19 posts tagged “central park”

Team for Kids Donation Form | Entry 94714 | Newman

Dear all my awesome friends:

Have you ever wondered what you can do to make a difference?

I did, and I found a way: I'm running the ING New York City Marathon 2007 as a member of Team for Kids.

In the past five years, Team for Kids members have raised more than $5 million to support running-based fitness and goal-setting programs for 25,000 schoolchildren a week in New York, San Francisco, Washington DC, Tampa, Tennessee, and South Africa. These classes target at-risk kids -- most of whom don't have physical education in their schools.

You can ensure that more kids benefit from NYRR's youth services by sponsoring my run. You can pledge $1.00 for every mile I run ($26.2 total) or donate any flat amount. All contributions are tax deductible and will be acknowledged as such in a letter to you from Team for Kids.

Most importantly, all contributions will go toward helping kids lead healthier, more productive lives. The New York Road Runner youth services programs teach goal-setting, nutrition, fitness and running skills. Knowing how to make physical fitness a habit can reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and other costly diseases in this population.

Thanks in advance if you would consider helping me -- and thousands of schoolchildren. As a father of three boys who has raised his sons in athletics and is ACTUALLY GETTING TRAINING TIPS FROM THEM (!), I am so, so, so proud to be able to help them and to give YOU this opportunity to help them. It is going to feel TWICE as good to cross the finish line at Central Park after running through five boroughs that Sunday morning on NBC, a few days after I return from working the World Series for MLB. You can help make this happen. I am required to raise $2,500 by the November 4 marathon, and half of that total by late July.

Again, the donation form is right here. If you are kind enough to donate any amount to this cause, please note that you will need my race entry number (94714) and last name (Newman) to do so.

For anyone wishing to donate via regular mail, please make checks payable in US dollars to: New York Road Runners Foundation. The mailing address for that is:

NYRR Foundation Team for Kids
845 Third Avenue, 11th floor
New York, NY 10022

I also have a PDF file of a Donation Card for anyone desiring that, and could send that via email. But the online donation form is definitely preferable.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Your friend,

Mark

What do you think of when you think of the Far East? I think of martial arts and the one thing I put most athletic training toward until I ever thought about marathoning. That taekwondo black belt is a reminder to me of all of the hours of roundhouses and sidekicks, the stretching, the complex forms, the Saturday testings, the one-sir-two-sir! to Master Rho, the hand techniques, the grappling/sparring...but most of all, the art form and the respect and the honor and the precision mental acuity that all goes into the pursuit of a black belt...which is only the beginning and never the end. It is not about pride, not ever about looking to use it. It is the appreciation of a tradition and a way of life, something that will always be in my head the rest of my life no matter where I go.

I was thinking about that a lot on this day, proclaimed the inaugural Japan Day @ Central Park. The Japan Day Festival was moving in many ways, and for me it was especially because of a karate demonstration by young and old, because of a Samurai Sword Soul play, because we were graced by an awesome culture that prompted these pics and videos below from my Canon PowerShot A540. The one thing I could not capture was the actual Japan Day 4M race, which is a shame because it was such a beautiful day to run. My race time was 37:01 and my pace was 9:15. The time was 7 seconds slower than my Mother's Day 4M time a few weeks ago, and the pace was 2 seconds slower. Thus did I just experience my first real taste of not getting a PR when you are expecting one, and even though my great runner friend George (that's her in the bottom picture here as we had our pics taken with a Geisha!) explained that times were also slower in the front of the field (thanks for trying to make me feel better!), I am just that much more driven to train this week!!! Here comes speedwork! And here is your multimedia presentation of Japan Day 2007:

So here we are. Today, June 1, marks six months to the day that my life changed.

