Qaptain Qwerty

THE JOY OF SWIMMING

2012-02-06T23:45:00.000-05:00

I recently downloaded all the workout entries I made on DailyMile.com. It is nice to store data in the Cloud but what if something between you and the Cloud breaks down? It cannot hurt to back-up your data every now and then.

With the DailyMile data neatly downloaded in a CSV file, I was able to quickly filter the data. Of special interest to me is the info on my swimming experience. While I achieved some personal records with running, in December 2011, the first few months of 2012 were slow with organized races. First the NYRR Manhattan Half became an untimed run, then the Valentine's Day Run by the Holidays Marathons (HM) group got cancelled because of, what else, permit issue. All along I thought all HM races would be held in Tibbett Brook Park, but that was just my wrong assumption. Other than one week of rest from running because of a foot injury, the new year saw me running regularly. I still enjoy running but know that in 2012 I improved at swimming. It is time to review my swim data.

I was never a good swimmer and still am not. Swimming was something I would do while on vacation, in the hotel pool. The next day my arms/shoulders would ache a lot, the price of leading the inactive life. Last year, when I started swimming regularly with my son, on the first visit, according to the DailyMile data, I covered about 50 meters in 45 minutes or so. There was much resting between the short trips from one side of the pool to the other. I vaguely recall that it was the pool width that I swam along, not the length. One good kick off the side of the pool and I would be about half-way across already so it was not really that much swimming. Yet I was tired by the time I got to the other side of the pool. During subsequent visits I would increase the number of "laps", or just the number of trips from one side of the pool to the other to slowly build up my endurance. Then Chelsea Pool was closed for renovation, if I recall correctly, and I finally made the trip to Flushing Meadows Aquatic Center (FMAC).

As noted in http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2012/01/i-wanna-try-tri.html , I was still not that good at FMAC. Just by going there more often somehow helped me to get better. For most of January, I maintained a total distance of 200 meters per visit, non-continuous of course. But I am lasting longer and longer with this past Saturday reaching a new peak of 350 meters. From what little I read about swimming, a mile or two is the typical distance good swimmers put in per workout. I am not even a quarter there but if I can go from 54 to 350 in a few months, it seems possible.

date	activity_type	distance
10/08/2011	Swimming	54
10/15/2011	Swimming	76
10/22/2011	Swimming	82
11/06/2011	Swimming	200
01/07/2012	Swimming	200
01/08/2012	Swimming	200
01/14/2012	Swimming	200
01/15/2012	Swimming	100
01/16/2012	Swimming	225
01/22/2012	Swimming	300
01/28/2012	Swimming	300
02/04/2012	Swimming	350

BROOKLYN MARATHON RE-VISITED

2012-02-04T23:25:00.000-05:00

A few days ago I finally got around to ordering photos from John Curry Studio for the Brooklyn Marathon, which I ran in way back on November 20, 2011. Talk about procrastination, eh? The deadline to order is February 23, I think, and I ordered in late January. Somewhat like how my high school classmates seem to wait until the last minute to buy their e-ticket for the reunion in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. But I digress. If you ran in the Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon, or know someone who did, support the local business John Curry Studio / 211 Studio by buying the photos at

https://www.backprint.com/view_event.asp?PID=bp%12%7DCu&EVENTID=95178

HOW DO I READ THEE, PART 2

2012-02-03T23:11:00.000-05:00

In this day and age, I still prefer physical books, mostly because the public libraries still carry them and that they are less prone to damages. They also do not require much else beside the strength to carry them and a pair of good eyes to read them. I do not totally shun ebooks and such, especially when they are free. Books, movies, and such have copyrights that expire after so many years. I have heard of Project Gutenberg but somehow was not interested in reading classic books on the computer. When I am at the computer, there are so many things to do and reading is the last thing I would consider doing. But one day on the iPad there was a sale of the aptly-named app called Classic and I bought it. Right within the app, classic books are downloaded for you, available on the iPad and to be read whenever you have the time and the device itself. It did get me started with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne but like the computer, there are too many things to do with the iPad when in possession of it. It also does not help that I share the device with my son and my wife. I fear being robbed of the iPad on the subway so bringing it for the commute is out of the question.

Thanks to my recent, belated adoption of the smartphone (just some Android thingy instead of an iPhone, but it does its many jobs), I have given ebook-reading another go. The phone came with many apps, one of which is Books 1.4.5. The app can fetch out-of-copyright books (read: free) as well as those whose copyright are still in force and thus carry a price. Being the frugal person that I am, I only downloaded some classic books, like Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Lately, reading Expectations is how I sometimes while away the time. But wait, isn't a smartphone much like a computer in that you can do much with it and thus have no desire to read while using it? Yes and no. Like the typical smartphone, my phone's keyboard is a pain to use. Sure I have been using the phone lately to write draft versions of blog entries but it is an unpleasant experience that I try to avoid. Also, thanks my limited (read: 200 MB/month) data plan, I consciously avoid using the phone to access the Internet, except for the hourly or so checking of email and Facebook. The phone can play music and such but there are times I want to use it without having to untangle the headphone. So reading is actually a preferred use of the smartphone albeit the tiny screen is not that great for long period of time.

On the audiobook front, I rely solely on LibriVox.org, which is somewhat like Audible.com and other audiobook services/sellers, but the books on LibriVox are classic that are freely distributable. I somewhat randomly picked The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The files I chose are in MP3 format and the sound player has no intelligence to bookmark my listening progress. The story itself sometimes has entire chapter devoted to religion or philosophy, which I find boring, so I have been plodding along slowly and only up to Book 8 Chapter 8. To make things worse, the few characters in the book are often referred to by different names, which I find confusing. Ugh. I should just delete the files and move on to something else but I hate to leave a book not completely read. Maybe Dostoyevsky wrote a sequel called The Brothers Kalashnikov and it has more actions and no preaching.

Brooklyn Public Library and such has downloadable media for borrowing. My last brush with the service was a few years ago, involving movies and the use of OverDrive software. It was a major hassle, what with no player for the Mac and some other technical issues. Things may be simpler with ebooks and such so I think I will give it a shot. Eventually I will run out of classic books to read/listen so borrowing the latest best sellers would be a sensible next-step.

