Ah, the marathon. The culmination of months of training, endless hours spent on your way to the Guilford docks or on the way back. And then the months of over analysis and “what if’’s”.
2008 marked the second year that the Breakers marathon was run on the “new” course, that is, starting in downtown Newport, bimbling along the coast and then heading out to Middletown for the second half. Fellow runners told me tales of yore when the entire marathon was run in Middletown, circling four laps of an unchanging course. Happy for the variety in scenery I was about to experience I dashed off at the gun with approximately 700 other runners only to find myself negotiating some of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Newport. It was shocking to observe the blight of urban decay and the real life examples of how the credit market collapse has affected main street America – Rockefellers, Carnegies, and Astors sleeping in cardboard boxes on street corners, topiary animals gone wild, crumbling mansions by the sea. I found myself wondering if I could manage to scrape up a few million dollars to purchase one of the many properties for sale along the course – do my part for the local economy. But, who am I kidding? Dan doesn’t have time to mow those lawns and train for Hellgate at the same time.