Good morning, it’s Monday.
I have participated in some sort of physical competition every year since I was about 18. Some years, I have raced dozens of races – mostly road and/or trail races, but some triathlons here and there. Over the past 30+ years, that works out to be probably at least 100 races, maybe considerably more.
My first marathon was the Marine Corps, and I liked it so much that I did it again a few years later. It’s a great first marathon – largely flat, extremely well organized (it’s that military precision, don’t you know), relatively close to home, and (at the time, anyway) fairly easy to get into.
Given the steady growth in popularity of marathoning, there has been a lottery to enter the Marine Corps Marathon since 2014. It’s pretty fair, as lotteries go, because you don’t have to pay unless you get in. And up to 40,000 get in annually.
Between 1.1 and 1.3 million people across the globe finish a marathon (26.2 miles, for the uninitiated) every year. That might seem like a lot, but it’s actually quite small when you consider that 1) there are more than 8.3 billion people on the planet, and 2) a. fairly sizable number of those finishers are repeat marathoners, because once you get bitten by the bug, it’s hard to stop running long.
The big-name marathons have been seeing record participation levels in recent years. Last year’s New York City Marathon had a record 59,226 finishers, while 56,000 completed the 2025 London Marathon.
In 1980, there were 143,000 U.S. marathon finishers. Though Covid took a bite out of marathon participation, it’s again on the rise across the country, according to the online athletic shoe research company RunRepeat, with 432,562 finishers in 2024.
As I get older, I find that I prefer my races on the smaller side. I’m not a big fan of crowds. Also, as a bonus, the smaller the field, the better the chances of you finishing higher up the food chain in your age group. I want to show up and race as soon as possible minimizing my hanging around time. Also, the lines for the bathroom as shorter.
I have never run the Boston Marathon. First and foremost, I have never been able to qualify. The times are just too fast for me, and I’ve never been so motivated that I felt the need to intensely focus on improving my speed. And to be totally honest, the 2013 bombing, which killed three people and wounded 260 others, really put me off my desire to compete in large, high-profile, big-name races.
Today is marathon Monday in Boston, where it’s also Patriots’ Day – a civic holiday held across Massachusetts and Maine to commemorate the opening battles of the American Revolutionary War that took place in Lexington and Concord. It’s also opening day for the Red Sox. All in all, a very big day for Beantown.
Saturday was an insanely beautiful gift of a day. I had a great trail run at the Saratoga Spa State Park wearing shorts and a t-shirt. It was just amazing to see everyone out with their kids and their dogs, picnicking and playing sports and just soaking up the sunshine. I hope you managed to enjoy it, too, because Sunday was a bit of a bust.
Today is sadly going to bring more of the same, with much cooler temperatures (highs will reach only into the mid-40s), though the sun will make an appearance from time to time. Don’t fret, though, this is just a short spell before things warm back up again a little later in the week.
In the headlines…
Eight children ranging from 1 to 14 years old were killed in a mass shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, yesterday morning, according to police. Officers shot and killed the suspect during the chase in Bossier Parish.
Two adult women and one teenager were also wounded in the shootings, police said. The women are both in critical condition, the Shreveport Mayor Tom Arceneaux said, and the teenager has non-life threatening injuries.
The alleged gunman, Louisiana man Shamar Elkins, was identified by police as the father of 7 of the 8 the children after he was fatally wounded following his fleeing of the scene in a stolen car.
Elkins, 31, had mental health problems and had recently expressed suicidal thoughts, family members said in interviews.
Mayor Arceneaux described the killings in a news conference as “maybe the worst tragic situation we’ve ever had.”
President Trump said that American officials will travel to Pakistan for further negotiations on ending the war with Iran, as the economically vital Strait of Hormuz remained all but closed and a two-week cease-fire was set to elapse this week.
Trump said that the U.S. military attacked an Iranian-flagged cargo ship attempting to bypass the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz.
