The curse is broken

For the last couple years, foul weather capable of temporarily incapacitating a city has only struck when I was traveling to/from the midwest.  There was the blizzard of December 2010, the east coast earthquake that shook the Financial District in August 2011, hurricane Irene one week later in August 2011.... 

I've credited Nathan with breaking the curse, as the two times I've flown to Missouri have been without incident since he accompanied me to Sam and Kristin's wedding a year ago. 

The difference?  Now I get to experience the natural disasters myself.

Cue hurricane Sandy. 

And oddly enough this one has decent timing for me, all things considered.  Hurricane Irene blew through on the day of the Bronx Half.  The Bronx was my favorite, since it ends up slightly smaller in size and with the most hills of all the borough half marathons.  I spent much more time than necessary choosing between a mid-August visit to KC and a return for the Bronx Half, or a late-August visit and the TNF KC 50k.  I ended up choosing the 50k, and I got lucky.

Since I'm running the marathon again this year, I've been eyeing the storm (ba dum dum... dumb...) so that if it hits NYC it will hit mid-week rather than marathon Sunday (November 4th).  So far so good.  At the same time, it does not interfere with my last long run, nor does it interfere with my last shake-out run (i.e. hill repeats) prior to the big day.  It also should not interfere with the expo that starts on Thursday.

The biggest difference is that I work at a hospital.  Hospitals do not close during such pesky things as hurricanes.  We are given extra time to get to work, but we are still expected to show up to work on Tuesday.  I am also still in my probationary period, so I do not get days off.  I usually walk the 1.2 miles to work, which equates to 2 subway stops.  The subways will likely shut down Sunday night at 7pm.  Yet another time I wish I had invested in waterproof pants, the main piece of gear I always find theoretically practical yet talk myself out of, only to tsk tsk myself at times like these.

On the plus side, I may be able to get some video (carefully, of course!) of the hurricane as I trudge through it.  Wouldn't that be cool?  Me getting side swept by all the piles of garbage that so decorate this city while crawling at 0.5mph towards the big NewYork-Presbyterian banner declaring "Great things happen here." 


Great may be a relative term in this case.  And no patient gets to argue against "I trudged a mile through a hurricane just so that you could walk today.  Now move!"   

And, since the route to NYP dips down and reascends regardless of your chosen route, I will have the pleasure of telling my future grandchildren that it was uphill both ways.  Hazzah.