Rumble in the Bronx: Bronx 10 Miler (9/27 - 9/29/14)

In the shadows of Yankee Stadium

Sunday 9/28/14

Race: Bronx 10 Miler
Location: Bronx, NY
Goal Time: 1:06:00
Actual Time: 1:07:04 (PR!)

I heard my name called - "JESSE!"  There on the other side of the race was Corey.  We gave each other a High-5.  Right after was was the five mile mark.  I looked at my watch: 34:19.  Speedy and I felt good.  I decided to see if I could put in some more effort.

***
10 Miles and 10 retired numbers*

The race starts in the shadows of Yankee Stadium at Grand Concourse and 165th.  By virtue of my half assing the 14 degree Manhattan Half Marathon in January, I was put in the 3000s corral.  I was at first worried that with such a massive race - 10,000 people, I'd be forced to run too slow during the beginning.

1. Billy Martin
In 1977, Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson almost went to blows in the dugout of Fenway Park because Martin took the best hitter in baseball out for casually playing a Jim Rice hit.  In 1983, he managed to get George Brett's go ahead home run annulled for too much Pine Tar.  George Steinbrenner fired him 4 different times as manager of the Yankees.  His number was retired in 1986.

I started the first mile slowly.  In the pack with runners that were normally not as fast as I, I decided not to do the freak out bobbin' and weavin' through the crowd.  I took my time.  At a little faster than 7 minutes, I would have liked to go a little faster but it was still a success.

2. Derek Jeter
Perhaps my favorite moment of Jeter's career was the day he was honored for having "144 fewer hits than former journeyman designated hitter Harold Baines."

I ran the second mile a little bit faster than the first.  However, I was still in comfortably-a-little-hard mode and probably still many seconds slower than former journeyman designated hitter Harold Baines would have run it in.

3. Babe Ruth
While at Lone Gull I was using the Triple Lindy.  At the Bronx I was using the Rock Island Line Maneuver. Each mile I was "picking up a little bit of speed, picking up a little bit of steam."  Three was the first one I was swatting.  Despite a small piriformis grab, that I just ran through, I was able to drop the speed a bit.

4. Lou Gehrig
Some people might think I had gotten a bad break being in the wrong corral.  But, by mile four it had opened up and this mile... mile...mile... mile, was the fastest... fastest...fastest...fastest of the first half ... half ... half... half

5. Joe DiMaggio
Where have you gone mile 5?  The fourth mile was so good, that I realized it might be too good.  A couple of turns slowed down the race and by the half way point, I was ready to drop the pace.

6. Joe Torre

Pascuel Perez once drove around I-285 in ATL 3 times to get to the game.
Torre was not happy.

Joe Torre was the manager of my favorite baseball team of all time - 1982 Atlanta Braves. (I was at game 4 of the 13 wins against the Astros.)  His Yankee years are unimportant to me...

I had managed to split the race nicely. Now it was time to start the second half 13-0.  I also got quick shouts from Carl and Corey as we passed.

7. Mickey Mantle
Mickey Mantle could be greatest player to be still overrated.  There are New Yorkers of a certain age (about Billy Crystal's age) who act like he's the Wayne Gretzky of baseball.  And this at a time when the Wayne Gretzky of Baseball was still playing right across the Harlem.

Well, my seventh mile was not as good as Willie Mays or Mickey Mantle, so I won't overrate it.

8. Yogi Berra
Ninety percent of running is half mental.  This part started the countdown where each mile was one fewer to run.  Just kept in my head to not slow down and I did so by running the same speed or speeding up.  Felt good at the end of the eighth mile but remembered: "It ain't over til it's over."

9. Roger Maris
You know Roger Maris held the single season home run record longer than Ruth did?  And, he would still hold it if people like Mike Lupica were as indignant in 1998 blaming other people for ignoring steroids as they are today.

The ninth mile was the record for the fastest mile.  However like Maris did it in 162 games instead of 154, it was mostly downhill.

10. Phil Rizzuto
Holy Cow!  Like the Money Store, I did it again!  I came in, even with the slight uphill, with another fast mile.  And at 1:07:04, it was my third Personal Record of the fall!

Saturday 9/27/14

And, in more important news... The day before the race, Urvi and I went to a great dinner on 2nd Avenue

Urvi at dinner

And then we went to the Empire State Building...

Grand Central Station

Where we got engaged!

Engaged!

Monday 9/29/14

Scenes from the Park

 On Monday, Urvi and I went to the American Museum of Natural History:

Urvi and Elephants

Gas Giants

Me & TR

Otter

Blue Whale

Lucy

Urvi and Ivory

Dinosaurs

Clydesdale weigh-in n the moon

* - #2 isn't retired yet.  The Yankees will probably schedule that next year so they can get fans to come out and see their not so great team once.