“The U.S. Navy Guided Missile Destroyer USS SPRUANCE intercepted the TOUSKA [ship] in the Gulf of Oman, and gave them fair warning to stop,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
Oil prices were sharply up today after Iran said it would retaliate for a U.S. attack and seizure of an Iranian cargo ship near the Strait of Hormuz, an escalation that put pressure on a fragile cease-fire set to expire this week.
Most registered voters blame Trump for rising gas prices, according to a new Quinnipiac national poll, which found that more than half of respondents, 51 percent, blame Trump “a lot” for gas prices spiking while 14 percent blame him “some.”
In the months leading up to the midterm elections, hundreds of accounts have emerged on social media featuring A.I.-generated pro-Trump influencers posting at a rapid pace about the “radical left” and “America First.”
The Supreme Court agreed on Friday that energy companies facing lawsuits over environmental damage to Louisiana’s coast from oil and gas production can move the challenges from state courts into friendlier federal venues.
The ruling is a significant victory for oil companies, led by Chevron and Exxon Mobil, in their legal battle with Louisiana state officials over who should pay for the state’s coastal erosion. The companies have been supported by the Trump administration.
Some progressive lawmakers aren’t taking too kindly to Gov. Kathy Hochul’s latest proposal to restrict local police from assisting federal immigration officers.
Immigration advocates fumed after Hochul said that ICE agents would be able to cooperate with local law enforcement in certain criminal cases.
Hochul says she’s a “mom from Buffalo.” But the Democrat is now a New York City resident — at least for tax purposes. Hochul and her husband, Bill, were subjected to the city’s income taxes in 2025 after they started renting an apartment in Murray Hill.
State regulators have approved a $71 million settlement with so-called energy service companies, or ESCOs, that sell retail gas and electric supply to customers.
Hochul’s state budget pitch for a tax on second homes owned by out-of-towners is winning her support in the Legislature and skepticism from the real estate industry. It’s also encouraging some lawmakers to hold their ground on the larger tax asks.
Hochul’s new play to roll back parts of the climate law is only the latest chapter in the state’s nonlinear path toward climate victories.
While Uber-backed groups conduct a seven-figure ad campaign to boost Hochul’s car insurance changes, there’s also a subtler — and cheaper — effort underway to push the measures in the budget.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman says he has a plan to make New York safer and more affordable, sharing his blueprint for the first 100 days of his tenure – should he be elected in November.
Upstate New Yorkers opening their utility bills this winter have seen the same thing: a growing list of taxes and surcharges tacked onto the cost of keeping the lights on. U.S. Rep. Josh Riley wants to let them write those charges off on their taxes.
In the eyes of housing advocates, SEQR is squarely at odds with state priorities, such as sewer, day care and affordable housing.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former President Barack Obama met for the first time in New York City on Saturday, a high-profile sit-down that took place as Mamdani is trying to maintain a working relationship with the more mercurial current commander in chief.
The meeting was held at a child care center in the Bronx, a symbolic location for Mamdani, who’s pushing for a drastic expansion of the city’s free child care programs. After a private conversation, the two read books and sang songs to a group of children.
Obama and Mamdani did not take questions after reading the book “Alone and Together” to the children, and leading a sing-along of “The Wheels on the Bus.”
Mamdani and Obama had a private conversation, but the mayor’s office declined to provide details — other than a statement saying they “discussed the mayor’s vision for this city” and the importance of child care.
“The two leaders discussed the Mayor’s vision for the City and the importance of giving New York’s Cutest the strongest start possible,” Mamdani press secretary Joe Calvello said in a statement.
Mamdani blasted the Democratic Party’s lack of vision during a “Meet the Press” interview while touting his “productive” and surprising bromance with President Trump.
A special election this month for a Manhattan seat in the City Council has become a battle over representation in a part of town synonymous with the city’s LGBTQ+ history.
Mamdani endorsed Lindsey Boylan — the first woman to publicly accuse former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment — in a City Council race on Friday, his latest attempt to wield his political clout to influence Democratic contests.
