Before I Knew How To Run ...

She could outrun me any day, any place, any time, and it wouldn't even be close.

She could run full-out across 6 soccer fields at sunset while I was still making my way across the first one, and nothing and no one could catch her.

She could literally pull me around the neighborhood - me holding onto the leash like Ben-Hur with white knuckles, struggling to stay upright on my rollerblades, knowing that a single lapse of concentration meant concrete-roadway-face-plant-time, while she loped along casually enjoying the butterflies and flowers.

She could dream of chasing rabbits with the best of them, squeaking and sputtering, stammering and whole-body shuddering in her sleep, while we could only wonder what a grand old time she was having.

Our first baby, before the human kind even showed up, turns 14 tomorrow. In her twilight years, there are no more sprints, the chase is off, there aren't even any more runs. But while she's still with us, she'll always be our baby. Happy Birthday Shari!

Running To Daylight

WARNING: Brag-o-meter set on high ...

Sydney, our youngest at age 4 and destined to forever be the baby in our family, started soccer this year. Playing in a 4/5 girls league, our 4-yr olds were routinely clobbered by veteran 5-yr olds playing in their second season. I'm talking 10-1, 12-0, not-counting-anymore-to-zero thrashings.

This weekend, Sydney decided to have her coming out party. In a double-header, she scored 3 goals in one and 5 goals in a row in the other, and we won both games! In most cases, she simply figured out how to get a jump on everyone else, and out-ran the pack on her way to the goal. That's her being chased by the entire team of 6 blue jerseys, with nothing but green in front of her.

This is the first opportunity she's had to show a focused, organized and sustained run of any reasonable distance. As a Dad and a runner, I couldn't be more proud of my baby! Is it too early to make plans for Boston 2018?

We're All Adult Runners

But some are more adult than others. Anne tells us that "one in five employees currently use company resources to look up porn, gamble online, check on their favorite sports, read personal e-mail, shop on eBay and hook up through an online dating service."

Perhaps they were like me last night, when I had to use the hotel's business computer since I left my laptop charger at work. If you had 3 guesses as to whose RBF blog I was denied entry to because the hotel's content filter slammed it into the "Adult Category", would it be:

1. Runner Susan,
2. Breaking The Tape, or
3. Lick This!

And the winner is ...?

Knee Upgrade to B-

Exactly 2 weeks off since my last run, and I've waited as long as I can to rest my knee. Decided not to pound the pavement, so I tried it out indoors on the hotel treadmill. 3-ish miles at a pedestrian pace and all looks good so far. Yes!

My runner friend and veteran of various marathons and the Hood-to-Coast relay, who has "seen it all" in terms or runner ailments, warned me not to push it too fast too soon. I'll take his advice and ease back into the running slowly.

Another runner friend who is an OBGYN strongly recommended acupunture! This office is so close to my home, I could run there in about 3 minutes. I might give the needles a try just for grins - it can't hurt, can it? Anyone else tried this?

In other news, I've discovered yet some more restaurants in NYC. One is the dubiously named Yum Yum Thai restaurant at 44th and 9th, and right across the street from them is an Indonesian restaurant I tried tonight called Bali Nusa Induh. I thought both were pretty decent. But the piece de resistance discovery was a Malaysian restaurant in Chinatown near Baxter and Canal called Jaya. Extremely spicy! I could've used a towel to dry off after my run ... uh, my meal!

C+ For The Knee, A+ For The Amish!

Tried out the knee this evening, after almost a week off. Decided to take it a little bit cautiously, so I ran only 3 and did it on the hotel treadmill. I started out favoring the left knee a little and could tell my right knee was taking more of a pounding, but after a quick warmup it evened out just fine.

The knee works perfectly when I'm sitting, standing, walking, and now even running. The only thing I can't do yet is put weight on it if I need to go from a stand to a squat, or a squat to a stand (which thankfully is not very often!). I'm going to go with the flow and hope it heals itself. C+ so far on the knee.

After my run I headed out in search of dinner. While I'm here in NYC, I'm trying not to eat at the same place twice, so I can sample as many restaurants and as many cuisines as possible. I'm usually by myself, so I'm not into going to a fancy place for a long sit down affair. I'd rather do take-out and Starbucks, then back to the hotel to check out blogs over dinner!

