Tunnel to Towers Run

Many of you know that I ran this race back in September.  It is for a great cause for which I raised $1,000.  This run is to honor Firefighter Steven Siller, who parked his car in Red Hook Brooklyn that morning, gathered up his bunker gear & ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel to the WTC.  He was killed along with 342 other firefighters that day.

It was probably the crappiest day to run.  It was cold, and rainy.  Now anyone that knows me knows that I would NEVER go out & run in the rain.  & honestly, I was going to not run that morning, but  I thought to myself - there is no way I can tell everyone who donated money that I bagged because it was raining.  The run was in honor of the firefighters killed on September 11th.  One of them was my friend, Gerard Dewan.  A little rain would be nothing in comparison to what happened to them. 

I got up early, and drove into Brooklyn with my trusty coach (haha I love calling him that) Mike.  We parked, picked up my race number & got ready to run.  There were easily 10,000-12,000 runners.  It was the biggest race I've ever seen, let alone run.  I have done 3 other 5ks, but they were so much smaller in comparison.  It wasn't raining that hard, more like a mist, but it was chilly!  At about 9 am, Mike left me to make sure he'd have a spot by the finish line.

As I walked around Coffey Park, by myself, I saw the thousands of other runners.  A huge number of cadets from West Point were doing calesthenics before the race, someone said there were 700 cadets.  That's huge!  There were also a lot of family members & friends of firefighters, I saw tons of memorial t-shirts for firefighters that were killed.  I think the most impressive people running were some of the firefighters that wore all their bunker gear, just as Steven Siller had done that day.  Bunker gear, if you don't know, weighs almost 100 lbs, it's a lot of weight!  There was also a big contingent from the London Fire Brigade, I ran with a pack of them, what a bunch! 

By the time the race started I was pretty soaked.  I had a running shirt & a t-shirt on over it, so most of the water was soaked up by the t-shirt.  I was so happy to get into the tunnel.  Dryness!  There was music playing over the tunnel PA system, which was good because I had left my iPod at home because I didn't want to get it wet. 

Running down into the tunnel was easy, it was downhill!  But coming out?  Not so easy.  I kept thinking oh I can stop and walk when I get out of the tunnel.  Um....as you come out of the tunnel, the route is lined with American Flags on one side & banners of each firefighter killed on 9/11, no way was I stopping!  I had to keep running.

I wasn't really sure where the finish line was, but people kept yelling, you're almost there, almost there!  OK, good to know!  I looped around towards the Hudson River & then back around to the WTC site, finally the finish line in sight.  It was a great race & I am glad I finished.  Thanks to everyone who supported me!  I'm gonna be hitting you up again next year!  & I'm going to start early - hoping to raise $2,000!