20 posts tagged “new york city”
Only 39 days till the ING New York City Marathon. Plantar fasciitis in my right foot is the third consecutive injury I have dealt with in rapid-fire succession. Today was my fourth "rehab run" and after five miles the pain was too much to run through. Have decided to once again shut it down for a couple of weeks, and fortunately I will have access to hotel health clubs everywhere I go because . . . .
It's time for some October baseball! We're in the final days of deciding the postseason berths after the most historic, spectacular regular season in the history of Major League Baseball. (My MLB.com article here.). We have had more major milestones than ever (by a mile). There was even that day when Frank Thomas hit his 500th, followed at night by Craig Biggio's truly unforgettable 5-for-5 performance that included hit No. 3,000. Tom Glavine got his 300th win and Roger Clemens his 350th. A-Rod and Jim Thome joined the 500 HR Club. Sammy Sosa hit his 600th (Junior Griffey will do it next spring, when Manny gets his 500th). Trevor Hoffman became the first pitcher to reach 500 saves.
And, of course, there was the chase that resulted in a new home run king and a change of the guard for the most hallowed individual record in any sport, professional or amateur. Maybe you hated it, maybe you loved it, and maybe you tried to be indifferent. But you were probably watching when Barry Bonds cranked No. 756 in August, and when that classy video message from dethroned Hank Aaron came over the AT&T Park scoreboard.
Is there any doubt that October will likewise be something truly out of the ordinary? Could this be the year that the Chicago Cubs not only reach their first World Series since 1945 . . . but also WIN their first world championship since 1908? They still have to take care of business this week first. Will the Yankees finally regain their royalty and win No. 27? Will Cleveland win it all for the first time since 1948? How about a Mets-Red Sox reunion from 1986? And how about my Rockies? I predicted on MLB.com in March that they would go to the World Series. I am pretty sure I am about the only one who predicted that in the civilized world. To me, it was a great young core that was going to come together. They are sure doing that now. (For full disclosure, I also predicted they would face Texas.)
I'll be working the postseason, and as I said, fortunately I'll be able to use hotel health club facilities the whole time -- exercise bike, elliptical, swimming, etc. So I will shut down running for up to two weeks again and keep up my fitness. I am registered for the ING New York City Marathon 18-mile Tuneup this Sunday at Central Park, but it looks like I will just forfeit my $20 entry fee because it's just not that important as I listen to my body. My first marathon approaches fast, and fortunately we are up to $2,134 raised for TEAM FOR KIDS thanks to my friends here and elsewhere. Please click here if you would like to help me make a difference to give a running start to many needy children and donate to this very important cause (my entry number is 94714 and last name is Newman). Any amount is welcome, and maybe you would like to donate $1 per mile -- it would be $26.20 and I promise you would feel GREAT about it.
This is going to be one unbelievable, crowded, busy, amazing October, carrying right over to a November 4 date with destiny that I will somehow finish despite these injuries. And then after that, the completion of my work of a lifetime, "Trees and Numbers," providing a beginning and an ending to the current 210-page manuscript.
That's my life right now.
Yes, this is The Marathon Season.
As crushing as it was to see "NO" when I entered my name at noon today for the 2007 ING New York City Marathon entrant database, I decided that I am undaunted by the lottery result and will be running the event anyway on behalf of Team for Kids! Thank you to everyone who left me good-luck comments, I really appreciate that!
No, my name was not accepted out of the 98,000 applications from around the world, all vying for about 37,000 spots in the world's biggest marathon. Yes, first reaction was disbelief. But it's all good! You can still run it for charity if you're registered (I registered in February), and I had a lot of supportive MLB colleagues around me here at the offices to pick me up and reinforce that I will have no problem raising the required $2,500 in pledges by the Nov. 4 event. I will go directly from the World Series in some unknown city once I have washed the champagne out of my hair (I always get soaked in the clubhouse!) to a Sunday morning start on Staten Island and then run over the bridge to Brooklyn to Queens to The Bronx to Central Park and practically my front door at Tavern on the Green.
I LOVE RUNNING!
I ALSO LOVE KIDS!
This is perfect for me, and like I said, colleagues here at our MLB offices told me I definitely should do this so I did. And how cool that I just submitted my Team for Kids membership form on the week of Father's Day. It will be an even more fun way to share my first 26.2-mile journey with my three awesome boys, whose Dad will be wearing that bright green singlet within the same year as he quit smoking mainly for them.
So here's the deal, and there will be more details to follow with my fundraising form. Team for Kids raises critical funds for New York Road Runners Foundation youth programs. Team members are adult runners who pledge to raise funds for NYRRF as they train for and compete in premier NYRR races, including the ING New York City Marathon and the NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE (which I am also going to be running on August 5!). Since 2002, Team for Kids members have raised more than $5 million for NYRRF and the children they serve.
Supported by the powerful outreach of Team for Kids members, more than 25,000 children a week in more than 150 schools and community centers now participate in NYRRF programs, where they learn critical skills to improve their physical health, emotional well-being, and capacity for personal achievement.
