In my "bellies" thread, hally charmingly offered to tote me off to a clam place on LI but more importantly, suggested a Saturday lunch meeting for anyone interested (no, I won't insist on the clam place for lunch, I promise!) Would it make sense to designate a spot near the Expo, since everyone has to go there at some point? This sounds lilke fun, not to mention we could chat and figure out if we can meet up the next day to while away the hours Sunday am before the race start. And obsess about weather, what to wear, and all that other stuff we do before races. Thanks, hally-Barb! grins, A ps: I got my clams--fried ones Friday and steamers Sunday.

I'm up for a meeting if I can squeeze it in. My friend Brian and I are driving down early Saturday morning from Maine and we'll be heading back after the marathon on Sunday due to our schedules. I'm pretty sure that we are scheduled to have dinner with a friend of his that is so graciously providing us with accomodations and transportation to where ever we need to be on Sunday. I still can't believe that you were in Portland this past week Amy and I missed you...DUH!! A lunch or what have you somewhere in the vicinity of the Expo would be great if at all possible.

My only real question is how far from a subway stop is the restaurant? Given the uncertainty of me making it nobody should consider this a real issue when picking a place. Right now my friend and training partner are planning to pick up our packets on Friday. After that we will meet my DW and the three of us will likely stay in the city for dinner before heading to CT for the night. (Anybody else around Friday for dinner?) While I am staying Saturday night in the city I am not sure when I will get in and thus may or may not make the lunch.

Hally, I trust you to pick something wonderful and count two of us (Peter and me). I'm so excited to see you again and to meet Amy, Bob and (I hope) Twocat! Oh, anyone know how to reach WifiTim?

I'm good with whatever you all come up with as long as it is fairly close to the expo. I'll also have my running friend Brian with me. Of course as with everyone else timing will be an issue...we have to head over to NJ to meet up with Brian's friend who is setting us up for the evening and we'll be having dinner with him. On a side note what wave are you guys all running? Brian and I are in the first wave at 9:40...as Amy said it would be nice to meet up on Sunday as well to "while away the hours" so to speak.

They also have these yellow things called cabs. You stick your arm up when you see one with it's light on and it will take you wherever you want to go

No freaking way...I only thought those things were in the movies!

I'm in the first wave also, 9:40 a.m., which surprises me because I put 3:45 as my target time. I'm running as part of Team ING so wonder if that has anything to do with my placing. Whatever, I like starting earlier rather than later.

All the NYC marathon talk makes me grin. It will probably be easier for Erika and Amy to meet up as they usually have the women under 3:45 targets gather in their own start area (complete with a tent and your own porta-potties). I am no expert but have run it seven times since 1987. The last times I have run this that's been the case for the women and it's wonderful. Now that they have gone to waves it may be somewhat different, but I had an orange bib and was in the earlier start group even without the waves. The women in that group were up on the top level of the V-N bridge and over on the left separate from the men. It only took me 45 seconds to cross the start line. You'll stay separated until you merge well into Brooklyn. The race information booklet that the NYRR sends out soon will be full of the details including a map of the start area. You might find a good spot in there. One of my cousins was in the green start (lower level of the bridge---stay away from the edges if you know what I mean---or you will get sprayed) and we never linked up even with cell phones and all. It's organized chaos in the start area. They do a phenomenal job, but it's wild. I'll be waiting for you all in Central Park. I just got my volunteer assignment and it's distributing finisher medals! I'll have to track y'all on my cell phone so I can see your wonderful finishes. Twocat and mainerunnah....want to pace me next weekend at Baystate for a pre-marathon workout? Over and out CNYrunner

Just figured I would see if we could get some more info on NY. I got my card in the mail last week and my info is as follows: Start time - 9:40 1st wave Corral - D Bib # - 12437 As I said earlier Brian and I are looking to go out at about a 3:15:00 pace - 7:27 +/- if anyone wants to join us we would ceratinly love the company.