UNITE/Rutgers Half Marathon

[donac]

MY ds is running in it. It is his first half. His girlffriend is a senior at Rutgers. He has been running since Nov. Last weekend he went out and planned to do 12 miles. About mile 6 he fell and scrapped up his hands and knee. He then walked home the 6 miles so I do know he can make the half. I don't think he has trained as hard as could have and he definitely is not eating the way I think he should be but I now know he could do the half even if has to walk part of it.

I wish we could run it with you all!

School budget cuts in New Jersey are real, though. I find out Tuesday if I survived the first round of cuts, so we can't sign up for anything and all plans are on hold until we figure out what happens next.

DC '93, btw. Have a great time!

My heart goes out to you. I have been teaching in NJ for 33 years and dh for 32. We are sick at what is happening to teachers. We both said we would retire if we didn't have 2 more years of college tuition to pay for. Good luck I hope things work out for you.

 

[jbucci]

Sorry to hear about the job stress and uncertainty-- these school budget cuts are brutal and short sighted in my opinion. I hope your job is safe and that we can see you soon in a future race.

 

[pigletliz]

How cool is this! I was just scrolling through the WISH threads page and couldn't believe my eyes! I think it's awesome to see that there are so many WISHer's doing the Unite 1/2 in New Brunswick. Nothing like a local race!

I am all signed up and looking forward to it! Now if it would just warm up...

I can't believe I haven't heard of this race. Unfortunately, this course totally brings back the memories of four years of high school cross country and winter track practices. I don't think I could face those parks again

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I can't believe I haven't heard of this race. Unfortunately, this course totally brings back the memories of four years of high school cross country and winter track practices. I don't think I could face those parks again

You didn't have WISH with you!

 

[pigletliz]

You didn't have WISH with you!

You have no idea how much I needed the WISH team back in the "good old days". I can't believe I fell for "Liz, why don't you try out for the cross country team? It's only a mile or two"

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Not too much longer. I can't believe it's coming up soon.

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

I'm all for a mini WISH meet-- Thomas Sweets ice cream for all

Hope to see everyone at the start. I'll have a WISH shirt and hope that we'll be able to connect.

Ice Cream anyone?

 

[kareneast]

I'm always in for ice cream!!! :

Anyone interested on a WISH Meet Dinner on Saturday????

John (DH - Space Ranger) works for Robert Wood Hospital in New Brunswick. He came up with these restaurants as possibilities:

Catherine Lombardi's http://www.catherinelombardi.com/sle/cl/ - this is highly recommended by the CEO/President of the hospital. It is a bit pricey though. It right across the street from the host hotel.

Old Man Rafferty's http://www.oldmanraffertys.com/Raffertys Menu 10.pdf - this is about 4 blocks from host hotel

Panico's Brick Oven Pizza http://restaurantpassion.com/external_pages/nj/panicosbrick12/menu.aspx?mid=16143&sid=8&sn=NJ - this is about 5 blocks from host hotel

Any other ideas or suggestions?????

Soooo....is the ice cream dessert on Saturday or Post Race Celebration on Sunday???

 

[Tiger Lily 03]

Looks like we'll make it up as we go along. Hope to see some of you there. We'll be getting to the expo later then looking to find where dinner will be.

See you then or at the start!

 

[jbucci]

We won't be able to make it tonight for dinner so vote for a lunch or ice cream meet post race so we can see everyone. We went to the expo yesterday-- kind of small as far as expos go, the web site lead me to think it would be a bigger thing

Any gathering spot prerace to meet up?

 

[hockeygirl]

I went to the expo yesterday too..wasn't impressed. Like Jennifer I thought it would be much bigger..but oh well!

I am all for a pre-race meet-up and something post race! I will look for everyone in the morning..I will be wearing my WISH shirt!

So excited for this race, seeing that it is my alma mater as well! Can't wait to see everyone tomorrow!

 

[TEK224]

Good Luck to everyone! Bummed I can't be there with you.

Have a great race!

Terri

 

[kareneast]

Looking forward to seeing everyone later and/or tomorrow. We'll have on our WISH shirts for the race too. I'm sure we'll find each other. LOL Post race lunch/ice cream sounds great....as long as you speedy folks don't mind waiting for this back of the packer.

Terri - Will miss seeing you!

 

[Kira G.]

I wish it had worked out for me to do this one. Have a great race everybody!

 

[solar]

good luck to everyone

 

[Maherae]

You are already having a great time....have a GREAT RACE!!

 

[mousemgr2]

Congrats on the race!!

Anyone out there care to share a race report??

 

[jbucci]

I had a really nice weekend. We went to Rutgers on Friday to pick up our race packet. The expo was pretty lame but we got to meet with one of my old college roommates who is now a dean at RU and have lunch on our old stomping grounds. The race shirts were sized a bit small which was also kind of disappointing.

The race itself was really nice. There were close to 4,000 people running. We had no trouble parking near the end of the race and taking a shuttle to the start on Bush campus. Met up with WISHers at the start and hung out chatting prerace. We ran through campus and several local parks that were in full bloom. The cherry blossoms were beautiful it almost made me not mind the hills. There were no huge hills, but lots of smaller uphill inclines complete with wind in my face much of the time, so it was a tougher race then I'm used to. There were lots of bands playing all different styles of music out around the course, about one every mile or two. There was a group of drummers I particularly liked on Livingston Campus. As a RU alum it was fun to run past my old dorm and class building and to see how much had changed in the past 16 years. I felt really good until about 11 miles then sort of fell apart. The race ended running down College Ave, sort of the center of the main, oldest campus (Rutgers is a huge school with 5 different campuses each a few miles apart). I managed a PR by a measly 21 seconds but I'll take it. The race organizers did realize the shirt issue and allowed people to swap for different sizes after the race which I thought was pretty nice. I hung out at the finish to cheer on other runners and fellow WISHers. We all went for ice cream after the race and generally had a nice time. After ice cream my DH and I went to the restaurant where we had our first date and split a boli for lunch. The diet is back on today but it was fun to relive a bit of college.

 

[IASW Rider]

So wonderful to see and meet all of you on Sunday! Wish that I could have joined you all at Thomas Sweet, but my Dad had already planned to take DH and me out to dinner celebrate, afterwards! Hope that you all had great races and a great time "On the Banks of the Old Raritan"!

Sorry that I missed your earlier posts, Jen and Laurie - I was DC '88 (and have been class VP and Reunion Coordinator, ever since!) and DH was LC '83! Ooh - just saw your race report post - I also thought that it was neat to run past former classroom buildings, the stadiums, etc. (though my dorms were across town!) I also was happy to pass by my OTHER alma mater, as UMDNJ is my grad school and the second "leg" of the Busch portion ran along the back of the Piscataway UMDNJ campus! (And I see what you mean about the shirts........finally tried mine on.......interesting! Wish I'd known that there was the opportunity to exchange sizes.......maybe the sizes were deceiving because they had separate men's and women's shirts? I wish that they had let us know that ahead of time!)

Speaking of "shirts", might there be an opportunity for me to purchase a nifty WISH shirt, like all of you were wearing on Sunday? You all looked great!! (And I would love to have "appropriate attire" for W&D in October! ) Is there someone whom I could contact about ordering one? Thanks!

Hope that all is well, Duckie.......thinking of you and hope that your position will be safe!

Hope that all is well with all of you and hope to see all of you again, soon! (And to meet everyone whom I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting!)

RU RAH RAH!!

 

[IASW Rider]