I am going to try to recapture the incredible feelings and everything I have learned, month by month, as a new distance runner and an Upper West Sider in Manhattan. I am doing this mainly as a way that is helping me continue to record what has happened as I make final revisions on my "Trees and Numbers" book manuscript next winter, but I also want to share my excitement with others who love running as much (or more) as I do. I want to sincerely, most graciously thank everyone who has come into my life in that time and provided invaluable assistance, support and general friendship in this incredible half-year. I want to thank Kirk and Janice, who had lived in this new apartment before me and suggested distance running when I dropped in to first look at the place. And every friend. I have a long way to go with the first marathon looming ahead, but a lot to be thankful for.

DECEMBER
Moved from NJ to Upper West Side next to Central Park
Quit smoking cold turkey
Bought first pair of Asics at Foot Action in Times Square
Joined New York Road Runners
Bought "The Runner's Training Diary" as faithful daily log
Spent $200 on a bunch of arctic running gear
Started drinking 12 oz Accelerade before/after every run
Resumed this blog under new title to reflect baseball and running
Trailmix/celery/grapes/etc to fill smoking void, guzzled water
Debuted in Joe Kleinerman 10K on 12/10 (1:18.40/12:41 pace)
Ran Hot Chocolate 10M on 12/16 (2:07.07/12:42)
Wondered when I will stop looking fat
Eating oatmeal/fruit almost every morning, 80-90 oz H20/day
Bought Christmas tree for first time since 2000, suddenly happy
Ran 55.5 miles in my first month

JANUARY
Rang in 2007 in Times Square with my awesome boys
Walked past smoke-breakers at work and felt good
Running 20 miles a week, and completely around Central Park first time
Ran Fred Lebow 5M Classic on 1/7 (54:01/10:48)
Bought 6-foot tall Central Park print and framed it on wall
Breakthrough: On 1/8, ran 3 consecutive (hilly) miles first time
Learned how to eat GU while running
Week of 1/15 was first 20+ mileage week
Learned to stretch better -- and never stretch cold muscles
Carbo-loaded for first time
Ran Manhattan Half-Marathon on 1/21 (2:30.03/11:27)
Right arch began hurting after 3 days rest, fears of plantar fasciitis went away
Learned to blow snot while running
My boss gave me a NYC Marathon keychain for inspiration
I wrote a letter to my right foot
Started tanning
Ran 57.2 miles my second month

FEBRUARY
Bought Eric Harr's book "The Portable Personal Trainer" w/100 tips
Learned what it feels like to be in The Zone
Ran NYRR Gridiron Classic on Super Bowl Sunday (43:05/10:46)
On the 12th, I registered for 2007 ING New York City Marathon
Loaded tons of CDs into my Nano Red
Learned to wash technical gear after wearing it
Began doing park-bench pushups (front/reverse) before each run
Back in IND for grandpa's 90th birthday, ran 6 miles on desolate rural roads
On the 25th, I used Breathe-Right strip first time and shaved :45 off pace
Have lost 12 pounds at this point, when you're supposed to gain weight after smoking
Ran 62.3 miles in my third month

MARCH
Favorite song on Nano Red while running was "Reign O'er Me" by Pearl Jam
Ran Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K on 3/4 (30:17/9:46)
(My first time under a 10-minute pace! Big psychological boost)
Put Yankee rug on floor and started real CORE work first time
Ran first time with Powershot, giving video tour through Central Park
Ran Colon Cancer Challenge 15K on 3/11 (1:36.15/10:20). I WORE SHORTS!!!
Helping others through running: What a concept!!!
First experience with blisters and blister kit
Bought new box of clear Breathe-Right strips
Learned from Nathalie: You're only as good that day as your cooldown run
Ran NYRR8000 on ice on 3/18 despite "fun run" status due to overnight winter storm
Started dating again

APRIL
Ran Scotland Run 10K on 4/1 (1:01.17/9:53, disputed), and won raffle afterwards
First case of shinsplints, in left leg. Occasional problem even today
Started buying warm-weather gear; I only knew cold-weather running
Ran Brooklyn Half-Marathon on 4/14 (2:19.03/10:36), bad cramp in 12th mile
Learned not to eat so much before a race
Learned to use ice massage on shinsplints, RICEing like crazy
Ran Oklahoma City Half on 4/29 (2:19) while visiting top Texas Rangers prospect

