good sports day

That would be yesterday!

Yanks swept the Sawx...

The Mutts got swept by Philly...

My bro and I attended the US Open for the 2nd year in a row and got to witness Andy Roddick win, as well as Martina Hingis (well the latter was more important to my brother.)

Almost makes up for the fact that I had to turn down a last-minute ticket to Wednesday's Yanks-Sox game due to being stuck at work til 8pm. Oh, the price I have to pay to see some live tennis...

state of the blog address

well, seeing as I had been called out-and the fact that some of my other fellow bloggers have recently pulled the plugs on their blogs...felt the need to comment.

yeah, i guess my blog has been sorta blah now compared to the good old days. honestly, things are much different than 2 years ago...

work-well you know whats going on, dont need to go there. running-also not going as well as i'd like. Plus I think now that I've done my first marathon, that novelty is gone...and I don't look to be chasing a BQ until 2011...and it seems like blogging about half-marathon training or shorter distance training isn't quite as interesting. dating-I just want to keep that off the blog for now. And I guess in a way, I've felt like I've had to censor myself much more than I used to...

In a nutshell, life has been hectic lately, and I haven't really been able to update this thing as much as I used to (hell, I still havent written my SF vacay recrap!)

But I'm still around. Maybe not as much as I used to be, maybe not as exciting as I used to be, but I ain't going anywhere for now (whether you all like that or not... :) )

great expectations

Now I finally know how the elite runners in last year's NYC Marathon felt. With the most stacked field in awhile, the best conditions in awhile, the buzz was that this was going to be an exciting race, course records were going to fall...which as we all knew, didn't happen.

That's sorta how I felt about Saturday's Club Team Championships. As far as Central Park races go, this was my favorite. The weather conditions called for an unseasonably cool day. The field was much, much smaller than normal (how bout 500 instead of 5000 peeps!) due to the club-only race and the separate men's/women's starts. Basically-all signs pointed to a good race...hence the "great expectations" in the title. Not to be...

Mile 1-8:03
Mile 2-7:52
Mile 3-8:13
Mile 4-8:19
Mile 5-7:43

Final result, 40:10 (8:02 pace)

Before anyone says it-I'm sure, just looking at the numbers, that it didn't seem like a bad race. However-last year-when it was almost 20 degrees warmer, much more humid, and I had tired legs from marathon training, I did this race in 39 minutes. (And in fact, my recent SF half time, on a much tougher course, predicted 39 minutes for a 5-miler too...)

I'm still not sure what happened. First mile-I felt I was still warming up a bit...2nd mile I made up the time a little bit on the downhill...3rd mile had the least crowd support...4th mile was Cat Hill, but I actually did a little better than I thought I would there. I looked at my watch and saw that I'd need a 7:32 last mile to get under 40...could I do it? Although there was quite a bit of cheering, it seemed a little more subdued than last year (and it seemed that there were a couple of teams who went out of their way to not cheer for me) though the Flyers were great, as usual..I tried to push it, but wasn't enough and was disappointed to see the 40:xx on my watch. Though apparently I wiped the disappointment off my face long enough to get nabbed by the NYRR photographer here...

But the non-competitve stuff was fun. I liked cheering our guys on in mile 1 and near the end, and our annual team picnic afterwards. And lots of the Flyer women, including myself were modeling our new fitted top...looked quite nice!! And later that afternoon, we took on CPTC in softball again...was a good time, but the fact that I was placed last in the lineup...I dunno, I felt once again like the fat, unathletic girl who always gets picked last for a team...meh.

As for the running stuff...I can't quite figure out what is going on. I can run a decent half, but I just choke so badly in the short races. I have been doing speedwork-though I admit the last coupla months...hadn't been going well between the mega-heat waves that always seem to crop up on Tuesdays, or the fact that some of the workouts were a little too long for hot days and I can't seem to get the effort in. Weekly mileage is decent, long runs are decent, so I really think that's where the problem is lying. Only problem is, I don't know how to fix it...

Guess no one said it was gonna be easy...

skirtsports may have missed the boat with this one

Don't get me wrong, I love all my SkirtSports running skirts...as I'm sure you all know :)

However, I'm not too crazy about their attempt at a winter running skirt...

I dunno, I just think all pink on the bottom is not the most flattering thing (even though there is an all-black version)...and I'm not too crazy about the pants style either

The coordinating top is pretty nice though...don't think it's worth the price though!!

there will always be a rabbit...

