On Sunday I watched American runner Galen Rupp win a Bronze medal in the Olympic 26.2 mile Marathon race with special empathetic interest. 

Some may know that Gotham General Counsel Ben Geizhals was my marathon running partner.  We lived by the mantra of "Miles of trials and trials of miles" for a 10 year period in which we devoted ourselves to maniacal training and racing. For example, once a week prior to the New York City Marathon we would run the 19 miles from Roslyn into the city on Northern Boulevard and over the
59th Street Bridge. 

Such memories: lightning flashing below us in a rain storm as we were on the bridge, 30 mile Sunday training runs to Center Island and 24 Hour Relay races.  

We were young, competitive and willing to pay the crazy price of twice a day runs, speed work on the track and 100 mile 7 day training weeks.

My goal was to qualify for the Boston Marathon by running under 3:10 and in 1982 I did so at the age of 40 by running a 6:56 final mile to achieve my goal with a time of 3:09:34 (7:11/mile pace).  Photo above.

To me the moment was the equivalent of winning Olympic Gold!

Hats off to Galen Rupp for a great race!