evening, which is to say, I drove him there and he had a nice 4-hour car nap ("some people just aren't cut out for life on the road...").

The purpose of the weekend excursion was to be up there to cheer on Natty in the New York City Marathon on Sunday morning [photos to come]. It turned out to be a little marathon even for us spectators! We basically did, by train, what these 35,000 amazing people were doing by foot. Our first post was in Brooklyn, at mile 7, when everyone still had smiles on their faces and that bounce in their step. We were able to see the lead group of men run by us, running at a pace I would never be able to consider for a single mile (somewhere in the range of 5-minute miles, I'd say? Superhuman, that's all.) As soon as we saw Nathaniel pass us, we had to haul booty back to the train to make it to the next meeting point-- we had designated times to be at the posts, based on his expected pace. It was quite efficient if you could make it work, but if you couldn't, and something didn't fall into place as expected, it could get a little crazy and confusing, not knowing whether you've missed your runner, or whether he's behind or ahead or what! That said, it was totally fun and like a mini amazing race experience-- at one point we were literally sprinting through Queens trying to catch up. Anyway, Nathaniel finished the marathon like a trooper and was definitely our hero of the day!!

So, I got to experience almost all 5 boroughs in one day (Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, and Manhattan..just missed out on the starting line, in Staten Island) and cheer on all these runners. It felt like a nice New York moment. I think I would like to run it myself someday. The thought of it is terrifying, especially after you actually see people do it in person, but that's also what makes me want to do it even more. I think it would be such a great mental and physical challenge! Not to mention totally badass. Besides, I keep reminding myself that Oprah did it when she was 40, so it's totally a possibility! For now, baby steps.. I just registered for the Turkey Trot 5k in Centreville on Thanksgiving Day. Should be a fun to kick off the long Holiday weekend!

Post-Marathon spectating, I hopped in the car, picked up John and we were en route to Philly to catch the Interpol show that evening. After a couple minor navigating issues (we did pass by a "Super Video and Super Water Ice" store... what??) we made it to Philly and enjoyed a delicious Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) dinner, courtesy of John's friend.

Onto the show...

The Electric Factory is a pretty cool venue. It actually seemed quite a bit larger than the 9:30 club, but with a strange closed-off bar area where they isolate the "wild" drinkers, I suppose. (That's where you could find me and John.)

They didn't let me bring in my bottle of water, which I could deal with, obviously. But then they made me throw away my pen. I said, "It's a PEN!" She said, "I know, but you can come get it after the show, it will be in that box.." (points to nondescript cardboard box with probably 100 pens in it) "..it will probably be near the top, too!" Um, no thanks lady, it's just a pen with the name of some drug on it, I don't want to fish through the box for it, I just want to keep it now. Weird.

John and I suddenly got pumped because we realized we were seeing Interpol in a few moments. The rest of the day had been so hectic trying to bounce around the City for the marathon, meet up and go to Philly, that we'd forgotten what we were doing. The show was good-- my only disappointment was that it seemed quite brief, probably about an hour? That wasn't too bad when we saw them in Richmond two years ago for the bargain price of $7, because at that point they'd only had their one album out so pretty much played that through. But I thought that since they've blown up and prices were jacked up, we'd at least get a longer treat and a few extra songs on the set since they have two albums to work with. But apparently not, so we pretty much got a half and half split between old and new material. But the second encore of "Stella..." was a pleasant surprise and made up for everything. I did realize, though, that the window of being able to see a band and have them play everything you want to hear is so very small! Seeing a band on their first tour, after their first album, is a unique and rare experience. Once it's over you will never be able to hear all those songs performed together live-- you instantly become a selfish and picky concertgoer! "Oh, but I wish they'd played ___!" It's inevitable disappointment over what could have been. Anyway, it was a great time-- a nice ending to a long day.

Missed out on my chance to have a delicious Geno's Cheesesteak while in Philly, though. Must make another trip back soon.

That concludes Marathon Weekend update. Look for Marathon pictures soon.


Current Music: Specialist, by Interpol
Current Mood: lil tired