NYC Half Marathon

The NYC 1/2 marathon has a new route through Manhattan, and it was capped at $10k runners this year. So at noon yesterday, the NYRR site came down as we all rushed to register!

It also turned out to be pretty expensive ($70 vs $17 last year), but we're hoping it's worth it, especially since we didn't make it into the NYC Marathon.

Aug 27th -- here we come! We're planning to have an Asha pasta party the night before (cram in as many non-alcoholic carbs as we can!).

Marathon Guide

A bunch of folks in our group are trying to figure which marathon to run. Ketul pointed out a great resource: http://www.marathonguide.com

Click on Calendars for a rundown on the different marathons across the world.

Think we're sticking with the Marine Corps Marathon this year :)

Online pedometer

Rahul (one of the marathon prpgram organizers) posted a link to an online pedometer today -- had also found it online last week and found it a neat little tool: www.gmap-pedometer.com

Used it to figure out that Fal and I had run close to 4 miles (rather than the scheduled 3 miles) on Sunday.

Summer Run with Fal

Was supposed to be 95 degrees today -- yikes! So Fal and I decided to head out early (8:30 am on a Sunday morn). Surprisingly, there were quite a few others out on the streets of Hoboken.

We kept it simple -- run in the shade, walk when overheating, and keep talking to a minimum ;)

We ran for over an hour, which was hard, but we treated ourselves to a run through a cool fountain in Elysian Park and an extra bout of stretches at the end.

Asha 5k and Longest Run Yet!

We got up earlier than usual and headed over to Riverside Park for the annual Asha 5k (200 runners and $25k raised this year -- awesome (this was an event I helped to start 2 years ago -- can't believe it's gotten so big!)).

Coach Jane wanted us to not be tempted to start sprinting when surrounded by other (faster!) runners, so we did part of our run before the 5k started (Yesh did ~2.5 miles and I did ~2 miles). So we were already tired when the run began. Gotta tell you though, being surrounded by other runners makes a huge difference! The additional 3.1 miles was a sinch. Yesh finished it in 32 mins, and I finished it in 38. Not bad!



The weather was great for running (strong breeze) and the running along the river was amazing. The Asha volunteers also get many cheers for making it into such a fun run!



Yesh and I also managed to win ourselves some raffle prizes after the race -- I got 3 free manicures (ehem -- someone remind me to use them, please!) and Yesh won a free Road ID.

We then headed over for a massive and yummy brunch with our favorite Texans, Anita and Nik.

Didn't get in to NYC Marathon

Suckadoos! Neither Yesh nor I got into the NYC Marathon (it's by lottery and the entrant results were just announced).

So guess it's either the Marine Corps Marathon in DC (or perhaps Auckland!?!) for us! Both are on October 29th. That gives us 144 days to get ready!

Running in the rain

So I started my 1/2 hour run yesterday just as the huge clouds came out -- had to remind myself about Coach Jane's response to one of the q's in the intro sessions:

Q: How do I run in the rain?
A: Put one foot in front of the other and keep going...

And actually, that's all it took! Was completely drenched by the end of it (and occassionally worried about being struck by lightning, and dying alone on the pavements of Hoboken), but it was actually loads of fun. MUCH better than running in the yucky heat (like on Tuesday -- euch!). And I got to sing a few (off-key) Hindi-movie raining-scene songs :)

Now I'm just wondering if my shoes will dry before tomorrow's run!

Found out later that Yesh, Rahul and Monica had also been out pounding the streets in the rain... glad I wasn't the only one!

Looking forward to the next run...