Last week was a good week.  In terms of training it was the most defining week of my buildup for The ING NYC Marathon.  Coming off a very difficult Sunday marathon simulation I was expecting to feel a little sluggish with only one day rest before my 1000 meter repeat session on Tuesday.  It was one of those good surprises when I got part way into my workout and realized there was a freshness to my legs that hadn’t been there since I began my heavy marathon training.  I knew the rest of the week was going to be special, and it had to be, since I had my hardest runs I would be doing leading up to NYC on Friday and Sunday.
 
As we were finishing our repeats on Tuesday it began to snow, and snow, and snow.  We ended up getting so much snow that the ski resort reported a 30” dump and that they had enough to open a month earlier than expected.  On Tuesday night I went over to my training partners house, Josh Cox, for a pre-birthday healthy homemade pizza dinner.  Driving home I felt lucky to be in my four-wheel drive equipped Titan because there was no way I was getting home any other way. 
 
I turned 27 years old on Wednesday.  Birthdays have definitely changed over the years and especially since I began marathoning.  I used to have stay up all-night parties with my buddies in grade school.  Now I am eating Splenda pumpkin pie, which is really good, and enjoying low-key moments with teammates and friends.  This year Sara wanted to throw a big party for me but when I am in the middle of heavy training it is hard to find extra energy for even fun things like parties. 
 
Friday was my biggest workout of the week, an 18-mile tempo run.  I had already done an 18-mile tempo two weeks prior and it had gone well but with how good my body was feeling I knew I could run much faster this time around.  Luckily the snow had subsided and it was almost a no-shirt day (a runners way of relating temperature).  I ended up running two minutes faster than I had previously run.  When I finished that run I knew, with all certainty that I was ready.  It was not that I didn’t know before but there are those moments when you no longer have to talk yourself into the fact that you are ready you just know because the evidence is undeniable.
 
I was expecting to feel pretty trashed on Saturday but I was surprised, once again, when I felt unusually bouncy on my training runs.  Another good sign.  Running good workouts is important but how you come off them is almost equally important.  In training, no single run should ever be looked at in isolation.  It’s about the whole block of training.  This is why some people can hop in someone else’s workout, run it and apparently be in the same shape but then finish minutes behind on race day.  It isn’t totally about what has been done on just one day, it is about what has been done over the weeks and months leading up to the event.  Coming off the workout well is just as important as doing the workout.  Here is how I come off workouts well.
 
The first thing I do after a workout is eat.  Recovery begins with nutrition.  I have Cytomax protein and a banana right away, and then I go home and stretch and eat lunch soon thereafter.  After lunch I go straight into a 90-minute massage.  I know massage might not be accessible to everyone, which is why when I don’t have access to a massage I use various balls, rollers, Normatec MVP, etc to workout any knots or tight spots I may have acquired from the workout.  After the massage I go straight into my Icool for an ice bath.  After relaxing for a couple of hours, it is time to go to the gym for some light leg weights (quad extensions, pulley exercises, etc…the key here is to strengthen the muscles that tend to be weak on you specifically), a kick in the pool for hydro-therapy and a brief (10 minutes tops, followed by lots of water) stretch in the hot tub.  These are the keys I have found helpful in coming off workouts well but you are going to have to experiment to find what works well for you.
 
Sunday marked two weeks till race day.  It was my last long run.  I ran 2 ½ hours and covered well over 20 miles feeling very controlled the whole way.  It is at about two weeks before the race that I make sure to really monitor my effort level.  I still do some hard running but there are no tests until the marathon.  I did my usual recovery routine in the afternoon and finished the day with a night service at church.
 
Today I woke up and had that unusual pop in my legs once again.  I was thinking about how I only had a couple weeks left to enjoy the fitness that I have gained over the last four months, and then it will be time to stop running and let my body recover.  People are always surprised when I tell them I let myself get out of shape over a two-week complete no-run recovery period after all my marathons.  I have come to see it as a very necessary part of marathon training.  I have tried only taking a modified break and found that I came back in very good shape but then as I began my training my body goes stale, begins to breakdown in the form of injuries, and I see very little improvement.  Recovery is a necessary part of the cycle of a marathon runner.  Plus, if you never let yourself get out of shape its harder to appreciate being in shape. 

