socalocal

Use your 20 mile run next week as a practice run for the big day - wear the same clothes you plan to wear on race day, eat the same pre-race meal, use the same nutrition products (gels, sports drinks, etc) you will use on race day. On race day, as others have said try to start out slow - make sure you drink enough and then take it in and enjoy the experience. I'm quite jealous. I ran my first marathon here in San Diego this year and would love to run New York one day.

I think this is the S. African team's idea of a joke. If she is a woman why does it say 'Semen - ya' on her shirt???

I don't think anyone would claim the NHS is a perfect system but I have lived in the US for four years now and the only thing that makes me question my long term future in this country is the current situation with health insurance. I have a good job with an excellent insurance scheme which is completely paid for by my employer and has very low out of pocket expenses for most things. However, having health insurance tied to the employer is one reason why the prospect of being made redundant is so much more scary over here - although there are policies that can be purchased to provide continuing cover for a fixed period of time it is not exactly ideal to have to start forking out for this just at the time when you loose your job. In general employees have a lot less rights over here so it is not uncommon for someone whose is diagnosed with a serious illness to end up loosing their job because they can no longer work and then subsequently loosing their health insurance. Finding alternative insurance is then a complete nightmare because insurance companies are looking to maximise their profits and will therefore refuse to insure people with pre-existing conditions. A lot of the discussion is around people not having insurance, but even if you have an excellent policy, it is still entirely possible that a serious illness could wipe you out financially. Even aside from that kind of nightmare scenario, the system is extremely confusing and it is very difficult to work out in advance what is likely to be covered by your insurance and what is not. There doesn't seem to be much logic to it either - I ended up with a hospital bill for 'emergency oxygen' after visiting an emergency room in a ski resort with altitude sickness because apparently the provider of the oxygen was not the approved to supplier to my insurance network, but on the other hand I have been able to see a sports injuries specialist (which I didn't expect to be fully covered by insurance) without paying anything beyond the standard doctor visit fee.

Just checked our TV Guide and it doesn't look like it is on Sentanta :-(

http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/born_in_the_usa.html

I live in San Diego rather than LA so I haven't checked out any of the pubs up there, but I know that there are at least two in Santa Monica - the **** n Bull pub, and ye olde Kings Head. I don't know if either of them are definitely showing the Saints game, but they are likely to be the best chance.