Banksy

Just a quick post to say that I seen the Banksy truck!
Banksy is doing this whole one piece per day thing around New York for the month of October. It's been mainly graffiti but he did this really funny and slightly scary "Sirens of the lambs" thing where he put stuffed animals in a slaughterhouse truck driven around town by "the farmer".

The video is so funny especially the kids reactions to the freaky sounding animals.



On one of my breaks at work I was standing at our front door getting cell phone service and some fresh air and I just happened to look up as the truck was passing. Of course the lights were green and by the time I got the camera to pop up on the phone it was away round the corner.

This is what it really looks like close-up:

 
It sent me back downstairs with a big smile on my face. I guess if you live in New York you shouldn't bury your head in your phone all the time as you miss all the cool stuff passing by.

Midnight at the pop-up shop

In celebration of the release of the new Pearl Jam album Heather and I attended the above pop-up shop on Monday night. I left work just after 10pm and we walked down Broadway, getting there just before 10.30pm. There was already a line! I mean I should've expected that but I thought we'd just rock up before midnight and it might be busy but...

So we waited and waited and just after midnight it opened and the line moved a little. They let about thirty people in and then every so often a few more when people left.

 
As we got closer everyone was watching the people coming out to see what they were getting. They were selling some limited edition t-shirts and also all the merchandise that is going on sale at the two Brooklyn gigs we are attending this weekend. So it was also a chance to get some stuff including the poster without having to worry about getting it at the gig itself.

In the end we got into the store around 1am and stayed 40mins. We got a couple of t-shirts each, the cd and one of the posters.

Don Pendleton, the artist who did the posters and all the artwork for the album was in attendance painting something similar to the poster artwork but everyone entering was told not to speak to the artist, ha ha, and he will not be signing anything!

When we left there were still just as many people in the line waiting to get in. I read a comment from one guy that was one of the last to leave the store at 3.30am!

It was a fun night, everyone was in an excited mood which made up for us not getting to bed until 3am.

Rock 'n' Roll

After last weekend's half marathon this Saturday it was the attempt at a sub-40 min 10K.

The (mildly overpriced but late substitution for the intended DC 10K) Rock 'n' Roll 10K in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. I got up in the dark around 6.20am for the early 7.30am start. I had decided to give baggage check a miss and just run over there ready to race in my kit with just a bottle of water in hand.

There was supposed to be around 7000 people so I thought things might be a bit hectic but I couldn't have been more wrong! In the end there were 'just' the 4111 finishers. I had the shortest line for a port-a-loo ever, probably because they had some beside the start as well as in the main gathering area where most of the other people were waiting. Then 15mins before the start I got into the coral to find much more space than a NYRR event and despite the 15 elite men and women at the very front I was in the second or third row of people from the start line!

There was a distinct lack of what I would say good club runners, a noticeable lack of running vests, more t-shirts, ha ha. I know the Staten Island Half Marathon was the following day and it is a NYRR qualifying event for the NY Marathon. Maybe people thought this was a slightly gimmicky event, I dunno.

I know the course like the back of my hand so set off fast knowing the slight uphill first mile was followed by a downhill 2nd and a flat 3rd and 4th. The 5th mile is a steady climb in the park, a killer hill for some people but the last mile is a gradual descent with the turn and last 1/4 mile to the finish.
Plus I'm getting used to going off faster than I ever used to, getting a better judge of pace too.

The weather was perfect. Ever so slightly cloudy, about 14 degrees with a mild breeze in places and because of the early start the sun didn't really come out until I was walking home.

My splits were about 6.32, 6.04, 6.09, 6.20, 6.45, 6.04, 1.13 for a finishing time of 39.12 (6.19 pace).
I finished in 36th place overall and when I logged in to see the results was pretty amazed to see I am apparently 2nd (out of 185) in the 40-44. The bad news was I was beaten by 1 second. ONE SECOND!!! According to the gun time he finished around 2mins behind me so it's not like I knew or we even sprinted it out or anything.

Good pic! Looking good... after 1.5M!