Have you ever thought about what a difference a few seconds can make?  I have never been so thankful for a few extra seconds as I was this week while doing my last hard uphill run.  Last Thursday morning Sara and I had driven 15 minutes to what has become one of my favorite runs in preparation for the hills of The ING New York City Marathon. 

I locked my Titan and headed out for my typical 20-minute warm-up jog along this beautiful little single track that runs along Lower Rock Creek.  I came back and, uncharacteristically for me, hopped right in the truck to drive the 2.5 miles up the road where I would start my climb.  I usually take a few minutes to stretch before getting in the car but today for some reason I didn’t feel the need.  I pulled onto the highway about 200 meters in front of a sport utility vehicle and we started to drive up to the base of the climb.

As we were driving I glanced back in my rear view mirror and what I saw was like something out of a movie.  The car, for no apparent reason, swerved into the far right hand shoulder and then headed all the way back across the four lane highway into the left hand shoulder where it rolled in a cloud of dust and came to a stop.  My heart missed a couple of beats and didn’t know what to do.  My mind flashed back to a psychology class I had taken at Stanford where we learned about how when emergencies happen in public places, where there are lots of people who could act, people usually didn’t because they all figured someone else would.  I was not going to be that person.  I pulled off on the shoulder and we immediately called 911 and talked to the dispatcher for a few minutes.  Before we got off the phone a fire truck that happened to be driving by was already on the scene with its lights on.  We figured at that point there was very little we could do by running back to the scene, as not only the fire truck was there but various cars had pulled over as well.

I was pretty shaken up as we continued on our way and Sara dropped me off to start my run.  My thoughts were with the person in that car and I was imaging what could have happened to us.  What went wrong with their car?  Did they make it?  What if I had jogged the warm-up 20 seconds slower and had been driving next to that car when it started swerving?  What if I had taken some more time to stretch?  That could have been us.  I started the climb with a very different perspective than I started the warm-up.  Running didn’t seem any less significant, it felt more precious.  Life felt more precious. 

Perspective is a huge part of running.  It’s the lens that we experience our running through.  My “lens” was very different for the uphill run than it typically is.  I welcomed the pain as I appreciated being alive to experience it.  I made the conscientious decision to take in every aspect of the run taking in the beauty of the scenery, despite the thinning air.  I paid extra attention to my senses.  I felt the cool breeze blow through my hair and the sweat dripping from my brow.  I could feel my heart pounding in my body and it never felt so good.  Sometimes it takes tragedy for us to realize what a gift it is to get to go out for a run.  Rolling out of bed on Thursday morning I wasn’t expecting to get much more than a good workout in but I got a brand new appreciation for life.

It served as a good reminder for me to really enjoy these last couple of weeks before the marathon.  I often get into countdown mode, thinking about how many more long tempos or long hard runs are left.  Thursday reminded me to take in every moment of every day.  After all, it’s the journey that makes the summit so special.  If someone took you to the summit of Everest in a helicopter you would appreciate being there, but if you just spent years of training and preparation and had just completed a long and treacherous journey to the top of Everest you would have a whole different sense of accomplishment when you summit.  I have spent the last 13 years of my life trying to make it to the summit of my career.  I haven’t been to the top yet, but it feels close.  But even if I get to the summit on November 1st, if I get there and haven’t enjoyed each step of the journey than I have lost.  Life is too precious to wish a moment away.

As I nervously laced up my custom built ASICS running flats last week, prior to my 18 mile tempo run, I could not help but smile to myself as I thought I am living every kids dream. As a kid growing up, I was sports mad. When I wasn't forced to go to school I did nothing but play sports or watch sports on tv. At that time professional basketball players were just starting to come out with their own custom built shoes that were becoming available to the general public. I remember wanting a pair of Air Jordan's but not having anywhere near the bills I needed to sport them. I always dreamed of what it would be like to have my own shoe. Now I know.

Ever since I signed with ASICS in 2005, I had heard stories about the ASICS Research and Development Center in Kobe, Japan and the special custom shoes that were being turned out for their athletes. This past spring I had the opportunity to take a two-day trip to Kobe and get a pair of my own shoes built. The trip opened up my mind to what all goes into making a custom pair of shoes and ultimately made me glad I wasn't wearing someone else's custom shoes when I was a kid.