This past Saturday, I did my usual paceleading duties in NYRR's Long training run. I figured I'd do my usual 9:30 group, but scale back the mileage a bit, as I really don't have anything super-long to train for, and there was more a need for pacers near the end, so I agreed to pace the last 9 miles, that way I get to sleep an hour or so later! Easy peasy.

Well I almost didn't think I'd make it in time...carbo-loading the night before with 4 pints of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat and 2 shots is not recommended. When I got there, the 8:30 groups were hitting the transverse-cool, I had time. Saw Uptown Girl pass by with her 9:00 pace group-yep, she used her pacemaster duties to the fullest extent and helped us out.

Finally the 9:30s came by, and I joined the 2nd group to help out someone who was struggling a little bit. The first 5 mile loop was a breeze-we were pretty much on pace (well, when we saw an accurate mile marker) and there were some very nice people in the group who I chatted with about marathons and other stuff. Trakmaniak and JD passed by with their 7:30 group. before I knew it, that loop was over!!

For the last 4-mile loop, I had to wait for the next group to come in so we can consolidate (since both the pacers and pacees were dwindling.) We set off on this loop...and this is the loop where I got annoyed. Not at myself, I was running just fine. The other pacer in this group decided to pick up the pace about halfway through-and I was majorly dropped by her and the group...by the end I was pretty much running solo (and even had someone comment "Where's your group?") To put this in perspective-I probably averaged 9:15s for that last loop, meaning the rest of the group probably was doing sub-9s. Look, I know some pace leaders and/or pacees like to pick it up in the last loop. But if that was the case, don't those who want to stay on pace have the right to know beforehand?

Well, I finished up, and joined a few other Flyers where we headed away from the park and on the way to a fun brunch...good food and company (not to mention funny stuff...like talking about Trakmaniak's bandana...but a little slip of the tongue and saying a different word than bandana...OK, guess you had to be there :-p ), complete with a shopping trip to Urban Athletics afterwards.

And sadly, I wasted the rest of the beautiful weather that day in favor of napping...guess the previous night caught up with me!! :)

don't know my own strength sometimes

This picture was taken at a marathon fundraiser party last week...the theme was "Hollywood." (I didn't really come in costume, but you can possibly say that I dressed similar to any of those overpublicized young female celebs..)

Anyway, this was me trying to break the pinata...took several tries (including me accidentally hitting someone else!!)...the stick used for breaking was too soft (cardboard is not very effective)...I knocked it down several times easily, but getting it to break was a struggle!!

oh MTA, you amaze me...

why, oh why, when it rains, and rains hard, the whole subway system goes down.

I am writing this while working from home...minute I heard the subways were out, I just turned around. I knew I wasn't gonna get a bus or a taxi. Why did I know this?

Why yes...same thing happened 3 years ago.

Glad to know my $76 a month is going to something.

BTW-those who can't get onto the MTA site to check service updates...try this link instead.

never thought central park would seem flat

after a few days of walking up hills like these...(yes, I did walk up these)
















running a loop in Central Park doesn't seem quite as tough...Harlem Hill (and others) don't seem quite as intimidating.

(yeah, I know I still owe a real vacation report...i'm working on it!!)

she runs san francisco

The title is quite fitting-took it from the slogan on a tank top that I got at the Running Divas booth at the expo...

Anyway, I will start this race report off by the numbers...

1:49:21, 8:20 pace

Splits:
mile 1-8:01
mile 2-8:37
mile 3-8:47
miles 4-5.9-24:19 (8:23 avg)
mile 5.9-6.9-8:07
mile 6.9-7.9-7:43
mile 7.9-8.9-8:22
miles 8.9-10.9-16:40 (8:20 avg)
mile 10.9-11.9-8:45
mile 11.9-12.9-8:13
mile 12.9-13.1-1:47 (8:31 avg)

And now the report:

The day started for me around 4:30 am...thank god I was still on New York time and I got to sleep early the night before!! And learning from some other bloggers' reports on the road, I made sure to bring bagels and PB with me, not knowing if I could find them so early in the morning. I then went outside to do a weather check...

...OK, I broke a cardinal rule of "nothing new on race day." I wore my new Flyers fitted top (however, I have 2 other tanks of the same style, so I knew it'd be no problem...however, it seemed a little too chilly to wear the running skirt I wanted (as the material was a little too thin) so I chose my brand-new black RollerGirl skirt. However, as it turned out, the ensemble could not have worked better.