HOW DO I READ THEE?

2012-01-30T22:51:00.000-05:00

I often wish that I re-kindled my interest in running sooner than 15 years after completing the 1994 and 1995 NYC Marathons. Life sometimes gets in the way, I guess. Reading is another old interest I wish I got back with sooner. I cannot recall when a I got back with reading but I know there was a period of time after 1997 that I did not even know where the local public library was. I was in a new neighborhood in Brooklyn, with a new life. I am one of those people who rarely buy books and instead rely heavily on the public library. Not knowing where the library was meant I did not read much, although it is possible that I borrowed from NYPL since at the time I worked in Manhattan. Still, I am pretty sure there was a block of time during which I did not read books at all. How did I while away all those hours commuting in the subway to and from work?

LET ME COUNT THE WAY

I cannot recall when I jumped back into reading but I am doing it avidly and in a few different ways. In this electronic age, a computer geek like me should embrace ebooks and such but the frugal person in me decide otherwise. The down side of buying ebooks is not that much different than physical books. They cost x dollars and most likely will be read only once, at most twice. I am talking fiction books here, which is what I mostly read. With ebooks, you cannot even pass them on to others, say, by donating to the public library or leaving outside your front yard in a box with a note that screams FREE. Of course with ebook you also have to have the reader, sufficiently charged, with you, be it a Kindle, a Nook, or some other gadget. What is more, the readers can be damaged if dropped whereas the typical physical book can take much abuse and remains usable.

Physical books are still my preferred medium. Nowadays, I borrow from both Brooklyn Public Library and from Jersey City Public Library. I mostly take whatever large-print books that catch my attention, although I prefer stories about the old days before technology makes life goes fast. I especially hate books about over-stressed office workers, whether in a law firm or in a police precinct. Occasionally I would go back to paperback books, with their tiny letters, usually for the sci-fi series, especially Star Wars. Since I usually do not have time to watch movies or TV series, I also like to read whatever books based on the movies or shows, whether original or spin-off.

Regular readers of this blog may recall from posts like The Eyes Are the First To Go that I am a believer in audiobooks. Again, although there are great services like Audible.com out there, I do not like the idea of buying a book and listening to it just once or twice. You do not end up with old books taking up space in the physical world but instead the "used" audiobooks just clutter the gadget you put them in. Again I count on the public libraries to provide me with audiobooks, in the form of audio CDs. You do not have the convenience of digital books but the price is great. I do not have a dedicated CD player so end up carrying a portable DVD player but it is not so bad. Surely I can buy one for $30 or so but why buy if the DVD player works fine. Maybe I will ask around, perhaps someone I know has a CD player that he no longer uses.

Physical books and audio CDs, all from the public libraries, are just two medium I consume reading materials. To a smaller extent, I actually read ebook and listen to audiobooks, both on the iPad and the Galaxy cell phone. But let's save the discussion for next time. In the mean time, here are the books and audiobooks I read recently. I was initially disappointed that The Navigator was not about the old days of Vikings and such but it turned out to be a good thriller. The Wrecker was a good book about the old days when steam engine ruled the world. Storm Cycle is somewhat of a chick lit, which I do not care for, and involves too much computers but it was OK. I actually tried to read Cry The Beloved Country years ago on audiocassettes but never went far. South Africa and apartheid, talk about the unfairness of life! Last but not least, Impact was an interesting story about boating, covert government actions, and astronomy.

Happy Lunar New Year!

2012-01-23T14:44:00.001-05:00

I normally do not take a day off for Lunar New Year but this year the wife had some ideas of doing some New Year visiting of the nearby relatives so I used a vacation day for the occasion. Son still went to school although half of the kids at his bus stop did not show up. Maybe in ten years Asians will have more political power and can have the Lunar New Year as a federal holiday. I still recall reading one Andy Rooney rant about Veterans Day and Memorial Day. Many people already mix the two, even though the former is for ex-soldiers who are still alive while the latter is for those who died. Might as well combine those two holidays to make room for Lunar New Year. Then us Asians and others can have the day off, kids off from school, etc. Again, that will only happen when Asians become a more powerful political force.

We actually did not do much about the New Year until late in the day. In the morning I did drive my mother to give gifts to the nurses and others at the health clinic she frequented throughout the year. I had some time to refine the art of strategically placing text and such onto an origami Sonobe octahedron. You may already know that I enjoy making Sonobe cubes, but the octahedron is a step up. The cube is just that, six square sides, straight edges, sharp corners. Whereas the cube uses six pieces of paper, the octahedron needs twelve. I thought I got the design down pat the night before but this morning learned otherwise. An hour or so in Photoshop, then printed out the 12 pages and folded them, and I finally have an octahedron that says "Happy New Year", as shown below. The D-tag is included in the photo for size comparison. A D-tag is usually attached to sneakers of runners to track their start and finish time.

NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon - NOT!!!

2012-01-21T22:53:00.000-05:00

Late last year, after two consecutive weeks of reaching a Personal Record (P.R.), one for minutes per mile and one for finish time for a 15K race, I eagerly looked forward to the NYRR Manhattan Half-Marathon. When I ran the race in January 2011, I did not know that its finish time was to be my P.R. for the rest of the year. It was a freezing cold day, in the teen Fahrenheit and at one time even dipped to 9 F, yet I finished with 2:23. With the Brooklyn Half-Marathon in May, I was off by one minute but from then on it got worse, albeit by two or three minutes. I sweat easily and simply do not run well in the summer or warm weather. The year rolled on and Manhattan Half-Marathon 2012 slowly came into view. P.R. or P.K.!!!

I much prefer to show up at races all decked out with bib and D-tag. That way even if I am late to the race I can just jump in. As long as the start mat is still out, I can still participate for my own race does not start until I cross that mat. Even though I had only an hour to get from Downtown Newport, Jersey City to the NYRR Office on 89th Street near Central Park, it was a chance I was willing to take. I started work an hour early so I could leave an hour early, 6 PM, to try to get my bib etc by 7 PM. It was an adventure!