Going to the ASICS R&D Center I knew that they would measure my foot a couple of different ways using cutting edge technology, however I wasn't prepared for all that my 36 hour trip would involve. I had no idea what goes into making my shoes. There were about seven different experts that I met with throughout the day. Some measured my leg lengths, some measured my arch using a high tech device. Then there were a couple stations that I had to be physically put to the test. They had me perform all out leg exercises so they could take into account my leg strength ratio and my strength in relation to other marathoners. The test that I personally liked the best was a running test where I literally ran through the middle of the building on a indoor/outdoor track that runs in and out of the building, landing on plates that measured my ground impact force and reaction time.

At the end of my testing they sat me down and went over all my running mechanics, giving me strengthening and stretching tips. What I love about the Japanese is that they tell you how it is. So when they respectfully told me that I "ran like a girl", I wasn't too surprised and tried to take it in stride. If I didn't get it by now that they were only doing everything in their power to make me better I never would. I thought I was flying half way around the world to get a pair of shoes made but with a company with a slogan of "A Sound Mind in a Sound Body" I should have known I would be getting much, much more than a pair of shoes.

RYANS RESEARCH - Video

After a hard day at the office, I enjoyed some traditional Japanese hospitality when we went to get my first taste of Kobe steak. I can't even begin to describe how good Kobe steak is. You have to go there and try it for yourself. Before catching my afternoon flight the next day, I had the opportunity to visit the ASICS Global Headquarters and meet the faces that make up ASICS. I met many enthusiastic employees but my highlight had to be meeting with the President, Chairman and other VIPs from the Global Office. I admit that I was pretty nervous as they ushered us into a leather chair lounge for our meeting. I got even more nervous when I saw the barrage of suited men walking toward me as I took inventory of my attire, or lack there of. They were very gracious as we exchanged hellos and found our seats. Then the Chairman said something that I was least expecting, "Your wife is so beautiful." Instantly all the tension in my body melted away as I thought to myself I can't wait to tell Sara about this one.

RYAN VISITING SPORTS MUSEUM - Video

I left Kobe knowing that the first time I race a marathon, at The 2009 ING NYC Marathon, in my new custom designed racing shoes, I will have no doubt that I am in the perfect shoes for me. The experts at ASICS took everything that makes me who I am and made a shoe around that. It is easy to take a mold of a foot and make a shoe around it, it is another thing to design a shoe around an entire body, which is exactly what my shoe is. My shoe is not just a customized shoe, it is a customized extension of me.

It took about six weeks till I came home one day from practice to find the very normal looking package waiting for me outside my door that I had been waiting for since my youth. I knew it would take time to make my shoes because I saw the workers putting the finishing touches on one of my buddy's pair of track spikes. It is pretty cool that when I lace up my shoes before The ING NYC Marathon I will see all the faces behind the shoe. From the woman who is responsible for punching the holes, to the technician who analyzed my stride impact force, to the Chairman who acknowledges my wife's good looks, I will feel their support in more ways than through my shoes absorbing the tough roads of New York.

Today as I was out running the last 20 miles on The ING NYC Marathon course I felt like I re-learned a very important lesson and fulfilled my purpose for coming to New York City this week.  I was having one of those days where I was tired and my run wasn’t going as well as I hoped.  All I could think about was how off my body felt, how tired I was from getting up at 5:30 am, how hard it was for me to navigate the city roads and traffic, how I wished I was back home in the forest. Really I was reaping frustration because I had let my heart become too self-focused.  As I ran along, God was telling me this is what it is like to be running with an inward focus, but it doesn’t have to be this way.  Though I heard Him, it didn’t make it from my head to my heart until after the run, as I lay on the massage table, still irritated by the morning, God impressed on my heart, get outside yourself.
 
It’s ironic that I am writing about lacking an outward focus less than two days after Sara and I launched our foundation, the Hall Steps Foundation.  Its goal is taking small steps towards the marathon goal of ending poverty.  The vision for the foundation came from one of my personal heroes, Mother Teresa, who said, “I can do no great things, just small things with great love.”  Out of this quote our slogan was born, “small steps, great love”.  Marathoners know best about taking lots of small steps towards accomplishing a seemingly impossible goal, whether it’s to break 2 hours or 8.  Through the Hall Steps Foundation our aim is to encourage runners to take their own “small steps” by focusing outside themselves on others both in their community and around the world living in poverty.
 
