A 5k a Month

Now that I'm running on a consistent basis (~20 miles per week), I've tried a couple 5ks. The first, back in April, was the JFK Runway Run. My unofficial time of 30:20 was disappointing -- I'd set sub-30 as my goal.




That's me behind the girl in the pink sweater. That she's walking should've been a sign that I was not moving quickly.


An 'action' shot. I believe runners call what I'm doing here "shuffling." The other guy in the picture spent the entire race taking pictures. And he finished before me.




At least I finished hard . . . I had been ~100 yards behind the guy in the yellow as we hit the final turn.

One month and 60 miles of training later, I ran the NYPD Memorial 5k in Battery Park. With 1156 finishers, it was a big race. Using my stopwatch time (because it took a minute to get to the actual starting line), I finished in a respectable 27:29 and easily surpassed both my official goal of sub-30 and my unofficial hope that I'd finish under 28.





I started out well back, even behind more walkers than I care to remember. The perk to the crowd was that I couldn't start out too fast. By the time the crowd thinned a little, I was already one mile into the race.

Unfortunately, I finished in a crowd and my finisher picture only captured my sleeve:



(That's my sleeve/shoulder on the right, behind the man in the white t-shirt.)

One of the perks to running in New York is that you get to see celebrities every so often. My first racing celebrity is Kathryn Erbe.

I spotted her while awaiting the pre-race ceremony standing within 10 feet of me. But I didn't recognize her until I saw someone go up and ask her for a picture. She seemed really friendly and approachable. And I'm a big fan of two of her movies: What About Bob? and Mighty Ducks 2. But I make it a rule not to strike up conversation with a stranger unless I've got something important to say. And the world's no worse off for my not saying, "My wife thinks your character on Law & Order: CI should get to solve things and not just ooh and aah when your partner figures it out."

Next up, the Shelter Island 10k. Allegedly, I 'could' run it in ~57 minutes. I've set my goal at sub-60. At the very least, I'd like to improve on a poor Running of the Bulls 10k in 2004 when I was so near last place that I risked being chased across the finish line by a guy in a bull costume. As of right now, Ann's planning on watching this one so I'll have to try and put on a good show.

Unwigged and Unplugged

Shearer, McKean and Guest performing "Stonehenge"

Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer singing music from This is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman.

Should I be slightly upset that they did not play "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight." Does that mean I'm not a hard-core fan???? Their final encore song was "Heavy Duty."

Feeling Like a Runner

My high school math teacher (I had several, but I really only remember the one who I constantly clashed with) was a runner and one of his favorite quotations to our track-heavy math class was something along the lines of, "I love running in the rain because I know that my competition isn't." In the many years since I first hung up my Brooks shoes, running in the rain became my litmus test for knowing whether I was a runner again. Every other year, I'd start running again and invariably the first inclement day would arrive, I'd skip my run, and that would be the end of it.

Last Friday and today, I found myself heading out into the rain to run because I had a run scheduled and didn't want to miss it. And now, two months after first lacing up my Brooks shoes, I finally feel like a runner. It's one of those accomplishments in life where you don't have a medal (or anything really to remember it by) but somehow you know it'll stick in your memory.

Update

Ann's been hounding me to post on our blog for a while; she's been keeping this blog alive. Figure today's as good a day as any to make a contribution to this site. And the only thing I'm really doing now is trying to get in shape, so thought I'd update everyone on how that's going.

Since Christmas Day, I've been using WiiFit every day -- haven't missed even one day since then. (This is much easier to do when you don't make out of town trips.) My WiiFit usage waned -- I started off doing the full Body Test (calculating BMI, weight, and WiiFit Age) and some exercises as well. Now, I just do the BMI & weight and call it a day. The WiiFit Age just didn't show a real correlation to how I felt I was performing and seemed to be largely based on luck.

Instead of doing WiiFit exercises, I've been using the Push-Up Pro, the Iron Gym, and running. I've been pleased with both my As Seen on TV purchases -- both work exactly as described. The Push-Up Pro really embarassed me; it makes pushups noticeably more difficult. And I'm just thankful that the Iron Gym hasn't damaged the door or paint in our apartment. In the past couple months, neither has been relegated to the stack of unused fitness equipment which currently consists of my exercise ball, a tennis racket, and a softball glove.

My big personal fitness accomplishment is that I've started running again. After going out way too hard on my first run (and getting the predictable shin splints in both legs requiring 2 weeks off), I've been more gradually building up my distances. Already met my first goal -- running 5k nonstop -- and now on to running a 5k in less than 30 minutes. (I've got about 4 weeks to shave 3 minutes off.)

Coupled with my new diet (no pop, limited fast food, lots of water, fruit, veggies, and enough carbs to keep me happy), I've been losing weight at a fairly decent pace, 10% of my starting weight. It's not Biggest Loser-worthy, but I'm proud of it.

And that's what I've been doing for the past three months. Not the only thing, but sometimes it feels like it.

P.S. On a completely different subject, I just discovered "Hell is for Heroes," a Steve McQueen war movie. Honestly one of the best ones I've ever seen and I'd never even heard of it before seeing it on Turner Classic Movies recently. I don't think many of our readers are fans of the genre, but if you are you must check it out.