Not looking so good 30 secs after the finish

 The website says the marathon and half series they host give awards to the top 3 in each age group, by mail, 4-6 weeks after the event so fingers crossed they do it for the 10K too.
That would make the entry fee worth it, seeing as there wasn't even a bagel at the finish just bananas and apples and free chocolate milk. At least the t-shirt was a tech Brooks one albeit with an early 1990's style print.

So in the year of turning 40 that's a 10K PB (I've no idea how fast I ran as kid) to go along with PB's in the 5K, 10M and 1/2 Marathon. Very very mild disappointment at not cracking 39 now, or indeed being 2 seconds faster!

Next week is a cross-country 5K and then I'm taking it easy.

Paine to Pain

A Sunday day out!
I was running the Paine to Pain Trail Half marathon so we hired a zipcar car for the day and took off for New Rochelle at 7am. It only took us about 50 minutes to get there and it's always good to see more of the suburbs rather than just the city itself.

The race field was around 700 runners and with the High School as the start/finish location it brought back memories of local Scottish races rather than the other larger races I've been used to lately.
Parking in the lot, walking round the (very posh looking) school to the registration area, finishing the race on the school running track and getting a shower in the locker rooms, the local race feel is so much nicer, must be the comfort factor!

New Rochelle High School

The local houses were on the large side too:

The day was a little drizzly, a bit grey but also unfortunately (for me) a teensy bit humid. Which as well as the sweat running down my head meant my prescription eyewear misted up in the corners which for a trail race where you need to see the ground was mildly annoying at times.

You can read about the history of the race here but basically it is 90% off road on forest trails, on recently linked trail paths covering a handful of New York counties with a slight historical link.
No real climbs at all but very undulating, about 700ft of climb & descent. I've come to the conclusion, I prefer the climbs although it's really on the descents I make up time.

Each wave was started with a guy dressed in colonial clothing using his musket. The race organiser in the little pre-race briefing as well as informing us of the slippy wooden bridges told us the musket was 200 years old and in this weather could misfire. True enough, it just clicked, we laughed and held steady for a few seconds more before the proper blast let us go.

you looking at me?

I was in wave 1 of 4 and it started with a 1/4 mile drag uphill helping to spread out the field before we hit the trail. In true American style the road was lined with the high school cheerleaders encouraging us to "L-E-T-S G-O, LETS GO".

I settled into a steady pace and after the first 3 or 4 miles the field had sorted itself out and it was the usual situation where you see a couple of people, around the corner, through the trees up ahead then when you pass a few spectators you hear the clapping for the people behind you a few seconds after you pass by them.

At mile 6

It is hard going on your own for that long. I had a couple of tight shoulder moments and knew I didn't feel quite as good as May's half marathons but training has been more geared for the 10K with a few long runs thrown in.
They didn't have many mile markers, maybe just 3 but at the 11M marker I passed the marshall at the side and he said 19th position. Behind me I could hear him say 20 & 21 to the next two guys still in earshot so I decided I wanted a top 20 finish and did a Mo Farah and went for home 2 miles out!
It worked and I came past the cheerleaders and onto the track for the 3/4 lap to the finish well ahead of the next runners.

I finished in just over 1hour 34 mins, 7.12 pace and finished 20th (there was one faster runner in wave 2) out of the 638 finishers and 5th out of the 154 aged 40-49'ers.
It was a pretty tough race for me mainly due to the distance and concentration required as well as the course not really having any climbs to slow you down or downhill to relax on.

The finish area on the track was good, the weather was a bit grey but still warm enough to hang about a bit sampling the free goodies. I had a cookie, half a banana, a small bagel with some peanut butter on top, a carton of coconut water, a smoothie sample and a small donut, ha ha.

Heather took her bike and had a little jaunt round the neighbourhood while I ran. One of the funny pics she took was of this road:

I doubt it sits at the mouth of the River Ness.

My work, albeit another REI, was a mini sponsor so I chatted with Dave the outdoor/outreach guy who had his little table with Powergel giveaways.

