Ellipses…

Med school bound TNT Coach Steve H. is training for his first triathlon (a half-Ironman! Steve, are you gonna shave your legs?) as a way to raise money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Click here to help him reach his $10,000 goal…. Alan and Shayne Culpepper have opened their running shop in Louisville, CO (of  Boulder County), Solepepper Sports. I’m going to visit Brother & Co. in Lafayette later this month and will stop by…. I love how Olympic marathoner Magdalena “Chewy” Lewy-Boulet won the USA Half-Marathon Championships in Houston; and I like how Andrew Carlson came in fourth (setting a PR; this FloTrak video from after the race also tells about how he’s now coached by Greg McMillan and sponsored by Brooks), less than a minute behind winner Meb Keflezighi (ever since I saw Carlson race in Central Park I’ve been a fan). Crazy though to think that the first place finishers won $12,000 each – that’s about $916 per mile…  The USATF announced that the 2009 Men’s Marathon Championships will be run at the ING New York City Marathon. Excellent, as it will (hopefully) bring some of the best American distance runners to my city in November; and frustrating, as I’ll be running the course with Brother this year and once again missing out on quality spectating….I’m looking forward to this weekend’s Bronx Half-Marathon with excitement and nervousness. It will be my first race since the New York City Marathon, and I don’t expect to PR but I would like to finish with a respectable showing. Still trying to figure out what “respectable” adds up to…. My running buddy from my first season with Team in Training, BS, is training for her first triathlon (are you sensing a trend here, people?) and raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you’re balking at making a donation in these tough economic times, BS argues that “People don’t stop getting cancer when the economy is in a slump.” A sad yet valid point. Click here to help her reach her $3,000 goal…. And, better late than never, I’m linking to Running USA’s 10 Best Moments for U.S Distance Running in 2008. My favorites are #10, #6, and # 2.

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Elipses (Dedicated to John)…

Dinner with John. Craftbar. 

After 30 minutes of acupuncture which left my right hamstring throbbing, I limped four blocks east and met an old friend (who, very conveniently for me, is also my best friend‘s boyfriend) for dinner. Jay Dub, as I like to call him, writes the blog A Special Way of Being Afraid, and is the dude I stole the Elipses post idea from.

He greeted me with, “You look skinnier than usual.” Smart boy. We then proceeded to laugh our entire way through the meal, so that by the end he had me holding my stomach and wiping a tear from my eye. Ever the gentleman, he let me bully him out of half his salad, and point out that his pasta looked like mealworms. I cooed over photos of his adorable nephew, and he assumed an appropriately stricken look when I told him about the distances I’ve been running.

…..Alan Culpepper and his wife will open SolePepper, a running shop in Louisville, CO, the next town over from my brother, this October. I’m so going there when I’m in Colorado this November. Maybe Matt will check it out for the rest of us, and post a report on the DRC? RunColo also has an opinion about the shop…. In this post a few months ago I bravely threw down the gauntlet, and I am happy to report that I’ve successfully transposed the last two digits as of yesterday’s weight-in. Now I have to go buy all new clothes…. Running Times magazine is now reviewing books, and thank god for that. They panned The Runner, and totally called out author David Samuels for general ignorance about the sport. Thank you, RT, for saving me $20 and 5 hours of my life….. and, last but not least, faithful commenter EN sent in a dispatch from Eastern Europe, for which I owe him a beer:

I was 4 miles into a 12 miler today when i found out nike was doing a 1/2 marathon that day in budapest.  i had no money on me so i’d have to bandit but i thought of you and chose not to do it.  instead i ran my 12 miles and cheered for everyone as i ran the other way.

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USA 15k Championships; and Romance

Ask Husband, I spent a good hour online on Saturday trying to figure out how I could watch these races on television on Sunday.  Grumbling the whole time.  Surely it was aired somehow, somewhere, but I failed to google the details. And when I channel-surfed, the only sport that turned up was college basketball.  Ugh, gross.

It would have been a great race to watch, since it was set up in an equalizer format (where the women are given a statistically-determined lead over the men based on average finishing times for the distance, and they then compete against each other to the finish).  This is the second time in a week I’ve read about races set up like this (the other was at the LA Marathon), and would love to spectate such an event one day.

