3 posts tagged “mlb”
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!
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
Before pitchers and catchers take the field, one last look from my PowerShot A540:
And my personal favorite that I took during the postseason, "NLCS Moon":
This morning I ran 5 miles, anticipating our first real snow of the winter here in New York City tonight. I am still on a runner's high from registering for the ING New York City Marathon. I still have to shake my own head. I can't really believe I am about to do this. I am going to stay around 25 miles per week until around the All-Star break, at which point I will begin the 16-week marathon training program. I might enter the National Half Marathon March 24 in D.C.
It's time for some baseball, at last. Baseball and running. It all points to October/November. The Marathon Season. Also, please be sure to check the MLB.com homepage on Wednesday to read my annual Valentine's Day tribute!
