How appropriate to have Andy, a Brit take care of the Armistice Day Run, which Keith assures me is not Armistice but Veterans' Day. Agreed, but how can you have one without the other?

The trail went loopy loop in these minute little arrows, starting from Fulton and Broadway and practically crossing back over the start more than an hour later, to finish at GB Shaws with a lovely Indian curry - the more correctly and elegantly sobriqueted Vindaloo.

The start was funny - Beth "wanted" to carry bags (we now know why: it wasn't far) and your topheavy (brains that is) scribe managed to leave her sneakers behind - a quick switch ensured that Beth got to do her thing in buckled loafers, and I got her sneakers that have a mesh holein the toe to let the cold air in and the sweat out. I managed however to sweat less than most, shortcutting the trail to great advantage (2nd one in) and explaining to an almost nervous Andy who wouldn't know how to lose his cool if you paid him that any faults with the trail could be made up by ready and waiting dark beer. Said beverage appeared and duly quelled comment from the arriving marathoners. The trail was, actually, outside of the perfectly logical but unfindable first check and several similar brothers and sisters thereafter your classical, wonderful Seaport cum Battery Park circuit.

The two sticking point checks were at the Seaport corner - it crossed over and went south, through some slippery slimy fish soup remains, and the second one, reputed to be somewhat longer in duration was in Battery Park. The most remarkable factor from my vantage point (which unfortunately is still unique) was that I managed to shortcut and come in from the wrong side on a bit of trail which had only been laid minutes earlier. The vindaloo was great, making WW theup and coming better food run. Also, count on Andy to add 5 to the pack single-handedly - his computer-nerd office is obviously extremely supportive - from now on we should only request hares from among their ranks. But some of them are often absent otherwise, teaching the future generation how to run no doubt (I bet it's actually the other way round). There is one more hitch in this equation. Their name seems to have diversified from Dave, causing some confusion, but the new boots VIP finance man has been seen since, so that's OK. Well done!