But, I found the results online today, my one break in a 10-hour day (I had lunch at 4:30 PM, okay?).  From what I read, sounds like the men’s race was a sight to see, with Andrew Carlson shaking off Dan Browne (44:21) somewhere in the final 5k to take his first national championship (in 44:12).  My man Brian Sell, despite headlining the lead-in press, didn’t make it to the podium and came in 5th (44:47). Now, most days I’ll tell you I love to root for the underdog, but I wanted Deena to win and was psyched to learn that she took home her 6th championship title in the distance (49:36)–only after giving Carlson the thumbs-up as he passed her to an overall win.

This is the first I’d read about Carlson, and I like him already, based on the quote he gave for Team USA Minnesota’s press release about racing next to Deena:

Then I went into the tunnel toward the finish line and it opened up into a football stadium. There were all these people in the stands cheering. It was a great way to finish. . . You never think you are going to get a chance to duel with an Olympic bronze medalist so that was an interesting race (with the equalizer format).

Now, I imagine not all runners are grounded, and it could be that Carlson is being disingenuous with us via his team’s publicist; but I prefer not to be so cynical. So instead, I say: this is something I love about runners.  Even those who run at the top of their class, and train with the country’s top professional teams, still get a (positive) charge out of the other stars in their sport.  There’s none of that bullshit bluster and posturing I see during the sports news on TV. Or maybe there is; I could be wrong, I’m just a fan watching all this at a great remove.  But, it always seems to me like the elites are generally respectful of each other, even though they compete fiercely with each other.

I’d be a fool to deny that running has its share of doping and rivalries; and probably, if it got more airtime (see above: googling for broadcast info), and prize purses were larger, and more abundantly available, then I suppose the sport’s athletes would more frequently reveal the less savory personality traits we see in pros from other sports.  But for now, I’ll take a little romance with my running, and I’ll wear my rose-colored glasses as I squint into the champions’ glow coming off the podium.

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Title9k, Green Mountain Relay…

Am sure you haven’t noticed that I added two races to my roster on the right, inserted neatly between the Brooklyn and Queens Half-Marathons.

Hoping that two in a row makes it a tradition, I’ve signed up for the Mother’s Day Title9k, to run with my sister-in-law, in Boulder, CO.  Even though their clothes are too matchy-matchy for me, and proportion of workout gear vs street clothes is getting bloated towards the latter, I still think Title9 is (in theory) a great catalog.  In support of their empowering attitude, I am happy to participate in an event they sponsor, especially as it’s a women-only event.  Also, I’ll jump on any excuse to head out to visit Brother, SiL, Niece, and new Nephew.  While there, I could do some skulking about in the hopes of crossing paths with the likes of Alan Culpepper, Constantina Tomescu-Dita, and Matt of the Dump Runenrs Club podcast.  And of course, I think we all can agree how tempting it is to sign up for the same race year after year, in the attemps to best our PR for the course.

Every since my friend AN told me about a relay race she ran with her friends up and down the California coast several years ago, I’ve been jonesing to participate in one myself.  There’s something about the notion of relay that brings me back to high school gym–the few times I actually enjoyed myself, that is.  You see, as a bookworm, there was nothing more joyous in gym class than the moment when I actually passed the baton and got to stop running. And, the older I get the more I surrender to the idea that doing things with a team, or in a group, can in fact be great fun, rather than a trial.  Originally the plan was to form my own team to race the Green Mountain Relay, but the thought of recruiting eleven other runners, renting cars, getting hotels, fronting the registration fees, etc., was enough to make my head pop off.  I organize and lead every waking moment of my life; this time, I’m happy to merely join in. Our team is called “NYC Running Chicks & A Few Dudes” (ain’t it always the way?)* and I’m runner #7 (so I’m running every seventh leg).  this is going to be hard, and exhilirating, and insane, but that’s just the way I like it, after all.  After our bathroom renovation, this Vermont relay race is about the closest I’m going to get to an adventure in 2008, I think.

*Our team still needs four runners. If you’re interested in joining us, let me know!

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