Team R2R Meeting and 59th Street Bridge Run

Continuing where I left off with my quick trip up to New York...

I had planned to meet up with two friends from my High School trip to Israel in the late afternoon. LH was going to be in the Chelsea area of town, BS was on Houston Street and I was in midtown. Hmm... It looked like Chelsea was the most centrally located, so I picked a coffee shop for us to meet at and let them know where to meet (interestingly enough, neither of the locals wanted to pick the spot to meet...so leave it to the guy who has never lived in NYC to pick the place??? thank goodness for Google Maps!).

I got there about 3:45pm, but I had a conference call at 4:30pm. I had hoped that the two of them would get there around 4 or so, we would all hang out together, I would take my call outside and then come back in and join them. What ended up happening was that both of them let me know that they would be late, I took my 4:30 call in the coffee shop and once it finished around 5pm they both showed up.

The three of us hadn't been together in over 21 years (it makes me feel really old saying that). However, there was no awkwardness to us being together again - it seemed so natural hanging out. Unfortunately, we only had an hour to spend together and it went really quickly. I hope to see them again the next time I'm in the city!

I head crosstown on the subway to get to the Alzheimer's Association meeting. I get on the train, and sitting there is my cousin's husband - what are the odds! (luckily I told my cousin that I was coming into town for a quick visit but was not going to have time to get out to Long Island to see them...otherwise I would have been busted!)

I made it to the Alzheimer's Association's office in time for the meeting. On the agenda was a guest speaker - Liz Robbins a NY Times journalist who wrote the book A Race Like No Other about the NY Marathon. I decided to go buy the book on my lunch break, and I started to read the Prologue and Chapter 1 after work. I haven't been this excited to read a book in a while - even though I have tons of things going on right now, I should be able to find some time to read this and get through it quickly (or at least quickly for me!).

Liz Robbins was great! You could tell that she really enjoyed covering the marathon, going to the neighborhoods and meeting many of the special spectators that make the crowds so amazing for this race, and diving into the stories of both the elite runners and also the everyday runners with not-so-everyday stories behind why they were running the NY Marathon. I had her sign my copy of the book and she seemed genuinely interested in why I was running (actually, it seemed like she took the time to speak to everyone who was there). She was also VERY excited to hear that I went to Barnes and Noble that afternoon to buy the book!

I was expecting there to be a bit more to the meeting - details on the pre-race pasta dinner? the bus to pick us up marathon morning? the post-race party? They gave us some of the information, but I guess not everything is finalized yet. We'll be getting more information in the next week. Since this is the first year the Alzheimer's Association has a team, I guess they are working through all of the details.

After the meeting, I went up to the 92nd Street Y for Israeli Dancing. This meant that I was getting even more exercise, but also meant that I would be going to sleep much later. Ends up that I got back to my friend's apartment at 11:30pm. I quickly crashed.

This morning, I was up before the sun. Not sure why my body thinks 5:30am is a suitable time to wake up - I guess my kids and my running schedule have trained me to be an early bird. If I'm up at that time, I might as well run, right?

I headed out on 69th to Central Park West, down Central Park West to 59th Street and then across 59th Street to the Queensborough (59th Street) Bridge.

I had told a few people that I intended to run over this bridge and back - it is on the marathon route at about mile 16 - so why did no one tell me how to get onto the pedestrian path???? I saw a sidewalk leading up from 59th street onto the bridge, but that became a dead-end. Then further down I saw what looked to be a little ramp, but that lead to the shoulder of the lower-deck of the bridge. I decided to go back up 2nd Ave to the 60th Street side. I asked a policewoman there and she pointed me to where the path starts down on 1st Ave. Finally!!!

I'm glad I ran the bridge. I've heard "The NY Marathon is flat except for the bridges and a few hills in Central Park". Well, now I know what to expect on the bridges - and it's a pretty significant hill. Maybe not the steepest of hills, but it's constant uphill for a good 1/2 to 3/4 mile. Of course the good thing about going uphill on the bridge is the coasting downhill after the crest of the bridge. Nice!

After going over the bridge and back I headed up 1st Avenue, trying to imagine this street lined with crowds cheering the runners as they exit the bridge. Up to 69th and back west to Central Park, through Central Park and finally stopped at Columbus Avenue. I looked at my clothes and they were drenched. What a great way to start the morning :-)

I'm now on the Tripper Bus back home. The WiFi on the bus is great - I've participated in three conference calls for work - and of course I have been able to blog!

It was great being in New York, but it will be really nice to be home with Sherry and the boys. Next trip to NYC is October 16-17 to run the last 10 miles of the marathon with Team Run To Remember!

