Wineglass Marathon 2011: Surprising My Wife

A volunteer announced from the unamplified voice, "Full marathon board here, half marathon board across the street." Irene, Ray and I boarded the yellow school bus that just pulled ahead after one just left. Thank goodness we did not have to wait long because it was drizzling and cold in the middle of the night. As I sat down, I was surprised that the Finish Line Gate was not set up yet.

The bus roared about 2 blocks when Ray realized that he forgot his breakfast and hopped off. We would catch up to him at the starting line. If you're going to run 26.2 miles, you better make sure you eat something before a long run, otherwise you will eventually lose steam and hit the wall.

We bounced along the road and Irene kept asking me how I would get back to the finish, I smiled and gave a confident look that I would be fine and not to worry. During the trip, I tried to look at the rolling scenery, but I could not see too much past the fogged up window. I continued to assure her that I would make it back with no problems. The plan was to do a taper run in preparation for next week's Steamtown Marathon. She didn't know that the taper run would be 26.2 miles. She also asked me how much I would run today, and I said, "At least 15 miles…" That kind of explained why I had my running gear on which she did not question.

About 45 minutes later, the bus finally arrived at the starting area at the Philips Lighting Factory in Bath, New York, but where was the start line. It was a very odd situation, in deed. A bunch of runners gathered under the small awning attached to the building to stay dry. Other runners and spectators scurried around like ants looking for shelter or getting in the long line that stretched through the parking lot for the Port-o-Potties. We headed over to the line for some relief before the race.

We were in the line for quite some time, and Irene again had a comment about heading back, and I replied, "Don't worry, I want to see you off." Ray finally arrived and hung out with us. We got into a conversation with the runners in front of us about the new tag that they had on their running shoes. A tag that was about 1.5 x 1.5 inches attached with some plastic twist ties similar to the ones you get in the trash bags.

As we waited I thought about the couple of times where my surprise ran its course and she would know I would be running with her. The first sign of surprise trouble was at the Race Expo, when the expo greeter asked, "Do you know your bib number? If not there is a list of names on the wall to find your number." Before I pushed her out of the way, I held my breath, let my eyes widen, as I felt my heart rate shoot up 50 points. Her index finger She looked up at the wall of names, pointed up and down the list, and turned around. She did not say a thing. Was my name on the wall? I looked over and there was an Otto Lam separating Irene from Noah. She must have been so focused on "Irene Lam" only.

Also, while at the Glass Factory where they made the Medallions for race. I wasn't sure if she was finally onto my surprise. When someone at the Hands On Glass Factory asked, "Who's running this year?" Ray raised his hand and in the excitement, so did I. Then, I immediately swung my pointer to Ray and Irene. Did Irene realize the slip up? In fact, she did. She just thought I goofed up thinking of my race in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Back to the chaos, it was a little disorganized in this parking lot, since there were no volunteers to direct the masses to the actual start line about a half mile away. Ray asked a sheriff where the actually start would be. The sheriff pointed to down the road and up the hill. So we followed the rest of the runners to the start.

Ray and Irene walked a little ahead of me, and I thought it would be a good time to start reversing the order of my clothes to reveal my bib. Irene asked, "Where is Noah?" I did not say anything as I took off my jacket, then the T-Shirt, then the Team for Kids singlet with the bib pinned to it. Then I put the jacket back on and the singlet over my head. Irene turned around again, and had that confused looked of what are you doing?

I smiled and said that I was going to run with her. She smiled and was glad that she had me to run along for support. A few years back, never would I have ever thought of running down the block. Now I am running 26.2 miles for fun with my wife, and doing another 26.2 miles next Sunday!

We walked towards the official start. There was no gate, just a mat for us to acknowledge that we should push start on our watches. We continued towards the end of the pack, just in front of the 4:40 pace group. Ray scurried off to the woods, to do last minute preparations and said, "Run Well!" About 3000 of us waited for the National Anthem. The race announcer had a few words, and all of us started to move forward. With a kiss, we cross the starting mat!

While the crowds did not come out to support the runners, probably from the rain and cold, I enjoyed my time with my beautiful wife. We followed the ups and downs of the country side and actually keep up with the 4:40 pace group up to mile 10. The clouds hovered over the mountains so the view of the mountain range and valleys were unfortunately obscured.

About halfway through, Irene's ankle started to hurt really bad, and we walked to relieve some of the pain. I was really worried that she would have a DNF (Did Not Finish) next to her name. She kept on pushing through

She also had to go… We found a bunch of trees and bushes and she wandered off the side of the road. I jogged forward and waited a little bit. Turning around to see where she was, I noticed that she was standing for a few seconds with her butt almost exposed but camouflaged by the surroundings, and more runners started to pass her. It turns out that her hands were so cold that she could not pull up her pants. She finally gathered enough strength to get composed and caught up to me. We ran about 100 yards more and noticed an empty Port-o-potty waiting off the side of the road behind the water station.

Running on this hill around mile 15, I spotted what looked like a ghost. A Halloween decoration, I thought, until the head came off and revealed a camera with a long lens. I looked over to Irene and slowed down so she can be next to me for a great pic. I turned my head forwards towards the camera and smiled, thinking this is going to be an awesome picture. Then I looked back to Irene to notice that as I slowed down, she also slowed down. The slower I ran, the slower her pace got. So I said to Irene, why are you slowing down? The camera guy said that there was another camera over the hill.

This time I made sure that I was even with Irene, and snap. Pictures for a lifetime!

The course was a little hillier than depicted on the elevation course map on the website, but we finally turned on to Market Street, where we can make out the inflatable finish gate, we picked up the pace. I always raise my arms in celebration, and Irene was happy to complete another marathon. I gave her a kiss, then handed a bottle of water, got wrapped up in our heat shield, and finally the one of a kind, glass medallion. I will be writing about the glass medal in a different article.

Raymond had already taken a shower, dressed and waited for us in his car with Frances. He did a sub 4 hour race, not his best performance, but it beat us by over an hour! The next race for him is the ING New York City Marathon. Irene and I will be Team for Kids runner support at the Central Park Entrance on Fifth Avenue. We are honored to be given this spot because it is an important place on the course for it is the final 2 miles of the course! We are super excited to run a few yards with so many first time marathoners, celebrities and the very important runners of Team for Kids! Thank you, Team for Kids for giving us another unique experience!

Thanks to Raymond and Frances by keeping the illusion alive for as long as they did. I also want to thank the Race Director for allowing me this special occasion by providing a spot in the race at the last minute.

Running is a gift in itself and running with my wife is a special gift that we can share as we get older. Now I have documentation and pictures to prove it. This is our unique time together enjoying the close proximity of about 1-3 yard radius.

In fact, we are doing 2 races together in 2012. First one is to celebrate our 15^th Year Wedding Anniversary at the Country Music Marathon in Nashville, Tennessee next year, and I invite all of you to join us in our celebration! Visit the Grand Old Opre and some Honky Tonks! Later in the fall, we will make our return to our favorite race, the ING NYC Marathon.

I will be running on behalf of Team for Kids and Irene will qualify as a 9 + 1 Participant (She ran 9 New York Road Runners Qualifying Races and Volunteered at 1 race.) Please support Team for Kids with a donation (let me know if you plan to and I will send you a link) or contact me if you want to be a runner with me on the first Sunday of November!