In contrast to the past few weeks, this one has seemed to drag on FOREVER. But it will soon be a happy memory, being that today is Friday. It actually feels like I got the weekend started last night, since I covered two events that were both pretty fun. My favorite of the two, was the preview party for new Chrome store [above], which opens Saturday.
The weather is supposed to be awesome, this weekend. It should be ideal for our long runs on Saturday. In addition to running and visiting Piper, we have a few extra items of fun slated for the weekend. Tomorrow and Sunday is the Gatsby Festival at Governor’s Island. I’m hoping that we can make it down there for that. Also this weekend, is the second of only two MotoGP races that occur on American soil each year. The GP riders will be fighting it out at the brick yard. I have to admit though, with Rossi’s injury, and Stoner’s apparent ineptitude, It hasn’t been much fun to watch Lorenzo run away with the title this year. Just the same, it will be fun to watch Hayden and the other American riders go for broke on their home turf. I’m getting ahead of myself for a minute, but I am also very excited about Rossi’s new contract with Ducati. Sounds like a match made it heaven. Italy’s hero piloting Italy’s flagship.
I’m also excited because this is the last weekend in 2010 without college football. I’m sure that I have told this story before. But, here it is again. Once, several years ago, about this same time of year, I was feeling kind of bummed out because the summer was over. I was in college, living with my parents and dreading going back to class for fall semester. I was expressing my dismay to my mom one night and she told me “Jake, that is why God gave us college football. So we have something to look forward to.” Such a wise woman. Since I have never been a BYU or Notre Dame fan, I wasn’t used to hearing the words “God” and “Football” in the same sentence. But the way she contextualized it, I had to agree Ma B. Utah’s first game is next Thursday against Pitt. Getting ahead of myself again, I can’t wait to see how the U of U does next year as a member of the Pac10.
I know it was only 3 miles, but it was really hot and I had to fight traffic HARD at the beginning, since it was a free for all (no pace chutes). 6’24″ pace is 5 seconds per mile, better than my previously recorded official NYRR time. Progress feels good. 3 girls still finished ahead of me. I’m ok with that.
The only official item that we have calendared for this weekend is a race that Reagan is running. It is the NYRR Mini 10K. It is a Women’s-only race that dates back to the 70′s– and “mini” refers to the miniskirts that were popular during the era. The race is Saturday morning. If it wasn’t exciting enough that Reagan was running, so is Kara Goucher and Paula Radcliffe. Still not exciting enough? They are both pregnant (Reagan is not pregnant, hehe).
Besides the Mini 10k, I’m sure that we will find some fun stuff to do this weekend. Most likely there will be some World Cup viewing in the mix. I have seen a lot of cool promotional stuff leading up to this year’s iteration of the World Cup. But my favorite, by far is the t-shirt below:
When your team scores a goal, pull your shirt over your head, and this is what you get. Pure genius, if you ask me (via). Even though the matches officially kick off today, for me the World Cup doesn’t really start until Brazil plays it’s first match. It’s so crazy that they have a new Ronaldinho, from when I was living there in 1999. Maybe for the next world cup they can have a new Pele. Hahahaha.
While we are on the subject of cool stuff that I have seen recently– I discovered a photographer today whose work completely blew me away. His name is Nadav Kander. Here is one of his images from the series: “Yangtze, The Long River.”
It was a beautiful day to be in New York, Saturday. The weather was absolutely perfect. Reagan and I headed upstate early with some of our friends, to climb at this place that we discovered last year. It was Reagan’s first time climbing outside of a gym. She put on a very impressive display of natural ability.
It is kind of crazy how close we are to the tracks. There was kind of a lot of train traffic today, too. We were only on the wall for a few hours and in that span 3 trains came through. As loud as it was, it made for some cool shots. Hehe.
Hi, this is two posts in a row with the word “running” in the title. This one, however, unlike the previous one, is actually about running. A couple of weeks ago, I was commenting on how much I would like to get back into a routine of running. I’m happy to report, that I have been doing pretty well (with the exception of a few days of monsoon). If you look at my track record, I have been pretty consistent since about the middle of March, even if it is just a quick 3 or 4 miles. I have been feeling better, too. Not so stiff, etc. Hopefully I will be able to continue the same way.
Our running club had its second club points race last Saturday (check out my hair, hahaha). Reagan was feeling sick, so she ended up sitting that race out. I had a pretty good race though. The weather was beautiful. It was actually a bit on the warm side. I was pretty happy with my time:
Distance: 6.2 Miles, 10.0 Kilometers
Date/Time: April 3, 2010, 10:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 52 Deg. 80% Hum. Clear.
Total Finishers: Men – 4072 Women – 3722 Total – 7794
Hopefully, I can make some progress this year.