I discovered a whole slew of restaurants one block over on 9th Ave, and they look more like small neighborhood type places. I had Thai at Pam Real Thai earlier this week; the reviews were great but I thought the food could've been better. After wandering a bit, I stumbled upon Amish Fine Food. What a find! I'm not one to get all excited over a grocery store, but this place had all sorts of interesting stuff I'd never seen before. There were (new to me) energy bars, granola bars, chocolates, candies, cookies, Beefeater flavored tea, biscotti, pizelles, snack mix, dried fruit, jams etc. There was also fresh fruit, cakes, pastries, baklava, sushi, soup and pizza. I ended up getting dinner from the food bar - a Greek salad, grilled salmon with rice pilaf and string beans almondine, and a tub of fresh cut pineapple! I forced myself to not go by the key lime pie and baklava again, but to head to the checkout line instead. I'm definitely going back to sample more of their stuff. A+, even if there's nothing Amish about them - what the hey?

Is TMS For Real?

I finished my RW mag yesterday on the plane. My 4:02p flight from JFK-DFW was finally pushing off at 7:30p (we had to switch planes on the ground after they found an oil leak on the first plane). But now the pilot tells us we're like #19 for takeoff ...

So I'm reading this stuff about TMS and how some forms of pain are not physical but psychological. I wish it wasn't apropos, but I just developed a bum knee this past week, the first time I've ever had anything close to resembling an injury. I ran 6 on Tue, no problem. I ran 6 again on Thu and at the turnaround in Central Park, my left knee started hurting. I managed to make it back to my hotel, but the stairs up and down the subway later were good for a couple of near-miss stumbles!

I'm thinking/hoping it's just a small case of patella tendinitis, and a little rest will do. But does anyone believe this TMS stuff? Somehow I'm not ready to begin deep soul-searching therapy for my knee just yet! What do you think?

If The Snot Runs, You Must Expunge

Running Jayhawk has a great list going on "You know you're a runner if ...". I thought I had heard them all, but she's got some good ones! Go take a look and add your own; my addition is:

"You know you're a runner if you get rid of snot in ways you'd rather die than be seen doing in public, but wtf, if the snot runs ..."

Nothing To Do But Wait

Pressure's on ... I like my lottery chances though. For a variety of reasons, I think 69-28 is a lucky number ;)

Da Cleaner Can Still Learn

Having missed my run last week due to unscheduled events, I had visions of dirty pipes filling up with remnants of previous "bulking up" dinners that never got burned off. Gross! So I decided it was time for Da Cleaner to make an appearance, and this morning I set off to repeat my long run to the in-law's house.

I like to carry as little as possible when I run, so it was an exception for me to have 1 GU, 1 chapstick, and $2 in my pocket when I left. My plan was to run for an hour, buy some water for the GU, and then finish the rest of the run. I took a different route this time, mostly going south on Preston Road from Plano to Dallas, which will take me to about a mile from the in-law's house.

I had on long pants, a long sleeved tech shirt and gloves, and it felt just right. At 1:09, I reached Preston and Belt Line, and stopped at a gas station to buy some water. Turns out the smallest they have is a 20 oz bottle for $1.09. Argh! I didn't really didn't want to carry around that big of a bottle, and I certainly didn't want to jingle on with 0.81 cents in change! So I passed on the gas station and went into a Subway to ask for a cup of water. No problem, they said. So with GU and 1/2 cup of water down, I took off again.

Just a little farther down, I came to Preston and LBJ. Ya Bub, this is Texas. LBJ is actually I-635, 10 lanes across. I walked across the Preston overpass to the south side, and stopped to wait for traffic. It's then that I noticed a man standing in the median at the light. He had on blue overalls and a black t-shirt. His hair was gray, as was his full beard. He stood stooped over one crutch for support, with his wheelchair beside him. He must have been about 60+.

If I had been driving, I would've noticed him, but driven on. Standing here on the side of the road, there was no question. I took my gloves off, waited for the light to turn red, crossed over to the median, and put $2 in his hands. Up close, I could tell his eyesight wasn't too good, but his face lit up and he thanked me profusely. I didn't know what else to say, so I said "take care of yourself", patted him on the back, and crossed back over.

I started running again, and 20 steps later I glanced over my shoulder. He was looking at me and raised his hand to wave. I waved back, and kept on trucking. The rest of the run felt really good. This chance encounter and his little gesture to me gave me a better lift than any GU I've had. I owe him my 11.5 miles and 1:42:28.

I had a hearty dinner tonight in preparation for an early morning run tomorrow - and other useless plans

I had a hearty dinner tonight in preparation for an early morning run tomorrow. If I don't make the run, you can blame my unscheduled (de)tour sometime between the end of dinner and the arrival at my hotel ...

I knocked off work at 7:00p, and A. and I headed to Chinatown for dinner. Took the subway, R line uptown, same one I usually take back to the hotel, except that we got off after a few stops at Canal Street. Dinner was Malaysian food at Nyonya, spicy, pretty authentic - I think it's the best in Chinatown. So far so good.

