ING New York City Marathon

The ING New York City Marathon is Sunday. Sunday is also the day we fall back. So instead of enjoying an extra hour of sleep, I know I will be up and running. I plan on running early so I can be sitting at my computer at 9 a.m. watching the marathon.

This year universalsports.com will be streaming the marathon for free! I think that is awesome. When they stream the Boston Marathon, it isn't free. So I very thankful for the free live feed because my cable provider doesn't carry the Universal Sports Channel. I'm looking forward to watching the elite men and women runners. It is amazing how fast they can run a marathon. The men can finish running a marathon in two hours. At two hours, I just finished a half marathon about five minutes ago.

A couple of years ago, I really wanted to run in the ING New York City Marathon at some point in my life. I'm not so sure now. After entering the world of ultramarathons, I love running in a small group. I'm not a fan of huge crowds. I don't know if I could handle standing in a corral with 40,000 people. The largest race I have ever run is the Detroit Free Press Half Marathon. This year between the marathon and half marathon 20,000 people ran. Coming from a small town of 22,000 people that is a lot of people crowded together.

Maybe someday I will try to enter the lottery. Just to see if I can get in. If not, I will always have a front row seat watching one of the greatest marathons in the world from home.

Photo of Devon Crosby-Helms. Crosby-Helms is an ultrarunner who will be running in the ING New York City Marathon Sunday. She is one of my favorite women ultra runners.