MAY
Ran NY Junior League Mother's Day 4M (36:54/9:13)
Ran Healthy Kidney 10K on 5/19 (57:11/9:13) - another psyche boost
With that 9th NYRR finish of '07, I QUALIFIED FOR 2008 NYC MARATHON!
Amer. Heart Assn. Wall Street Run on 5/22 (27:51/9:17) - dumb event
On 5/30, bought new box of clear Breathe-Right strips
Having trouble getting to sleep early and not eating late
Never even a thought about smoking, seems weird now to think I smoked
Total miles so far on original Asics: 445.9 miles

JUNE
Time to go buy my second pair of shoes, probably from Jackrabbit (not Foot Action!)
Registered for Japan Day 4M race on 6/3
Headed for Disney World during the week to work our MLB Draft at ESPN Zone
Life is good and getting better every day

Thank you again to everyone who has been there along with me for my first true "HALF"! That's one half-year as a distance runner. I have sooooo much to learn and so many obstacles to conquer. I have a marathon coming this fall, and in mid-June I will find out via the lottery if that's NYC. I love being a runner and I love how it makes me feel. It's been one of the best half-years of my life. Keep running with me.

Here's a Before and After:

Last Saturday, I cut up a David Wright No. 5 Mets shirt in honor of that weekend's Interleague Play series between the two New York teams. I set a PR with a 57:11 time (9:13 pace) in that morning's Healthy Kidney 10K at Central Park, and Wright slugged two homers that day. Here are the pics that I just received from brightroom.com.

• What is sexy?
  

This VOX outpost is focused on my two foremost everyday passions, baseball and running. Everyone knows that a Major League Baseball season is a "marathon season" with its 162-game regular season schedule followed by profound October magic and even a possible November finish to this year's World Series. And this year that old adage rings even truer because I will go right from a World Series championship clubhouse celebration to my first marathon -- hopefully the ING New York City Marathon on Nov. 4. Either way, I will be running a marathon somewhere in early November, so this Marathon Season blog on VOX is my combination of the two.

But today I have to address the open audition for Sexiest Man Alive that my new and impressive friend Miss Scotch has just posted. It does have something to do with my normal subject matter. This is going to sound like shameless campaigning, but trust me, it just feels good to know that I even feel like discussing this in a participatory manner now. And while I don't mean it to be prideful, I mean it because I am proud of who I am right now.

I am 47 and the father of three awesome boys 19/15/13 who live with their Mom back in the Midwest, and I am both happy and even surprised to say that I have never felt sexier in my entire life. Last Dec. 1, I traded in my Kools for a pair of Asics, moved to the Upper West Side a block away from The Dakota next to Central Park, and this past weekend I increased the mileage on those running shoes to 422.4 according to my daily logbook. I have run in 13 races since that life change, lost weight in key areas, rediscovered muscle in other areas, cleaned out my lungs and my entire body, toned my legs to statuesque rips, done 50 to 70 park bench pushups before every run and core work after most of them lately, shopped for a lot of new clothes by necessity, brainstormed countless professional and personal ideas while running and followed them through; shaved off close to a minute of my mile pace every 4 to 6 weeks (now 9:13); qualified this past weekend for the 2008 New York City Marathon; and felt awesome about myself. Even my hair feels and looks better. My boys and I (thank God for email/IM/phone since MLB moved me to NYC) talk about things like working out and nutrition much of the time, and they call and say, "Dad, did you PR?"

My goal is to show others that you can go from a smoker to a marathoner within the same calendar year. I have run in three Half-Marathons (13.1 miles) and will run a few more of those between now and my first 26.2. My personal objective is to challenge myself in new ways, doing it through running and then showing myself that anything is possible in EVERY aspect of life. It is about drive and ambition and never, ever paying attention to one's age. I feel so much sexier now than I did 10 years ago, it is indescribable. All that is required is a true PASSION for something healthy in your life, and all good things will follow. I am not sure if the Sexiest Man Alive title will follow, but I thought it was funny enough to write about it here. I got a kick out of Miss Scotch's post, and as someone whose high school Saturday nights were often spent watching John Belushi live, I have to say that, man, I wish he had turned his obsession to the one I have at this point in life. There are times as a runner when you don't feel very sexy, like when you are in the last miles of a Half and you are chafing in a few key places with two or three blisters forming, but to me there is nothing sexier than SPEED and that feeling of a final kick sprint in the last mile of a big race.

