Marathon 11 in 50 of the #50in50: Texas (Austin Marathon)

11 of 50 states in the #50in50 done:

• NEW YORK 11/4/18: @nycmarathon

• NEVADA 11/11/18: @runrocknroll Vegas

• PENNSYLVANIA 11/18/18: @Philly_Marathon

• WASHINGTON 11/25/18: @seattlemarathon

• TENNESSEE 12/1/18: @stjude Memphis

• ALABAMA 12/8/18: @irunrocketcity

• FLORIDA 1/13/19: @rundisney #wdwmarathon

• LOUISIANA 1/20/19: @thelamarathon

• MISSISSIPPI 1/26/19: Mississippi blues Marathon

• ARIZONA 2/9/19: Mesa-Phoenix Marathon @phxmarathon

• TEXAS 2/17/19: Austin marathon @austinmarathon

I woke early at Erica and Greg’s Place in East Austin to run the Austin Marathon. Greg made me coffee and I made a hummus muffin sandwich, and a banana. The coffee did it’s thing pretty quickly.

Greg drove me to around 8th and I-35. I then walked to 2nd and Congress, where the start line was and near the pace group Ferd and I were running with. Ferd was staying at a Marriott hotel near the start. We met up with Aaron and Stephen Berry, my nephews. They also had a couple of other friends running, Hunter and Jason. Stephen had a knee injury, and was wearing a brace.

Ferd, Hunter and I went to Ferd’s room to use the bathroom one last time. We then got out and started running with the pace group. The mass start was very crowded, with all 11,000 marathon and half marathon runners starting at the same time. The race organizers should do a better job managing the amount of runners in their race. They should at least do wave starts. The field was way too crowded all the way until mile 8. This is also one of the races where the runners don’t get much direction from the racer organizers on how to seed themselves. I saw friends Shannon, Javier, Greg, Erica, Dan, Ines and Brad at multiple times throughout the race. It was great to see them.

The weather was mostly good in the 50s with decent humidity up until around 9am. From 9am-11am it was a little warmer and humid. The course was a bit difficult with many steep inclines. There is also a very steep incline at mile 26.

Ferd and I finished at 4:14, not bad considering the hilly course and the temperature.

Here are the splits:

Stephen somehow managed to finish with Aaron in 4:50. Hunter finished in an amazing 3:11, wow. Jason finished after Aaron and Stephen.

The best part of this race is the race medal which doubles as a Texas-sized belt buckle. I’ll wear it to work at some point.

Overall this is a difficult race, with issues that can be fixed  like managing the start of the race to handle the amount of people.

If people are going to do a Texas race, I don’t recommend Austin. I will be looking at Houston for next year, which I’ve heard great things about.

After the marathon, we all met at East Tavern for food and drinks. It was nice to be with everyone. We then went back to Erica and Greg’s to shower and relax.

After a little bit of relaxing, I met up with some more friends for dinner. I saw Kaleb, April, their kids, Sam, Maggie (her birthday), Javier and Shannon at Lupe Tortilla.

Next marathons/states on the schedule:

• 2/24 MA (Hyannis)

• 3/2 SC (Myrtle Beach)

• 3/3 AR (Little Rock)

• 3/9 NC (Wilmington)

• 3/17 GA (Atlanta)

• 3/21 NM (Clayton)

• 3/22 OK (Guymon)

• 3/24 KS (Wichita)

Join me on the #50in50 for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation, with many ways to get involved.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD GWENEVIERE’S SONG

She was excited about releasing an album that she had just finished, but she passed before she could realize that dream, so we just recently released a single "What I Can Be" off of her album for her so that we could fulfill that dream for her. Download it here

Together we will save lives through early detection programs for lung cancer and brain tumors.

I ❤️ you Gwen.

-Yasir

Marathon 3 in 50 of the #50in50

‪Marathon 3 in 50 (@aacr @philly_marathon) in my #50in50 for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation done! My buddy Ferdinand ran it with me. He ran NYC with me and will run a total of 12 of the 50 marathons. The next one Ferd will do with me is the Disney Marathon (Florida) in January.

This was the 2nd time that I’ve run this race. The first time was years ago and I didn’t remember the route. It’s a fairly even course, except for around mile 8-11 as the elevation map shows.

I saw the great Bill Rodgers and mayor of running Bart Yasso.

 And Boston Marathon champion Des Linden.

And running legend Meb.

 I attended the Philadelphia Marathon press conference, saw Mitch Stoller of the American Association of Cancer Research speak and met him afterwards.

I did several media interviews about the foundation and why I’m doing this project, including this wonderful one in Runner’s World: Why This Man Wants to Run 50 Marathons in 50 States in 50 Weeks

Ferdinand and I finished in about 4:17.

The Philadelphia medal incorporates a replica of the Liberty Bell that actually dings!

