As one of my favorite titles from 1982 played in my head: Hot In The City* I never felt more uncomfortable without air conditioning than I did yesterday except for brief reprieves on the 79th street ferry back and forth to New Jersey. Those breezes albeit warm were brisk and a welcome relief to my sweating torso and I wasn’t even walking quickly let alone biking over a 100 miles or running a 26.2 marathon. It was after all the day my friend Tripp Doherty was taking on his 3rd Ironman challenge starting out with a 2.4 mile swim in the brisk current of the North River more commonly known as the Hudson.
A very long day was highlighted (when I couldn’t witness my friend competing) with two acquaintances that I now consider my friends. David Blatt and if you don’t know this man you’re missing one of the most generous and easy to be with personalities I have ever met in a long time and Constance Korol or CK as I call her who always is optimistic no matter what life throws her way or in Saturday’s case her dear friend Tripp. We did a lot of walking on Saturday and both CK and David estimated it to be about 10 miles a far cry from the 140.6 miles logged by Mr. Doherty but nonetheless when you add in the standing on two feet it left this curmudgeon with back spasms and a blistered foot. And whatever I was feeling I knew that I could multiply it by tenfold as to what my friend in the river and on the road was feeling in the sweltering heat and humidity.
As I told him as he went by a few hundred yards from the finish it’s all about the love not about the competition. And as the Dodger fans of Brooklyn would say: Wait til Next Year! (Except for 1955)
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