I should have left a tad earlier than 6 but I probably left at 6:05. There was no problem with the PATH train although in hindsight I wish I got out of the PATH at 14th Street instead of at the last stop, 34th Street. Since it was the last stop, there were many people filling the platform and I had to slowly lumber along. There is no direct way to get to the NYRR Office. The plan was to take the N or R from 34th Street to 59th Street then transfer for the 4 or 5. I was so happy when I caught an R at 34th Street but my joy was short-lived as the train was just sitting there waiting for something. After a few harrowing minutes, it finally moved, slowly, and eventually got to 59th Street. I absolutely hate the IRT Line (4/5/6) for its super-crowded cars so I was not surprised to find the 4 that was in the station all packed. I got in the next train but by then it was like 15 minutes to 7. Just how accommodating the NYRR Office is for office workers I do not know. It is the first time I try to pick up bib etc after work. By the time I got out of the 86th Street station it was 6:50!!! That was it, it was just up to my legs, lung, etc, not some subway conditions, to get me to the NYRR Office. With my warm-but-heavy leather jacket, I ran for the Office. It was encouraging to see a few people running in the same direction of the Office, probably office workers in a similar situation. I did get to the NYRR Office with a few minutes to spare. Mission accomplished!

Friday night before going to bed I got things set aside, ready for use the next morning. D-tag on shoelace, 3 packs of Energy Labs GU, GPS watch charged, winter tech gloves, tight pants, official cotton sweat, and bib. Last but not least, my trusty fanny-pack, to be slung across my chest. Even though I now have a water belt, for an NYRR race there is no need to carry water, for me anyway. I heard a story about funny-looking or -smelling water at a recent NYRR event, but I believe that's just a freak accident. I think I have a strong stomach and probably can tolerate it. The fanny-pack carries more stuff than the tiny pouch that comes with the water belt, too.

In the days that led to race day Saturday, a snow-fall was forecasted for the day. There were speculations about the race being cancelled, perhaps indirectly by NYC Parks Department closing Central Park, or being turned into a "fun run" with no official scoring. I went to bed fully expecting nothing will change...

Early Saturday morning I learned that indeed the race would be on but yes, there will be no official timing. That did it for me. Snow was already falling, there may be delay on the subway, and I have some work duty in the afternoon. It was highly unlikely I will run fast enough to P.R. but even if I magically pull that off, the time will not be recorded or published anywhere. It is too much of a hassle to travel to the race for an un-timed race. The work duty in the middle of the day did not help. I am not bitter at all about NYRR's decision, just that it does not work for me. So I bailed out and thought I would do a run later in the day.

Safety first. There will be other races later on. As a matter of fact, I plan to run a half-marathon in the Valentine's Day Run organized by the Holiday Marathons people. It will have no official score but that's the deal with Holiday Marathons.

YOU ARE SO VAIN

2012-01-19T23:31:00.000-05:00

It seems the web blackout on 18 January 2012 had an effect on SOPA. Back to our regular programming! To be exact, whatever that comes into my mind.

At one time, I started a series about whatever I observed while out jogging. I only wrote once for the "series", about the seemingly unnecessary drive-thru at the Starbuck's that sat in Raymore & Flanigan's parking lot. I did make many other "observations" while jogging but only share them with my Facebook friends. Here they are at last for the blogosphere, Vanity Plates I Saw While Running.

I like the challenge of figuring out the real words behind the plates. New York City being the melting pot of many cultures, for two of these plates it helps if you know Spanish or Mandarin Chinese. That is all the tips you will get from me. Happy decoding!

STOP SOPA!

2012-01-18T08:33:00.002-05:00

STOP SOPA! MY VERSION OF A WEB BLACKOUT. THE BLACK BLOCK BELOW IS REALLY JUST THE PHRASE "STOP SOPA!" REPEATED A FEW TIMES, BLACK LETTERS ON BLACK BACKGROUND.

STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA!

STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA! STOP SOPA!

I Wanna Try A Tri

2012-01-17T23:07:00.002-05:00

Over the Dr. King holiday weekend, I took my son, J, swimming all three days of the long weekend. Up to recently, these swimming trips are mostly for my son's sake. He needs to exercise but does not share my love of running. Or even walking. He had a few years of swimming lessons and practice so he is good at it. If I have the choice, I would not accompany him into the pool. I can barely swim and quickly run out of breath so I can only swim a short distance. A very short distance. But if I do not swim with J, he most likely will not like the experience as much. Beside, even though I am a lousy swimmer compared to J, since we only do open swim in shallow water, should some freak accident happens, I can be of immediate help since I am already in the pool. Ideally, J's cousins should swim with him. They need the exercise, too, either to build strength or to lose weight. Unfortunately, they usually have excuses not to go and are thus unreliable partners. Oh well, father-and-son team it is then!

The first time I got into the open pool at the Flushing Meadows Aquatic Center, or Flushing pool for short, I thought to myself, "There is no way I can swim the entire pool length!" Luckily, the depth is only 3'7", so any time I felt fired I would just stand up. If I get splashed in the face or take a gulp of water, I would stand up and the discomfort would be over. I recorded the distance for my my swimming exercises as 200 meters or thereabout, based on the length of the pool (25 meters) and the number of times I "swim" from one end to the other. In reality, I always interrupt the trip across the pool, because of tiredness, water splash, water-swallowing, or one of many other factors. I definitely walked half of the time.

As a lousy swimmer, I always worry that if I do not move my arms fast I would sink quickly. Somehow this past Saturday, perhaps thanks to the serotonin or adrenaline generated from my morning 16-km (10-mile) run, I was able to experiment with swimming slowly and calmly. I was able to control my breathing and a few time almost made it across the entire 25 meters. On Sunday, even though the pool needed maintenance so we only had half an hour to swim, it was not as crowded so I had more chances to slowly swim across the entire pool length. I still felt tired afterward, but I was able to ignore interferences like water splashes from nearby swimmers. Monday I did even better, completely and calmly covered the entire 25 meters. I even soldiered on after taking a gulp of water.

