Today Runs A Marathon

My first job out of college was as a sales assistant for a publishing company in Center City. The most beautiful aspect of this job (besides the steady paycheck, which consisted of mere pennies but they were pennies I could count on) was the commute...with a 9-5 workday, I could leave my apartment 15 before I had to be there, and still have time for a cup of coffee and a bathroom run before logging on for the day. This now compares to me leaving my house at 7:00 for a 20-mile drive (which we all know means squat in rush hour traffic) to be at my desk shortly before 8:00. What I used to be able to get accomplished in the morning astounds me, especially since I would consider the days I woke up as "early", which is the time I now am pulling away from the house.

The first commute allowed me to watch the Today show, and they had just started one of their annual "Today Throws A Wedding" features, and I was hooked. Planning the weddings for these brides-to-be was like playing dress-up...I monitored the choices and voted, taking into account body shapes, complexions, past votes, making sure everything tied together, and cursing the other viewers who voted only because they liked the purple tulips, even though they clashed with the yellow bridesmaids dresses.

Once my commute changed, I still monitored each Today Throws A Wedding segment from my high-speed work connection. Recently, I visited the site to see what the next steps were in this feature, and was thrilled to see the banner above--Today Runs a Marathon.

Now how are they going to do this? I wondered. Do I get to vote on running shoes? Outfits? Races? Post-run meals? Distances? The options were endless. Further research showed I was not going to be able to manually determine each run and each race, but that I could follow the progress of the runners.

This segment follows the path of Karen, a cancer survivor, who is training to run the New York Marathon as part of the Memorial Sloan-Ketting Cancer Center's Fred's Team. Joining her will be NBC correspondent Natalie Morales (who probably never ate a bagel and peanut butter or broke a sweat in her life). Each entry follows their success, has training tips, and highlights parts of the training for Karen...her struggles, her achievements, down to race day.

This proves to be a great segment, one of which I have bookmarked and will follow to the point of obsession. I think it would be better if votes were able to be cast, but I would dread to see a determined runner be required to run in heels, because a few voters decided they liked the color.