We found a place last weekend in the Hawley-Green neighborhood of Syracuse. It’s half of an old house– 2 floors, 2 bedrooms. I should be able to easily walk to work, and there are plenty of little restaurants and a coffee shop nearby. The landlord (and the community) seem incredibly nice. Kelly, for some reason, felt it necessary to tell our landlord that I love wearing long underwear. I do, but dang. I thought that was private.
A street view view of our new street (taken in warmer times– we’ve noticed that the google van was in Syracuse on the most beautiful day of all time).
Oh, and I ran three miles on the treadmill the other day– it’s nice have sore quads again. I hope to get at least a few Prospect Park runs in before we leave. But it’s supposed to snow here, so we’ll see.
Just a quick update. Kelly and I checked out the Banksy show this weekend (photoset on flickr), and also hit the Guggenheim. The Catharine Opie photographs were pretty spectacular, but the museum seemed mostly empty otherwise. I returned from Austin exhausted and relieved, and will take my oral exams by video conference before thanksgiving. We’re looking forward to lots of visitors: my folks this week, Libby and J next week, Bob and Sabia the following week, then down to Charlotte for Thanksgiving. It’s a whirlwind until Christmas.
I’m planning to get back to running this week, at least on the treadmill… the weather is getting perfect for long runs in the park though.
It may only be the recent trip to Texas, but Kelly and I are now addicted to Friday Night Lights.
For my long run this week, I decided to take the Shore Road path from Bay Ridge to as far as it would get me towards Coney Island, then switch to the streets to get all the way there. It was great to have new scenery, and the run felt good and went by quickly.
Splits-wise, I was right on track. Average pace was 8:44, and most of my miles were within about 10 seconds of this pace– nothing too fast (not even mile 2!). That is an unheard-of level of consistency for me. There were a couple of 9+ plus miles, when I was navigating the boardwalk and the streets leading back to the trail, but all in all, each mile was within the 90 seconds of my marathon pace I was shooting for. The only downer about the whole run was getting splashed with gutter water by a minivan on Cropsey just after I reached Coney Island.
Kelly met up with me about 2 miles before I finished so we could go get bagels from 5-Star together, and we finished running just in time to be caught in a downpouer. Literally at 12.96 miles, the sky opened up and ruined most people’s day. Once I finished, we found shelter and waited fo a bus that took us to the bagel shop. Delicious.
I was already soaked with sweat before the rain came down, and my feet were sloshing in my shoes. I’ve never had this much of a foot-sweat problem, so I’m hoping it’s not my newish shoes. I have no complaints about them or the toe-socks otherwise. Not a single blister since I started using them.
Also, today was one of my safest runs– the Road ID that mom bought me arrived yesterday and I broke it in today. Let’s hope I never need it. Getting ready for the run last night, I laid out all my gear, and realized how much stuff I have when I run. I’ll post a breakdown of this soon; it’s kind of funny how much I take with me… I always think of running as this free-and-easy, no-equipment-required sport, but I’m loaded down with junk on these long runs.
I’ve been busily training for the Buffalo marathon, like I said. Of course there’s only a couple of online traces of it so far:
my RunLog profile
& my worst fears addressed
I spent most of the last 5 months eagerly awaiting for the release of the Garmin Forerunner 405, a new stopwatch/GPS/Heart Rate Monitor that was set to revolutionize my training. It finally arrived in late April, and it has– thanks to Beth and Nathaniel for convincing me it would be something that could help me out. Best part about it, it tells the internet what I’ve done & where. Like for instance, I ran a really brisk 5 miles today, my last tempo run before the race Sunday. Take a look at it in near limitless detail.
So, like I said, it felt great. The day had been rainy, but clouds opened up in the afternoon and gave me a chance to break out of my tapering slump. An intense yoga class later, and I’m feeling totally ready for the race (and also ready for bed). Just have to pick out some jams, and I’ll be ready to go. Our flight leaves early on Saturday.
My sister Beth was here this weekend, but, for some reason, there is no photographic evidence to support that claim. I really need to start bringing my camera around more. We were having so much fun, though, I kept forgetting it. Highlights included the great pizza at Lucali’s and John Mulaney’s hilarious set at Union Hall. Also, Beth let us take her on our errands and treated them like it was all part of the tour! That is the mark of a great house guest.
I just found out that downtown Austin’s Intel-building-that-never-was got imploded this week. I wish I could have been there, it was only a few blocks from our house… just across Town Lake.
Watching that video reminded me of the night that Dan, Kelly, and I stayed up all night at Union Pool to watch the Twin Keyspan Gas Tanks fall in Williamsburg in July 2001. I remember being both filled with glee and a little bit terrified. Once the debris cloud started creeping our way, we actually started running. It seemed like a big deal at the time.
I never really thought about it until today, but we spent another notable evening at Union Pool again 3 months later after we’d all fled the towers falling in Manhattan on September 11th. What I remember most of all from that night is that I finally reached my parents by phone at around 11 when we were walking back to the apartment. It was such a confusing night– we were still reeling from the day, having a few beers, and then watching George Bush unwrap his new rhetoric of evil and terror for the first time the on the little TV behind the bar. I have no idea of what I actually said to my folks on the phone, but I’m sure it was odd. Do y’all remember?
Yesterday I saw two disasters photographed on flickr:
Isabel’s fine, though Beth said the blood tests were more traumatic than the biting. Kelly was at home when the crash happened, but only heard it. She snapped some pics as well, but I haven’t seen them yet. I’m just glad she wasn’t out on the street (as far as I can tell, there were no injuries and no children on the bus). Be safe!