Whenever I read beginner runners' declarations that they will some day run distance of x kilometers, I smile quietly. Been there, done that. I still want to do an ultra-marathon some day, something like a 60k, but that would be about it for me, as far as running. I will still try to aim for shorter finish time, like less than 2 hours for a half-marathon or sub-4 for a marathon. But how about something slightly different? Like a triathlon!

I got the idea from a co-worker I've been exchanging workout stories. He is a good swimmer and cycles often, but needs much work with running. I am a lousy swimmer, probably not that bad with cycling, and pretty confident about running. Just like a few years ago I did not think I had what it takes to run a half-marathon, never mind a full marathon, who knows how far I can swim a year or two from now? Like running events, not every triathlon involves the distance of the Ironman. There are sprint triathlons that involve short distances in swimming, cycling, and running. On TriFind.com, I even saw one that measure the effort in set amount of time, like 10 minutes of swimming, 30 minutes of cycling, and 60 minutes of running. I am sure I am far from being qualified for the swimming requirements, but I plan to work on it. Definitely not 2012, not 2013 either, but who know, 2014?! Check back in 2 years!

2011 Look-Back

2012-01-15T00:21:00.002-05:00

Is it too late in the year to have a look-back at the old year? Never mind, just pretend this is a bi-monthly magazine that did not cover the topic early enough, i.e. late in the old year before, and now have to push it out anyway. A quality magazine, I might add, not one of those that back-date to make it looks like the blog, uh, magazine, comes out regularly. Just kidding, TOTA!

So what happened in my life in 2011 that I considered memorable? Or at least the event somehow got stuck that I can recall without too much brain-wracking. To be fair to the months of the year, below I try to list at least one event per month. As expected, with aging and brain cells destroyed by cell phone use or other forms of radiation, for some months I could not recall anything at all. Luckily, there were old status updates in Facebook to re-visit. I sure could have used the Timeline feature so that I did not have to click Older Posts many times.

January - A very cold day to run, but the NYRR Manhattan Half Marathon turned out to be the PR to beat for the entire year. I ran non-stop, no water (!), and clocked at 2:23, the record remained unbeaten for the year.

February - While vacationing in the Orlando area, I finally got to meet Bill and Tahir. I know Bill for years as a work colleague. After many email messages, phone calls, and text chats, we finally met. Tahir and I went to Newtown High School (Elmhurst) together, Class of 1985, and did not know each other but that's the wonder of Facebook. I even got a nice welcome treat from Tahir and his wife.

March - I became hooked on the Millennium Trilogy and really needed to read the last of the series, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. Unfortunately, none of the public library systems in New York City had it soon enough. But the local Jersey City branch has it, only catch was it was the Large Print edition. I tore through the book (not literally) and came to appreciate large-print books more. Ever since then, unless I have to read a particular book, I usually just pick something off the large-print shelf.

April - Ugh, St. Louis Marathon. It was to be my first Marathon in 15 years, but because of hot weather it was cut short, for slow people like me who did not reach the half-way point at certain time. Luckily, the trip to St. Louis was also to see TOTA and her husband. I had the most relaxing few days of my life in a long time.

May - Being a resident of Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Half Marathon is one race I definitely had to be in. It was the Brooklyn Half that I bumped into at Coney Island in 2010. Up until then, I did not know such a thing, i.e. half-marathon, existed.

June - Somewhere along all that running my left foot got hurt so I decided to take the whole month off. I missed running a lot and found cycling really boring. Technically you operate a machine so you do not use that much of your own muscle power. Most mornings I come home not even breaking a sweat.

July - With the cost of running in official races costing so much, the Holiday Marathon series was a welcoming experience. The locale, Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, bordering Westchester, is far from convenient, but I finally made the trip, for the July 4th Run. I missed some trail markers and only ran 4 miles, not the 6 miles intended, but it was still a good group run.

Aug - Two weeks in China. Being not born in China and not one of those people who think greatly of the country just because some grandparent came from there, I was not that thrilled to be there, but hey, two weeks away from work is still two weeks from work. I heard much about Shanghai Beach and finally got there, only it was not a beach but just a waterfront.

September - Thanks to my friends on DailyMile and elsewhere, I discovered the joy of gu - they really make a difference. The body can carry only so much fuel, you need to replenish the fuel during long runs. Energy Lab GUs and such stuff do wonders for the long-distance runner. Speaking of long-distance, I also had my first U-haul driving experience, driving a truck from NY to Atlanta.

October - After years of living without a smartphone, I took the plunge. It was not an iPhone, but rather an Android phone, to be exact, the Samsung Galaxy. It sure is nice to have almost-constant access to email and such. At a price.

November - I did not get into the NYRR Marathon via lottery but there was the Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon. I actually did a full marathon, after a 15-year hiatus.

December - A new Personal Record! At the Jingle Bell Jog 6K, I had a new P.R. with pace of 10:07. Previous record was 10:22, from Coogan's Run, which was just 5K.

Sorry for the many references to running, but that's my life outside of work and family.

O Brother Where the Heck Art Thy Startup Files?

2012-01-13T22:47:00.002-05:00

Some time ago I rescued a Brother MFC off the street and it worked fine as a network scanner. I certainly did not need another printer, especially an inkjet, but the Brother's network scanning function can be useful at times.

The neighbor who threw the MFC away was not considerate enough to include the Mac driver software that may have come with the printer {grin}. Luckily, it was the year 200x so a quick trip to some Brother web site and I got all the software I needed. Unfortunately for my son, every time he logged in, with his own account, he would be prompted to configure the dang MFC. Son had no need for the device and wanted the setup software not to bother him. I believe strongly in not giving my users, i.e. Son, more powers or functions than needed, so I did not go through with the setup.

To disable the annoying behavior, the first place I visited was the Accounts preferences applet. Nothing in Login Items! How can that be? Next I opened the preferences window for the Brother applet called "Control Center." This applet certainly got launched somehow. There are checkboxes to tell the app to hide its splash screen and also to launch when the Mac starts. Unchecking those boxes should do the trick. Or so I thought. Still nothing, I spent a little time Googling for a solution but found nothing as well. Just more people who are so sure it is a simple issue to be solved with a visit to Accounts login items. Other people were more helpful and mentioned Library/LaunchAgent etc. The real solution, or perhaps more of a workaround, is to move the applets, ControlCenter and DeviceSelector, away from their default location of

HD>Library>Printers>Brother>Utilities

I moved the 2 apps a level up, i.e. right beneath Brother, and the problem went away. I still do not know how the programs got launched but they no longer launch merely because they were moved. Fine with me, problem solved. And, Brother, please do not pull these stunts. Put things that launch at login time in the, uh, Login Items folder.

