birthdays, SATC-style

ok, i've always enjoyed visiting certain restaurants/bars that are featured in Sex and the City, and my 31st b-day was no exception...

Wednesday brought lunch w/ the co-workers at Tortilla Flats (the place of the "double date" in this episode between Carrie/Aidan and Miranda/Steve when Carrie wanted to get back with Aidan and Miranda/Steve were just wing-people...) Fun place, the guac/chips and fajitas were very good, as were the 2 pitchers of strawberry margaritas that our table shared. To top it all off, the waitress gave us complimentary tequila shots...and I had to do 2 (someone at our table didn't want hers.) Needless to say, I was not productive the rest of the afternoon :) I did have a very nice b-day dinner and was definitely a treat that the Yanks clinched a playoff berth that nite!! Yayyyy Yanks!!


Then a special treat at our group meeting the next morning was cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery!! Best.friggin.cupcakes.EVER. (and featured in this SATC episode when Carrie was telling Miranda about her crush on Aidan.)


Friday was the real celebration, and even though I don't think Absolutely 4th was featured on SATC, many martinis were consumed. I'm proud of myself that while co-workers were pre-gaming while waiting for my shindig to begin, I refrained from drinking anything but water and made sure to eat...I guess with age comes wisdom. Somewhat. Plus I actually wanted to remember my celebration this year :) Anyway, we took over a nice corner of the bar...and the funny part is that the runners scared the co-workers away :) Oh well, their loss!! I had probably around 50 peeps (including quite a few bloggers) from the first drink at 7 til my last sip after midnight. Definitely a great time...now how do I top it next year? :-p

And I got my big b-day present this weekend!! A Palm Treo. Now I can be totally accessible :-p All joking aside, I needed to replace the phone and the PDA, might as well combine the 2!!

And on the topic of baseball...oh. mah. gawd. I was hysterical laughing during the 1st inning of the Mutts game today. Can't wait to see the front pages tomorrow!! I think my office will have a lot of quiet Mets fans tomorrow...yes, the same people that were quite vocal earlier in the season...

now playing: "champion" ~ kanye west

with apologies to all mets fans...

...but i love some of these newspaper covers.



I especially like seeing that shit-eating grin wiped off Mr. Met's face :-)

In the meantime, the Yanks clinching yet another playoff berth on wednesday was a great b-day present...

another year older...

...and none the wiser!! :-p

today is submaster + 1! will i learn from my overindulgences last year...time will tell!!

and speaking of the hills

no, not the hills in Queens, these Hills!!

I mentioned my addiction back here during the second season, now the third season is even better...

the tension between LC and Heidi!! will they ever be friends again?

who really spead the sex tape rumor?

who's the most evil guy on the show-Spencer, Jason or "Justin Bobby"?

Audrina and "Justin Bobby"-on again, off again?

how many more friendships will Heidi wreck?

and the infamous Heidi/Spencer wedding-will it ever happen?

(plus gotta love Gawker's catty commentary on the show.)

And to top it all off, for my b-day, my brother got me the 2nd season on DVD. I watched half the episodes the day I got it!! Such a guilty viewing pleasure.

if it ain't broke...

"what was up with all the f*cking hills?"
"this started too damn early."
"it took forever to get here."
"why was this scheduled the day after yom kippur?"
"this sucked."

And that was just a sampling of what was heard after today's Queens half. A new date, start time and course change wound up turning what was my favorite NYRR half into my least favorite. I absolutely loved the old course-a 2-looper through College Point and Malba, not too hilly, in late April/early May so the weather was always great, and I was always able to consistently run under 1:50 (1:47 and 1:48, to be exact.)

But this year, it was decided to change the course from a 2-looper to a 1-looper including Whitestone as well. Which forced a new date in September and an earlier start time (7 am)...which seemed to cause a bunch of logistical issues. With a 7am start time, you can't really rely on public transportation, so the bus from NYRR is the best bet. However, they didn't really plan for that, and the bus was sold out early (thank god I got my ticket early!) and left a lot of peeps scrambling to find either a ride or some type of alternate way out to Queens. Second, the date was less than ideal, being that yesterday was Yom Kippur, which meant fasting for 24 hours. Yeah...great half-marathon prep.

I wasn't sure how I'd do, my training had not been going well ever since the San Francisco Half, and it was warmer than I would like...but was hoping to get under 1:50. I made it out there in one piece, though the bus driver kept driving in circles once we got to College Point...I was thisclose to faking being sick so I could walk. But we got there, and there were lots of people sitting down in the dark, trying to kill an hour...seemed like the marathon start. Saw NSA, and Johnny and a few other Flyers and chatted. Finally it was time to get to the start...oh, and anyone note in Mary Wittenberg's speech, that "we were a part of history, there's never been a race start at 7 am." Um...didn't the NYC Half start at 7 am? Not to mention the old-school late-August version of the Manhattan Half? Anyway, off the subject here.

