Some conversation started with his trainer and I, sort of told them that his splits were to fast in the early stages and that there was lots of hills coming from the half way marker, however they still kept pulling him and he was averaging 6:45 per mile which was the fastest split time ever in a marathon for me. I knew that I would have problems later in the race because I had missed 4 water stops fighting in and out of his entourage, although I was feeling good and still keeping up the pace.  When I got to the half marathon mark I had just run the fastest half marathon ever and I had a severe blister under my left foot on the ball of it so I decided to drop back and plan my own race from here. I kept to my guns running 7:00 per mile until mile 22-23 then I felt my left calf starting to tighten I had to stop just before mile 23 and stretch other wise I knew it would cause major problems in Central Park, then just as I made it into the park I had to stop again to stretch. I got frustrated because I was not tired I was and I know that I can run faster but this cramping was slowing me down. After stretching and started running again slowly and then picking it up from mile 25 passing Trump Plaza I saw Stephanie's boy friend John shouting to the top of his lungs RUNN!!!RUNN!!! And I was just turning my head in his direction and waved at him while he was using his camera phone to video me. Then it was all out for me I knew that I would definitely run in under 3:19 so I was going for my personal best for NYC Marathon, giving everything I have entering Central Park again from the west side by Columbus Circle I could see the wide screen TV and the finish line, then the signs were coming .2 miles to go, 400 meters to go, 200 meters to go and you can see the finish line. I was waving to the left side looking for my co-worker Clare shames but she was on the right side, still waving and spurring on the crowd I crossed the finish line in 3:12:32 and finished 1766 overall out of 38,368 starters. Crossing the finish line was 37,881 runners. My gender place was 1645 and my age group place was 370.
Fazal finished in 3:45 and Jaime 2:59 while his cousin Leonard had a bad race finishing just after I did a couple seconds behind.
Yes it was my greatest race ever, running with the stars ,new records, NYC Marathon best 3:12:32, Fastest half marathon 1:28:45 and my 25th marathon and the 1st Trinidadian to finish.
My only regret was I did not get a chance to run with Hicham El Guerrouj from Morrocco. Oh well!!!! I had my fame .
I am looking forward to Boston April '07.

Runn.