Extra Income

2012-01-11T23:06:00.002-05:00

Extra income, who cannot use some? If you believe the spammers and the scammers, it is easy to come by. Make thousands of dollars per week stuffing envelopes! Er, would you have to first shell out thousands of dollars to buy "training materials"? Earn a few grands while you sleep!!! Hmm, any chance of missing some body parts after waking up? The promises from that "friend" about multi-level marketing ain't that exciting as well.

My wallet is badly hurt after I claimed my guaranteed entry for the 2012 NYC Marathon. $216, up from 2011's $150! The sport of running is supposed to be inexpensive to get into. Of course in the 2 years I have been actively run, I spent some money on races, club membership, tech clothes, gadgets, and accessories. $200 for a Garmin GPS watch, $50 for a heart rate monitor, $45 for a water belt, $70 for the Brooklyn Marathon, all very worthwhile, but they all add up. I am lucky enough to have a steady job and money left over after the usual expenses, but I still feel the need to cover the expenses via some extra income. For me, there are not that many choices, but here are some, for entertainment purposes but I do take the ideas seriously.

Blogging. I love to write, or at least to rant, so blogging is the ideal platform. It helps to be passionate about what you write. In recent years, I have slacked off but it is time to be more active again. Instead of regurgitating my posts in Facebook, as Notes, I am directing my FB friends to the blog itself, where there is a chance someone will click on them oh-so-right-on contextual ads. Yes! My 300 FB friends will help pay for my next venti mocha Frappacchino with java chips!

Metal-scraping. That's when you go around collecting metal trash and sell them at junk yards by weight. I actually did this recently just to find out what the process is. I did not have to scourge for the junk as I knew someone who wanted to get rid of some pieces of metal, big pieces. The pieces turned out to be about 20 pounds total and earned me a whopping... $2 !!! The scrap-metal place has a scale that a van/car can drive onto. My puny pieces were too small for that so I took it further inside the yard where they had a smaller scale. It rained the night before so the yard was muddy and slippery. The scale guys gave me a piece of paper with the weight written on it. I was told to toss the pieces onto a heap nearby then go for my big bucks. It was a good experience. I would love to have the time and the means to go around town picking up metal pieces and turn them in for cash. Something for nothing and help clean up the environment. Someone is already doing that because the few times I put out some metal stuff as trash they disappeared quickly. Now that I've done it once, I would not mind doing it more often.

What legit ways do you think will work for you to bring in some extra income?

2012-01-08T13:40:00.001-05:00

There is a runner named Gene
Who likes things nice and clean
Chancy lottery, be gone!
He'd rather do 9 plus 1
Now he is poorer by two-sixteen!

I am in the 2012 NYC Marathon, thanks to the NYRR 9+1 program. With the 9+1 program, an applicant would have to run 9 qualified races and volunteer for one event, during the year before the race. There are other ways to get into the NYC Marathon but 9+1 is the only way that works for me. For the 2011 race, I did not decide early enough in 2010 to participate so I took a chance with the lottery, which costs $11. Sure enough I did not get in. 9+1 it was then! The 9 races would count as part of the training anyway, nothing can go wrong with the 9+1 programs.

I am a pack rat but just not one of those extremists that would be featured on reality TV. At one time I kept all the returned checks from bank accounts, but when I moved to the current house I threw them out. Or maybe even before that. Now I wish I still have them. I want to find the checks I paid for the 1994 and 1995 NYC Marathons. I am pretty sure it was below $100, maybe $75, maybe even as low as $45. It costs so much to run the NYC Marathon these days. Last year, for an NYRR member, it was $156. Now it is $216! The few marathons that I registered for in recent months cost $70 and up. Sure, those other marathons do not pass through the five great boroughs of New York City, but triple the amount? An article in the New York Times cited the cost increase as a direct result of the NYPD charging the NYRR more for traffic control and such. I suspect it's all about milking the cow as much as possible. If this trend keeps up, I certainly will not participate after the 2012 Marathon.

Polar Bear Plunge 2012

2012-01-02T23:32:00.001-05:00

It is a New Year tradition, so I read. Every year, on the first day of the year, members of the Polar Bear Club of Coney Island would go for a swim in the frigid water of Coney Island Beach. The event was always covered in the news. I would read about it and shake my head, thinking those people are crazy.

Perhaps it was a thing that comes with middle age, but starting in late 2010 I thought I should do something wild and crazy in the new year. Nothing too drastic that would involve physical injury or a brush with the law, but just something out of the ordinary. For New Year's Day 2011, I ran in the NYRR Emerald Nuts Midnight Run. In the past, I saw news report about the event and mistakenly thought that the race was for people to run from one year into another. Sorta like saying "See you next year" to someone a few days before the new year. In reality, the race started shortly after midnight, or in the case for the people stuck at the back, more like 5 or 10 minutes after the start of the new year. But still not to run from one year into another. Such was the wrong perception I had of the Midnight Run. By registering for the Polar Bear Plunge, I learned many things about the event, too.

The Polar Bear Plunge is open to the public although the Club strongly urges people to register and pledge to raise money for Camp Sunshine in Casco, Maine. The Camp is a place for children with life-threatening illnesses. There is a minimum of $100 to be raised. I am horrible at fundraising and in the past depended on TOTA to raise money for my participation in the March of Dimes. This time around thanks to Facebook I was able to raise $60 and will have to cover the rest with my own money but it's for a good cause.

Another thing I learned is that the Polar Bears do not only swim on New Year's Day but actually swim every Sunday during winter. It's a Club privilege and you would need to be a member. Definitely not something I would do regularly, but hey to each his own. There is even a competing club, that is, a different group that also do winter swimming.