So yeah, we started. First mile was slower than I wanted, there was quite a bottleneck in the first mile...made up for it a little on the 2nd...slowed on the 3rd and had a feeling it was not gonna be my day...never, ever again will I do a half marathon the day after Yom Kippur. I definitely was not properly fueled, even though I ended the fast a coupla hours early and tried to eat as much as possible yesterday evening and this morning...these mile splits tell a story of someone who hit the wall hard at mile 4, and was just trying to hang on for the last 9 miles...

1. 8:42
2. 8:18
3. 8:42
4. 8:59
5. 9:06
6. 9:08
7. 9:11
8. 8:44
9. 8:58
10. 9:13
11. 9:31
12. 9:01
13. 9:20

Last .1 :53

The goals kept changing from "1:50" to "1:55" to "just get in under 2 hours." Hell, at one point a DNF sounded appealing-I was so off my goal time, what did I have to prove by finishing? But I didn't know how I'd get back to the start and my baggage (and my family was taking me out for an early birthday dinner later in the day, so I needed to earn the extra calories.) The scenery on the course was nice, though I was too delirious and too busy climbing to appreciate it...I thought I was hill trained before today, the hills on this course killed me-especially that one in mile 13 that I actually had to walk up. And to put things in perspective-SF was easier than this!! There were at least a good share of downhills and flats in the SF half. Here, I felt like we were going uphill the entire time. (You can see the elevation here...)

Finally, somehow, I made it to the end...a bunch of Reservoir Dog guys who had finished cheered for me in the last .1 mile (thanks guys!! I really needed to hear that)...crossed the finish line in 1:57:46 (8:59 pace)...I had never been so happy to be done with a half-marathon in my life. First thing I did was get ice from the med tent for my knees which hated all the climbing (they're fine now!)...then was the usual game of "spot the blogger" on the way to get my bags...saw Moz, Crazy Bandana-head and Uptown Girl, in addition to other Flyers and Rez Dogs...the usual post-race recrapping. Thoughts on the new course among the masses were mixed, but the majority was a thumbs-down.

Not sure what to make of my race. I know there were things out of my control, but I know I'm capable of much, much better than a 1:57...I feel like I have to do something about my training, I just don't know what!! I'm a little disappointed in running a PW today...2 minutes slower than last year's Staten Island half (which you may remember, I was only doing as a training run...whereas I was trying to put in the effort this time!) But I'm a little sad that my favorite half is really no more...as this post title says, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!! If this course remains, I definitely will not be doing this race next year...and will need to look outside NYRR for some good halfs (any recommendations, anyone?)

moving on...

ok, you can all help me with a profile picture change.

i'm debating between 2...my current one...or this one from club champs...

(I wish I could nab bigger ones of my SF half photos so I could use one of those-damn marathonfoto!)

down and out

This pretty much sums up how my running has gone this week..

First off, I had to take Monday as a rest day (from running, at least)-as my legs were just spent from the weekend. As a result, I missed out on what was described by many as a very fun run...(though it may have been a good thing I skipped the ice cream...I sure as hell didn't deserve it with 2 holiday dinners with the family that week.)

Speedwork on Tuesday was a disaster. The workout was on the Great Lawn Oval-3 x 1.02 miles, then 2 x .51 miles. Intensity?-"as hard as we can." I was barely hanging on to half-marathon pace by the end of the mile repeats, and the half-miles weren't much better. It was a very humid night, but jeez...it *is* mid-September, shouldn't I be acclimated by now?

Then the LTR on Saturday. It did not go well for me at all. The irony? I was actually doing my job!! (Which was pacing the 9:30 group for 11 miles.) All the 9:30 pace leaders were broken up into 4 groups and I was with 2 others (who had done this before too.) I made it perfectly clear-I wanted to run 9:30s. Period. The first mile started off on pace. Then...deja vu of the last LTR. I began really struggling with the pace, and falling way behind the other 2 leaders and a good chunk of the group. The 2nd mile split looked too fast, and I yelled to the other runners that if they were ahead of me, they were going too fast-shocker, no one listened to me, not even the other pace leaders. The third mile sucked too and I was wondering if I was going to have to drop back to the 10's for the next loop-as I could not keep the pace (not that there was anything wrong with having to drop back a group-but there were a lot of pace leaders for the 10's and barely enough for the 9:30s) The third mile split was again too fast and by that time I had had enough. I yelled again that whoever is in front of me was going too fast-and that they should run ahead to the 9:00 pace group. Thankfully by this time, some other runners finally agreed with me and pulled it back. Shocker of shockers, we were right on pace for the remainder of the 6-mile loop.

However-the fact that the "rabbits" of the group ended 2 minutes before I did meant that they were departing for the 2nd loop just as I got to the transverse-so I had to tell the Flyers acting as marshalls that I couldn't leave right away and explain the situation. I was told that "everyone's going fast, they're just excited, deal with it." Sorry-but I don't want to "deal with it." If I wanted to run 9's, I would have paced the 9 minute group. Plain and simple. And besides, these runners expect to run 9:30s and I'm sure will complain if the pace is too fast. Plus that made me feel that my efforts to do the job right and stay on pace just are not appreciated. For the 5-mile loop, I just waited for the next group of 9:30s to come in and joined up with them-thankfully, the group stayed together and on pace for this loop (or so we thought-all the mile markers had been taken away!), then I was done!!

