marathon day!

temperatures dropped and wind speeds heightened on sunday, november 2, just in time for the nyc marathon! kevin, gary, and i were up by 5:15 for our pre-race breakfast routine: murray's raisin bagels, peanut butter, and bananas. we were out the door by 5:50 and boarded the 6:15 staten island ferry with thousands of other runners. 

it was so exciting to be with a group of strangers, knowing that everyone around you has been doing similar training for months all around the world in pursuit of a common goal - it's thrilling! the runners came in all shapes, sizes, ages, and nationalities. it's quite likely that we've run among or passed by these runners along the west side highway, at central park, or during races.

after docking, we boarded a short minute bus ride to take us to the start village. "start village" turned out to be more of a "hobo village". imagine +50,000 runners sprawled across fort wadsworth park grabbing every plastic bag, cardboard, and styrofoam around to try to stay warm in the 39F weather. we arrived at 7:08 and weren't scheduled to start until 10:05.

kevin wore a $14.99 blue puffy coat that he bought across the street the previous night and a pair of sweats. gary wore a sweatshirt and sweat pants. i wore two long-sleeve cotton shirts and a pair of sweat pants. we all had beanies on, but it was not enough - it was SO DARN COLD. dunkin donuts had a table with coffee, which was surrounded by hoards of cold hungry athletes. they also gave out fleece beanies which was really nice of them. i brought bubble wrap from our packing boxes for us to sit on, which turned out to be AMAZING as it kept our bottoms warm, and i ended up stuff it inside my top as well. 

note to self: bubble wrap is AWESOME insulation!

oh yea, we saw a lot of interesting moments during our THREE our wait. we saw a group of italians hold a little picnic with bread, butter, jelly, drinks, etc. we saw the same group of italians singing to keep their spirits up. one of them tried to take our bubble wrap - not cool lol. and we saw lots of athletes shivering and curled up in strange forms trying to retain as much body heat as possible.

finally 10:05 rolled around and we were getting into our corrals and people started stripping. off came the pants, the hats, the jackets, and lastly, the bubble wrap :) all the clothing would be donated to goodwill. and finally, the corrals collapsed and we were led to the start line which was at the beginning of the verrazano bridge. the sun started peeking out from behind the clouds at this point, my spirits were lifted at the prospect of finally moving, and we were off! :)

the race course was technically not too challenging since new york city is relatively flat, but there were a couple areas which we were warned about: the verrazano bridge (mile 1), the queensboro bridge (mile 16), and carnegie hill (miles 22). as it turns out, there were so many people on the course, we couldn't actually ever see any of the climbs which was enormously helpful mentally.

some highlights (ok, this ended up being more of my own post race analysis):