On the day of the event, I learned that wristbands are provided for registrants and the bands are also good for admission to the nearby Aquarium. There was also a souvenir sweatshirt to be had as a token of appreciation. It was crowded and noisy so I might have misheard that minimum registration was $10 and the sweatshirt would only come with $20. The beach outside the bath house at Stillwell Avenue was cordoned off with yellow tapes to create a short runway for participants to rush into the water.

I got to Coney Island around 12:30 with my friend Julius, who agreed to help me with photographing the event for posterity. I owe him a big one for that. After registration, I posed for a few photos with message of thanks to my 3 sponsors, still wearing shirt and swimming trunk. Next I went down to the water to test its temperature. It was an unusually warm day for January but the water was still cold. Finally, after seeing how the runway was setup and where the participant should gather, off went the shirt and I posed for Julius' camera once more before joining my fellow crazy swimmer.

It was partly a costume party. There were people dressed up as 2012 New Year babies, with diapers and bonnets. There were two people dressed up as Jews and Arabs, sharing a sign that reads "Occupy Peace". Amen to that! Some guy was in a hotdog suit, another in a ketchup outfit, yet another in an ice cream cone. Your typical summertime or boardwalk food, get it? Both News 12 and NY1 local news stations were present. I secretly hoped I would have a few more seconds of fame, like when I was "featured" on News 12's report of the Christmas Marathon. I happened to be the only one in a full Santa suit so News 12 showed 4 seconds of just me running, fake beard flying to the side. No such luck with the Plunge. The camera went mostly to those with costumes or visibly different than the rest.

After a short wait, it was time for the Plunge! Off we went, I splashed around a bit, hunkered down, a few times, to get water up to my neck and be thoroughly wet from the neck down, then got off the water to find Julius. Unfortunately, Julius could not find a good spot so there was no photos of me in the water, but at least we got a shot of me after I got out. I think it is clear from the photo that my swimming trunk was wet. I most likely will not do it again, not because I am afraid of cold water, but it was still a great, and crazy-fun, thing to do!

Hi Heather! My Wordscraper friend Heather was the first to donate to my effort.

The water was brrrr cold!

A New Year baby, a Hasidic Jew, plus other costumed people that I did not captured in photos.

It was a warm and sunny day.

Fresh out of the water. It was over, for this year!

Lost In Yonker, Christmas Day 2011

2011-12-26T22:41:00.000-05:00

All the years I live in the U.S. have been limited to New York City. Because of family obligations and such, I keep going to the same parts of the city over and over. There are places in the city, and right outside it, that I want to visit, just to see how different, or alike, things are there. When I learned that the Christmas Marathon was going to be held in Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonker, supposedly just 3 or 4 miles north of Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, I made plans to be there. Yonker is one of those places I hear often and pass through many times but never actually go there as a destination.

Originally, I thought of taking the really long subway ride to Van Cortlandt and make the 3-mile trek from the Bronx into Yonker. It turned out I had a Christmas party on the same day and if I were to pick up a certain matriarch of the a clan she would be more likely to come. So drove I did.

For a techie person, I have an aversion for car GPS. Maybe it's because they do not work indoor so I cannot play with them at home. Instead, I have to set things up in the car, usually after a long wait for the thing to pick up satellite signal. I do not get it, Garmin makes both the car GPS and the sports watch, but the car thing always have trouble finding signal. So off I went to Tibbetts Brook Park in Yonker, Westchester, after only looking over a map on the iPad. I got onto I-80 then went west on Cross County Expressway and got off at some exit just before the Cross County split into Saw Mill River North and South. There were no sign of Tibbetts Brook Park anywhere but I knew I needed to go south to get to it. I had to stop and ask for directions, twice, and finally made it to the park. Technically, the event was to start at 11 but since it was just a fun run, any time after 9:30, when the course was marked, could serve as start time. I got there at 10 and had plenty of time to drop off a gift for the grab bag and another for the toy drive. Dressed in a full Santa suit, I started running around 10:45.

The last time I ran with the Holiday Marathons group, I totally missed a turn and did not even finish one single loop. Instead, I took a short cut, unintentionally, which made my loop about 4 miles, not the 6.5 miles of the real loop. For the Christmas Marathon, I relied mostly on the chalk marks on the ground and they were very obvious, even for someone like me, near-sighted but cannot run with glasses because they do not stay on unless I run with my head held high.

The course is both challenging and beautiful! A short distance from the start point, the runner is met with a steep hill. At the top of the hill, it's a slight descent that took a turn to the left toward the lake. One loop around the lake and the runner is back to the road that takes him back to the hilltop, including the slight ascent. The course is mostly on paved road. There was just a short distance of muddy road from the main road to the loop around the lake. Here and there there were small brooks and streams that whisper quietly in tempo with the runners' footfall and breathing. I stopped a few times to take photo of the scenery but my cell phone camera ran low on battery. Next time I will take a real camera and take more photos.

I would love to do a half-marathon (4 loops) but only had time to do 2 loops (about 6 miles). I did not think ahead and did not have any gu with me, so even if I had time it would be challenging, unless I make much use of the refreshment available, which includes bananas, oranges, and water. As luck would have it, the gift I got from the grab bag turned out to be all energy packs of various brands. Yippee!

Save The Holiday Marathons, Again

2011-12-18T23:52:00.000-05:00

The last time I wrote about the Holiday Marathons races, the group was having issues with the NYC Parks Department over the Halloween Marathon. Things worked out in the end and the race was held but that was not the end of the story. Even though the Thanksgiving Marathon saw a record turnout of over a thousand people, the Christmas Marathon is not so lucky. The Parks Department made many demands that could not be met and permit was denied. Follow this link for details:

NYC Parks Department Cancels Christmas Marathon

Luckily, the good folks at the Holiday Marathons group was able to enlist the help of the Westchester Parks Department and a race will be held, after all, in Tibbetts Brook Park, just three miles north of Van Cortlandt Park. What's three miles to us runners, right? Come participate and to show your support. In these days, there are races that cost a lot to sign up for AND fill up quickly. No-frills events like those organized by Holiday Marathons should be treasured. Sure you do not run through some famous tourist hotspot and there is no official T-shirts or trinkets to collect, but you will get a good course to run and much camaraderie, which is what running should be all about, right? Follow this link to join in the fun:

http://www.thechristmasmarathon.com/Westchester/

The event is free but registration is recommended and donation will be accepted. For the Christmas run, a toy drive will be held so bring a little something for the needy kids.

