My Jersey Shore Half Marathon Children’s Tumor Foundation Recap!

Jersey Shore Marathon

We Raised $23,170!

 

 

I want to thank the very best friends and customers in the world

(and Happy Birthday to my budding angel, Mary Alice)!

 

I ran my half marathon on Saturday morning, and did hobble across the finish. I did have to walk the last bit, as my legs had not healed from the prior week’s run, and I had a few calf issues. To add insult to injury, as insane as this may sound, I guess my back was weakened from the race, and I threw it out this morning… by sneezing.

The most important take-away, however, was that you all helped me raise over $23,000 for Neurofibromatosis research at the Children’s Tumor Foundation (www.CTF.org). What’s even more amazing is how you all turn out, and turn it on each year. We have been raising money together for CTF since 2002! God bless you all!

Allow me to share with you some details from the run. We lucked out, as heavy rains that were to start at dawn held out to 3pm, so we had a nice (windy) window to run before the monsoons came. As you can see from the picture above, the wind was howling, and I’ll tell you that it ain’t no fun running into the wind for a distance run!

I had prepared very well for the race in two meaningful ways. First, I hydrated with Wawa Chocolate Milk (what did you expect?). Second I had Band-Aids on my nipples. You may want to send your children out of the room before you view the photo:

TMI? Thanks for sharing? You are welcome! Anyway, we started out on the boardwalk at Seaside Heights, out front of the Aztec Hotel. The gentleman you see in the yellow jacket below is Steve Kendra, an avid NF fundraiser and leader, whose brave daughter is his inspiration. Steve rocks; he is a great man.

We continued running north, through a whole slew of small Jersey Shore towns. North of Seaside, our run took us first through Ortley Beach.

Much of the landscape seems frozen in time. The Motels built in the 1940’s and 1950’s still stand. From Ortley, our run next passed through the town of Lavallette, where most of our run was on the boardwalk.

It is here in Lavallette where I took my first pit stop. What, you never ate at Primo’s Deli? Italian Sub. Taste it.

Lavallette is a large town. So I needed another pit stop: Lavallette Liquors. I needed something to wash down the hoagie. Red Stripe did perfectly, plus it gave me a reason to pop in and say hi to my neighbor’s son, who works there. Hey, it’s 5:00 somewhere. Red Stripe with Orange Gatorade as a chaser. Yum!

By the way, Lavallette has one of the shore’s best surf shops nationwide: Ocean Hut. It is a landmark. Seriously!

Moving north again, we passed through Ocean Beach. Ocean Beach is “charming”. Well, not really. It sucks. But in one way it doesn’t suck so much. So many folks remember coming down and staying the summer at their grandma’s cottage. The living space was tight, the time outside plentiful, and the memories out-fricking-standing. It’s a shore thing. This ain’t the Hamptons (and that’s a good thing)!

Ocean Beach also has another must-stop. I don’t even know the name of the place. It is just a shack that makes their own donuts, and has a sign on top that says, “Donuts”. You smell them a mile away, and they are the real deal. No DunkinCrap. No KrispieKrud. Real. In your face Real. And they were closed. WTF!

The damn place made me hungry as hell. What a tease! Oh well… LaSola’s Market was open. All Year Yeah!

Hey, Chocolate Milk, Gatorade, an Italian sub, Red Stripe, and fresh mozzarella salad is energy food, right?

Anyways, Believe it or not, the next part of the race ran through my hometown at the Shore, Normandy Beach! I even ran past the home of the mother of my office mate and friend, Dan Moskowitz.

And I also ran past one of my favorite homes in Normandy, with the quintessential Normandy Beach yard, complete with Irish Nellie:

On my street I ran up to see the water. Rough. No Boston Whaler’s out striper fishing today!

So, the music on my iPod settled into a steady folk grind. Jakob Dyan and the Avett Brothers kept me zoned for a bit, followed by old Genesis. Huh what kind of mix is that? Never mind. I got hungry again.

Charlie’ Farm Market. Bamm. Cheesecake. Get Some!

North of Normandy is the “town” of Mantoloking. It’s not really a town; it’s more like the name of all the sick Ocean Front Estates that spend as much annually on their landscaping bills as many Americans pay for a home. I once walked up the driveway of one of the manors with a bottle of Kendall Jackson White Zinfandel, announced myself as a new neighbor down the road, but I had to about face and haul ass as a pack of Dobermans chased my sorry behind back to upper middle class land. Anywho… Mantoloking also has a great bar called Used To Be’s. It’s called Used To Be’s, not only because that is its current name, but because it has changed ownership and names so many times in its past that no one remembers all of those names. But, “Remember that place on 35 North that used to be Karl’s?” And “remember that bar and grill that used to be Ebby’s”? So, Used To Be’s is the name, and they have a pool table, and many lies get told in there, and pretty girls meet pretty guys. But they ain’t open on Saturday morning at 9am, so “that’s all I am gonna say about that.”

North of Mantoloking is Bay Head. I guess Bay Head is how the Jersey Shore does the Hamptons. It is beautiful indeed, and the homes are something to aspire to. But what’s important is that they have Mueller’s Bakery. Done.

Jealous McGarrety?

By the way, my tour kind of ends here, because the pain kicked up a notch, and I hit 13.1 miles.

How was my day? I raised money for my daughter’s charity, I met great people, and I ran through places that make my heart warm. It was a great day. You guys made it so.

Where we left off 4:00pm EST:

INDU              12,341.83                                +56.68

SPX                 1,319.68                                  +5.16

CCMP             2,764.65                                  +4.43

Futures now at 7:00 am EST:

DJA                             -71 

SPA                             -9.60

NDA                           -13.75

Key Data out today:

 

None

 

Since the prior close, some key stories:

 

–       Euro weakens, and Greek situation worsening (yields). Greece says no restructuring plan is in place.

–       Tax Day. Although 45% of Americans don’t care, as they don’t pay taxes.

–       Tax Day for GE, or as they say in Stamford, what’s a tax?

–       WSJ article over the weekend suggesting that J&J is in talks to acquire Synthes for a value of $20b.

–       US online poker sites shutdown and charged with money laundering and fraud. Maybe it’s the algo-bots?

–       Fiat is said to increase its stake in Chrysler over the next few days.

–       China announced a 50 bps RRR hike yesterday. Expected.

–       Mobius thinks Dubai stocks are a value.

–       Barron’s: positive on BA, RIMM, QCOM, GPS

–       Barron’s cautious: MSFT, GOOG, INTC

–       Barron’s talks about UBS LBO Candidate list: AAP, ARO, DOX, AEO, ARRS, ARW, AVT, CA, PLCE, PSS, DSW, FINL, GCO, HRS, IM, JBL, LTD, LNCR, MHP, MW, MOLX, JWN, RSH, ROST, SAI, SEE, TECD.

 

Earnings:

 

Pre-market:  AMLN, AMTD, C, GCI, HAL, KEY, LLY, MTB  

 

After the Close: TXN, ZION

 

Significant Movers This Morning:

TKLC + 8%, SYST +7%, AONE + 6%, THOR +6%, JDSU +4%, CYH -15%