Yet, despite my excitement about starting this endeavor and belief in its mission, somehow I had lost focus.  This morning I woke up with the wrong perspective and forgotten my life and running is not all about me. I had forgotten that the truly special moments that I have experienced in running are all when I was outwardly-focused.  When I set my mind on God and praising Him through my running, thinking about my wife, family, and all those who I love, and remembering the people I am impacting a positive force in my running and is how God designed me to ideally function.  The more I reach out to positively impact others, the more my motivation and focus changes when running.  After visiting Zambia with World Vision in the fall of 2008, the faces of the kids we were to bring clean water to became burned in my mind’s eye.  I often go there when I am hurting on a run finding new strength that I couldn’t find in myself. 
 
The goal of today’s run was to preview the last 20 miles of The ING NYC Marathon course, but I accomplished so much more than that.  I learned an important lesson about what enables me to really fly: focusing outside myself by focusing on others I love.
 

Because I race only six times a year I am always excited for race week when it finally rolls around.  I was particularly pumped about racing the ING Philadelphia Distance run because I had heard so much about the event from my teammate Deena Kastor, who had set the American Record at the event a few years back.  She always talked about the city, course, and event as if it was the perfect environment for supernatural running.

Even though I have had mixed results in my races leading up to marathons I couldn’t help but dream about hitting one of those special days when I feel like I’m floating on heaven's clouds.  I was secretly hoping to run faster than I had ever run before.  So I ran my last interval workout on Tuesday of 8 by 1000 meters with high aspirations for Sunday's race.

Traveling from Mammoth is a bit of a journey when the daily winter flights are not in operation.  It requires a three-hour drive to Reno, staying over in a hotel, and then working out before catching an early flight to the east coast the next day.  It was fun to travel again, especially since I was traveling with my wife, my buddy Josh, and my massage therapist Leigh.  Traveling with friends makes the trip so much better.

The first thing I did in Philly was go for a half hour shake-out jog, which I highly recommend after a long day of travel.  Honestly, often times it is the last thing I feel like doing but it is a great way for my body to adjust to the time change and flush all the junk out of my legs rather than sleeping with it and feeling twice as bad in the morning.  After about 15 minutes of my legs flushing themselves out I began to feel really good.  Before hitting the sack I got a massage from Leigh and indulged in a Philly cheese steak.

Friday was a social day filled with expo appearances and meeting other runners.  Even though I am usually the one up with the mic giving advice to other runners I often feel that I learn more from them as they learn from me.  The day ended with a special dinner for the meet organizers, sponsors and athletes at a Museum.

Saturday was pretty low key.  I try and schedule as little as possible the day before the race, just a massage, run, nap, and lots of preparing my spirit to run.  My wife had to leave for her race in Providence at about noon but luckily I had my teammates Mike and Josh Cox to keep me company and keep my mind off the race.  One of my old coaches gave me a great piece of advice that I still implement to this day.  He told me to think about the race a lot in my months and weeks of training leading up to the race but then the last couple of days not to think about it at all until I start warming up.  A lot of waisted energy can be lost in those final days worrying, contemplating, and thinking about the race so I find it is better to do all the thinking well in advance and then show up and live it out on the race weekend.  Easier said than done I admit, but something for us to strive after.

When I woke up on Sunday morning I went straight to my knees.  There is no better place to be on race morning than praying.  I don’t pray for victory but I do pray for a supernatural experience of God as I run.  I pray to experience heaven on earth.  I have had a few times when I feel like I have experienced it and that was enough for me to keep asking God to experience it over and over again.  Its addicting.  After saying my morning prayers I had my bagel with almond butter and Cytomax gel and walked over to the window to check the weather, which was perfect.

It really was the perfect day to run.  I will never forget being on the starting line and looking back at the thousands of runners about to embark on the 13.1 mile journey with me.  It is a very special time of unity that I think everyone should experience at some point in there life.  When the gun fired and we got under way I went out at a pace that I knew I could manage for the distance.  I was hoping to look down and see a fast split at the mile mark, in hopes of making for a special day, but seeing a 4:40 for the first mile I knew that it was unlikely.  I went to the front and pushed a little harder hoping that maybe I just needed to run a little harder to get better warmed up, but again I saw the split of 4:40.  At that point I knew that a personal best would have to wait for another day.  Sometimes things don’t click perfectly and you have to set new goals within the race.  So rather than bagging the race as a complete loss I came up with a new goal of forgetting about the time and practice trying to win the race.