• queensboro bridge: it was SO DARN WINDY!!! haha ... kevin and i had trouble just going straight and staying upright as gusts of wind came from the northwest. we saw countless pieces of disposable clothing and tarp fly right across our eyes over the bridge. the helicopters were nowhere nearby thank goodness (i had envisioned choppers hovering around the bridge and like an action movie, was afraid i'd have the urge to jump off the bridge and hang onto the helicopter, climb up to the cockpit, and take out the pilot :p).
• brooklyn: talk about CROWDS and MUSIC!!!! there were crowds lining the ENTIRE course (with the exception of the predominantly hasidic jewish areas where it was uncomfortably silent) and there were live bands performing every few blocks - thank you daisy & bram for coming out to support! it was so much fun and a pleasant distraction to look at all the spectators, their signs, outfits, the storefronts, and countdown the streets as we ran along third and fourth ave towards the williamsburgh savings bank in the distance.
• williamsburg: a smile lit my face as we turned onto bedford ave, as i knew it would ultimately lead us to pass our old pad on grand avenue! the course got much narrower at this point, which made it difficult to continue at our original 8:30 pace. in addition, there were water stations around every mile marker in which people would stop to drink water and not always stay out of the center of the course, slowing down the race in general. regardless, it was so much fun :) i think i was starting to understand why people run the ny marathon, over, and over.
• greenpoint/queens: mile 13.5 was the point where our friends, emily and cuong, were going to be cheering! i've never had anyone come cheer (especially not my own parents haha) so i was super excited :) unfortunately we didn't coordinate exactly where at mile 13.5 so we didn't end up finding each other. darn. it was still very cool to cross the pulaski bridge though - onto QUEENS and halfway done with this thing!
• queensboro bridge: the queens portion of the race was only a couple miles long, and in the corner of my eye was the queensboro bridge. we owned it when we practice our queensboro bridge repeats, but how would we fare today? we took the pace down a couple notches and breezed across the bridge. i think we both wanted to make sure that we had enough in the tank left for the second half, and personally, i needed to make sure i could get to mile 20, and i thought the last six wouldn't be too much of an issue.
• upper east side: we thought brooklyn and queens crowds were amazing, manhattan right when you come off the 59th st bridge was off the hook! mountains of people screaming their lungs out for you, strangers to them, pushing you along with their smiles, shouts, and funny signs. this race would be over before we knew it ... still no sign of powergels yet though!
• bronx: taiko drums! we crossed the willis avenue bridge into the bronx and the 138 east madison avenue bridge back into manhattan and were greeted by japanese taiko drummers! it was sooooo cool. powergels and bananas were handed out around mile 19 finally and i grabbed three. kevin wasn't feeling great during most of the race, and couldn't hold it in any longer, so he told me to go ahead while he beelined for a porta-john.
• manhattan: the last 4-5 miles were really nice. i think because we had taken it slower earlier, i was feeling energized and not totally spent, and tried to pick up the pace for the rest of the race. the most exciting part? probably when we turned into the park around 90th st. this was our turf, our park, the place we had shed our blood sweat tears and wedding vows. i knew it like the back of hand .. unfortunately i also knew there would be a slight uphill in the last 400 meters going into the finish line. that was a little tough ha, but it felt great to finish! 3:51:09

the rest - medals, recovery bag, space blanket, windproof fleece-lined cloak, 72nd st 1-train, awesome sports massage at ohm spa (thank you liz & tom!), and one of THE BEST DINNERS EVER afterwards at hill country with college friends. hill country is a lady's best friend - the guys do the ordering of the food, the pouring of the beers, and there are no dishes to do afterwards. all i had to do was sit and enjoy wonderful company - couldn't have asked for a better way to finish off the night.

today just reaffirms my anticipation for more training and the 2015 nyc marathon :) bring it!!!

best: moist brisket at hill country, obviously :)

worst: 3 hrs at hobo village. next yr im bringing more bubble wrap and wearing two layers of pants!

smile: emily and logan! you guys made my day with your sign. thank you so much! i cannot believe you were out there in the cold!

night run

today was just another busy tuesday at the office. just a few highlights:

the new asics store opened across the atrium from our office building! it's 2-3 times the size of the former location a block away, with many more shoe options it seems. unfortunately when i went inside to ask some questions about the elite performance vs performance socks, the salesguy didn't seem to know much. in fact, all the sales people on the floor looked like they were picked off the street. bummer that they don't educate their sales staff more to better represent their product, like paragon or jackrabbit.

new asics store

the stone guys came today and started our counter installation! yay. the painters were also there starting with the first coat.

counters being installed

after work, met kevin at grand central and we went for a night run at the park.  i think there was a nike training run going on too because we saw probably a hundred people stretching and women wearing lime green nike pacer tops. it's exciting and motivating to see strangers in the city congregating at the park to get their workouts in :)

legs were heavy from sunday's run, but the cool temperature and darkness were really helpful in terms of keeping us focused. we managed to squeak out 6 miles at 7:52. achilles was a bit tender in the first mile, but otherwise, felt pretty good. harlem hill and the three sisters are starting to feel like good old friends.

central park night run

best: bumped into a friend, nate, on my way to grand central! what a small world ... haven't seen him much since he's moved back to the city after bschool, but hopefully we'll get together soon and catch up.

worst: disappointing donuts working at the asics store. the couple guys i spoke with were not knowledgeable about their product offerings, and i don't think really had much interest in running either. bummer! i could see a lot of potential there.

smile: kevin brought me into the grand central marketplace to check out this cute little yogurt at murray's cheese. haha ... the little sweet pleasures in life! we treated ourselves to one each :D

gowanus arts & ice cream!!