Two other little notes about the race were that there were 4 guys who ran the entire course beforehand at dawn with headlamps, jeez.
And more interesting was the first 2 runners were slightly ahead of the 3rd placed guy but within the last couple of miles they went the wrong way! Apparently the 3rd placed guy shouted at them, ran to the finish and then stepped aside just before crossing the line, waited until the first two finished then walked over the line in 3rd. Needless to say he won some kind of sportsmanship award.

As we had the car for the day we had to make the most of it and I don't think I've ever had a post-race recovery like this before. Not since the last time we did the same anyway!

We drove 10 miles to a famous-ish grocery store, cause I love food. Stew Leonards was made out like a farm style supermarket complete with some petting animals round the back and plenty of stuff to keep us the kids entertained as you go round.

Yes, you could indeed press the button and watch her do the banana dance. I bought a sausage loaf that I ate for lunch at work 3 days in a row and we got a free ice cream!

Then we drove back to our storage unit in Dumbo and from our loaded up car, unloaded all our summer clothing, took it up and spent nearly an hour tidying up our unit and coming back to the car with all our winter clothing.

Then back into Manhattan for a quick errand........ then back to Brooklyn and to Target to get some big items like toilet paper and cans of juice. Have I mentioned how I sometimes miss having a car?

Of course then we had to take everything up the stairs to our 4th floor apartment, OMG.
By the time I'd showered (again) we sat down for some pizza around 7pm. We took the car back around 9.15pm and after the 15 min walk home I could enjoy my cheesecake!

4 in a week

As it turns to Fall here, it also seems to be gig season for us. Got a few more coming up that I'm looking forward to but we started last Friday with a trip to the local Barclays arena to see Vampire Weekend.
They sounded great, the set was really clever with a mirror behind the band that reflected the crowd near the front. We also noticed the crowd seemed a little bit collegiate and some were very young indeed. Let's just say there were a lot of guys with baseball caps on backwards.

The very next night we went into Manhattan to see the Stereophonics. Tickets were only $25 for this one. We weren't that enthused about going but again, a smaller venue and they sounded really good. They've gotta be pretty unknown in America so this time the place was full of Brits I guess, with probably New York's Welsh contingent. A couple of Welsh flags and some rowdy folk, at one point there were guys on each others shoulders, three tall!

So that was two late nights where I didn't get to sleep until after 2am and then I ran the Fifth Avenue Mile on the Sunday morning. In some ways I was lucky it was just a mile!

Tuesday night we went to a new venue. The Skirball Centre at NYU (New York University) to see KT Tunstall. It was a really plush small theatre with American width seats, ha ha, I've never sat in theatre seats that wide. All the tickets were the same price but I must have got in there early because, and I'd forgotten this, that we were at the very front, in the centre.

The set was much better than I thought considering the new album is more mellow. But she has good banter with the crowd before every song and does that whole one-woman band thing where she plays sounds like her hand drumming on the guitar or the crowd clapping, recording it, then looping it in the background while she plays the song.

On the second last song, as the lights dimmed, she threw her guitar pick in to the crowd and it kind of fluttered into our row but we couldn't see it. Then as the gig finished she bowed and walked along the front and high-fived our half of the crowd, starting with me!
Then when the house lights came back on and we picked up our bags, we only only went and found her guitar pick (Heather has never heard the word plectrum) under our bags!

The very next night a friend had managed to get tickets to a special album launch gig by Tired Pony in a Housing Works Bookstore, luckily round the corner from work. I left work around 9.50pm and they opened the doors just after 10pm.
I was expecting at least a kind of small hall or a cleared space but it was indeed just a bookshop!
A different type of gig for me and it was amazing. Gary Lightbody mentioned how he loved R.E.M. growing up and how it was amazing enough to play with Peter Buck in the group but even better as he brought up Mike Mills from the crowd to do vocals on one song.
As he left the stage he brushed right past us and then we glanced over and he was only standing at the back beside Michael Stipe!

At the end of the gig Heather asked the nearby guitar tech if she could have his set list. He said he normally keeps them but he gave it to her. Complete with guitar tunings for each song.

