Careful reader of Pigtails may have noticed I took off Thursday and Friday. I don’t usually go for two days off in a row, but I was still so tired yesterday I decided I needed sleep more than I needed five miles. After I slept like royalty last night (from 11pm until 10am), I got up, spent some quality time with my roller stick, strapped on my fuel belt, and headed through the 86-degree weather into the city to run a few laps with my coach as he celebrated his 41st birthday by completing 41 upper loops of Central Park.
By the time I made it to the 102nd Street Transverse, Ramon had just left on his 32nd lap. I chatted with some old TNT buddies (hey PS and SR!) and then caught Coach as he came around for his 33rd lap. I recognized a bunch of old teammates in the little pack that surrounded him, and latched on. After shouting my greeting, I was flattered to realize EN had adopted my look, and was running with his flowing locks tied up twice. (He’s growing it for Locks of Love.)
Now, I know my coach is a wicked fast runner, who has run qualifying times for both Boston and New York more times than I could guess. But, I figured I had a chance of keeping up with him since he’d already ran 45 miles, and me, just 5.6. Uh, yeah. His pace was still faster than a chat pace for me. And do you people realize that he ran that hill at the top of the park 41 times that day? I am in awe.
My plan had been to run back from the park as well, thus getting in something over 12 miles for the day. But I was all out of fluids by the time I finished my two laps with Ramon, and frankly, was not looking forward to the heat that surely awaited me on the 59th Street Bridge, so I bummed a ride home with SR.
Click here to bring Ramon closer to his $75,000 goal on behalf of Team in Training, to fund the discovery of a cure for all kinds of blood cancers.
Have been geraing up for the Olympic T&F Trials in Eugene, OR — I mean, as a spectator! — and was thrilled to hear Kara Goucher made her Olympic “A Standard” Time. Click here for the Trials site.
Ramon is amazing!!!
Yay, I got a shoutout!!
[...] 21, 2008 by TK I haven’t seen EN since I ran with him at Ramon’s birthday run, and in the meantime all sorts of things have happened to us; most notably, he cut his hair for [...]
[...] knowing there will be a lot of friendly faces out on the course, I am sure I’ll also see my dear old TNT coaches, [...]
[...] Coach Ramon (it was excellent to catch up with him) led us on a 40-minute run from the New York Running Company store (at Third Avenue and 63rd Street; this new location is gorgeous) over the Queensborough Bridge and back. It was strange to be there with a massive group, but not unpleasant. I was scheduled to run 3 for recovery (after Tuesday’s hills and Wednesday’s tempo my legs were feeling a bit battered), so I turned around before the rest of the gang. [...]
[...] trying to Go, my hips were basically like, “You’re joking, right? Good one!” When Coach Ramon spotted me with half a mile to go, his demeanor totally changed from Big Cheer Machine to Soft [...]
[...] me, Ramon, the coach with the accent, remember me? You better say a big YES or huge SI!! I am at it again!! [...]
[...] 23, 2009 by TK My first season of Team in Training, Coach Ramon spooked us all with his talk of the tough cycle of hill workouts we would have right before our long [...]
[...] the same running club as JPM, my buddy from the Millrose Games; ES and SS both know EN; I actually ran with ES last summer.) Being a runner in NYC is a bit like being a blood vessel–you spend a lot of time [...]