Anyone for tennis?

So, I guess I'm 40 now! We couldn't really afford to go out to a steakhouse like we planned so instead we bought $40 of good meat and had a meatfest at home. We just failed in polishing the whole lot of in one go :(

NY Strip x2 & Boneless Rib

Then midweek, we were back on the concert trail with a good gig on Wednesday. Heather's favourites Mumford & Sons were back in NY and were at a new location for us, the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens.

We'd read about the venue when we managed to get the tickets and it was also in the news in the run up to the concert as it apparently hosted the U.S. Open tennis until 1978 and had hosted concerts before by such famous folk as Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles and the Stones.

Despite them still using the rest of the tennis courts and surrounding country club the main stadium which is 90 years old had been derelict and falling into disrepair. Mumfords helped a local promoter reboot it as a concert venue and this was the first gig here for more than 20 years but with the promise of more to come in the next couple of years.

The gig was sold out with nearly 17,000 people cramming into the place. There were some first gig teething problems including a near 40minute wait in the pizza line. A wood fired oven pizza truck though so it was worth the wait…. I think.
The gates opened at 5pm and I had to reschedule my work days so we could leave around 3.30pm to get there just after 5pm. Just as well, as the main problem seemed to be a lot of late arrivals who couldn't get into the venue.

Like most things in NY, a lot of people show up just after it starts but this time there was nowhere for them to go once they started to come up the stairways so it provided a slight distraction as we watched them argue with security who wouldn't let them up the last few stairs as there was literally no space to be filled. Indeed, they were telling people that if you left you wouldn't get back up. This was also causing some problems for the people who can't go 15 mins without a beer!
It did calm down slightly near the end but only cause people must've gone elsewhere.

Always spot the Scot from afar!

Not really a bad view in the place, could be a good venue to go back to for sure. Most importantly of course it was just a 5 minute walk to the train and apart from the hour trip involved no transfers! Hopefully they get some good performers next year.

I'm off Labor Day Monday, don't know what it is but I'll take it. I think it signifies the end of summer here, the school holidays are over.

My last...

Last Saturday morning I once again trekked up to Van Cortland Park in the Bronx to take part in a 10K cross country or as I said in previous posts, "cross-country".
I might not have bothered if I hadn't already entered as on Friday night when I checked the weekend train situation I found out the 1 train you take all the way up to the park at 242nd street stopped running at 225th. So it meant getting the F, switching to the A train up to 207th and taking a shuttle bus to take you up to 242nd. It sounded like an awful hassle at that time of the morning but they do have people outside the stations and plenty signs on display inside the station so it actually went really smoothly considering I don't know where I am up there. Took about 1hour 45mins in total.
On the return journey they were politely shouting at people that there were no trains today and a bystander jokingly shouted "welcome to new york" and they laughed.

So this was my last ever race as an under 40! Hopefully if I can find a small enough event and be lucky in who turns up maybe I can pick up a prize for over 40 age grouper, ha ha. Doubtful as the small races don't seem to do more than one prize and the larger races obviously have hundreds of top quality runners.

The course is all on gravel paths but was a really good two loops, with a slightly different hill on the second loop. Around 420ft of climb in total and as they said at the start, if this is your first 10K then errr, good luck with that. A show of hands showed that for about 3/4 of the field this was their first time running up in Van Cortland Park. As I said before, if it ain't Central Park then a lot of regular runners don't bother with the trip into unknown territory. A glance around at the starting line up showed it was indeed a smaller field.

I've been doing some good rep sessions for the last few weeks and the weather has improved to just sunny hot mid to high 20's rather than humid so I've managed to pick the pace up in training. I was about 8th going round the bottom of the field after about 300m so that felt good for a change to be so high up in the race.

I ran it hard, and again used my downhill experience, to come in 7th overall! 4th 30-39 age grouper, damn common age. There were only 130 finishers, gotta be one of the smallest races in NY, although I think there was a few non-finishers too as it was quite warm and pretty tough going for a newbie.

Whatever my next race is will be my first as a 40+er, used to think a Vet (40+) sounded really old, ha ha.

On the way back home I stopped off at the British store in the West Village to restock on Salad Cream and I'd had a craving for some black pudding. I ended up coming away with a couple of packets of Angel Delight. Stuff that I wouldn't buy back in Scotland but it must be a nostalgia thing, and very nice it was too. Then I walked round the corner to try a little place that sold shave ice like we'd had in Hawaii. Unfortunately it wasn't of the same quality as the originals, but after a race on a hot day it was very cooling.

Coconut & Pineapple

My first.......

With everything that's on offer in New York it's easy to discover new things or experience your first ever..... even after living here for 15 months and visiting for a few years before that.
So basically last week I had my first ever New York City bike accident! Ha ha.

Unfortunately it's not just the horrendously bad drivers you have to watch out for, nor the pedestrians blindly oblivious to everything but you also have to watch for other cyclists.
For example I've learned the phrase "bike salmoning" where someone cycles the wrong way down a bike lane as a lot are on the one-way streets.

Like most accidents here, this one was more just a lack of common sense.
After I cross the Manhattan Bridge from Brooklyn on my way to work I go an extra 1/2 mile out of my way so I can use the supposedly safer protected bike lane on Allen Street.

It is segregated from the road, apart form the crossings, and has little pedestrian areas every so often.

So I'm coming up behind a girl on a bike and as we approach the wide pedestrian area I decide that would be a good area to overtake, but just as I'm alongside her she decides now would be a good time to turn 90 degrees to her left and cycle across the pedestrian area with not so much as a glance, never mind behind, not even to the side.... straight into me.

Luckily we were both okay but as I'm clipped to the bike and had both bikes on top of me as I fell to the ground I came away with the cuts and grazes. A couple of friendly pedestrians as if we were okay and offered me some napkins when they noticed before I did that I had blood running down my calf.
I've been angry with drivers before, in some close incidences but never had anything close with another cyclist before but I was polite and checked she was okay. A couple of people at work said how they would have shouted abuse at her.

5 days later

I was only 5 mins from work and luckily we have the bike shop there so they tidied up my bike (free of charge), truing the wheels and replacing a bent skewer, so my bike was all good to ride home later.
Although they did remark that my brakes were the wrong way round, ha ha. I made sure when I bought the bike they reversed the normal US brakes, what with everything being back to front here.