"Start easy and finish hard."

Those were the first words I ever remember from my running days, uttered by New York Road Runners CEO Mary Wittenberg at the start of my first race last December at Central Park. Gotta love 'em. I still have a long way to go and I love the feeling of waking up each morning to train at my own private Olympic village (Central Park) without needing any contrived motivation. I love seeing the results each day in the mirror, in the way I feel, and on the race results page of the NYRR website. There are still days when I can't even imagine that I am going to run a marathon. But it's the thrill of the chase, and the application of the CANI (Constant and Never-Ending Improvement) principle that became ingrained on my Tony Robbins CDs during my comeback from the Tech Bubble. (RIP MAX Broadcasting Network, my nearly acquired dot-com darling of 1999-2001 and those 1.6 million shares.) I'm not going to be on the cover of a magazine, but it feels really cool knowing you have never felt sexier in your life. At my age, baby.

• Healthy Kidney 10K Video
  

Today I ran a PR of 57:11 with a 9:13 pace; I can say I finished behind likely 2008 Olympic medalist Craig "Buster" Mottram of Australia in a race that shattered the all-time course record for a lap around Central Park; I qualified for the 2008 ING New York City Marathon (!!!!!!!!!!); I had a crumbcake at Starbucks; and then I went to see Shrek the Third just to hear Gingy's voice one more time.

Life is good! The Wait Is Ogre!

This morning was the Healthy Kidney 10K at Central Park, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation and sponsored by the United Arab Emirates. Cool and overcast, perfect weather. Over 7,000 runners. In honor of our Subway Series between the Mets and Yankees over at Shea Stadium on this first weekend of Interleague Play, I cut up a David Wright No. 5 Mets jersey and ran in that. Throughout the race, I was cheered by other runners and fans who yelled things like "Go, D-Wright!" and "Let's Go Mets!" Hey, even the Empire State Building is being lit up all weekend in both Yankees and Mets colors, the first time in history they have used a dual color scheme for that iconic skyscraper. It is Yankees navy and white on the north and south sides, and Mets blue and orange (which I wore today) on the east and west sides. Whichever team wins this series, the Empire State Building will be fully alit in its colors on Monday. Updated Monday: It will be blue/orange! So I figured it was special enough to dedicate this 10K to the Subway Series, too!

I finished midpack, feeling at times like I was just flying, and in the fourth mile like I was running on empty, then like Street Sense in the final mile, and I ran so fast and so hard that immediately after the finish line I made a beeline for the Medical tent and asked them to give me oxygen. "Do you have a medical condition?" she kept asking me. "No!" I kept saying between gasps. "I just can't get my breath!" She kept fiddling with her oxygen tank trying to get it ready and finally I caught my breath and said never mind, I'm good and I need water. I have never done anything in my athletic life like today, where I visualized it all beforehand that I was going to leave everything I had on the course and try my best to just fly around the course like I was Buster Mottram himself. It is so awesome to challenge yourself and see how your body reacts at this age. I love it.

This was my ninth New York Road Runners event of 2007, which means I am now officially in the NYC Marathon! I definitely will run my first marathon this fall, either NYC (pleaseplease) or Philly or somewhere more exotic after I work the World Series (which could end as late as Nov. 1). That will depend on the results of the lottery draw for the 2007 ING New York City Marathon, which I registered for back in February. There will be some 90,000+ applicants for about 37,000 spaces in that field, so we will find out in early June whether I will be among them! I did not join the New York Road Runners until last December, which is why I had to go through the lottery process for this November's. Still, though, it is a rewarding feeling to know that you just qualified for a marathon! And that 9:13 pace was exactly my pace in last Sunday's Mother's Day 4M race, so if my pace for 6.2 miles is identical to my pace for 4 miles, I think that is more progress.

Seeing Mottram in the awards ceremony was a highlight for me. He is my favorite runner. I watched him recently at the Millrose Games and I can't wait to see him soar in Beijing. Today, the two-time defending champ of this race was actually beaten by Dathan Ritzenhein, whose 28:08 time beat the course record of 28:10 set 10 years ago. It was awesome to hear NYRR CEO Mary Wittenberg describing the Ritz-Buster duel to all of us who had been running our own races at the time. It also was cool to see Ritz immediately turn over his $20,000 first prize check from the UAE directly to the National Kidney Foundation. Nice move. In the big picture, that's what it was all about. Gotta love being able to do that.

The funniest part of the ceremony was after the three female finishers were awarded. The sergeant-at-arms of the UAE national army informed each of them that they will be coming to the United Arab Emirates in December to run their event, with all transportation and accommodations covered. Hope your families didn't have any plans for you in December, girls!!!  Then he announced during the male awards presentation that the top seven male finishers will be going to UAE to run that same event. That set off a small buzz among the crowd, feeling kind of 1950s here. Why not the top seven female finishers as well? I mean, how else would this crowd react? I guess gender equity hasn't quite caught on over there yet the way it has here, where women-only races sometime seem overly prevalent to me. It doesn't get much more equal than NYC running, so they have to be more careful not to make another diplomatic faux pas like that one.

Apologies to all those Yankee fans out there on the course today. I know it's tough. The Bronx Bombers are 10 games out of first place for the first time since 1995 (growing as I write this), before the Derek Jeter/Joe Torre/Mariano Rivera era really started. They just lost to the Mets, they are getting destroyed in the standings by the rival Red Sox...and here's a guy flying around Central Park wearing a sweaty David Wright No. 5 Mets jersey. Hey, I'm a winner, baby! I just finished behind Buster, set a PR and qualified for the world's biggest marathon. Let's Go Mark!

OK. Watched this afternoon's Subway Series game and then went to see the big green ogre and his friends Donkey and Puss In Boots. I don't care what anyone thinks, I just went to see this by myself in the top theater auditorium in New York City. Amazing! that was a blast. My next race is going to be a BLAST! It's the American Heart Association Wall Street Run -- a 3-miler on Tuesday (May 22) through the Financial District after the big board closes.

Congratulations to Amanda, the very cool girlfriend of my awesome son Matt, on graduating this weekend from high school! We are all proud of her! Now they will both be in college together in the same area, and I know that makes them both very happy so that makes me very happy!

BIG LOVE.

Why can't every day be Mother's Day? It was an incredible day, again indicative of my Marathon Season.

In the morning, I set a PR for time and pace in the New York Junior League Mother's Day Race, a 4M event at Central Park to help erase domestic violence. My time was 36:54 and my pace was 9:13. In my previous 4M race with New York Road Runners, it was 43:05/10:46. So that's a huge drop, and I will be in the 8 Minute Pace group soon. The first mile included a sprint up Cat Hill, our long and gradual incline near the Metropolitan Museum of Art on East Drive, and that caught up with me in the third mile when I had to break a couple of times to walk a short distance. Soon I also will be able to do these with no walking at all, save for the fuel station. I am getting there. Friends have told me I am definitely getting faster, and the results are very noticeable after having just celebrated my five-month anniversary as a non-smoker on May 1. I still need more work on the core and to lose more weight...it's all coming together. Next weekend, I will run my ninth NYRR qualifier of 2007, meaning on that day I will officially become a guaranteed entry in the 2008 ING New York City Marathon. And keeping my fingers crossed that in early June I will find out that I made it out of the lottery for this year's even on Nov. 4. I'm planning on it.