with two weeks to go until the ny marathon, today was the start of our taper. it's such a bummer and i've been dreading it all wk. to go from running 22 miles down to 15 suddenly feels a little sad. it also makes me a bit anxious to cut down the mileage when we have 26.2 coming up, but i guess all the hard work should have been done up to this point and if not, we'll find out soon.

the weather was 52F and the humidity was low at 54%, it was the perfect weather to be outdoors! we started at the central park engineers' gate on the east side and did two counterclockwise loops, and finished up with the 100th st to 90th st straightaway. after two days' rest, the legs felt pretty loose and we averaged a comfortable 8:26 pace. wished we could have gone for a 3rd loop in this amazing weather, but we'll have to save that for dec/jan/feb :)

central park run

for lunch, we explored williamsburg/bushwick a bit and to whet our appetite, we went for soft-shell gringo tacos at san loco. san loco is a spot we pass by every single evening when we walk from the train station to the apt. when kev asked me if i wanted anything, i was like - pssh, it's alright, im good. MAYBE i'll just take one bite of yours. but when they arrived, i have to admit, it was so darn tasty (i had the beef) that i ate the whole thing! omg :/ poor kevin. instead of having two, he only had one ... the atmosphere is really low key, high ceilings, good music, lots of tables and space, with delicious finger lickin' tacos. we will definitely go back before we leave the hood!

luckily we only had to walk another ten minutes to arrive at our second lunch spot: okonomi, which means "what you like", which doubles as a yuji ramen in the evenings. okonomi was really simple and nice. there were 4 seats at the bar and 2 tables with 4 seats each (12 seats in total), so we were lucky to be seated immediately. we ordered the spanish mackerel sashimi with a dash of yusco as an appetizer and it was magnificent, melting on our tongues almost on contact. then kevin had the trout (top) and i had the tuna belly (bottom) for our fish, and we both added onsen tamago, and i even added a side of uni :) the side dishes were broccoli rabe, swiss chard, tsukemono, and a sweet japanese egg. it was ALL soooo tasty.

it's been so long since we've had homecooked asian food ... and okonomi's preparation and taste really did remind me of tokyo. can't wait to go back!!

okonomi, be sure to get there early - or you'll have to wait!

our delicious lunch setto

after lunch, we took the G-train down to gowanus, and sadly, for our inaugural ride on the g-train, it failed miserably. hahaha ... first of all, the g-train only went for about 4 stops after which the conductor announced it was the final stop on the line and we'd have to get off and transfer to a shuttle to go the rest of the way. after waiting 10 minutes, the shuttle arrived and brought us only another 3 stops when the conductor announced it was the final stop. lol. now i remember why i never took the G-train in the past ...

anyways, we finally made it to gowanus around 3ish and did the self-guided gowanus arts tour, stopping by 4-5 locations to check out probably 10-15 individual studios over the course of the afternoon. i didn't have any specific intentions on the studio visits, other than to enjoy the artist's studio and work and explore gowanus. and we did just that. here are some of the interesting places we visited! i've seen some of the artists' work at crafts fairs throughout the city, so it was pretty amazing to see the studios where theirs works are designed and crafted.

kristiana parn's studio - i love her prints!

rene murray's ceramic studio

yumiko kuga's ceramics

to top it off, we finished our tour of gowanus with the BEST ice cream i have ever had - at ample hills creamery. dude. i love this place! it's so unassuming and unpretentious, especially given the high-quality of its product! and the two servers i interacted with were super fun, easy-going, and nice.

we sampled three flavors: salted crack caramel, malty salty pretzel punch, and pistachio squared, but opted for the malty salty pretzel punch and their small is gigantic! *smile* it has chocolate covered pretzels mixed into malted vanilla ice cream, a heavenly combination of the sweet-n-savory trend.

we're already thinking about how we are going to get ample hills creamery in our ice cream mix. we will be back!!! and for the record, salted crack caramel and pistachio squared were also delicious ...

ample hills creamery's ample menu :)

malty salty pretzel punch

we ended the night with a quiet dinner at nuovo fiore, an italian spot i've been wanting to try for a couple weeks now. we shared the pasta fagiole (soup), butternut squash salad, cavatelli con broccoli rabe and sausage, and pizza formaggio. every dish hit the spot! and it felt relatively light for italian food as well.

