Making Some D*mn Fine Lemonade

If there's one thing runners don't like to do it's sit around. We're an active bunch and when you tell us not to run that only makes us want to run that much more. That has certainly been evident since Friday.

As you already know from my Sunday post (not to mention about a million other bloggers, running magazines, and traditional media), runners in town for the New York City Marathon didn't let the race cancellation stop them. Instead they created impromptu marathon courses, gathered in Central Park with donations in toe, or headed to places like Staten Island and Red Hook with shovels, canned goods, water, and a host of other needed items to aid in relief and recovery.

In addition to these events many runners also looked for alternate marathons. A small number managed to get to one of the other races held this past weekend (a big shout-out to my teammates Kirby and Sarah, both of whom ran their first marathons on Sunday), while others looked for ones in the coming weeks. A lot of small town races have seen a boost with Richmond and Harrisburg (both this coming weekend) setting record participant levels.

Something else really cool is happening too. Other races are taking this opportunity to help NYCM registrants and the victims of hurricane Sandy: The Soldier Marathon in Columbus, Georgia is offering FREE entry to NYC runners; the San Antonia Marathon is offering NYC runners a 20% discount and donating 20% of their registration fees to hurricane relief; the Malibu Marathon is offering NYC runners their early bird rate and donating 25% of their registration fees to AmeriCares; and the Myles Standish Marathon in Plymouth, Mass. is donating half of its registration fees to food banks helping with Hurricane Sandy relief. These are just a few of the races taking big strides to help runners and hurricane victims.

So now you're probably wondering what I'm doing. Well, I've decided to run the Philadelphia Marathon for Covenant House's Home Team. Covenant House is the largest privately funded organization in the U.S. dedicated to helping homeless youth. These kids are at the margins of society in good times and so when natural disaster strikes it's more important than ever to make sure they're not forgotten. I'm really excited that I have the opportunity to do some good with this run.

If you're interested in helping me meet and surpass my fundraising goal, there's a link at the right side of the page. If not, I still encourage you to get involved somehow. If you live in the tri-state area, there are still plenty of people in need of assistance and the Red Cross is in desperate need of blood donations.

I can't wait for some things to return to normal (like the L train and the heat in my office), but I hope this sense of community and togetherness that we've discovered over the past few days (as long as we ignore all of yesterday) doesn't go away.

Beer Review: Hill Farmstead's Everett

With my half-marathon coming up Sunday I'm officially in "detox" mode, but just because I'm going to have a dry weekend doesn't mean the rest of you should! For today's beer review we travel north to Greensboro Bend, Vermont. (Actually, I traveled south since I sampled this beer last Sunday while visiting the forgotten borough).

Hill Farmstead Brewery was started by Shaun Hill in April of 2010. It's definitely a micro operation (possibly even a nano) so his beer only makes it to NYC occasionally and so far as know, only ever on draft (though he does bottle some of his brews). I've been wanting to try one of Hill's beers for a while know but it was until this past Sunday I found myself at the right bar at the right time.

I had some time to kill before the next bust to the ferry so popped into Adobe Blues, a bar/restaurant with a wild west look, a TexMex menu, and an excellent beer menu. Once I saw that had a Hill Farmstead beer on tap, though, I knew what I would be ordering.

The beer is called Everett, it's a strong porter (7.5%) named after Hill's great-uncle. The bar served it to me in a 12 oz snifter glass. This was a dark beer, black like oil, with a mocha head. The beer had a great cocoa smell to it with some caramel notes too.

This was a "thick" porter--nothing watery here--with lighter carbonation (think smooth, not bubbly--if it were a wine I might say pétillant).

Now onto the taste: definitely lots of rich unsweetened chocolate here and some coffee overtones (like freshly roasted beans) too. There's some sweetness in the finish but afterwards there's a bit of char. Overall a really delicious beer.

Although I drank mine slowly and let it warm a bit, I think this beer would be out of this world if served from a cask. If you see any Hill Farmstead beers on your travels, I highly recommend giving them a try!

A Rest Day Trek Across the Harbor

Because I've switched this week's training schedule around for next week's race, I had a rest day yesterday. It's very rare for me to take a rest day on the weekend so I figured I would take advantage of the extra time by heading someplace distant--STATEN ISLAND!

Yes, you read correctly. I actually chose to go to Staten Island. This is hardly the first time I've visited the forgotten borough (I had my birthday dinner at Denino's Pizzeria and Tavern, an island institution), but I haven't been in several months. Since the last several weekends I have visited all four other boroughs, I figured it was time to mix things up.

I picked my destination (more on that soon) and headed to South Ferry. Just to give you an idea of how distant Staten Island is, it takes roughly 30 minutes on the express train to get to the Whitehall Ferry Terminal from Harlem. Then you have to take a 25 minute ferry ride.

Assuming everything runs smoothly and you have no waiting time, you're looking at an hour to get to St George. Taking into account that this is the real world and things never run smoothly, you're looking at 75 to 90 minutes.

The Staten Island Ferry trip is always relatively pleasant. Because the boat passes the Statue of Liberty and offers great views of New York Harbor and the downtown skyline, it's usually pretty packed with tourists looking for free photo ops. I snapped a couple photos but mostly contented myself with the book I had brought.

If only you could run over this bridge year-round...

When I arrived in St George I had no problem finding the bus I wanted. The great thing about the DOT-MTA relationship is that they have the Staten Island buses timed to the ferry schedule so you usually wait no more than 5 minutes. Even better, this was a brand new bus, much fancier than anything I ever ride in Manhattan.

My destination was less than two miles from the ferry so in a matter of minutes I was back off the bus. Time from my door to my destination? 1 hour, 45 minutes. I can visit all four other boroughs in the same amount of time--now you see why I don't get to Staten Island all that often.

Anyway, now that you are about to pee yourself wondering about my secret destination, it's after the jump.