The rest of the day was all about the pink bat as we at Major League Baseball try to help the Susan G. Komen for the Cure with a goal of raising $1 million in funding. My story is here on the MLB.com homepage now, and I hope you will please read it. Part of that target funding will come from our MLB.com Auction listing of many of those game-used pink bats that millions of fans are seeing all over the place today. If you want one guaranteed instead of bidding (lots of people are asking!), you can just order here and $10 of the sale goes to Komen. But it's not just about raising money. It's about raising awareness. It's about harshly reminding people that the number of new diagnoses of breast cancer in U.S. women this year is an estimated 178,480, and the number of women who will die of the disease this year is over 40,460. There is no known cure and we don't know how to prevent it. The Komen foundation is recognizing its 25th anniversary of founder Nancy Brinker's initiative to try to keep her promise to her late sister Suzy, a victim of breast cancer. That is way too many years already. But it was taboo to mention "breast cancer" when Komen began. The five-year survival rate is WAY up to 98 percent. Still, it is all about eradicating breast cancer. And cancer as a whole. We are trying to do something about it -- people inside the game and all the fans. Being aware of it, talking about it, all has the positive effect of more action and more women who will be screened earlier.

And in between the race and the pink bats work, I called my Mom back home in Evansville, Indiana, and told her that I ran the race for her this morning and what purpose it served. It was fun to do something meaningful, however small it may seem. That is one thing I love about running. You always seem to be helping someone, even if your only real wish is to just go out and run and sweat and improve yourself. It's an awesome way to make a difference in life. I also wanted to pass on what I read on the leaflet I received in my race packet, provided by the NYC Mayor's Office to Combat Domestic Violence, which had a booth at the event:

Know Your Rights

1. I have the right to be treated with respect.
2. I have the right to make mistakes.
3. I have the right to express my feelings.
4. I have the right to say NO.
5. I have the right to protest unfair treatment or criticism.
6. I have the right to change my mind.
7. I have the right to be free of fear.
8. I have the right to decide whether or not to have sex.
9. I have the right to a life free of violence.

Ping me if you know of anyone who is having those rights violated. That leaflet had a lot more info on it.

OK, next up: the Healthy Kidney 10K on May 19 at Central Park, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation. And a pass directly to the NYC Marathon! One cool thing about that race: I get to be in the same field as "Buster" -- Craig Mottram, the Australian running sensation and early Olympic favorite. I'll report here after that one, and will drop some fresh pics as Brightroom.com was shooting the Mother's Day 4M event. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

My marathon awaits in the fall, but the traditional marathon season of baseball is now under way. It has been incredible so far, and not a whole lot of sleep. We had our traditional Opening Day ceremony at the MLBAM HQ in Manhattan, including the ceremonial first pitch in the cafeteria, and I really do think I have one of the best jobs in the universe. I think a lot of people around the world are still dazzled by the MLB.TV Mosaic product that we unveiled yesterday. It has to be seen to be believed, a total game-changer for a baseball fan and technology lover. It's your own TV control room, drag-and-drop thumbs to switch from one live game view to another, with fantasy player tracker, live everything, just unbelievable. The whole Opening Day was unbelievable, from Edgar Renteria's game-tying and game-winning homers in Philly to all that pageantry and finally that Angels bullpen at 1 a.m. ET. Here is my story on the MLB.com homepage to see how everything unfolded across the Majors on the greatest day on the calendar.

One more game is on the Opening Day docket today: Padres vs. Giants. The chase resumes for the all-time home run record (Barry hit seven homers this spring and will pass Hank pretty quickly) and it's a chance to see Barry Zito across the Bay in a Giants uni. It also will be interesting to see Bruce Bochy now managing against his longtime former Padres club. Then, of course, there are 15 more home openers coming up in the next week when the teams now on the road return home. Opening Day is no longer just Opening Day. It's Opening Night, then Opening Day and Opening Week. Lots more pomp and circumstance to come. I'll head out to Yankee Stadium sometime in the next few days, and then out to Shea Stadium next week to see the Mets. I am going to wander up to Fenway Park and down to Citizens Bank Park sometime in the next month or two, but one other priority that I will be playing with today and tomorrow is finding a tropical beach for 3-4-5 days, maybe end of April. Perhaps Dominicana...I added this to my Travel Photographers group as well and anyone there who wants to throw out a good, easy, white-sand-relaxation, tropical-getaway suggestion, feel free!

