KEY POINTS:
Tomorrow morning, as you're getting up and heading into work, more than 100 Kiwis will be running through the streets of the Big Apple as part of the 37th New York marathon.
In 1970, there were just 127 participants. This year, organisers are expecting to top 40,000.
Being
here, its easy to see why the event has become so popular. For a start, there's the lure of New York. It's a magical city and while simply visiting is enough for most people, the opportunity to run through five boroughs, gaining access to areas that you normally wouldn't visit as a tourist, is a strong attraction. Then there's the support given to runners. New Yorkers are incredibly generous in the time they give, as spectators who line the entire 42km route five deep and as volunteers.
A very elderly, albeit well-presented, lady in the queue ahead of me at the drugstore was chatting with her equally elderly friend and telling her she couldn't meet her for cawfee as she was getting up at 4am on Saturday and Sunday to help out with the marathon. Everywhere we've been, the locals have been friendly and helpful - totally putting paid to the idea that New Yorkers are too cool to be nice.
The young investment banker who was on the same bus as our team as we headed to the Expo Centre to register tried to tell us that New Yorkers are rude and unpleasant people. Honestly, he said earnestly, we're truly awful.
We told him he and his kind were going to have to try a whole lot harder - so far, the whole city seems to be peopled with pussycats. Although it's a long way to come for a jog, it's worth it when you get here. Just ask Alison Roe and Rod Dixon, both Kiwis and both winners of the event in years gone by.
None of the Kiwi contingent is truly expecting to win it this year though. For most of us, it's the fulfilment of a long held dream just to be here. Some Kiwi runners are running as families - there's a mum and her two leggy blonde daughters, a mum and her 21-year-old son, and a husband and wife who've been joined by their London-based son.
What a fabulously memorable family holiday this will be, although I imagine it will be the parents, not the kids, asking whether we're there yet as the road stretches on forever.
One of the Kiwis, our flagbearer at the Friendship Run on Saturday, is attempting to qualify for the Beijing Olympics; others will be just happy to finish alive.
The 10 members of the Mission: Possible team, of whom I am one, have so far raised more than $60,000 for the Breast Cancer Research Trust. More than 5000 other marathoners from all over the world will raise $13 million for charity this year by completing the 42 km run. Which is another reason to keep going when the legs start to fail.
We all went for a short jog a couple of days after we arrived to get the legs moving again after a long time cramped in planes. We jogged along the waterfront as the sun was setting on the Hudson and the rush-hour traffic created a symphony of blaring horns to accompany us.
Sure, there was smog and exhaust fumes and three million people in one small space and you probably wouldn't want to swap the Kiwi lifestyle for that of highly powered New Yorkers' - but by crikey, to visit for a while and to be welcomed so warmly is an experience none of us will ever forget.
