A Lovely Weekend in the City

Just a dispatch before winding down for the night. City Guy and I had a great weekend. Really great. No external commitments. No work. Just time spent together and perfect weather.

Yesterday, we ran errands. City Guy got a haircut at a salon in Tribeca that I think I might try. Since moving downtown a couple years ago, I've continued to trek up to the Upper East Side to get my hair cut. It's getting to be a drag, though I do love my stylist, and the salon is Tribeca is more expensive - probably $100 for a haircut, without tip. I guess it could be worse.

We also went to the new Bed Bath and Beyond in Tribeca and bought some new flatware. It's so shiny and beautiful. The spoons have an especially beautiful teardrop shape and a lilt to the handle. Small things can make me happy...sometimes. The BB&B was so empty, though. I guess not a lot of people know about the new store. I hope business picks up for them. The really exciting thing is that right in the same building, they're going to be opening a Whole Foods. You can already see the sign up. I can't wait until it opens! It started to pour when we were about to leave the store, so we took the escalators right back up and bought ourselves a very cool blue and brown two-person umbrella. You have to understand how cool a two-person umbrella is. Before, I'd always complain to City Guy that I was getting wet when we shared an umbrella, but now we're beautifully cozy and dry, walking together in the rain. Like I said...it's the small things.

We also went to our favorite eyeglass boutique, Disrespectacles, to get our glasses and sunglasses adjusted. It's been on my to-do list for a while, so it felt good to check it off. Then, we went to our favorite neighborhood brunch joint and had pancakes. Yum.

This morning, I ran another race in Central Park. The Japan Day 4m race. The entrant field was only about 2500, so it was a really lovely small race. A bit hot for my taste, but I improved my pace! Yay! Progress is a good feeling. I'm working my way back to marathon shape. I do love running, and I guess the New York Road Runners is one thing I do love about New York.

We came home, showered and got some groceries at Gristedes, and I cooked brunch. Then we read the Sunday Times....print edition....I hadn't done that in a while. Usually read the paper online. It was kinda nice.

Got to go beddy-bye now. The city's beautiful right now....

I'm alive!

The weather gods must have heard my cries b/c the weather for this morning's race was so beautiful it made me feel all warm and tingly inside. 50 degrees, sunny with a light breeze blowing - perfect running weather. And yes, my friends, the fact that I am here to write this post is proof that I finished the Healthy Kidney 10K this morning, my first race since Dec 2005, and I lived to tell the tale. I'm not going to embarrass myself by telling you my time. Let's just say of the 6273 people racing today, I was cruising in the back of the pack.

But I had a very zen moment as hundreds of runners whizzed past me--sometimes being in the back of the pack has its advantages. You can breathe easy--at least figuratively. People aren't elbowing you for room. There's no shame in huffing and puffing up hills or even walking when your legs give out. It's very forgiving there in the back of the pack. Contrary to my greatest fear, I was not the last place finisher, and I enjoyed myself. Just another reminder that when you take the ego out of living in NYC, it's really not that bad.

Today was also my initiation into color-coded bibs. Starting in April, the NY Road Runners are using a corraling system that requires you to line up at the start line based on your pace. "NYRR-member entrants with an NYRR race history will be assigned based on that history at the time that they registered for the race." This means, there's no way you can fudge your pace b/c they know your last best time. Your race bib is actually color-coded...so the scary fast runners are blue or red and then it's yellow, green, orange, light blue, pink (c'est moi!), purple, gray, and brown, in that order, from fastest to slowest--for a sum total of ten colors.

I think the pink is a very pretty myself, but I was remarking to City Guy (who wore yellow) that this color coded bib thing was soooo New York. I mean, now, everyone can tell how fast or slow you are by the color on your chest, so knowing how competitive New Yorkers, people are going to be raring to earn those "fast" color bibs as some kind of badge of honor. I know I intend to--as much as I really do like pink. The truth is, with today's dismal performance, I may be donning purple or even gray my next time out, but with hard work, I know light blue or even orange are well within my grasp! Bruhhaaaaaa! Happy running!

Bitching About The Weather

Just for a moment, can I say I'm sick of this weather? Yeah, I know Michael Bloomberg's outdoor plants need watering, but it's May 16th, and I'm still wearing my winter clothes because it's 50-degrees out and raining without end. With wind chill, it's in the 40's. Can you believe this? All I want to do is take a nap!

Doesn't it feel like the sun's been out only a few days this spring? When, oh, when will the sunshine return? Where or where could it be? Probably in California. Oh no you didn't! Yes I did!

Maybe the gloom and doom will lift tomorrow. The forecast is for 70-degrees and sun. I'm supposed to run a 10K at 9 am. I do hope the weather is good, so I don't catch my death of cold. I haven't been training consistently, so the race is going to be painful enough without being rained on. Plus, these New York Road Runners are hard core - they just zip right past you up those Central Park Hills. I used to think a 10 minute-mile pace was pretty decent. In LA, it's all good. They pat you on the back for trying. Here, a 10-minute mile means more than half the runners in the race are faster than you. To really be respectable, for a woman, you have to run an 8-9 minute mile.

This will be the first race I've run since 2005. I was pretty serious about my running back them. Took a running class with the Road Runners and was faster than I'd ever been. Now, I'm a slow poke again, and I could quite possibly be finishing last tomorrow. See those guys in the picture? They'll have finished the race, eaten their bananas and bagels...maybe a second helping..., changed out of their running shorts and gotten on their subways home before I cross the finish line.We'll see. I keep thinking, "A for effort! A for effort!"

Either way, I'll be motivated to train better. I signed up for a few races this summer, as part of my training for the NYC Marathon. Yes, that's right. After two years of postponing my guaranteed entry, I'm going to try and run it this year. City Guy's running it too!