gun control

today started out as a beautiful day: it was partly sunny and nice and cool (36F)! we squeezed in an 11.5 mile run around the bottom of the island. talk about mentally and physically challenging - lack of consistency in our workouts and runs is starting to show in our weakened joints and muscles and mental prowess as well. i think kev and i were both internally praying just to get through the first three miles, and the strong gusty winds did not help!

no time better than the present to get back into shape though! hopefully we can be a bit more consistent starting this week with less than two months to go before the la 26.2.

after the run, we rushed to jing fong in chinatown, transported by a cabbie with an asian-food fetish, to celebrate hode's 28th birthday (for the seventh time). it was great to see the entire cmu gang after the holidays, wives, and babies all present :) we got to hear about glenn's proposal in hawaii, i met and fed baby ben for the first time (SO CUTE!!!!), and to top it all off, we got a nice email from vince during dimsum that he had proposed to shirley in australia!! woohoo ~~ two weddings coming up! it seems like a second wave of weddings for the cmu friends, and from what it sounds like, especially the couples with kids are ready to party! 

im looking forward to some destination weddings and spending time with friends and their families, which feels harder and harder as families are expanding and moving further away from the city.

then came this afternoon.

after making our way back to chelsea, we stopped by homedepot for 45 min or so to pick up some supplies and i spent a little time selecting the perfect snake plant :) as we were waiting on line by the registers, we heard two loud sounds. they didn't sound like gunshots to me, but kevin thought they did. we heard two more shots and kev saw a man running desperately away from something/one (about 25 feet away from us) and falling as he was running. "DROP EVERYTHING AND LET'S GO"  kevin said ... i was still a bit in shock thinking - that didn't sound like gun shots tho. why would there be gunshots? there couldn't be ... are we overreacting?

my initial reaction was to hide ... if they were gunshots, i didn't want to be shot while running :( but kev was like - the door is right there (pointing ahead of us about 25 ft in the opposite direction from where we had heard the gunshots). so i dropped my plant (sadface) and other supplies i had been holding, and along with the other shoppers and employees started running slowly towards the exit.

when we got outside onto the sidewalk, people had no idea what the fuss was about and were walking by normally. a couple employees were screaming "there were gunshots!" and ran towards fifth ave and we went that way as well. about 30 sec later when we reached fifth ave, kev was pointing for us to continue running to get far away from the store and potential harm's way.

police cars were blazing and driving up fifth avenue and broadway (in the opposite direction of traffic) were at the homedepot within 2-3 minutes of the first gunshots. it was amazing to see how quickly they responded and arrived at the scene of the crime.

when we were a block north of the homedepot, we peered through the empty parking lot to try to understand what had just happened. twitter feeds were lit up with updates about the shots fired and indeed, there were two people killed: an ex-employee had shot and killed his former manager and then shot and killed himself afterwards.

we walked home a little stunned and grateful for not getting hurt. but there's something to be said with the number of shootings we hear about these days and gun control. i don't understand how any pedestrian in nyc can argue that he "needs" a gun. but if the newtown elementary school shooting massacre wasn't enough reason to tighten gun control policies, i don't know what it will take ...

guac & hk style borscht

it was a balmy 24F out when we started our long run today. dressed appropriately (hat+glove weather), it was actually not too bad, minus the southern winds. mentally it was quite challenging, having not run much distance nor consistently in the last two months. we cut the run short around the world financial center because my inner left ankle was bothering me.

rewarded myself with a long hot soak with these jelly beads from japan! i don't know how to describe them, but you feel like you're in a tub of jello cubes or tapioca balls haha. now i am wishing we had installed a tv in the master bath :)

in the afternoon~evening, i made guac paired with tostitos with a hint of lime (did you know that 6 chips has 150 calories @_@ i learned after we finished 1 large bag), and kevin made a super delicious hk style borscht. i added some quinoa in mine and it was the perfect way to spend a chilly afternoon-evening.

sunday rundays - 22-miler done!

sunday was our long run day! and similar to last weekend, while saturday was raining cats and dogs, sunday was gloriously sunny and dry, cool and crisp! absolutely perfect.

though it didn't start out that way. alarm went off at 5:15, snoozed until 5:35 and finally got ready and out the door around 5:55. it was pitch black out and very cold (45F). as we sped along the FDR on sunday morning in the cab, i was wondering if we were going to get ourselves lost or held up or blown off the island (it was so windy!). by the time we pulled up to the staten island ferry station, i was convinced we were idiots for trying to do our longest training run on staten island (neither of us have really spent much time there before), and pairing it up with a half marathon. how the heck was this going to work? on top of it all, i was still groggy and yawning.

as we walked towards the ferry station, i saw a few other people in running gear with their bibs and thought - haha we're not the only idiots. as we took the escalators up to the ferry station landing, BOOM! there were hundreds if not thousands of runners stretching, drinking coffee, adjusting their gear, etc! i suddenly felt very awake and not so foolish anymore. it seemed like lots of runners were pairing up their training with the half! :) i think that mental relief helped me through the rest of the day. it's pretty crazy how much of the race is mental ... at least 50% i'd say.

the first part of our run was NOT nice. we ran from the ferry station west along richmond terrace and stayed as close to the water as possible, passing some downtown retail stores, some residential areas, and lots of sanitation treatment centers. the smell in the air was not so fresh to say the least. in addition, the sidewalks, when available, were uneven, strewn with glass shards and litter, and in dire need of repair.

the second part of our run (the race), was really fun! the race course started at the staten island yankees stadium and went along the east side of the island, passing the verazano bridge (honestly, i didn't notice it though), some nice downtown and residential areas, and what seemed like beachfront area. unfortunately one older gentleman, probably in his 50-60s, had fallen and was being given CPR around miles 6-7, but we heard after the race that he survived. thank goodness. kevin and i ran the entire race together, and i think we helped each other through it. miles 12 & 13 were the hardest for me. i wanted badly to finish strong with negative splits, but my legs felt like lead (calves specifically). i think when i got a half-second glance behind from kevin, i pulled it together a bit and was able to muster a little bit of energy left in the last 1/10th. hahaha. we finished with 1:46:18 by my watch (1:45:49 official). i think it's a PR for me :)

here are a couple pics from the race:

staten island yankees stadium

bumped into ray and will at the race!

part 1 of long run

part 2 of long run

staten island recap: the 13.1 is a great course and will definitely try it again. however probably will not do any longer training runs there again!

now for the treats :) treated ourselves to abraço cafe's olive oil cake (thanks to the great rec from dais!) and oatmeal raisin cookie, and odd fellows pretzel and smores (smoked marshmellows!) ice cream. pigging out without regret is definitely a nice side perk of training!

odd fellows' pretzel and smores ice cream

best: fun ride back from staten island and lunch with ray and will! post-race analyzing and caring for battle wounds is super fun with friends. not to mention, i discovered the BEST dish ever at pho sure: pork chop with fried egg over rice. cannot wait to go back ...

worst: pretty sure i traumatized and lost another two toenails after the long run. doh ... personally i don't mind not having the toenails - it makes the running much more comfortable, but it looks funny in sandals :D

smile: wil's friend, steph, also ran the half and during our ride back to the city together, all she could talk about was getting a fried egg sandwich, but it HAD to be on a portuguese roll. hilarious. (i don't even know what a portuguese roll is ...) she was overall super light-humored and funny, reminds me of my sister hahaha ... sees the lighter things in life.

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.