Here is my disclaimer: Reagan tells me that sometimes when I talk/write about running, it seems like I’m bragging. So, just to be clear, I would like to say: Although, I like to get a little bit competitive, I realize I am a very average runner. If anything, the competitive aspect is only to keep it interesting (for me), and to measure personal progress.
Yesterday, Reagan posted about our snowshoeing adventures, that we had during our jaunt to UT. It reminded me that we had a few minutes of some random video footage from that day, that I hadn’t even uploaded yet. So, if you like shaky camerawork and cute girls frolicking in the snow, then you may enjoy this vid.
Saturday was the first race of 2010 for me. It was a good one to start out the year with, since the weather was beautiful and it was for a good cause (run for Haiti). It was also pretty cool, because it was the first race that our new team “New York Running Club” was listed correctly on the roster/results.
I tried to charge my Nike+ sportband the night before, only to find that it was malfunctioning, again. The display looked like some sort of alien language. Reagan was kind enough to let me borrow hers, since she was sitting this one out. I will be sending it back on Monday Grrrr. The Central Park Races are normally capped at 5000 runners. But since it was for a charity (I guess), they doubled the cap and let 10,000 participants run. It was crrraaazyy. I wasn’t expecting such a crowd, so I showed up at the 9th hour and barely made it starting grid before the gun. As a result, I was way in the back and had no real chance of making it through the pack enough to get a good time. It was ok, though. My friend Mike ran with me, and we just had a relaxing race, and chatted the whole time. It also made me totally pumped for the upcoming running season and nice weather. Woo hoo!
Our Alaska/Hofstra friends also came to visit us, this weekend. Reagan and I pretty much just tagged a long with them through the village to various thrift stores, before hitting Broadway, in SoHo (pretty much Reagan’s dream day). It was a pretty good time, even for me.
I have been so freaking bad at running, lately. I haven’t done any running in almost a month. True, Piper has been sick, and I have been sick. But, even when I didn’t have an excuse, I have been extremely bad at keeping with a routine, for this entire winter. Hopefully that will all change, now. Monday, I registered Reagan and myself for this year’s New York City Marathon, in November. We gained automatic entry through the 9+1 program. I have to admit, that the motivation meter was going up a little, just being on the NYRR site, putting in my info.
In addition to running the NYC Marathon, this year. we have also started a club. When I say “we,” I should say Becca. She did almost all of the work. It should be really good for getting in some group runs. Nothing like a little healthy competition, for a pick-me-up. BTW, if you want to be in the club, and are not already on the email list, hit me up. Since we were able to Recruit Carl, I’m pretty sure that we will have the club points championship pretty much in the bag. But, if you would like to be a part of Carl’s entourage, we are currently still recruiting. As of Monday, our name is now officially showing up on the “affiliations” drop down, on the NYRR registration screen. At least it is, if you are registering for the Marathon .
This may sound totally dumb, but, after having so much fun shooting last year’s race, I’m kind of bummed that I can do it again this year. I’m a nerd, I know.
Reagan and I have been working all year long to gain guaranteed entry to next year’s New York City Marathon. We have been doing the NYRR 9+1 program. We have had all of our races (plus a few extra) finished for quite some time now. But when we got online to sign up to volunteer, everything was booked except for the last two races of the year. Good thing that we didn’t procrastinate any longer than we did.
Reagan and I woke up at 5:30 on Saturday, so that we could be in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, by 7:30. It was a gorgeous day. The temperature was in the low 20’s but it didn’t feel that cold, because we were bathing in sunlight. The photo above is of Reagan dancing to Madonna’s “Holiday,” which was playing through the PA. So, it is official now. We will be running in Nov. 2010. We also had that chance to talk to another volunteer, who was near us, who has run NYC and Chicago for like the last 15 years straight. He said that they are spread almost perfectly apart. We have wanted to run Chi town for a while now. We are debating possibly doing both of them next year.
In Piper news, the date that she is scheduled to move back to NJ, has now been pushed from Tuesday to Thursday. We took advantage and had a super long and fun visit with her today. She is a clapping and smiling fool, these days. It is really fun to goof around with her and watch her smile and make little squeaks, like she is trying to laugh.
Reagan told me that on Friday, she was clapping Piper’s hands together, and when she stopped Piper kept clapping by herself. I couldn’t wait to see it for myself. To my amazement, I had her bouncing on my knee, clapping her hands, and she totally kept going, when I took my hands away. I was busting up laughing. One of the cutest things I have seen. It is especially cute the way she turns around and looks at me for approval afterward. We took some video today, that I’m hoping to get posted at some point. Anyway, I have rambled too long. Below, is a shot of Piper being so patient while Reagan works on her hair.
![New York City Marathon 2009 [shotbyjake.com]](http://www.jakesnewblog.com/wp-content/gallery/2010/feb/nyc-marathon-2009-5676.jpg "New York City Marathon 2009 [shotbyjake.com]")
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