Mr. 23 and Me at the Ted15

2011-12-17T23:53:00.000-05:00

In the excitement of having a Personal Record with the NYRR Jingle Bell Jog, I wrongly concluded that the next P.R. to beat would be the Manhattan Half Marathon. I did not realize that this weekend I could also take a crack at the 15K P.R., in particular the NYRR Ted Corbitt 15K (Ted15).

The subway trip to the race, in Central Park, was as messy as the typical New York weekend. I already knew that the D train runs on the N line toward Manhattan, but I forgot to check #4 train, which I would need to take to get to the NYRR office to pick up the bib and time chip. Upon transferring for the #4 at Pacific Street Station, I noticed the stair opposite the elevator had a red tape stretched across it. However, in another nearby stair the red tape was broken and there were people in running clothes heading up it, so I followed them up. As us New Yorkers often do, I and the few runners quickly started up a chat about the lousy weekend subway service. I had a long chat with one particular elderly man, who I shall refer to as Mr. 23. A #4 train heading further into Brooklyn stopped at one side of the middle platform where we were and people got off. On the Manhattan side, a #4 arrived but it stopped on the far side of the platform, where the #2 and #3 usually stops. Shouting the classic "Hold the doors!" we ran down the stair then up again the other side. Someone actually held the door and we all thanked him profusely. It was horrible mismanagement. There was no sign whatsoever to tell the riders that the #4 train would not stop at its usual place right next to the platform. It was a good thing that we were runners - and somehow held the door.

I continued chatting with Mr. 23. I learned that he started running late in life, like 49, and has been running 29 years! He is in his 78! His memory is not so good and his eyesight is bad, but he sure can run, from what he told me, and he looked the part. He ran a total of 23 NYC Marathons. Yup, he's one of those automatic entrants - no need for 9+1, lottery with the non-refundable $11 fee, or qualification time. He told me he qualified for Boston Marathon so he is probably good enough for NYC Marathon, given his age. Very impressive, Mr. 23. I would be happy if I still can walk when I reach 70. There is hope of course. I am not even 45 yet and already have a few years of running under my belt.

At last year's Ted15, I arrived late and just joined the race as people thinned out. As long as you do not arrive so late that the start line got totally dismantled, your race does not start until you and your time chip cross the start mat. Technology at work! For today's race, even with the side trip to the NYRR office to pick up bib and chip, I still had some time to walk to the start line to get the T-shirt, use the john, wolf down one pack of GU, and stretched a bit before the race began. My bib number was in the 7000 but perhaps because fewer people signed up for winter races, the 7000 people were moved up to the 6000s corral and then 5000s, or maybe even further up. Soon someone sang the National Anthem. Is it still general practice to stand still and place one's right hand over the chest during the singing of the "Star-Spangled Banner"? I have the image of that Norman Rockwell painting and still do that. I got my Garmin ready and pressed Start as I crossed the start mat. Off we went!

At the first mile, my pace was more than 10:07, that wonderful minute per mile number which I just achieved at the Jingle Bell Jog. I worried that I would not be able to keep that pace. Silly me! I was comparing a 6K race to a 15K one. Much as I would like to, my body will not be able to maintain the same speed for a longer distance. It helps to be realistic. A few more miles and I came up with another crazy idea. Somehow I thought my P.R. for a 15K race at the time was 1:21 plus some seconds. It was already 21 minutes into the race (net time per my Garmin) and I still had so much to cover, there was no way I would beat the 1:21 time. Again, I was off the mark, as the real time was 1:41:28, at the Cancer Colon Challenge in March 2011. Luckily I corrected my mind and pressed on with a more achievable goal in mind.

I think for the Ted15 in '10 I stopped for water only once. I did the same today, around Mile #5, except this time I also had a pack of GU to take. There was no Gatorade so I took two cups of water. My hands were so cold I could not open the pack of GU and had to bite it open. It seemed like forever while I walked to drink the water and eat the GU. People were passing me left and right, but once I had the GU consumed I ran past many people. When Mile #9 came up, I mistakenly thought the finish line was just a tad beyond. I started to sprint for it but it was still far off, or 0.3 miles (0.52K) to be exact. Luckily, I did not lose too much steam and, thanks to the Garmin, knew very well that I would finish less than 1:41:28. But by how much? As I crossed the finish line, the Garmin said 1:36:20. A day or two earlier, NYRR announced that the office had some upgrade to be done the day before the race and may affect posting of the race result. Thankfully result posting was not affected and I soon learned that officially my time was 1:36:15, which made it an improvement of 5 minutes and 13 second! Woohoo for a new P.R.!!!

In case you wonder, Ted Corbitt was the founding president of the New York Road Runners club. He was also the first African-American to compete in the Olympic Marathon, in Helsinki (1952). According to Wikipedia, he was an active runner into his 80s. Amazing!

Heartbreak Hardware - Handspring Deluxe

2011-12-11T15:10:00.000-05:00

With the upgrade to a smartphone, I am once again trying to retire my Palm-based PDA, a Handspring Deluxe. PDA? Handspring? All quaint words in today's technologically fast-moving world.

Once upon a time, Palm Computing was the king of the hill in the mobile market. Back then, mobile means you can carry around in your shirt pocket an address book, a to-do list, a calendar, a notepad, a bunch of apps, and more. The Personal Digital Assistant, PDA, was in vogue, long before Siri ever utters "Your 2010 jokes are annoying." All we geeks wanted to do was to manage our data and data was limited to the calendar, address book, etc. You could edit the data on the host computer or on the PDA then a sync will get things sorted out.

