An Eleven Hour Day.......For 61 Seconds Of Work...

Boy,I thought my Feb 9th bus trip to NYC was to quote the always quotable John McEnroe "The Pits Of The World" and my recent run of bad luck was behind me........boy was I wrong!!!
The rain might've been enough to put some people off going to Randall's Island from the Bronx,Brooklyn,Queens etc let alone Philly but not me,I clutched onto the belife conditions would improve,or at the very least"be ok" when I got there.....little did I know getting there would be an adventure all by it's self!!!

Starter for ten on the kackfest was arriving at 30th St at 2.25pm for a 2.30pm bus and no sign of the bugger.....and yet Bolt Bus's scheduled 2.30pm was there and ready to leave on time.....so it couldn't be a rain or traffic issue,just Megabus or Megabust as I'm now calling them being two bob again{seriously I have numerous diary entries of Megabust tales of woe......the newest chapter was about to unfold and write it's self!!!}
3pm the 2.30pm bus showed up,by leaving at 3.10pm I was already 40 mins behind schedule and w/ the rain falling the short journey through Center City to access the Ben Franklin Bridge took forever,at 3.45pm we were only as far as Camdem,technically we should be getting up towards Newark by now,I told myself to stay calm and not use up nervous energy on a situation out of my control and made major inroads into my ''The Golden Decade" book a lookback at British track and field in the 80's.

As is so often the case on a weekday ride to NYC on the bus things got backed up at the trusty Lincoln Tunnel and it was 6.22pm when we arrived in midtown Manhatten,not only almost two hours late,But I now needed to be at 125th and Lexington in 38 minutes.....and still take the #35 to Randall's Island to be at Ichan by 7pm when the meet started.
Even w/ the #6 express I didn't get to 125th St till 7.09pm but the #35 was coming around the corner,hey I could be across the bridge and inside Ichan by 7.15pm and in time for the second event the 800m.......yeah right!!
The driver decides a 15 brake is due and heads to the nearby McDonalds,it's 7.25pm b4 she gets back behind the seat and just when I though it couldn't get any worse....she blows by Ichan Stadium and drops me off at the next stop a quarter mile down the road!!!!

By the time I got into the stadium the first heat of the 800m was on the track and I didn't have enough time to get registered and changed to get into the slower second heat.....this trip had become a Pamala Anderson.......a major bust!!!!
Having gone all that way and not ran would've been criminal and might've seen me take a "header" into the first available river on the way back to Manhatten so I jumped into the final heat of the 400m,I needed something to show for my trip..
61.6 in wet windy conditions wasn't too bad,it's not like I warmed up b4 hand.
And so to the aftermath,a blown opportunity to get a 800m seed time for Nationals,there's an 800m and 1,500m here again in two weeks or an 800m in Philly at the Germantown Accademy meet,which ever I run I'll still have to use a slow seed time for Natioanls on July 9th's entry deadline,although I think I can alter my seed times after I've entered w/ my two Haywards Field races in mid July,something to look into.

As far as running is concerned that's really the end of the story.....but NOT my night,I figured getting from Ichan to midtown to get the bus back to Philly would be a piece of cake,leave at 8pm for a 9.40pm bus.....
I arrived at 33rd and 9th w/ 10 mins to spare.....only to discover that's not where the Megabust busses depart from now.....they now leave from 41st between 8th and 9th Ave,it's pissing down w/ rain and to add insult to injury I got off the subway at 42nd St I could've stayed there rather than take a needless trip to 34th St.
I arrive at 9.40pm w/ said Megabust getting ready to pull out.....only to be informed that even though it's 9.40pm this is the 8.40pm bus..........
On top of that like the day hadn't been a major kick in the nads w/ steel toecaped boots I get misdirected to the wrong line and almost missed the next Philly bound bus at 10pm......

Thankfully the ride home was something to write home about in a good sense as I struck up a conversation w/ the passenger next to me who'd also endured the "day from hell" and we swopped horror stories back down I 95 back to Philly and hopefully put behind us a collective "day from hell'',fate?serendipity??kismet??? I don't know,what I do know is misery loves company, and if I do have to bus it to and from NYC in two weeks I'm switching back to Bolt Bus.......to be continued I'm sure.......