5K Goal Mission Accomplished!

The sub-20 5K goal was set back in 2006. Between a partially torn Achilles in 2007, finding bad dieting for a while (the effects of “I can afford to eat anything?!” after grad school), running again in 2009 (talked about my goal in the “Last Lecture” series) only to find myself off track again, it has been a journey. So the commitment to fitness and losing about 20lbs., increasing my leg strength, and intervals lead to today on the treadmill (who I have had some other battles with recently) on a post-workout cardio run.

Not sure what it was but basically I was at 10:02 at the 1.5 mile mark going at a 6:00/mile pace, I felt good and I said (probably out loud) "we are in touching distance of a sub 20:00 3-mile” (still recognizing that a 5K is 3.1 miles) so I increased the tempo with the idea that I would do it for a 40-second interval. I kept it going at about 5:40/mile pace until I reached the 2-mile mark at 13:00 and dropped it back to the 6:00/mile pace knowing I could clinch the 3.1 mark at 19:40. I hung in there... and finished with a flurry and was at 19:30 at the 3.1 mile mark.

I can only say it’s amazing when you accomplish something like this. There were no cameras, no cheering, no fanfare but just a bewildered person on the treadmill next to me wondering why I was pumping my fist in my cool down. That’s the glory of running and the glory of sport… finding yourself believing you can do anything in life on a Friday afternoon at New York Sports Club gym in the East Village.

Special thanks to Stephanie who set this goal for me many eons ago and all the people who trudge along in the gym trying to become better simply for the most important person: yourself.

Bridges...

Clinton had his bridge to the 21st century and Sarah Palin had hers to.... when I look at the photo of the Washington bridge, one of the many that take you the island of Manhattan (interesting fact: Hudson discovered it on September 11th), and noticing one thing: there are two lanes to this bridge. This bridge leads to the greatest city that home to every major sports league's operation and home to 6 professional sport franchises, not counting the teams close the area in Long Island and New Jersey. It's where I am teaching classes with people working in the field. When you take the lane to go away from the bridge, it's the rest of the college and universities schools making sure their students get their sport management degrees doing internships with minor league teams and the in-school athletics department, where faculty conduct research that only their peers will read.

As such, loving my life in the East Village teaching at a school where the program isn't just a cash cow but a viable degree where students can gain entry into the field. Looking myself in the mirror is easy. Who made this all happen? Apparently, it was the people who burned the bridge. Happy swimming.

Eric Cantona once said... wait! ( I'm up to here with your philosophy. I'm still getting over the seagulls!) in the movie "Looking for Eric" that

"The most noblest form of revenge is forgiveness"

The Art of Losing

(Picture: NYC apartment last week before going to a function on campus)


Wow.


NYU?


Word slowly gets out.


What happened?


No comment.


I am living in NYC and can afford it.




"One Art"
By Elizabeth Bishop (Worcester, MA)

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

--Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

------------------------------------------
Closure on November 22, 2009 to come soon...

Closure on November 22, 2010 to come later...

I might get my voice back soon.

Sardines are still following the trawler, apparently. Mr. Eric has apparently signed for me a NY Cosmos jersey.

Regardless, the Renaissance is alive and well.