Around 6:15, I met up with my Flyer teammate JM at a nearby Starbucks and got my caffeine fix before waiting for our other 3 teammates. After a few minutes, teammates MD, NH and UH showed up and we all started walking to where the buses were that would take us to the start line in Golden Gate Park. I have to say, the whole process went smoothly. There wasn't much of a wait for the buses, and once we got on, the seats were relatively comfortable, there was a restroom on the bus (obviously these guys took a cue from the Flyers when it came to traveling in style!)

We arrived to the start area in plenty of time, though the restroom lines were quite long. Was ok, we all just chatted, made other final race preps, tried to stay warm (the weather was cool, misty and cloudy...which I knew would make for absolutely perfect race weather!!) took camera-phone pics...finally, checked our stuff and headed for the start. Both halfs and the full marathon had wave starts-we all started in the 2nd wave, which would be 5 minutes after the first. The start had very little fanfare...didnt even hear a starting horn, all of a sudden, there were people moving forward and its like "oh crap, we're actually starting!!"

The first mile was a combination of adrenaline, a slightly downhill start, and "SexyBack" on the iPod. :) I was warned about the hills, and sure enough, the next coupla miles humbled me a bit.

Despite the hills, Golden Gate Park is a very pretty place to run...actually reminded me a little bit more of running Prospect Park in the Brooklyn Half (as opposed to my home base, Central Park.)

One very minor complaint about the half-starting with mile 3.9 for the half, we didn't have our own mile markers...we had to share with the full (they had regular mile markers, ours were on the .9 mile.) As you can see above, it sorta messed my split capturing up a bit, but it was a little tougher to calculate pace...which might have been a good thing, I could just concentrate on enjoying the race and obsessing less about pace.

Anyway, after about 6 miles of hills in the park, I was ready to get out onto the streets...as nice as the park was, the streets were the best way to see the city!! Mile 7 went through Haight-Ashbury, which was actually my favorite part of the race...was the most lively and festive part to me. And oh yeah, some more favorable terrain. The next mile had an uber-steep downhill...I was so waiting for my quads to rebel, but everything seemed to be working fine still!! Was really enjoying this course.

The next few miles were a little more industrial (not to mention the last killer hill in mile 9...man, I thought we had enough already!!) Even though I had taken in gel, sports drink, etc...I did feel myself fading quite a bit in the late miles...could have been as a result of poor pacing. I felt, in a way, like I did in NYC when trying for sub-4...except this case, I had a shot at sub-1:50, which I wasn't sure was possible with the terrain of the course. Once I spotted AT&T Park (where I was gonna go later in the day!), I knew there was only a little over a mile to go and tried as hard as I could to step it up. The final stretch, along the Embarcadero, with views of the water, was very nice and the cheering crowds at the end helped motivate me to a strong finish. Yeah!!

Afterwards, got my medal, finisher picture, food and drink (they were much more generous with the drink than the food) and went to claim my bag (this needs work for next year too-not a lot of rhyme or reason when the bags were lined up.)

Great race!! This confirms 2 things I suspected...

1-The half really is my best distance-it's the one that when I'm trying, I'm the most consistent with. (And was thrilled with this time, given the tough terrain...makes me wonder what I'm capable of with a little less hills)

2-I'm really burned out on racing in Central Park, and a change in scenery was very necessary to get the fire back.

I would definitely do this race again in the future. I would love to do the second half again...or maybe try out the tougher first half? That 5:30 start time is a little tough to swallow though...

home sweet home?

After 6 days of the glorious SF weather, the minute I stepped outside at JFK, the weather was just as sticky and humid as I had left it last Friday...

Then the $5 that was on my MetroCard for the AirTrain (I put $10 on last week so that would be one less thing for me to worry about on the return trip) had somehow disappeared in the last week...

Then we found out there was no E train service between Jamaica and Union Turnpike...oh if only I had known before boarding the AirTrain, woulda taken the A instead!! Had to drag all my stuff on a shuttle bus and transfer...well sorta good thing, I got an F train instead which was express in Queens and got a cab as soon as I hit Manhattan.

Top it all off, my body is still on West Coast time, I couldnt fall asleep til 4am, and my dad calls at 8:30 am.

Yep, I miss San Francisco already. More to come...

But til then, here's one of the pics from the half...