(Just an FYI-i know-especially for the "newbies"-that pace leading isnt the easiest thing. It took me a couple of LTR's to get it down, but once I did, things were fine!)

This run was a big ego-crusher...again, if 9-9:15ish miles gave me trouble, then how do I ever expect to run a good half next week? And 3 years ago, 9-9:15 miles would have been considered easy...I wish I had those days back.

Well that was the "down," the "out" is that I am sorta feeling on the outs with my running club. I feel like I am missing out on so much, running-wise...I can't do most of the group runs, because I am too damn slow and I just cannot hold on to the pace. Back when BCG used to co-lead the Thursday night runs, at least I knew she and I would stick together-but she is back in Chicago. I'm not training for a marathon, so I have no need to do 18-20 milers out of town on the weekends-but it seems like the majority of the club is in marathon training. I do what I can, but I still feel a little left out. Kind of makes me wonder-where is my place?

What to do, what to do...

it's not the heat...

Or maybe it was. Someone said to me this past weekend that it seems like ever since I got back from my San Francisco trip, that I've been much less tolerant of the heat than normal. Maybe he was right. In any case, I sure felt it on Saturday.

Only did 15 miles worth of the Palisades Run compared to last year's 20, but man, it felt tougher. As opposed to last year-where not only did I not have to walk, but I was able to pick up the pace for the last 5 miles...I found myself having to walk a couple of times. (Only consolation was that I was not lapped by any 20-milers til the end...hi, Crazy bandana-head.) It was definitely warmer and more humid than last year, and I was not the only one who noted a difference...another (faster) runner admitted that he had a tougher time this year than in previous years and thought the weather had something to do with it. Good to know it wasn't only me...

But, still would have rather done a nice 15-miler in the heat rather than trying to race a 4-miler in Central Park in the heat that morning (yeah-I skipped out on a club points race for this...) just may mean that I may have to adjust my goals for Queens if it is another scorcher. Is it fall yet?

But one good thing compared to last year-I wasn't nearly as sore as last year (probably partially due to the walking, also partially due to not doing 20 and skipping out on the "grand puba" hill) and was able to partake in some of the games at yesterday's Flyers "field day." There were some pretty amusing games-especially one involving a baseball bat that my teammate describes so well here.

But I guess sack races, three-legged races and others take more out of the legs than one would think, because they are begging for a night off from running. I'll give them their way and hit a spinning class instead tonite...

And on a non-running note-anyone else watch the trainwreck that was Britney's VMA performance?

who says central park isn't a small world?

yeah, yesterday was intended to be a 4-mile recovery run on the bridle paths of Central Park-needing to recover from a tough workout Wednesday night.

so i started running counterclockwise on the bridle path, and i was just about to turn off onto the path heading north...well Uptown Girl tells the story here. :-) Saw her, and Chelle one right behind the other...it was funny, like an impromptu bloggers meetup!! So we all ran together for a few miles and chatted about running, work, men, dating, blogging, all of you :-p Even though the other 2 gals continued on after I cut off (Uptown Girl was in the midst of a 20 miler!) I still wound up with 6 miles for the evening...more than I intended, but the socializing was worth it!! :) (And it made the 4 Blue Moons I knocked back later that evening even more deserving...)

Tomorrow...15 miles with the Flyers in the Palisades...yep, same run I did last year-though since I am doing the shorter route, I get to escape the "grand puba of all hills" that I had to deal with halfway through last year :) This will be as far as I go, distance-wise before the Queens Half in a couple of weeks...

love potion no. 9

OK, "love" potion may not be the right term, but you have to admit it's fitting with the picture.

I'm addicted to this new coffee place that just opened up in Chelsea Market this week...their lattes are probably stronger than Starbucks*, and how can you not love the fact that the baristas would pour the steamed milk in so that it forms a cute design on the top?

*Strong coffee was definitely needed this morning. After an absolute killer fartlek speed workout last nite that just knocked me out so early that I couldn't watch most of the Roddick-Federer match, I was still tired this morning!!

and now, for the running fashion portion...

it's crazy, with fall fashions out in the stores now and I buy more running clothes than street clothes. I guess that shows where my priorities are :)

But I tried out an awesome new find yesterday...I was quite annoyed during a long run last weekend when my trusty RaceReady shorts (the ones I wore in the marathon, no less!) kept riding up and chafing the hell outta me.

While doing some shopping, I noted another style of RaceReady shorts that I hadn't really seen/considered before...I tried them out and wouldn't you know it, no chafing, no riding up!! (And they actually don't look half bad on me either...I usually try to shy away from tight shorts like those.)

And I'm about to test out a new running skirt...stay tuned, I will be writing my own running skirt roundup shortly :)