Healthy Kidney 10K, Central Park, May 19th

Last Saturday’s race in Central Park turned out well despite the crowds (5413 runners funneling clockwise around the park) and the same old hills. Otherwise, it was a seasonably cool morning, perfect for a race. A record was set for the 10K course, 28:08, with several world-class runners competing and every running team in the area showing up to accrue NYRR team points. We got a nice non-cotton technical t-shirt, but this particular race is always known for offering that, a nice touch.

We only had several minor bouts of crankiness; we moved ourselves a little closer to the start to avoid the usual two dozen 12-minute milers who want to get right up front with their headphones, blocking faster runners during the first mile. As we’ve said many times before, we love you slower folks for showing up, glad you’re here, but please be smart about placing yourselves in the pack. It must not be fun getting run over, either.

Other than that (and a guy at mile 4 who decided to weave and run side-to-side across the course for no apparent reason), it was a nice day for cranky runner, finishing in the top 10%. Wanted to run under 7 minute miles, happily finished a nice amount below that, and amazingly closed in within 10 seconds away from a years-old PR. Too out of breath to ask rearguard runners ‘Who’s your Daddy?’, we celebrated at the finish line by just being glad it was all over.

Some days it just works out, doesn’t it? So we have to remember those good days, and pull up those positive vibe race files off the brain’s hard drive when there’s two miles left in a future race and running isn’t so fun all of a sudden.

Oh well, on to the next one. Spring training is in full swing, so be careful out there…

iPod Friday 4

Some folks love their inspirational podcasts, and that’s perfectly fine, but if you want some uninterrupted tunes with a beat too, head on over to 50 Pound Note. Powered by Jeb from Louisville, Kentucky, you’ll find hour-long mix sets of older alternative rock club hits, new stuff and everything else it seems. Download and run for an hour to remixes of 80’s underground hits and whatever else he’s thrown in the mixer.

Happy weekend!

£50 Note

Philly’s Broad Street Run

Well, we almost forgot to mention the annual 10-mile Broad Street Run in Philadelphia earlier this month, it’s a fun point-to-point race that’s just long enough to be very much worth the trip from north to south Philly. Fond memories of running that… and in other news, Students Run Philly Style had a fine showing, with 195 students and 50 leaders participating. Our old friend H. has done a great job getting city kids out there when sometimes the rest of us can’t even get our butts off the couch, so we congratulate her and admire her usual enthusiasm and hard work. Go H.!

Hill Work SUCKS

Just thought you’d want to know.


OK, OK, why, you ask. Well, you obviously haven’t run up a hill as fast as you can, again and again and again. And five more times, like we did today on Cat Hill in Central Park, in 85-degree heat at noon, like some idiot.

It’s supposed to make you faster, and feel better in races, blah, blah, blah. We looked like an extra from the ‘Thriller’ video when it was all over.

Hey, did we mention… hill work SUCKS!

Thriller

iPod Friday 3

Back to the tunes on a Friday, to a blog that has some of the most uplifting tracks you can find. Reverend Frost hails from one of our old neighborhoods (South of Hell, France), and can lay out some really heavy, um… stuff. Like Mahalia Jackson. In fact, I believe I’ve overheard Mahalia Jackson asking Jesus for help (in my head, of course) during a race or two, actually. Anyway, you can hear her and more at Spread the Good Word…

Spread the Good Word!

Vive le Président

One of our weird obsessions is French politics, what with American politics being so depressing these days, and because their system is both so similar yet so different from ours. Anyway, last Sunday was the second and final vote for president, between center-right-right Nicolas Sarkozy and left-left-center socialist candidate Ségolène Royal. Madame Royal lost, or Sarko won depending on whom you ask. As soon as the president-elect accepted, he was off to a rented yacht in the Mediterranean for a little R&R before starting the fight to increase the 35-hour workweek to 40 (good luck).

So we’re watching Le Journal, the French 8 o’clock news, and there’s media coverage of Sarko stopping the boat in Sicily… to go running! Yes, the new president of France was jonesing to ‘faire le jogging’. We’d go nuts on a boat, too, and it’s nice to see that the newly-appointed high and mighty would as well. He did have that slow, hunched-over, arms-not-high-enough look to his eurorunning style, but who cares, we’ve all been there, or will be someday. Allez, allez!

Along the Potomac

Spent the last week in D.C., thus the dearth of posts... Boy, is that town flat. Well, mostly, if you don’t run across some of the bridges, up Wisconsin Avenue or north through Georgetown. So it’s a nice break from hills if you need one, but not good if you can’t train on a hill once in a while. Plus the Mall (between the Washington Monument and Capital building) looks far, but isn’t, a round trip only takes about 15 minutes. The stoplights are incredibly long there since speeding SUVs from Virginia seem to always have the right of way. So if you ever find yourself on a run in D.C., stick to the Potomac and avoid the traffic lights.

Found ourselves running around Hains Point a lot, one of the worst sections of the Marine Corps Marathon (around miles 17-20). Making peace with it, actually; it may be flat, but there’s no shade at that point in the marathon, and it seems to go on forever. Again, worth a visit when you’re not in a race!