Off to run Central Park. My next run is the New York Road Runners Half-Marathon: Brooklyn, on April 14, 13.1 miles. The NYRR stages five Half-Marathons during the course of a year, one in each borough, as a build-up toward the ING New York City Marathon that goes through Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Manhattan in November. I ran the Manhattan half in January and might do one or two more. Feeling great. I hope this is a strong week. I have been amazed at how there are just times when you will feel like total crap out there...and times where you look down at your legs and ask them, "How are you still moving?" Also of special note, someone in our offices yesterday said, "Wow, your face is a lot thinner." It's funny being a runner.

This will be quick because I'm headed to our MLB offices for 24-48 hours of Opening Day extravaganza as our season starts tonight with Mets at Cardinals. Some of my articles now on MLB.com homepage: this also this and this.

It is the best day of all on the calendar, the day life begins again.

And on this day, it has special meaning for me.

It is April 1, the four-month anniversary of my Dec. 1 decision to break a box of Kools in half outside my new Upper West Side brownstone and join the massive legion of distance runners around the world. I didn't really know what to expect but I knew I wanted to rediscover the athlete inside of me.

Today I celebrated by running my first 10K under an hour, my seventh of nine 2007 New York Road Runner qualifiers for guaranteed eligibility in the 2008 New York City Marathon. My net time in the Scotland Run 10K was around 57 minutes, although I am unofficial on that because it only lists Finish Time, and the results say 1:01.17 (pace 9:53). That's what the time was when I crossed the mat, I believe, but I crossed the start line a good seven minutes behind the horn, so if there is no net time posted then I'm going with 57 even for now and will contact NYRR and figure this one out for sure.

And believe it or not, I had no intention of running this race. I developed shin splints in my left leg on Tuesday. I took three days off and it felt like three weeks. I was miserable waiting. I RICE'd it all week, at home and at work. I didn't want to take a chance on being less than 100% for the Brooklyn Half on April 14, so I planned to bag this. Then a good friend sent a kind message overnight with some wisdom about handling shinsplints, and she told me how she had been fine for one race after treating shinsplints the night before. Just seeing how someone else had run with determination made me see it differently. I read that message at 9 a.m., and at 9:20 I jogged over to Central Park, picked up my bib number and C-chip (I had registered long ago), and jumped into the 9 Minute group at the starting area by Tavern on the Green. It was nice to meet my friend Andrea there and I made her listen to a little bit of my Nano Red while we waited. She has a cool Forerunner and I will trade her a bunch of CDs for it.

I never felt my shinsplints the entire 6.2 mile loop around Central Park. It was beautiful. Chilly and overcast day, nice for running but let's get the heat in here. I labored in the third mile and had to walk briefly, otherwise I was running station-to-station, maybe one other cheat speedwalk. Four months later, I know that I am still getting my wind back, still becoming friends with my lungs. God knows I am trying. I would LOVE to run an entire race without stopping. And it never fails, I get in that zone the last miles of a race and have my groove on.

THEN something really funny happened. I went to the awards presentation area, and was one of those people who gave them their raffle number from the bib with about 10 seconds left. So they raffle all these awesome prizes, and sure enough, the emcee calls my bib number. It was a great day for No. 2978 at Central Park. I went up on the stage, got the pic taken, was given the envelope for some elaborate Scottish shawl, and then I saw that friend in the crowd there and went over to her and gave her the envelope. I told her it was the least I could do because she's an awesome friend and I knew I wouldn't have been there if not for her email that I read at 9 in the morning of a day I planned to miss a race. I'll post pics here later.

