Still Here (with iPod selection #31)

It’s been a quiet time here lately. I haven’t felt like I could add much to the canon of Western literature, and haven’t felt like discussing about whether or not I ran today (for example). Anybody out there who has a blog knows every once in a while you hit a dry patch and you’re not into writing about what you did, thought, or felt. You just go out and do something, and you’re not up for discussing it later. Those of you who write, write, write for school or work… well, I don’t know how you do it and still write blog posts.

So I’ll try to keep this brief and not write a book, which would undermine the argument I just made.

As I mentioned in a post last week, I had a 5K, a week ago Tuesday. It was a benefit walk/run for the American Heart Association, and it was held in lower Manhattan around the Wall Street and WTC area. What ticked many of us off (here I go) was that it was oversold; 18,000 participants is a lot of folks for a little 5K in the small, winding streets down there, and to make matters worse, the course was under-measured. So the race was a 3-miler, not 3.1, so those of us, like me, who wanted to possibly PR in a 5K, were presented with a last-minute non-5K. On top of that, it was one of those unseasonably cold, rainy days that we’ve had a lot of in May. I jammed myself into the start and ran a too-fast first mile and struggled for the final two. Like all 5Ks, well, make that 3-milers, it was over before I knew it. My 19:28 finish time meant I really slowed down in the second half and I wouldn’t have had a PR had it been a 5K anyway. They did give us sandwiches when we finished, at least (Subway was a sponsor). Guess I’ll have to find a flat 5K somewhere, someday, and run that one fast enough to almost throw up.

Otherwise, it’s been ‘run a lot, hit the pool, get back on the bike, run some more, hit the pool again; repeat’. The Patriot Half in July is looking unlikely since I can’t swim a half a mile right now, so I’m not feeling like 1.1 miles is going to be achievable. Then again, never say never. As for running, my one and only true love, I’ve been doing two speed and strength runs a week, and that’s leaving my legs tired for the weekend long runs. I have no idea what I’m running long for, but marathon training habits just don’t want to go away.

There was another mugging in Central Park the other night, someone hit a walker over the head with a rock to steal their iPod. Another example that last year’s rise in crime was due to the demand for Apple products. I’m not making that up, the police say iPod theft has made crime ‘cool’ again. That’s great, now I have to be careful when I’m in the park, of all places.

So that’s the not-so-exciting news, I’m still here and running around and such.

Well, I’m partly wrong, there was some excitement this morning. I’m on my way to my gym (Edge) on 91st and 1st Avenue. It may not have made the news where you are, but another construction crane collapsed in New York today, and it was at… 91st and 1st. I’ve been going to this gym for over a year and a half, and I’ve watched a large building demolished, a huge hole dug into the ground, and six floors built on a site a half a block away (and a block from the pool). Every day I walk past the construction workers and a gigantic crane used to build this new, 34-story building on 91st St. It’s gone up fast, and today the crane came crashing down into the street and the apartment building next door. So by the time I got there, the streets were closed and hundreds of firemen and policemen were on the scene, along with the mayor and the governor and every official that could get there. I detoured around the site to my gym, but found the police blocking the street and businesses. They were worried that the rest of the crane would come down on top of us. Good reason to close the streets around there, so since my gym was closed, I hit the still-open pool instead. In light of the tragedy (at least one construction worker was killed), my inconvenience means nothing. But I’m relieved I didn’t head out early for the gym today and end up a statistic. And moreover, it reminds me that something, including your own life, can be taken away from you in an instant. I know that a huge chunk of life sucks a lot of the time, and it’s not all sunshine and rainbows and all that crap, but it can be much, much worse.

And so, with that, that thought made me snap out of my ‘dry patch’.



(new, melancholic tune from Cyndi Lauper:)

Cyndi Lauper – Rain on Me.