Statues on Parade/Fourth of July 20M Run

This just in: Yours truly will combine an ING New York City Marathon training run with work on the Fourth of July and blog on MLB.com about running to see all 42 of the awesome Statue of Liberty All-Star scale models that are positioned throughout NYC for our Major League Baseball All-Star Game festivities. I will even be wearing red, white and blue running gear to see the Statues on Parade.

I have decided to call this one-person race the:

Statues on Parade 20M Run

This is going to be...HARD!

Here is the map, so you can see where they are positioned. I am planning to start at Yankee Stadium because there is one up there in The Bronx. My challenge is to run from there back down to Manhattan. At that point, I will be zigzagging like crazy, stopping to photograph every one with my Canon A540 that I will pack in my fuel belt along with a notepad. I also will talk to people who are admiring each of the statues, to show how awesome these are. I also will need to pack extra batteries. I will have four filled fluid containers on the belt.

Then the final trick in my gameplan was being able to get onto a boat to finish my tour on Liberty and Ellis Islands, because an All-Star Game version is on each of those islands. That's where it will end, with 41 and 42. Then I will get back over to Manhattan and take a train up to Upper West Side, where I can shower and then start uploading and blogging.

UPDATED 11:30 A.M. THURSDAY: Great news! The wonderful people of The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation have arranged so that these wobbling legs will be able to walk right onto a boat to see 41 and 42 -- including the ultimate Statue of Liberty herself in all her majesty. Please visit www.statueofliberty.org to learn all about Lady Liberty and Ellis Island. And please consider purchasing one of the great 9" replicas of these Statues on Parade masterpieces. It's a miniature of a miniature! A portion of the proceeds of the sale of these replicas in the MLB.com Shop will benefit the Foundation, which preserves this important United States history. So you can help out by getting involved. In fact, my run is going to be a challenge for others to go get a 9" replica and thus help the Statue of Liberty herself!

Not only that, but now you also can OWN any of those 42 8 1/2 foot statues that I will be seeing on my run. They are up for bidding through July 18 at the MLB.com Auction. The bidding starts at $5,000 each, and net proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America -- MLB's official charity.

Make sure to check out statues.mlblogs.com. Then MLB.com/Statues will link to my MLBlog, and we will show everyone why they have to see these in NYC and enter the Statues on Parade sweepstakes to show yourself with a statue. Above and to the right is an example of what these look like. We got the Detroit Tigers statue at our MLB.com offices, so a passerby was kind enough to take a crappy cell phone pic of me next to it this week just to give you an idea of the scale size. The Fourth of July pics will be a lot better!

Here is the original story I wrote as the announcement of Statues on Parade. I have only seen the Tigers version "in person" so far so I am looking forward to this. (Update: today I also saw the Orioles version out front of Modell's Sporting Goods at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street. They are un-be-lievable. If you are in NYC, be sure to check them out, too! Happy Fourth of July!

- Mark