By mile 8 there was four of us remaining.  I decided to test out how everyone was feeling, myself included, by throwing in a little surge.  I was trying to find a way to wake myself up from the monotonous rhythm we had established.  The pace felt comfortable, almost like marathon pace, but whenever I tried to pick up the intensity just a little bit, the effort would go up exponentially.  This is often the case when I am racing while in the middle of marathon training.  Since I wasn’t feeling that I could maintain a faster pace I tucked back in the pack and waited.

With a couple of miles left to go I committed that I would make a hard move with a mile remaining and run as hard as I could for the last mile.  Committing to a plan can be a good thing because it makes you surge whether you feel like it or not.  It often times feels like it is impossible to go any faster but if you can find some trigger to change gears you often feel better when you pick it up.  This is one of the advantages of running a course that has some down hills that  naturally trigger a change in gears.

I put my head down and ran my heart out that last mile.  I had no idea how the other guys where feeling and honestly I wasn’t thinking about that.  I wasn’t thinking about trying to win or anything like that, I was just thinking about running as hard as I could.  What resulted was a 4:27 last mile and walking a way with a victory.  It was very special to win in front of the crowd in Philly.  They were very enthusiastic and loud the last 100 meters.  It felt great to get across the line.  Mission accomplished!

Looking to show the running community that he is ready for a magical run at the upcoming ING New York City Marathon, Ryan Hall's performance today at the ING Philadelphia Distance Run (1/2 Marathon) indicates that his training is on the right track.  Hall pulled away from the lead pack of 4 athletes after dropping a 4:27 mile between miles 12 and 13 running unchallenged to the finish line.  He crossed the finish line with an official time of 1:01:52.  His time was slower than his 1/2 Marathon AR set in Houston (2007) but was a result of slow race tactics by the lead pack until Hall ran away with a little over a mile to go in the race.

You can view the replay of the race at http://elite.competitor.com/webcast/pdr/index.html

Ryan Hall's September 2009 Playlist that helps motivate and inspire his training prior to The ING New York City Marathon.

This week brought the first signs of fall and with it the excitement of increasing fitness as the ING NYC marathon draws near. For the first time this summer the shirt is staying on unless we are really running hard and I have already begun craving pumpkin lattes from Starbucks. There are many parts of fall that I enjoy, but the best part of fall is the feeling of being weeks away from top form.

Marathoning is much like cycling. I look up to Lance Armstrong as an athlete who has not only done what I would like to do the equivalent of in the running world, but also because he has used his physical feats to help others. I have read a couple books about Lance where they talk about the timing of peaking for the tour. It’s all about coming into peak form at precisely the right time to win the tour. I remember in a race leading up to one of the tours that Lance won he responded to a reporter's question about what was his goal for the competition and he replied, "to not get last."

It's really hard to go into buildup races for the marathon not in peak form but I know that if I really want the best shot to win NYC this fall I have to be so focused on that goal that I am willing to suffer in the races leading up to the competition. It is a bit ironic that I am writing this less than a week out from my last race, The Philadelphia Distance Classic, before NYC. It is not like I am not going to try and run fast at Philly or that I am expecting to get destroyed (I always go to the line with the expectation that something special could happen), but my point is that focus on the big goal and sacrifice is part of the price of being great.

It’s been a fairly typical week for me: intervals on Tuesday, Tempo run on Thursday and 20 miles hard on Sunday. However, last week was a significant week in that it marked the end of the initial buildup cycle for the marathon. From the time I arrived in Mammoth in the beginning of July till now it has all been about getting a good base level of fitness. Now it is time to go get one last indicator of where I am at before the real work begins. Along with the change of weather this week marks the winds of change in my training fast approaching.

On Sunday I race in Philly, then take a train to New York City where my wife and I will spend the next week. Not only am I looking forward to a week out of altitude to recover and gear up for the intense training awaiting me, but I am also looking forward to announcing some very exciting news that Wednesday. Additionally, I will get to preview the ING New York City Marathon course, which will give me some good images to visualize. On Saturday I will get to watch Sara compete in the 5th Ave mile and then we’ll catch an evening flight back to Reno that same day.

Monday the storm hits. If I am going to win the ING NYC marathon it will be as a result of what is done in those last 4 weeks of hard training before backing off for the race. An exciting season is on the way.

When I was first starting out as a runner 13 years ago, I wondered what it would be like to be a professional runner. At that point in my career I was only running 5 miles a day and had a hard time comprehending what a pro runner does all day. If I could have only foreseen into the future to yesterday I would understand that it is more than a full time job, it is a lifestyle.