just 3 blocks from the apt, and with delicious food, ample seating, and great friendly service, fiore is our new favorite italian spot in the area! doesn't hurt that the entire staff speaks italian either. another spot to come back to ... it's going to be sad to leave williamsburg :(

best: i'm thankful for the cool, crisp fall weekend we got! we spent the entire weekend on our feet (too bad i wasn't still in the walkertracker challenege. would have crushed it this wkd lol)! 

worst: i noticed a bunch of fruit flies in the corner of the kitchen where the stove is, and kevin discovered that there was something spoiled in the kitchen trash which was probably attracting them. gross! good thing kevin has good aim and managed to swat most of them with a rolled up copy of last week's economist. lol. i was envisioning a walter white moment ...

smile: rene murray, one of the ceramic artists we met, opened up her handmade kiln in her studio for us! it was huge! and when her husband told us the story about how her previous kiln had no door and she hand-built a new door by bricklaying it each time she baked, we were absolutely amazed. it was enlightening to see the daily life of an artist, and their passion for their work.

first place (for a couple hours)

guess what ???

after our half marathon at the park this morning, i came back to the apartment and logged in 34,140 steps, skyrocketing me from 4th place into 1st place in my office walking challenge! *GRIN* of course, this was only temporary as MFreel had not yet logged in any steps for the day yet. after dinner, i checked and im back down to 2nd. but it's alright - at least i'm improving and getting closer! :D

first on the leaderboard (for a couple hours)!

so back to the meat of our day, today was another long run day and we were slated to get 18 miles in. since we had a race at central park, we decided to run up to the park to supplement the 13.1 mile race. the weather was great - 46F and 58% humidity at 7:30am. it was a bit nippy actually, but we got warmed up after a couple miles and kevin pushed the pace on the way up, averaging 8:05-8:15 minute mile pace.

grete's great gallop half marathon was a great course - two full clockwise loops around the park and one partial bottom loop. we ran it as a training run, so were not pushing the pace to set records, and finished around 1:48.

best of all, after the race we got to see some familiar faces as our friends jordan, forest, ed, and ed's kids were at the finish line! forest and a friend of theirs, daniel, were also running the race. forest finished in 1:27 ... pretty insanely GOOD. and this is after coming off a 4-6 month hiatus from a hairline fracture in his shin. i haven't seen jordan in a while since she left nomura in may and has been traveling the world since. it was also really nice to see ed and meet his kids, samantha and matthew (who are ridiculously sweet and adorable!), especially since ed (we call him "coach" around the apt) has been grooming me for the upcoming 26.2. we all have the running bug lately!

nyrr grete's great gallop 13.1 runners

my good friend, jordan, and matthew and samantha

and last but not least, here is a photo of Grandma's Lasagna that we made last night - we gobbled down four slices for lunch. it was pretty darn tasty, and relatively healthy ~ full of tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, beef, ricotta, and mozzarella. we made a large batch so will freeze some for later this week!

Grandma's Lasagna

best thing: seeing my friends after the race! jordan and i used to work on the same team and i didn't realize how much i've missed her until i saw her today! it was difficult when we were separated after our team's restructuring in september 2012, but since she left nomura altogether this summer, it's been difficult pinning her down. looking forward to a good catch up session soon :)

worst thing: unreliable trains :/ the L train was halted at bedford ave after some rail issues at sixth ave. we had rushed out of the apt after lunch to get into the city to check out an open house in our new building, but just ended up spending 15 minutes sitting on a halted train. since the conductor had no idea how long the repair would take, we just decided to go home. this is the third time in over a week that we've been delayed/affected by train issues on the L.

smiles: during the race, we were running around the same pace as an achilles volunteer guide and an achilles runner (legally blind), joined by holding a 12-14" rubber rope. about halfway thru the race, a third achilles volunteer guide joined them and took the place of the volunteer guide in leading the runner. we finished altogether. it's amazing to see the product of mutual respect, commitment, and teamwork. and to top it all off, the volunteer guides were a man and a woman no younger than 65 years of age. inspirational! i hope we can give back to the community like that one day, sooner rather than later.