Mamdani’s plan to open a city-owned grocery store in East Harlem is drawing pushback from critics who question its feasibility and warn of its economic impact on local businesses.
Mamdani said Friday that the city will roll out the Spanish-made Empire Bins for the first time in the Bronx, Staten Island and Queens, and expand their use in Manhattan and Brooklyn, by the end of 2027.
An ex-NYPD lieutenant who supported Republicans for years has changed his tune and is now singing Mamdani’s praises as he seeks a lefty state assembly seat.
A bipartisan group of NYC pols is urging Mamdani to throw a ticker-tape parade for the Artemis II astronauts — the first space-travelers that would ride down the Canyon of Heroes since the 1969 moon landing.
A guerrilla activist group is covering New York with posters criticizing the billionaire Jeff Bezos’ involvement in the event, a fund-raiser for the Metropolitan Museum.
The New York City Council is flexing its oversight powers over a mental health response program that Mamdani has made a key part of his new approach to changing how the city handles 911 calls involving people in mental distress.
Labor and other Mamdani allies are urging him to veto one of two City Council bills aimed at restricting protests around educational facilities, saying the “radical overreach” of the bill limits free speech and endangers New Yorkers.
Former Mayor Eric Adams on Friday posted alarming video to social media showing teenager Jaden Pierre being beaten and fatally shot at point-blank range in a Queens playground.
The heartbroken mother of a 15-year-old boy who was beaten and fatally shot inside a Queens park as dozens of teens callously filmed the slaying on their phones condemned his killer — and those who did nothing but watch him die.
The City Council wants to make it easier for thousands of Rikers Island inmates to vote by forcing jail officials to help them fix errors on their ballots — but the Department of Corrections said the law will cause huge problems for them.
Nearly 900 sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior complaints were filed against city Department of Education staffers last year, records show.
A mob wreaked fiery havoc on a Queens intersection during a late-night car takeover as local lawmakers demand a crackdown on these unhinged meetups.
The NYPD has transferred a captain, lieutenant and six Brooklyn North Narcotics detectives amid the arrest of a mistakenly identified suspect that ended in a violent, caught-on-camera clash that went viral online.
An LGBTQ benefit in New York City received a $35,000 bid from former First Lady Jill Biden after it auctioned off a walk-on role in the next season of the popular hockey romance, “Heated Rivalry.” (She was outbid).
The account of a violent rape inside a Midtown hotel room that’s been deliberated by two juries of New Yorkers over the last half decade is slated to be repeated to yet another jury tomorrow as Harvey Weinstein’s third Manhattan trial starts in earnest.
A veterinary tranquilizer that can knock users unconscious for hours and trigger a dangerous withdrawal has quietly become one of the most common hidden ingredients infiltrating New York’s illicit opioid supply, according to new peer-reviewed research.
Federal officials have moved migrant children and adolescents out of a shelter in Westchester County, N.Y., after receiving reports that detainees there had been mistreated.
The Town of Clifton Park’s new Democratic majority is challenging an agreement to grant department heads CSEA protections that the Republican-majority board put in place two weeks before leaving office.
Mary Lyall is still waiting. Someone, somewhere, knows what happened to her daughter. But for 28 years, somebody has kept it a secret.
Richard Mooney is no longer helping to manage Rensselaer government operations for free. Civil service commissioners have finally approved his novel title of city operations director as a non-competitive role following months of criticism from opponents.
For the third and likely final Belmont on Broadway concert, Saratoga Springs officials announced a June 3 event headlined by Fitz and the Tantrums.
FBI agents reportedly used federal search warrants to seize electronic devices and other materials from the businesses and residences tied to a family that has operated multiple barbershops in the Capital Region and South Florida.
Conditions at the Albany County Correctional Facility will get a close look as part of a new assessment commissioned by the county legislature.
An Albany man faces up to 10 years in prison after allegedly getting into an unlocked FBI patrol vehicle and driving it around a parking lot outside the agency’s McCarty Avenue headquarters.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