Starting Over? and Is The Running Community United or Divided?

Last week's mileage total - 5.2 miles. UGH!!!! I wasn't even injured (just exhausted, so if I did run more I may have ended up injured)

In an effort to get back in a groove, I psyched myself up to get up early this morning and get out for a run. Although I felt dead-to-the-world at 5:35am when I first looked at the clock, I made myself get out of bed and go out for a run.

The first mile seemed treacherous. 11:06 pace. 148 avg heart rate. I felt like I was starting over after and injury or long layoff from running.

I checked my running log, and it hasn't been that long - 3 weeks ago I had a 22 mile week. Come on!

Luckily, as the run went on the rust seemed to wear off. Although it still didn't feel as easy as an "easy run" should be, my next three mile splits were: 10:58 (147 avg HR), 10:03 (151 avg HR), and 10:14 (152 avg HR).

And with 4.4 miles in the books on Monday morning, I'm all set to eclipse last week's total. Perhaps by tomorrow morning.
-----

On Sunday, I ventured out to Barnes and Noble and got me a copy of the running classic, Once A Runner. This book was out-of-print for quite some time - and impossible to get a copy - but in April it was re-released in hard cover. I've had a B&N gift card since December, and I finally got around to using the darn thing!

Anyhow, I know I don't have much time to start reading a book (only 3 more weeks from tomorrow until my project launches!), but I ended up reading the first page and a half - hoping that it would perhaps give me some inspiration to start running more regularly again this week.

What I read so far left me utterly pissed off...

I guess the main character in the book - and the author - is a pretty competitive runner (I think part of the premise is that this runner is trying to run a sub-4 minute mile). So the book opens as the main character is returning to the track and sees a bunch of "overweight joggers". And he doesn't have a high regard for these folks at the track.

Well...I gotta say that I can relate a bit more to the overweight jogger than the elite runner. And if the entire book is going to be filled with this, then this may not be the inspiring running book I was hoping to read.

So...of course after my treacherous first mile today, I started thinking about the book and it's condescending comments about the "overweight joggers" as I plod along at an 11 minute mile pace. And I was starting to get even more pissed off.

Then, in the distance I see a woman booking down the sidewalk towards me. Even though she was about half a mile away, I could tell that she was running at a really fast pace. As we approached each other, I saw that it was a friend of mine who is a super-fast runner (she's run Boston a number of times and has age-group placed in a few of the races that I have run in). As we got closer to each other I said good-morning and started to applaud her blazing pace - she said to me, "I thought I would see you out here running at this hour!"

At that point I finally got some validation that my "jogging" and her faster "running" were equal. We're both putting in the time to "put one foot in front of the other, repeat many times" no matter how much distance we cover in that time. We are a united group of runners - not a divided group of joggers and elites.

And with that one little exchange, I think I'll be able to enjoy the book after all. (and perhaps I'll lend it to my fast friend after I finally finish it...)

Duel In The Sun

I just finished the book Duel In The Sun - about the 1982 Boston Marathon in which Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley battled head-to-head for the last 13 miles and finished within 2 seconds of one another.

I'm not an avid reader - I struggle to get through my copy of Runner's World each month (perhaps I should stop reading so many darn blogs and get back to print media?) - however, I end up getting sucked into 2-3 books a year and fly through them.

I really enjoyed how this book alternated between chapters devoted to the race itself and the biography of the two runners.  I learned a lot about Alberto Salazar (who I remember hearing about when I was growing up) and Dick Beardsley (who I had never heard of before reading this book).  What was remarkable was how this one race impacted the careers of each of the runners - in this case both runners "left it all out on the field" and neither runner was able to recover from the effort they gave that day.  I find it remarkable that this was able to happen to world-class runners.

It was a great read, however, I doubt I'll be able to take much of this book into my own running.  First of all, I doubt I will EVER qualify for Boston.  Perhaps I would be able to run Boston as a charity runner, but based on my current times and horribly inefficient running form there is really no way I see a BQ in my future.  Also, I can't see myself "leaving it all out on the field" like these guys.  Not to say I wimp out all the time, but I'm pretty cautious.  My performance in the Parks Half Marathon last year kind of sums it up for me...if today isn't my day, take it easy - there will be other races for me to look forward to.

----

My running schedule this week will hopefully be an easy 3 miler Monday morning, a 5 or 6 mile pace run on Tuesday morning, an easy 3 miler on Thursday morning and then a long run on Saturday morning.  Hopefully I can stick to plan this week.