Official Pic from Empire State Building

The Triple Lindy Maneuver: Lone Gull 10K (9/14/14)

Homeward Bound
photo by Tom Cole

Race: Lone Gull 10K
Location: Gloucester, MA
Goal Time: 39:28
Actual Time: 39:24 (PR!)

In the Chinese Zodiac, 2014 is the Year of the Horse; in my zodiac it is the Year of the 10K. After James Joyce Ramble in April, BAA in June and Beach to Beacon in August, I wrapped up the Year of the Horse/10K with the Lone Gull 10K.

Like last year, Lone Gull was again the USATF-NE championship.  This means there were lots of FAST people.  It also means there is a cluster at the start line.  One is never quite certain where to line-up.  You don't want to be too far back and end up going out too slow; however, you also don't want to be "that guy" getting in everyone's way.

Over the years, I have learned some things from racing.  One rule is: It's better to go out way too slow than a little bit too fast.  So, while the two T's - Tommy and Tim - pushed their way closer to the front (as they should have), the two M's - Mark & Matt - and I stood our ground halfway to the back.

The first and last mile of the race is along a beautiful Cape Ann stretch of coast that came right off the cover of Yankee Magazine. So while Matt and I played it cool, I was able to look around this beautiful coastline and soak in the fleeting of summer and the whispers of Autumn.

Triple Lindy Maneuver

In the "classic" 80s comedy Back to School, the second lead's foil Chas (played by William Zabkra - Ralph Macchio's foil in The Karate Kid) feign's a leg cramp ("probably menstrual").  This forces the coach to go to his alternate roster and bring Rodney Dangerfield out to attempt the impossible - as surprisingly well known dive - "triple lindy."

Needless to say, Dangerfield performs the outlandish dive, jumping from the 10 meter platform to a diving board then side flipping to another board, slide flipping to a third, back flipping and landing on the same board before completing the dive.  He of course wins the diving meet and leads to a denouement where Dangerfield and his son get their girls and Dangerfield gives the keynote speech at his son and Tony Stark's graduation complete with freeze frame...



The Triple Lindy has led to several unanswered questions...

1.  Why are there so many people at a diving meet?  Especially for a team that is about to set the record for most loses in a year?

2.  Why would the hot girl from Deep Space Nine really break up with Chas for the second lead in the first place?

3.  Did Dangerfield do his own stunts?  It doesn't seem like it could possibly be a stunt double doing the flips.

But I digress...

At a mile and a half I leapt from the 10m platform of starting pace into "race pace."  Mariah was maybe 50 yards ahead of me.  I used her as a marker and set the goal to catch her by mile one.  (Yes, this is the exact plan that failed miserably during the GMAA 15K).  This time however, it worked.  I caught up with Mariah.  We chatted a bit.  I knew soon after the 2 mile mark, there was a stretch to get some speed.  So, as we hit that bit, I hopped onto the next springboard.  This was some guy who just came flying by us.  So, I tailed him for about as long as I could, until I was in reach of Matt Story.  I then set the goal, catch Matt by the 5k mark.  This meant that the guy in the ING shirt was now heading off ahead (but, at a pace I could not have kept).

I caught Matt right at the 3 mile mark.  We had a briefer, less intelligible conversation than Mariah and I had had. I could barely speak.  But, after I had caught my breath and lowered my heartrate a bit, I was ready to attack the 4th (and hardest) mile.  While it was my slowest "race pace" mile, I probably worked the hardest here.  I knew if I could get through this, it would be downhill for a while and I could get ready to assault the end of the race.

Mile 6 was into the wind and slightly uphill.  This is where my newly discovered lessons between "running" and "racing" have come into play.  This pain is temporary, just drive through for another 7 minutes... then  another 6 minutes.  At one point I realized I had less than one kilometer to go. I knew there was just a short hill at the 6 mile mark and I knew it was a good downhill after.

That last K, I didn't battle the wind or the hill or any people.  I just let my effort be as high as I could give and let the race come to me.  The wind disappeared; with a little jump start, the hill evaporated and was made plain. The final 0.2 was a recovery downhill and then a steady building up to a sprint as I chased down one guy from Boston Community Running - my last springboard target. I came across in a personal record - 39:24; and in the movie in my head - FREEZE FRAME.

Shoutouts -

There were tons of PRs

Those I remember:
Mark Duggan
Liz Cooney
Alison Lackey
"Maple Leaf Joe" Lauer
Urvi had a decade PR

The Men's Masters Team took fourth on the day.  My back of the envelope math puts us in fourth overall for the series and with a good showing at the ManCity Marathon, we should be able to lock that up.