Fifth Avenue Mile

The Fifth Avenue Mile is an annual NYRR event that has run since 1981 and 5182 runners were out to test themselves over the one-mile distance.
It was a cloudless, cool morning on the first day of autumn and we had a very mild wind at our backs.
The course is a straight run down Fifth Avenue from just outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 80th Street to Grand Army Plaza at 60th Street.

A very unusual race distance.... unless you're a track athlete I guess.
As well as the elite races all the other runners go off in age groups. So when we got there we watched the males 30-39 running down and I noticed how many there were and especially how closely packed it was at the start. I only had time for a 10 minute jog with a few strides beforehand as I deemed it more important to be lined up further forward in the coral waiting to start rather than doing a longer warm-up. The other thing I thought when the 30-39 age group was running past was, are you sure that's not MY age group?!

NYRR

There were 579 men in the 40-49 age coral but the results were split 40-44 and 45-49.
So I spent around 20 minutes standing in the sun waiting as the women up ahead ran then we were pulled forward to the line. The nearby DJ played age appropriate music as we waited, tailoring it to each age group as the ages ranged from around 12 to 94!!

Once we started it was difficult to know how hard to push. I didn't see the supposed 1/4 mile marks probably as the first half I spent picking a route among the runners that had gone off too hard. The other thing I remember is that my mouth and lips were so dry!

It was strange, I looked at my watch and seen 3 minutes-something so I picked the pace up thinking that's less than 3 minutes of running to go. Then I looked up and could see the finish banner but objects on the horizon can be further away than you think and I was trying to hold a little back for a good finish. Then all of a sudden it was within touching distance so I went all out and was passing runners, finishing strong, then it was over!!

I had no idea what time I'd do but having done a final mile 5.59 back in May's 5K I was thinking anything below that was the aim. As I approached the clock and seen 5.20 I pushed on and finished in 5.23 for 46th place in the age group (375th out of 5182).
Kind of immediately I wished I could do it again, part novelty factor but more that I thought I could pace it better. After walking round the corner to meet Heather it felt like you had barely done anything! It had all the trappings of a regular race, the early mornings, the travel, the nerves, etc without the feeling you had pushed yourself hard for a certain length of time... I burned about 99 calories.

NYRR Medalist

Sunday was the NYRR Henry Isola Cross Country Classic back up around Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. My first race in the Over 40 category (40-44).

The weather had been 90 degrees a couple of days before, one of the latest in the year 90 degree days for a long time apparently. But after a quick thunderstorm complete with crazy lightning, the humidity was gone and it was perfect running weather again, around 19 degrees.
Of course I now have a light sunburn mark from my vest despite being in the sun for all of 30 minutes!

The park area looked good, lots of football games on and a couple of groups of Indians playing cricket. Plus before our race there were some school cross country championships on too, which included a few runners that looked like running wasn't really their primary sport.

Two loops, around the grass field and up and down a short sharp hill among the trees with a good long gravel stretch to unleash your kick to the finish.

Around 250 runners, I went off hard and quickly settled in as normal, going back and forth with the same couple of runners. Getting passed on the uphill and passing them on the downhill. Used another runner to drag myself towards a stronger finish than if I'd been on my own for sure.
Then as I walked past the table at the finish they handed me a medal! Second place in my age group!

Woo-hoo, my first medal in NY. I knew I needed a combination of a good run and good luck as I came in 23rd overall! 26.01, 6.31 pace, also 1 min 30 behind the 1st place 40 year old which I was glad to see, nothing worse than if the guy that finished in the same time as me was the other 40+ runner.

So next Sunday is the Fifth Avenue Mile where my biggest concern is what kind of warm up I do for that??
Then Heather deferred her entry to the Marine Core Marathon until 2014 so we're not going to bother going down to DC for my 10K. That was what I was training for, along with an upcoming trail half marathon. So instead I paid way too much to enter the Rock and Roll 10K in Prospect Park in October so as not to make the training totally worthless as I attempt to get a PB in a 10K this year too.