Central Park West

AM: 3 miles
PM: ~5.5 miles w/2x3 min. uptempo


View of the frozen pond in Central Park West

The story of yesterday's craziness picks up after class last night, when Jeff and I rolled out in our Chrysler 300 rental car and hit the road in hopes of catching Scott and the rest of the team somewhere in Virginia. I'll spare you the details of this journey and skip to 3am, when we arrived at the Ramada Inn in Strasburg, Virginia. Sean: If you thought Johnson City was lacking in fun and excitement, my cursory exploration of Strasburg would indicate that JC is akin to an urban mecca. This "town" was just downright depressing, but after driving half the night through the middle of nowhere it was a welcome sight.

Less than five hours later it was up and at 'em again, as the group needed to head out for our morning shakeout run before completing the journey to NYC. It was very cold, very windy and all around miserable on this run, made more so by the fact that my cold has worsened overnight rather than improving. Simply put, I woke up feeling like crap and my condition didn't really improve much throughout the day.

One "perk" of my deteriorating physical condition was that Scott wanted to quarantine me and thus gave me my own room in our next hotel, the Comfort Inn Central Park West. It's a good thing he did, because otherwise I would be sharing with both Tanya and Jess in a room approximately the size of a small closet. I don't know if any of you have ever taken a cruise, or perhaps traveled in a foreign country; if so, think of how small those rooms were and then divide that down the middle. That should give you an idea of the size of my cozy domicile. I'm eyeing it right now and if it's an inch over 10x10 then Michael Phelps didn't inhale.


Half my room. Seriously.

That said, I'm glad we're staying here because of the stellar location. We are literally 200 yards from Central Park, which made for a great run this afternoon. The air was freezing cold but absolutely still, and our surroundings were completely blanketed with snow. The whole scene was indescribably beautiful, and even in my drugged state I was thrilled to be there. And, if possible, even more thrilled that Jilane was waiting for me when I returned to the hotel!!! That's right, the Team MJ reunion came to fruition. Jilane willingly drove up from DC today to watch my race and allow me to infect her with my burgeoning malaria. If that's not true love, then I just don't know what is.