Cheering station for the American Cancer Society on the boardwaylk

In what could be misconstrued as a cruel drive to see her man break under pressure, my woman signed me up for yet another running race. Although this race was only 3 miles more than the previous one she’d signed me up for, those 3 miles plus the word “marathon” in the title had me dreading this challenge up to the second I found myself in a mass of over 11,000 runners and the starting horn blew.

That said,  a big chunk of the course was on my home turf, so 1.5 times around Prospect Park was no big deal. A nice bonus was running with my woman and her friend which made it feel more casual. Then it was off to Ocean Parkway for the last half of the race and that’s a pretty straight shot with an easy grade. The final bit on the actual Coney Island boardwalk was a little rough with runners tripping and falling all around me on the uneven wooden deck, but somehow I managed.

In the end, NYRR Half-Marathon Grand Prix Presented by Continental Airlines: Brooklyn was a tough challenge and a great experience. My official time: 2:05.

I should remember to keep running as it usually makes me feel great.

(photo by: mason13a)

Got to 100 miles this morning with Nike+.

I should remember to run more often…

Whether for genuine encouragement or simply to torture me, my woman signed me up last month for the Cherry Tree 10 Mile – Race for the Hardcore which I took part in this morning. Being only my second race since starting to run last Summer and since it was twice as long as my previous race, I was very nervous going into today. I genuinly was afriad I wouldn’t finish. Thankfully, I did and with a decent time at that—approximately 1:27.

Unfortunately, my uncalibrated Nike+ didn’t return the correct distance. Oh well…

I should remember to keep running as it makes me feel fantastic.

Update: Looks like someone caught me in their shot, but still no official times posted…

I guess it had to happen eventually… Since I started running this Summer (though sporadically), I was bound to run in an official event. And with my woman being the woman she is, she was bound to sign me up for one sooner rather than later.

That’s how I found myself among a couple friends and quite a large crowd of folks in Prospect Park this morning getting ready to run 5 miles.

I have to admit, the Turkey Trot was a lot of fun. I finished in around 39 minutes and hopefully I’ll remember to do something like it again… although I imagine my woman will remember for me in case I forget.

Update: Turns out I finished 258th out of 1288 runners! Pretty good for my first race, I think. Official time was 39:41.83 with a pace of 07:56.4.

After just getting Nike+ and 5 runs using Nike+, I decided I could complete a full 10k and be a part of the Nike+ global Human Race event… What the hell was I thinking!?

Anyway, I did complete it, although it was extremely difficult.

I should remember to try to work up to these types of things sometimes…

After years of thinking I would never get into running, I’ve joined the whole Nike+ movement. I don’t know what happened. I started running a little at first. Just a hit on vacation. Then, last year, during the Summer, I socially ran with my woman on occasion, but I never craved it… Now, I dunno… I get urges…

I just need to remember to actually get better as evidenced by my second Nike+ enabled run: