When writing a tale of two cities, Charles Dickens probably didn’t envisage this now famous phrase appearing on my blog, I’m pretty certain about that.

But it is quite apt in the way that I want to use it.

NYC from the top of the Rock!

New York, New York its a wonderful town. Outside of Ironman 70.3 Dublin, the NYC Marathon was the athletic focus of my year. Flight booked, accommodation booked, I was going to travel no matter what. If there was a report card for being a husband, mine would read ‘Could probably do better’ so a couple of days with Maureen in the self-styled greatest city in the world was overdue.

Empire State building

I’d never been to NYC before so while walking around the place was difficult, tiring and aided by taking many pain killing drugs, I was like a child in the worlds biggest toy shop. Just seeing so many landmarks that you see on TV is brilliant. Marvelling at the city cops, some wearing more guns than is believable was an experience like no other, trying not to look at them while really wanting to go and ask them can you take their picture!

Me & Teddy Roosevelt at the Museum of Natural History

Riding the subway, seeing Lady Liberty, climbing the Rockefeller tower, breakfast in an ‘authentic’ New York diner, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Sachs 5th Avenue, Time Square, Trump Tower, hot dogs & pretzels from a street cart – we did it all!

You wouldn’t have known it was marathon weekend apart from a few adverts on the subway, but the hotel was full of Irish runners and we travelled with a group of friends who all were fit & ready to run. And that s where things became tougher…

It had to be done…

The New York marathon is something else, there is no race I know that comes close. I was supposed to be there, the crowds were supposed to be cheering me. I know injury happened and it is part and parcel of the game but it was tough. Looking forward to it for so long made it hard to watch friends and over 50,000 other runners pass us by in Central Park.

Mile 24 in Central Park

But even then, it was great. Standing around mile 24 trying to find just 5 people out of all the runners was nothing short of amazing, the emotion & energy from both the crowd and runners themselves made it a day I will never forget. Billy, Monica, Stephen, Philip & Gloria all passed us by (and we caught some of them!) but it was the others snaking their way through the crowds that hardened my resolve to run in 2017.

And that’s where the last few weeks have been, good times and bad. Dealing with the injury and the emotions that go with it is difficult but remembering what I can do and making sure I will do it again make up most of the ups and downs of everyday life.

Freedom Tower

So where is the injury now? – My goal is NYC 2017, my Physio may not be on the same page. The back is as healed as it will get, I’m very stiff and bending, twisting & lifting are difficult, but with work they will improve. The nerve is causing more concern, I still have no feeling or movement in the foot, the medics assertion that he can feel ‘possibly 1% of an improvement’ is encouraging, but I do feel he’s trying to humour me!

I’m scheduled for more hospital visits, this time for a ‘Nerve Conduction test’ – basically this evaluates the nerves ability to conduct electricity – lets find out why the message isn’t getting from my brain to my foot. That will point to the next road we will take towards full recovery.

And what of my Phyios goals for me? When I asked could I run NYC in 2017 his response was to make sure I was walking properly at that stage. Ho hum…