Last week, I received a letter from my Aunt Marti. Her brother, my father, passed away last year. I really miss my Dad. He had the heart of a lion. He would do anything for anyone. In the last year of his life while battling multiple myeloma, he volunteered to drive cancer patients to their chemo treatments. When he passed away, I had to stay around at the hospice to meet the University of Louisville people who had driven two hours to pick up my Dad, who donated his body to medical science there. He donated supplies constantly to a home of nuns in Eastern Kentucky, and all I ever remember most is his desire to make a difference. So that letter from my Aunt Marti read: "Your father's spirit of honesty and giving now lives in you." That felt like a lot to live up to. It was instilled by his mother, my grandmother, who would take me to the State Hospital as a boy just to be around mentally retarded children, and she would always say, "Mark, always remember other people." If I can be half the man my Dad was, I will die pretty happy one day. I have a ton of living to do first, and to live the right way.
Distance running is such an individual sport, with such a focus on ME such as my physique, my mileage, my nutrition, my course, my music while I run...it may be the most individual of athletic endeavors that there is. It is generally solitude, you and your thoughts. I have thought for these last six months about that, and I have been pleased that there are so many NYRR events that benefit worthy causes. In that small way, it feels like you are making a little difference. But I know there has to be much, much more. I never feel like I am doing nearly enough, and I suppose that is how one should feel. I am going to be very happy to start the Team for Kids fundraising.
Now I have something at stake in this that is not just me and my training. It feels like something more, even though I know I wanted to see a YES on that lottery acceptance form that everyone was checking today on the NYC Marathon site. Next year this is a moot point, because just a few weeks ago I qualified for the 2008 NYC Marathon by virtue of running the minimum nine NYRR scored qualifying races in 2007. I just know that within an hour of getting the lottery news, I went from "crushed" to "excited." Yes, everyone will be hearing from me. I won't mean to be a pest. But I now have a marathon to run and another reason to run it. It feels good to know it's all set finally.
This feels like a good time to post a photo I just found of my Dad, and I'm guessing it was sometime in the late '70s. There's also a shot of me and my own sons who I can't wait to spend time with this Father's Day weekend. I am going to be dedicating my first marathon to them, and running it for KIDS everywhere!
Just remember: NO MEANS YES!
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.
Yes. These guys above had That Look. The same look that many of them had earlier in the day working the stock exchanges and selling stock tips and moving the markets and making the big machine of capitalism run.
You don't want to run in a race with these guys. They mean business.
I speak from experience. On Tuesday, I was among over 14,000 registrants for the American Heart Association START! Wall Street Run -- a race through Manhattan's Financial District after the big boards closed. It was a living nightmare. I was glad to survive. My time was 27:51 with a 9:17 pace over just under a 3-mile course that wound past Ground Zero and through Wall Street and Battery Park, and those times were meaningless because someone decided to just let runners and walkers have at it in a death battle on the tight historic streets. No separation in the starting field at all, just everyone mixed together.
You should have seen what it was like for runners to twist and turn and bob and weave to get through wide packs of walkers. You would dart over onto the sidewalk and pray someone didn't take your legs out from under you, and then dart back, sometimes on cobblestone and big sewer grates, side to side of the street, often bumping walkers, who sometimes got angry and said things like, "Block him!" This was happening everywhere I looked. Walkers didn't like being bumped, and runners just wanted to run fast. At one point before the only fluid station, there was a switchback turn and it was a complete stop. That was another 30 or so seconds. It was just really strange, and REALLY dangerous.
The scenery was incomparable, though. Toward the end, you are looking at the Statue of Liberty out in the harbor to the left. It finished near the Merrill Lynch offices where so many of their employees were wearing black company tees that said, "Running of the Bulls." That was a perfect analogy for this event. It was just like I imagine Pamplona to be. I would love to say that I got all misty-eyed when I ran past the World Trade Center site and looked up at the wide-open sky where towers used to be and thinking of how they were just people like all these runners and walkers around me. But that would be BS, because during this race all I could think about was trying to swerve around the next walkers in front of me.
I guess I can say that I did it, and I really shouldn't ever complain about running. I wrote a bitch-post right after the event and deleted it. But then I saw that a younger guy in New York City who shares my name ran the event in 18 minutes (6:04 pace) and finished 89th overall (I was 3,630th overall). So it just means you need to be way up there at the front of the pack and not mixed in with the walkers for this event. Hey, Subway provided the sandwiches (not even close to enough!), and my entry fee went to the AHA so it's a good cause. Bottom line.
If I only would have asked some people around me for investment tips and some good inside info, it would have all been worthwhile. These people mean business. I mean that in the most literal sense.
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!
One of the new traditions I am experiencing is running events on the weekend and then seeing the Brightroom.com photos show up in my inbox the following Friday. Some of the events are photographed by them, and the Brooklyn Half last weekend was one of them. Here are the shots I just received. Don't laugh too hard. I did notice that, holy cow, my body has changed a lot since I started running. Man, I am starting to get Popeye here. MORE SPINACH!!! And remember that the time shown here is the overall clock, and I started over three minutes back so my net was 2:19...and would have been near two hours if not for the adventures cited in previous post. RUN BABY RUN! No races this weekend, though -- in a few hours I'm driving up to Boston for my FIRST EVER Fenway Park visit. Yankees at Red Sox. It doesn't get much better than my life right now. I AM HAPPY.