"...and ANOTHER thing, Vonnegut, I'm stopping payment on the check!"

Jesse...

A Prost and a Toast: Photo Blog (9/6/14 & 9/8/14)

Tom, Karen, me and Urvi

Prost! (9/6/14)

The German BSV Club in Walpole had an awesome Oktoberfest.

Jess

My Mass

Andrew and I with my Weihenstephaner Dunkel

The Band

Ridouts Schunkeln

Schiessen

Tommy and I with our Targets 

Tommy Schiessen

Awesome Food Tents - Kartoffelpuffer, Wurst etc.
(There was Apfelkuchen but I forgot to get any)

Toast! (9/8/14)

Paul Gives the Speech

The Burren and the local Guinness distributor teamed up to offer a toast to Gordon and his work through the running community and especially the Dana Farber Center for Cancer Research. They planned it for after SRR's Monday Night Run so we were able to celebrate with a run too

The Toast

Gloria in Excelsis DeDeo

Prost Gordon!

Brian, Brian, me and Joe - toasting Gordon

Kimi and Gordon - Slainte

From the Vault

That time Thomas ate a pretzel twice as big as his head, Oktoberfest, Munich, 2007

"Ein Prosit, Bitches!"

Jesse...

Champlain Campaign: GMAA Labor Day 15K (8/31/14)

Seth and I on a tandem
photo by Urvi

Event: GMAA Labor Day 15K
Location: South Burlington, VT
Goal Time: 1:02:30
Actual Time: 1:04:49 (PR!)

Off to the race: Me, Deb, CA and Joe
photo by Urvi

Later when discussing the wind, Joe told me that I shouldn't worry about it and just duck in with other groups and hide in the wind.  Unfortunately this is actually a problem when you are reasonably fast for someone who is 6'3", 215 lbs.  Usually there isn't anyone to hide behind.  So, I had to work even in the easy three miles at the beginning of the race...

The GMAA Labor Day 15K was the fifth race in the USATF-NE Grand Prix this year.  Four hours from Boston, it is about the least convenient race for us on the schedule; Of course it must be annoying for Vermonters to have to go to Eastern Mass and Southern NH all the time so, I'm okay with it.  In fact we decided to make a trip of it.  Deb and I reserved 6 campsites the second the reservations were open back in April.  By Saturday there were 20 people and 11 tents filling up the North Beach Campground.

Four of us jogged from the Campground to South Burlington.  The starting line was about 3/4 of a mile from the High School.  We jogged further to get there. Chris Smith had told me that the end of the race was to run up the hill on Dorset Street to the High School. Oh Boy, I thought.  I never do well with hills at the end of a race especially ones that are that steep!

I had good first 3 miles.  Mark and I managed to stay in control and not go out too fast.

Mark and I right after mile 2
photo by Tom Cole

The fourth mile was the selector for everyone.  It was all up hill; so, it was slow.  This put everyone who was racing into three camps: 1) "That was the tough mile and I did okay, so time to get back to racing"; 2) "Crap I ran that mile too slow, now I have to run really fast"; and, 3) "Well, I'm not having a good race; I'll slow down and save my self for another day." Culla, who was taking the race as a tempo run, enjoyed watching each of these groups.  I fell into camp 1.  But the humidity, made me look like I was in camp 3.  It was sneaky humid, since the temperature was lower than 70.

Create Maps or search from 80 million at MapMyRun

I spent the next 4 miles running slower than I wanted but still putting in the effort I wanted.  I figured, I couldn't do anymore than I could do.  Briefly I had the idea of catching up with Mariah - very briefly.

Seth - hamming it up for Tom

You crest the last tough hill right before the 8 mile mark.  Then you can charge down to the 9 mile mark - saving some energy for the tough uphill on Dorset street.  The last turn was being manned by the impromptu volunteers of SoRad and Karen who had realized they needed to direct people who were getting confused. I hit the 9 mile mark and realized we weren't doing the Dorset Street hill, but a much easier one - YES!  So, I had the double advantage of being prepared for a tough hill AND not running it!  I had plenty of energy to redline it up the hill and into the parking lot for a 1 minute and a half PR.

With 4th in the race, my math puts SRR Masters team right off the podium with two races (Lone Gull 10K and Manchester City Marathon) left.

Scenes from the Weekend

Deb and I setting up Camp Morrow-Mujumdar

Me and Steve Siracha with Hill Farmstead and Heady Topper
photo by Deb

Neil ready to ride away

Shark Tank, Scott, Neil, CA and Urvi

Around the Campfire

Scott and Julie watch as I try out the kayak
photo by Shark Tank

Criterium in downtown Burlington

Brian and Alex off on their romantic cruise of Lake Champlain