After dinner, A. and I split up and I headed back to the subway station the catch the same R line uptown train. There are several lines that converge in Chinatown, and the last time I did this, I went in the wrong entrance and ended up wandering about for way too long trying to find the right platform. So this time I was determined to just go back down the same entrance I came out of earlier.

Bad move #1:

Well, I thought I was going down the same entrance from earlier. I was talking to S. to tell her all the shops in Chinatown were closed (so, sorry - the $785 LV bag will have to wait - hello? $785 ? can any bag be worth that much? like the chimney sweeps on the FedEx commercial, the right answer is "course not, don't be silly! a ha ha ha ha ha, a ha ha ha ha ha!", so anywho ... ), when the train comes, it has a big 'ol "R" on the side, and I get on. Bad move.

After a grand total of a week and 3 days back in this city, I'm thinking I'm ready to act cool like a native, not like a visitor, and definitely not like a tourist, which naturally leads to only one thing ...

Bad move #2:

Acting like I'm cool and don't have to look-out-the-window-at-every-stop-to-see-where-the-hell-I-am, I'm reading my USA Today instead. The trip is at least 15 mins anyway. Bad move. One sports section and one business section later, I look up and the next station doesn't look familiar. We should be approaching the numbered streets by now, but instead I see a named street, then another, and now I'm starting to think I'm on the wrong train. The next station is another named street, DeKalb, so I get off intending to catch another train going back the other direction. But on the platform, I look back at the same train, and it does have a big "R" on it, so I'm thinking maybe I did catch the right train after all, which naturally leads to ...

Bad move #3:

I get back on the same damn train. Yup, bad move. Forget cool, I'm looking at every station we come to now, hoping for a glimpse of something familiar. In hindsight, I suppose I could've looked at the big subway map on the inside side of the train, but people, the thought never crossed my mind because that would've been a new low in the world of un-cool and violated every male sense-of-direction bone in my body, amen brother! After a few minutes, my patience was rewarded and we started hitting the numbered streets. In a few more stops, we'd be at my 49th St. exit, and I'd be home free! Yes!

Er, no:

Well, 45th St. comes, and 49th doesn't, and then we pull into 53rd, so I get the hell off. I walk up to the street level, and immediately notice a few things:

1. It's quiet

2. It's dark

3. There nothing over 2 storeys tall.

I'm at 53rd and 4th ave, but this sure doesn't look anywhere close to my hotel at 49th and 8th ave. You would think a monstrosity like Times Square could not stay hidden behind all these 2-storey buildings, but my highly developed logical and analytical mind would not let me believe it without seeing it, which for good measure, leads to:

Bad move #4:

I start walking. Hey, I'm a runner, if s*it hits the fan I can always start running right? So I first go to 49th and 4th ave. Then to 49th and 7th ave. Ok, this ain't it. Brownstones everywhere. Duh. I head back to the station, making a big rectangular route. There's not a single sign to tell me where I am, until I'm almost back at the station, and one tiny restaurant sign says ... Brooklyn. I'd taken the R train going the wrong way.

I get back to the station, go downstairs, and am pretty sure I'm on the right platform headed back to Manhattan, when these thoughts go through my mind:

• So I have to run here for the NY marathon? This isn't exactly how I envisioned triumphantly entering Brooklyn for the first time.
• Man, those are some BIG-ASS rats! I wonder how something that big can squeeze under a door in such small a space.
• I could've been blogging by now!
• Dude - you're in a s*it load more trouble than you think you are - no, not me! this is to the guy who comes up to me and says "excuse me, is this the train for Manhattan?" - can you imagine that - I'm probably the only lost person for miles around and this dude picks me!

Recovery:

I finally get the R train going the right way this time, and head back towards Manhattan. Lost Dude is on the train as well, subway map unfolded in his hands, actively scanning every tile, every sign, every wall space at each stop we come to. Pfphhhhpt! Looks like a bloody lost tourist! After 3 stops, Lost Dude panics and gets off the train, map still in hand and still unfolded! We're still in Brooklyn. Sucks to be him.

I get off in midtown at my stop, and man was it nice to be back in "civilization". People, cars, lights everywhere. I grab a Starbucks on the walk to the hotel, and run into the crowd just coming out from Sweeney Todd on Broadway. I've never heard of it before, but I'm not much of a theatre person. Across the street is where Chicago is playing, which if Catherine Zeta-Jones were to pay a visit, I'd be there ... if I don't get lost walking the half block over.