Chicago Marathon

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:13:16 -0400

Coming soon...

Broad Street Run

Mon, 5 May 2008 15:37:29 -0400

The Broad Street Run is a 10-mile race held each year in Philadelphia on the first weekend in May. It is a point-to-point course down Philadelphia’s longest street, from way up north at Central High down to the Navy Yard in South Philly. Besides being straight, it is also mostly downhill, which is nice. The race attracts world-class runners; in fact, the finishing time of last year’s winner (a Kenyan, naturally) stands as the fastest 10 mile time ever recorded in the United States.

This year, 22,000 people were registered. I had been looking forward to my second running of the event and felt my preparation was pretty good. When I lined up at the start yesterday morning, I had every reason to believe that I would achieve my goal time, which was three minutes faster than the previous year.

Then I started my run. Immediately, I could feel something was wrong. The anterior tibialis is the muscle that runs along the shinbone and acts to raise the front of the foot upward and lay it down again. Well, BOTH of my anterior tibs seized up. It was not painful pers se; it was more like an uncomfortable tightness or ache. It affected my every stride. THWAP THWAP THWAP went my left foot against the ground (the left was worse than the right), as I could not control my landings and had what the podiatrists call “foot slap.”

I was really confused, as I had never experienced this before. The muscles were essentially in spasm and not working. I stubbornly persisted, hoping it would get better. They eventually loosened up around mile 5, however by then I had lost time which I was never able to recover. I changed my goal midcourse to attempting to finish in at least the same time as I did last year. But then at mile 9, with the home stretch in sight, the sun came out and I suddenly felt like I was going to throw up! Apparently the stress of running with the messed-up gait and then trying to play catchup finally hit me. Rather than risk puking on the side of the road, I decided to walk/jog it in. I ended up coming in about two minutes slower than last year. But at least I finished; during the early part of the course, I was worried that I wouldn’t finish at all.

Why did my legs rebel like that? It might’ve had something to do with the fact that four days earlier, I had played in a spring league game. It was the first time I had skated in six weeks, and we were short on players and had to double-shift all night. I was a bit sore after that (though nothing out of the ordinary). I guess it wasn’t a bright idea to skate so hard after a six-week absence, then not bother to stretch for three days, THEN take on a major run. Hmmm. Lesson learned.

Nevertheless, I did enjoy the scenic route through the various neighborhoods of my hometown. The Broad Street Run is a fantastic run and I’ll certainly be back next year.

P.S. In case you’re wondering, out of 19,150 total finishers, I came in 16,255th. My left knee complained for a few days afterwards, but with some rest, ice and ibuprofen everything was fine.

First boxing match

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:39:31 -0400

Last week, I attended my first boxing match ever, amateur or professional. Frankly, I had never had much interest in boxing, preferring hockey as my contact sport of choice for watching and playing.

However, I was intrigued when I found out that one of my coworkers at the hospital (his day job) was a professional boxer. He had amassed quite a record: 38 wins, 5 losses as an amateur and 18 wins (16 by knockout), 3 losses as a professional. Now this man is one of the most soft-spoken, unassuming persons you will ever meet. His name is Rasheem “The Untouchable” Brown. When I learned he was fighting for the tri-state championship, I did something I thought I’d never do... buy a ticket for a boxing match.

It was quite an experience. A bunch of us were there from work. As a total newbie, I had only the vaguest idea of the protocol of the event (I didn’t even know that a round was three minutes long - duh). It became clear, though, that he was landing more punches than the other guy. Even I could see that! He ended up winning the ten-round bout by decision (unanimous).

Way to go Rasheem!!

A close encounter with Rick Springfield

Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:32:54 -0400

We recently went to see Rick Springfield down in Atlantic City, at one of the casinos. He puts on a VERY high-energy show. One of the highlights of his concerts is when he comes out into the audience. He walks on the armrests of the seats, climbs over chairs from one row to the next, jumps on top of the soundboard, etc. etc... all on his own without a spotter, while simultaneously singing AND playing his guitar!

I've seen him multiple times and the closest he'd ever come to me before was two rows. But at the show that we just went to, he actually stood right on our seats! My partner lent him a hand up and over to the next row! Check it out!

(Unfortunately you can't see us in the video. I was so stunned that I didn't have the presence of mind to try to get us in the picture. And p.s. - That’s not me screaming on the audio!)

Can you believe that this man is 58 years old!?