I managed to avoid all the media insanity today, I also promised myself that I would not rant about what this day might mean to me.

So, instead, I'll rant about how disappointed I am about not getting an official time for yesterday's 5k. I'm new to this running thing, so when I registered for a 5k that claimed to be digitally timed, I expected to get a reading of my time from start to finish that did not care where in the pack I started. I heard the thing beep when the digital chip they gave me to attach to my sneaker crossed the start of the race, and spent the past day eagerly awaiting the results.

To my surprise, it turns out that the folks that organized the race are unable to give me anything but the time from the start gun to my finish. I hate when things happen that make me regret being polite. If I had stood my ground and use my elbows to keep in the middle of the start pack, I'd have a much more accurate idea of how fast I ran. Oh well, next time I know to ask for details about how a race is timed, will they be giving start to finish results for each runner or only "gun times."

It's also frustrating to not be able to compare myself to the other runners. I'm pretty sure that the person ahead of me in the age-group finish order, and a few folks in the overall finish order ran a slower race than I did, but more than finish order, I really just wanted an accurate time on my own race. However, even with having given everyone ahead of me in the race a 2 - 30 second head start, I finished 57th out of 138 runners, so I'll just be happy about that.

today's photos:

an animation of Farfel chasing his tail

 

we're #2?

Well, I did it. 4 months of training and I just completed my first 5k race. This seemed completely impossible when I started. Running for 3 minutes seemed like insanity.

The East River Park 5k was a great experience. The formal name of the race was the Continental Breakfast East River Park 5k, and as promised they had a nice assortment of bagels, donuts, fruit and drinks for us after the race.

The DIY feel of the NYC Runs crew that ran the race created a very low-key atmosphere that I liked. There were some impressive runners in the pack but nothing like the intimidating array of world-class runners that I would have run against at the Percy Sutton 5k that got canceled. The second place woman in today's race shamed us all by not only running in an amazing time but also juggling 3 balls the entire race.

I met all my goals: I finished the race pretty clearly in the middle of the pack, I avoided injury, and my unofficial time from my watch was 26:54 ( a pace of 8min 39 second per mile!). When the official times are posted, I hope that goes down by at a bit. Either way, it's my personal best for 5k. The runners world age-grade calculator http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/agegradingcalculator/0,7977,s6-238-277-4... puts me at the 52.7th percentile in my age group. That's very cool.

Today's photos:

It's been about 4 months since I started the Couch to 5k training program. My first attempt at running a 5k race (the Percy Sutton, Harlem 5k) got rained out by hurricane Irene, so I registered for a smaller, less organized run much closer to home.

Tomorrow is the East River Park 5k. I have no idea how large the race will be or how much of a home course advantage I will have.

I have a few goals for tomorrow:
1, finish the race;
2, don't be the last one to finish the race;
3, finish the race in under 27 minutes;
4, make it through without hurting myself.

I've got two photos today, first is my pre-race dinner.

A mostly organic pasta salad with yellow peppers, tomatoes, onion, parsley, black olives, cucumbers and garlic -- in a fake mayo made from silken tofu, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and some tomato-tahini salad dressing. YUM!

and for today's trashblog photo, an assortment of rubber gloves on 3rd street

today's photos are of a discarded mirror on 4th street