Run 64 Daily Life

Many people experience NYC as a vacation destination, but living here is a different experience. During this run I passed a lot of people living their daily lives.  It made me think about the similarities and differences about living in NYC.  On the subway ride up I was entertained by street performers, break dancing in my subway car.  As I started my run in Harlem, shortly after the sunset, I realized I was in a neighborhood, just like a neighborhood in any small town.  There were people sitting out on their porches, in this case the NYC sidewalk.  They had lawn chairs out and were gabbing away.  I would get friendly greetings or even a jokester who wanted to made fun of me, as I ran by.  I ran past a small poker game, four people, a folding card table, and one guy with a nice pile of cash.  It's getting really hot here and some how many of the fire hydrants are tapped into and water trickles or squirts out, for the kids to play in just like I did, with the hose in the yard as a kid.  I see people carrying the laundry to the laundry mat and carrying their groceries home.  I share the sidewalk with kids riding scooters and people walking their dogs.  NYC might be know for Times Square and Grand Central Station, but don't be fooled , take a stroll down 142nd street instead of 42nd Street, peek into a neighborhood garden, normal everyday life is going on as well.  


Time: 10 pm
Distance: 4.64 miles
Time: 40:22 minutes
Music: random

Run 63 The Shiny Center

I've had a couple of bad runs,  too much time away traveling, issues with my body, but today's run changed all of that.  Shortly after I started running, I ran by a wall that had a mural painted on it.  There was a character on the wall that caught my attention.  He had a big smile on his face and he was watering smiling plants.  I couldn't help but catch their infectious smiles.  It made me think of how neat it is to see so much of NYC.  What a great opportunity I have.  I wanted to introduce another NYC photo album inspired by this guy, called the shiny center.  It is picture perfect NYC, the glitz and glammer. 

The Shiny Center

Time: 9:30 pm
Distance: 4.88 miles
Time: 45:54 minutes
Music: Jane Eyre

Pride Run

There's nothing like dressing up in a crazy costume and running a race.  To celebrate pride, I ran a 5 mile race in Central Park in rainbows and flames.  I was running so fast that I was on fire.  The costume  was a hit.  I got a lot of compliments and shout outs as I ran. After the race, NY Road Runners used my picture as the main picture on the web page. Here it is:

I ended up doing pretty well in the race as well.  I had a great bib number 400.  Meaning I was up in the front with all the fast guys. I was 301 out of 4,948.  Finishing in 35:37 minutes. Not too shabby. 

Run 62

Another failed run. First of all I started on the wrong street, so I ended up running 135th street twice.  Then my body was not feeling it.  My toe hurt, my knees hurt, I was out of breathe.  I pretty much gave up.  I only ran 3 miles and then called it quits.  


Time: 2 pm
Distance: 3.11 miles
Time: 28:06 minutes
Music: random

Wall Street Run

I ran another race this evening, It was NYRR's Wall Street Run.  It was a 3 miles race through downtown NYC.  Three miles is a short distance for me (well, if I was running regularly) so I decided I wanted to try and run fast.  I was shooting for a good time.  I run at a pace close to 8min/miles, but usually for 5-6 miles.  I knew I could most likely run under 7min/mile, so that was my goal. There was 5,565 people in the streets running.  The gun sounded and getting started was the hardest part.  It was so crowded, you had to be careful not to trip over everyone else.  It took at least a quarter mile to get spread out enough that you weren't bumping into others, it remained crowded the whole race, it was hard to pass people.  In other races I have been too conservative in the beginning.  I didn't want to do that again, especially since it was only three miles, I took off as hard as I could.  I'm not at the very top of my game.  I haven't been running much because of travel and a hurt toe.  I got to the 1 mile mark and was already feeling it.  I was definitely pushing myself hard.  I wasn't in trouble, but I started to psych myself out a bit.  So I started reciting a mantra in my mind, "long strides, slow breath"  I would take three steps on each word, long 1,2,3 strides 1,2,3, slow 1,2,3 breath 1,2,3.  I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, but it calmed me and my breathing down, so it worked in this case and I "waltzed" through the rest of the run.  My knee and toe were bothering me a bit, but I ignored them.  I'm icing them both now as I write this. 

I ended up with a time of 20:04 minutes. (Stupid 4 sec, lol.)  Placing 265 out of 5,565. I was 63rd in my age category.  

If I'm gonna keep doing races I need to find some proper training, I push myself too hard to still be winging it.  

 

Run 61 ouch

Ouch!  Today's run was a total failure.  Maybe it's cause I haven't been running in a month.  Maybe it's cause I ran a half marathon 4 days ago that I wasn't physically prepared for.  The moment I started running my calves were in pain, still sore from the race.  My pace was horrible, over 9 minute miles. Three miles into the run my knee started to hurt.  I guess I have a lot more conditioning to do, if I plan on running a marathon this year.  


Time: 6:30 pm
Distance: 4.2 miles
Time: 38:20 Minutes
Music: Katharine McPhee

Brooklyn Half Marathon

As you know from the previous post in the past 48 hours I hiked all three peaks of Olo Mana, Stairway to Heaven, Hanauma Bay Ridge, and Kokohead stairs.  I then spent all night/day travel from Hawaii home to NYC.  I arrived at 10 pm.  While unpacking and getting settled at 2 am I decided to be a volunteer for The Brooklyn Half Marathon.  So I went to bed at 2:30 am, got up at 4 am to be in Brooklyn by 5:15 am.  I helped out as a starting line marshal, telling people which starting gate they could be in.  After the race started, we did a little clean up.  I was done at 7:45, it just so happened that I was in my running clothes, so I walked back down to the starting line, to see the situation.  The cones were still set up outlining the course, so I turned on Nike+ and took off.  

I began running and surprisingly caught up to the last place person just shy of mile 3. He was walking, so don't give me to much credit.  Soon after I started passing more and more people. After a while I was right with the pack.  About 9 miles into the race my knee started to hurt.  I had to slow down some, but was determined to finish what I started.  I ended up crossing the finishing line in 1 hour and 48 minutes.  At that point I had passed 969 people.  If I was to insert my time into the official results I would have been 762 out of 1,809 in my age category and 3,800 out of 14,160 overall.  Not bad for my long first race.  I've got the running bug, I then went home and registered for 9 more races in the next couple of months, I better hit the streets! :)