REFLECTIONS: My First Jaunt 'Cross Da "Boulevard Of Death".

I was already running/walking long before I took the SFP Track & Field team member sign up sheet from Brother Kent. You can say I was always an adventure punk. One time when I was 12 years old, I decided to go on a trek to the World Trade Center. At that time I lived at 72-11 110th Street in a six-story brownstone in Forest Hills, Queens. It was directly across the street from the Kennedy Building, a skyscraper on the north side of Queens Boulevard.

THE SUCRAM MUCUS BOULEVARD EPIC

Marcus Colon, or"Sucram Mucus"as my friend Doug Botero and I used to joke, had met me by our school, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs. He wanted to join my insanity. In fact, he was already warming up his craziness, when he ran diagonally across Queens Boulevard .... AGAINST TRAFFIC. Remember, this is Queens Boulevard we are talking about. The Boulevard that was dubbed the name, "Boulevard of Death".

I don't remember all of the details, but I do remember it was unseasonably warm that April month in 1979. We walked down Queens Boulevard, passing Alexander's on 63rd Road, and then Queens Center, a still famous shopping center. Back then Queens Center primarily consisted of another, now-defunct, department store, A&S (Abraham & Strauss). We walked, we jogged, we walked some more. Before long the subway was over our heads, and the Queensboro Bridge was directly in front of us. It was a Saturday, so the pedestrian lane of the bridge was open to the public. But we didn't know any better. Heck, this was the first time I had ever crossed this bridge on foot.

In fact, I barely ever going over this bridge at all, even by car. The only time that I remembered by car was one time when my mother was driving into the city. I had to pee real bad and was about to go in my pants (oh shit...err i mean...oh pee).

She bailed me out with a cup and a blanket. The cup was my toilet. The blanket was to cover me while I did it, so that no one stuck on the bridge with us got a free show. To this day, I don't know whatever happened to that cup o' pee.... Cup' O' Pee... LOL. Sounds like Dunkin' Donuts Box O' Joe. LOL...

Crossing the bridge and getting into "Metropolis" was like finding a buried treasure to me. There is quite nothing more spectacular then arriving into Manhattan. The skyscrapers are both wonderful and intimidating at the same time. And I was 12 years old! Hello! Where were the parents?!

We made it down to Sixth avenue because one time I was at the Fifth avenue book fair, and I remembered it stopped at the arch (Washington Square) only. Avenue of the Americas is a very wide avenue, which helped us to see forever. Even on this mildly hot and very hazy day. We got to the Twin Towers & I felt like I had climbed Mt Everest. We rode the lift to the top. It was amazing. Well worth the 12+mile walk/jog/sprint across red lit roads.

Coming back, we hopped aboard the "E" train at the last stop of the train at the time. For some reason I thought it was Chambers Street, but now as I look, it appears that there is one stop further south called World Trade Center (which is no longer there). Is it possible that stop was added after 1979?

A race and a rock concert. And I feel free....

(Look at me! Look at how fat I was! And I was already down to 170. You can see it in my face!!)

In a God-awful steampit of 88 degrees and 71 percent humidity, I placed my abilities (or lack thereof) to the test, in my 4th race of the year.

The Nike Run Hit Wonder was in it's first year. The concept? Have a very highly commercialized run, that would consist of having first-rate bands from the 80's that had massive appeal, and actually had more than 1 hit too.

These bands which included A Flock Of Seagulls, Dramarama, Kajagoogoo, General Public, Tommy Tutone and Tone Loc all played along the course. The course was Central Park but interestingly enough it started on the upper west side . We entered in through Central Park West & 110th street, and would head south for one entire loop (on the 10K course) around the park. Afterwards, we'd exit the park and cross a few blocks with a finish line at Morningside Park. Inside was a very large bandshell where Devo wrapped up the evening's highlights.

"Big Pussy" from "The Sopranos" was on hand to start the race, and later on to introduce Tone-Loc and Devo onto the stage.

This race played more like a rock concert than it did a race. There was a lot of local hype around here, plus they limited the amount of entrants to about 5 or 6,000 runners. The environment was electric. It was definitely more than the fact that I had moved out and was a single man again too. This race was something special and different. I felt free. And it felt great.

I had found out about this race from my friend Paul Serraino. He along with some of the other co-workers at Avon, like Stu Berlowitz, and some lady (I forgot her name now), were also running. I actually met up with them by the starting line. I don't know how I found them either because another unique feature of this race was that everyone had to wear the running shirt that Nike gave them because the shirt had the running number right on it. The technical shirts they gave us were of great quality too. 3+ years later, and I still have mine.

The weather was incredibly brutal. The crowd of people on the course made it even more stifling. To our pleasant surprise there were a couple of water spritzers along the course, but it was still too hot. The best part of the race was finishing and heading inside Morningside Park, where they gave out endless supplies of food and water. All of us walking down the hill to the meadow was an awesome sea of blue. It felt as if I was part of some kind of massive cult congregating. Well, at least I wasn't wearing purple nikes.

Tone-Loc nearly brought the house down with Funky Cold Medina, but Devo really stole the show. I had called my friend, Doug Botero and let him hear a few notes. He mentioned that he was unable to hear any of it. But then again, he never was much into them anyway. too. The worst part might have been just before the end of the race. Someone must have forgotten to tell the race directors to have the cops coordinate the traffic passing between Morningside & Central Park. It was like playing chicken, and none of the cars in that area were too thrilled about stopping either!

I never was a hot-weathered runner, and the results proved as such. My net time of 1:00:23, meant that I lumbered in with a 9:44 per mile pace. Overall, I placed 3408th place out of 4865, gender-wise I placed 1857/2288, and in my 30-39 age category I lagged in at 877/1064.

Wow, that was really bad. Well at least it was a qualifier for the 2005 New York City Marathon. Another step in the right direction.


They also gave us nice medals too. After the concert had ended, I left with Paul, Stu and DAMN.......What was that woman's name again??? We drove in one car down close to near where the train station was. And from there it was off to my appalling, if temporary, surroundings of the McGrath basement again.