3 states down, 47 more to go. Seattle Marathon tomorrow!‬ ‪

Next marathons on the schedule:

• WA (Seattle) 11/25

• TN (Memphis) 12/1

• AL (Huntsville) 12/8

Join me on the #50in50 for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation, with many ways to get involved.

PLEASE DOWNLOAD GWENEVIERE’S SONG

She was excited about releasing an album she had just finished, but she passed before she could realize that dream, so we just recently released a single "What I Can Be" off of her album for her so that we could fulfill that dream for her. Download it here

Together we will save lives through early detection programs for lung cancer and brain tumors.

I ❤️ you Gwen.

Monthly marathon report: NYC marathon

Just a couple of weeks ago, I ran my 7th NYC marathon. This race holds a very special place for my wife and me. NYC Marathon 2010 was the first marathon we both ever ran. To learn a bit more about we ran ran that race, watch this great StoryCorps video about my wife's story—my inspiration for doing all these marathons, triathlons, as well as wacky races and competitions. 

One of my favorite parts of the NYC marathon is actually volunteering at the Expo the day before race—handing out bibs to runners. Speaking off bibs, I had a special bib this year with my name on it!

Follow me tomorrow as I run my 26th marathon overall, 12th marathon this year, & 7th #nycmarathon. I'll be looking to run my best #tcsnycmarathon yet!

221 Likes, 12 Comments - Yasir Salem (@yasir_salem) on Instagram: "Follow me tomorrow as I run my 26th marathon overall, 12th marathon this year, & 7th #nycmarathon...."

There was a bit of hype this year with some of the runners and I was lucky and honored to be included in a Runner's World piece and TV promotions for the race.

And this this fun piece on AM New York: 

The race went really well. The temperature was just right and the rain held up. The crowds and bands in every borough were great as always. I ran my fastest NYC marathon yet (4:41) and came in just 2 minutes behind Prince Royce and 3 minutes behind Tiki Barber

1/2 Honored to be on this! Final #s:
1 Daniel Humm 3:12
2 @KevinHart4real 4:05
3 @TikiBarber 4:38
4 @PrinceRoyce 4:39
5 @yasirsalem 4:41:33 https://t.co/OWaoZc5PhA

— Yasir Salem (@yasirsalem) November 6, 2017

Runner's World did this great follow up on their pre-marathon article:

And there were a few other great articles on the NYC Marathon that I was also honored to be featured in: 

• Competitor Running
• Hollywood Life
• Food & Wine

The medals were nice, as always.

And my wife and I celebrated another successful NYC marathon together. We plan to run this marathon as long as we're able to!

There is no run quite like the NYC marathon. If you ever have the chance to run it, do it! It is my favorite run and is a special race for my wife and me. And if you every have a chance to hear the stories of any of the other 50,000+ runners that finish it every year, you'll see that it's a special race for them, too.

Monthly marathon race report: Rockaway Marathon

October's run was the Rockaway Marathon in Far Rockaway, NYC on October 7.

I ran my 2nd fastest ever. The run was on the boardwalk. The course was 4 loops of 6.55 miles.

There was also a half marathon race (2 loops). There were about 50 runners total.

It took me about 1.5 hours to take the subway from lower Manhattan to the start (at the end of the A line).

​Each loop began on the boardwalk at 102nd street, headed toward 57th street (where there was a water station, the other water station was at 102nd st), then down to 30th street, where we turns around and headed back up to 102nd street.

Overall the course was very fast and the course was easy to follow.

On my last loop, the water stations ran out of water, so I drank out the water fountains.

The beach scenery was really great. I sometimes forget how NYC has some amazing beaches out there.

There were also lots of surfers out.

I took the new super fast NYC ferry back to Manhattan (only 1 hr!) and and was back home in time for a big lunch.

Consider this marathon if you live close to NYC and you're looking for an easy, scenic beach marathon in October.​

Monthly marathon race report: Charles River marathon

On Saturday, September 9, I ran the inaugural Charles River marathon in Boston, MA. What a great race with a partnership between RACE Cancer Foundation and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Foundation. The race started at 7:00am and there were around 300 runners. 

The marathon course is a flat 2.62 mile loop on park paths around Boston's scenic Charles River, starting and finishing at the Herter Park in Boston, MA. 

The course was mostly on walking trails along the Charles river. 

Occasionally, there were portions of the course on bike paths. There weren’t a lot of bikes out, probably because it was pretty early. ​

There were plenty of volunteers manning the 2 aid stations on the course. One aid station was near the start/finish with had water, sport drink, and a variety of food (pretzels, swedish fish, bananas). The other aid station was around the 1.5 mile mark and had water and sport drink. 

The weather was great, just cool enough. I ran my second fastest marathon ever that day - until I ran my October marathon (Rockaway Marathon in NYC). 

The finisher medals were really nice. Overall, I enjoyed this run. I recommend it for next year if you’re in the Northeast and are looking for a September marathon that’s super flat, scenic in a great city. Check out the race site for more info:  https://racecancer.org/runfest