My alarm clock sounded at 6:45 am. This would give me just enough time to get dressed, have breakfast, make my pre-long run cup of coffee, make my bottles for the 20 mile run I would be logging, pray, and read my Bible. At 7:40 am I was in my Nissan Titan pulling out of the driveway, headed to my full-time massage therapist house to get a pre-run flush. My mini-massage went till 8:15. I spent the next 10 minutes doing a daily dynamic flexibility routine, then off to practice.

After some small talk with the team, we headed up to 9,000ft to run around a couple of lakes in our backyard, Mammoth Lakes. From 9-10:55 I ran my progressive long run, in which the goal is to pick up the pace every 5k throughout the run. It was a beautiful day to run. I couldn’t ask for a more scenic and inspiring place to train.

Over the next half hour I stretched out my tired legs and refueled with my typical post-run Cytomax shake. Then it was back into the truck to drive down into town and get some more fuel, in the way of Mexican food (carne asada torta), for a quick lunch and shower. At 12:30 my daily 90-minute massage began, followed by 15 minutes of icing in the cold creek. I ran a couple of errands over the next half hour and headed home to grab a quick snack (yeah, I eat all the time), this time a salad and cup of cereal with a couple of spoonfuls of Muscle Milk Cake Batter.

By this time it was 3:30 and I was heading to the gym to hit the pool for 15 minutes of light kicking. I try and get in the pool for hydrotherapy after hard long runs and hard tempo runs. It does a great job of loosening the legs up. By the time I got back from the gym it was 4:15 and the physical part of my day was complete. Now I just had to catch up on dishes, cleaning the kitchen, and helping with dinner before our dinner guest arrived at 5:15.

Walking into The Lighthouse Church at 7:00 pm, I told Sara I was going to need a wheelchair to get into church. The coffee was well out of my system by now and I was finally feeling the fatigue from the run, not so much in my legs as I had done plenty to get my legs recovered from the effort (massage, ice bath, kicking in the pool).  It was more of a total body fatigue that usually puts me to bed early. However, as I stood in church worshipping God I could feel my spirit being restored and my body being replenished. It was amazing. All of the sudden I didn’t feel that bad anymore and I felt a new motivation and drive for the coming hard week of training that I certainly did not walk in with.

Running is more than a job, it is a lifestyle. I have to be conscientious of what I put in my body, when I get up in the morning and when I go to bed. I have to train not only my body on the runs, I also have to spend a lot of time recovering from them. But I can’t just train my body.  I have to train my body, mind, and spirit.    Professional running isn’t for everyone, but it is for me. I absolutely love it. Sure it makes for some busy days but when I am feeling overly busy I just remind myself that I am busy with running in the forest, taking naps, and getting massages. Life is good!

This week I have experienced the power of touch.  On Sunday, a full-time massage therapist that Sara and I have hired for the ten weeks leading up to the ING NYC marathon arrived in town.  I was really excited to have her join us in Mammoth because she had been a big help in working on me a lot leading up to the 2008 London Marathon where I set my personal best of 2:06:17.  I remember in the build-up, how amazed I was after hammering a 23 mile long run and walk out of the massage feeling like I could go run some more.  The next day I would be surprised by the lightness in my legs.

Leah, our massage therapist, joined us and started working right away.  The first couple of days I could tell that my legs were starting to feel better.  Then last night before the tempo run today I was walking around thinking to myself that I don’t think my legs have ever felt this good.  But I wasn’t sure if it would pan out into a good workout the next day.  As it turned out I had one of the best tempo runs I have ever had in Mammoth.  It was amazing.

Leah’s work has made me believe all the more that there is power in physical touch.  I believe our bodies were made to respond to it.  I am really excited to have Leah’s healing hands with me on my journey to the finish in Central Park.  I know that I still have to put in a lot of hard work on my end but I am growing in my assurance that if I am going to win in New York it is not just going to be as result of my hard work and my sacrifice, it is going to be the result of people like my family that helped us move in to our new place last week, and my wife who decided to stay home and not go to Europe this summer to support me, and my teammates and friends support and encouragement along the way.  If I win, it will be because I am a part of a great team of people that are sacrificing and working hard towards one goal, some with their heads, some with their hearts, and some with their hands.