EVERYONE: Have an awesome Opening Day, and enjoy the start of the greatest MLB season ever. I hope your team wins, I hope you catch a foul ball this summer, I hope you go to the ballpark on a date or maybe get proposed to there, I hope you get lots of autographs, I hope you have special memories that last forever and that you share them with family and friends. Baseball is the greatest game on Earth, and I think running is right up there now.  :)

I leave you with this email that was among those I received over the weekend -- from a fan in Italy. I think it says it all:

Hi, Mark!
at last....
let's go the Baseball...
to start from tomorrow...
for my fantastic YANKEES...
the pasion forever....NYY

kiss.at everything....yankees!

ilaria

from PARMA /Italy

I brought my Canon PowerShot A540 with me for Sunday's run around Central Park. Come on along and "favorite" this one!

1. Entering Central Park. This is The Dakota, where John Lennon sadly left us way too early. I pass that and then enter Strawberry Fields.

2. The Imagine Mosaic. Here are the park benches where I do my front/reverse pushups before and after each run. And here is the Imagine Mosaic, which draws tourists constantly. I usually step on it once for good luck. He was The Man.

3. West Drive at 72nd Street, heading south. In a few moments I'll be by Tavern on the Green, heading for the SW corner of the loop.

4. Second Toughest Hill: East Drive between Boat Basin and the Met. It's just a long, gradual ascent, and this is what it feels like to get passed by other runners. Memo to Paul Tergat: Not that you would have any idea what that feels like!!! A friend just told me that this is also called Cat Hill; see the statue of the cat about to pounce on you.

5. Jackie Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Detouring from the loop to climb the steps at "Runner's Gate" and run part of the reservoir. Too much packed snow on this day.

6. Another reservoir clip. It's just too beautiful. On normal days, the clay footing is highly desired by runners. The track is 1.58 miles around and thousands of runners round it on average each day.

7. And one more reservoir clip. A panoramic view of the biggest body of water in Central Park, carried via pipeline from upstate NY, constructed b/w 1858-62 and holding a billion gallons of water. Note the steel and cast-iron-ornamented fence, which was built in 2003 to replace the ugly chain-link fence and recapture the look of the original fence that stood between 1864-1926.

8. Northeast corner of the loop. This is near Harlem Meer, where the counterclockwise loop makes a couple of switchback turns. Another gorgeous part of the course.

9. Nearing the waterfall. Just made that turn left at the top of the track. What you don't see here is some guy bumping into me because I suddenly stopped to put my Powershot away. Watch out for dangerous videobloggathoner!

10. North Woods Hill. The supreme killer part of the course, a fairly steep ascent that starts just before the Land of the Icicles.

11. North Woods Hill Icicles. Do I make you melt? This is my own private fluid station, watching the stalagtite icicles melt on the side of the generally shaded rock formation. As I occasionally do, I broke off one of the icicles and took that with me, getting a little much-needed water at that point. Hope it's clean.

12. "I hate this hill more than anything." But I'm conquering it. One last look at the icicles and you can hear the pitter-patter of runner feet passing me. Back to the North Woods Hill.

13. West Drive, beside the reservoir. Heading south again, nice view of Empire State Building. Look closely and you can see that foliage is starting to bud -- a kind of purplish tint. Also note that some runners go "with the grain" and run counterclockwise; some go against the grain. I mix it up day to day. Runners stay in innermost lane, cyclists in the next lane, and then hello, taxis.

14. The Lake. I called it a pond in this clip because I don't think it's really big enough to be considered a "lake," but either way it is so beautiful. Incredible bird-watching area, and on the other side of it is The Ramble. Nature rules over people here. NOTE: I laughed really hard after realizing I was stupid-humming something that was playing on my iPod. Remember that I am jamming as I am talking/running.

15. The Lake again. "Is there a better place to run?"

16. Finish Line. Back at Strawberry Fields, and leaving Central Park at 72nd Street to head home to the Upper West Side and a hot bath. This was a pretty casual run, and I even stopped once to buy a shirt at Urban Athletics. If it was a serious training run I wouldn't have had the PowerShot with me. Was just thinking about my friends...

Central Park Map PDF

Photos from the tour: