I know Fern’s already done an incredible job of posting about the Marathon, but it’s my birthday and I feel this subject is so important that it needs 2 posts.

Not since the last NYC Marathon have I seen / heard such great hype about the NYC Marathon. This year, the marathon happens to fall on my birthday. So, as a New Yorker who truly commits himself to never exercising and rarely doing anything active, this date can also be a bummer since it’s hard to maneuver around town. But at least, it’s better than what happened on my birthday in 2004—America re-elected W.. Although, after just having seen Hacking Democracy ^[1] & learning more about voting machine tampering ^[2], I don’t know if I really write that W. was elected.

Back to the marathon, the NYTimes has done an excellent job of mapping out the marathon’s course ^[3] so that if I do elect to go out for my birthday, I know what roads to avoid when driving. The thon, as I like to call it, spans all 5 boroughs of the city. A few of my friends are running in it and 26 miles sounds like a piece of cake, but if you think about it, that’s a long freaking way. And this year, about 40,000 people will be running and several others watching.

I like to think that it’s a celebration of my life. Thank you all. I am honored.