These Colors Do Run

T-minus 36 hours until the first time I've ever set foot on Staten Island.  I've driven through our neighboring island-borough plenty of times, as thoroughfare between Long Island and New Jersey, but I've never had occasion to stomp around on it before.

But Sunday morning, I'll join a horde of 37,000 at the base of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in my first running of the New York City Marathon.

My personal best is 3:45:31, set at the California International Marathon last December, and I'm [self-deludedly] looking to beat it.

So long as the thunderstorms that have been popping in and out of Sunday's forecast are not called for as of tomorrow afternoon (and if they do call for rain, I'm cashing in my '06 guaranteed entry and going to the see that Wal-Mart movie which is so certain to angry up my blood in a way the director didn't intend), keep an eye out for me on the course.

I'll be bib # 16600 and clad in heart-swellingly patriotic colors.