I started the experience with a bona fide, original Palm. Just Palm, no other number or letter followed its name, just simply Palm. Next I upgraded it with a 512K memory module and lo and behold I had a whole 1 MB to fill up with data! I tried to fill the huge amount of space with apps, some, like Scrabble, were bought in the store (Staples) while others were gotten off the Web. One Tetris clone proved to be a fatal addition, as it somehow killed the Palm. Resetting over and over did not do any good. I actually went back to a paper-based address book for a few months. Eventually, Handspring entered the burgeoning market with the Deluxe series. Not only you had 8 MB of space to use, there was also a SpringBoard slot on the back that opened up a whole world of opportunities. MP3 player, encyclopedia, camera, wow!

For my first Handspring Deluxe, I added apps to do genealogy, Chinese input, database plug-in for FileMaker Pro, spreadsheet, word-processing, and some decent-behaving games. Hardware-wise, I got a Targus foldable keyboard and some screen protectors. Unfortunately for it, one day it fell off my belt and I ran it over with my car. I got a replacement, also a Handspring Deluxe, that survive until today. It was once forced into retirement when I had an iPod touch, but the touch only lasted about two years. First the touch's battery failed then its i/o board went kaput. The Handspring Deluxe made a triumphant return. I never got the MP3 SpringBoard module so it does not do music, but as a PDA it works fine. When I am diligent, I even used its Notepad to write draft version of blog entry or ATPM review.

A few weeks back, I decided it was time again for the Deluxe to retire. The Galaxy S on-screen keyboard leaves much to desire but it is adequate. In the smartphone, I have address book, some note-taking app, calendar, to-do list, plus music and email capability. Today I even paired the Galaxy to Apple's bluetooth keyboard and am writing this blog entry with the keyboard.

Thank you for your years of service, Handspring Deluxe. Have a nice retirement!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough?

2011-12-11T09:13:00.001-05:00

Changes can be great sometimes. Years ago, only the military had access to satellite data. Then big corporations got into the fun and now the average Joe, too, can wear a gadget that talks to some satellite out there and gather all kinds of info about where he was etc.

The NYRR Jingle Bell Jog was the first race I participated after I became an owner of a G-watch, to be exact, a Garmin Forerunner 210. As I approached the start line, like many (all?) runners I set my watch to be ready to start record. Unlike a simple stopwatch that only tracks time, these fancy G-watch needs some time to find the satellite. You would have to do that prior to approaching the start line, then when you cross the line you would press Start to, uh, start tracking your work.

The big hill in Prospect Park is formidable, but how does it look graphically? The accompanying picture's top part tells the story. The green line is elevation in meters and the blue line is speed in minutes per kilometer. The use of the word "speed" is misleading because speed to most people probably mean distance per time, like kilometers per hour or kilometers per minute, the opposite of what the graph considers "speed." The X-axis (horizontal) is distance in kilometers. It was a 6K race and the Garmin said I ran 6.22K, maybe it included the distance I crossed when I moved left or right to get past slower runners. The start line in Center Drive was actually on a hill when compared to the East Drive. Leaving Center Drive and turning left toward the lake, it was an easy downhill run. I remember joking aloud during the Brooklyn Marathon that there was all to the big race, all downhill! Just a tad past 3K was where the big hill materialize. Oh, mine, Hill, what big slope you have!!! It was not exactly all downhill after the big one, as there were some ups and downs, all the way back to Center Drive.

Remember my beef about the misleading use of "speed" in the graph? If you think kilometers per minute then the graph makes no sense. I know I sped up to make a strong finish but yet the blue line dropped. If I ran faster, should the line not rise at the end? The thing is the graph really shows pace, as the label on the right Y-axis (vertical) reads "min/km". The less time you spend on covering a km, the faster you ran.

To see a simulation of the race as carried out by me, visit http://connect.garmin.com/player/133810229 and click Play. The wonder of technology!

NYRR Jingle Bell Jog 2011

2011-12-10T23:11:00.000-05:00

I love pleasant surprises. Who does not? I signed up for the NYRR Jingle Bell Jog only because it was in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, my home borough. Something like supporting the home team. No other reason, at least when I signed up for it. I got something out of it and it was pleasant.

The day started, sadly, with the usual switching of subway lines. I live near the D train but on this weekend, like many previous weekends, it runs on the N line out to Manhattan. The N itself runs on the D line to Coney Island, which works for me, but the trip to Prospect Park requires allocating extra time to go to the N station further away. Actually, the F and G trains would supposedly drop me off closer to the race's start line but getting to the F is a bit far for me, too. What's more, there is construction on the F line as well. It is more straightforward to just take the D or N to 4th Avenue and walk to 11th Avenue, to pick up the bib and souvenirs, then onward to the start line. It was a 6K race but with all the extra walking because of lousy weekend subway service I might have covered twice that amount today. Good thing I am a runner and do not mind long walks. Do not get me started about my attempt to get to the NYRR office yesterday evening to pick up the bib etc. Yes, lousy subway service then, too.

It was a long walk to the school where bibs and such were distributed, but there was no line at all. Just in and out. A volunteer helpfully directed me to the entrance. In one side, pick up your stuff, and out the other side of the building. No two-way traffic, no collisions. I wish life is always that simple. In addition to the long-sleeve tech shirt there was also a pair of silver bells and strings (?) to tie them to sneakers. Tech shirt, woohoo! First pleasant surprise of the day! I thought we got tech shirt for the NYRR Brooklyn Half Mary because there were many sponsors. The back of the shirt for that race was filled with sponsor names, typical of an NYRR race, which is a good thing, a win-win situation. But the Jingle Bell Jog shirt's back has only the new NYRR logo and that for NYC Parks Department.

A year ago I would be somewhat clueless about what's where in Prospect Park. I do not go there that often, being so far south of it near Coney Island. Today, having run the Brooklyn Marathon, with six big loops and more within the park, I knew exactly where I needed to go. Even without the runners before me leading the way, I knew that to get to Center Drive I would go north, or left, of the lake. I now recall that for the Brooklyn Half Mary, just this year in May, I actually made a whole loop of the lake, from an entrance on the West Drive, to get to the beginning corrals, but only to squeeze in the back in my higher corral, almost back on West Drive again. Knowledge is power, really, knowing where you are and where to go, it is a good feeling.

I had much free time before the 9 A.M. race. I looked around a bit for anyone I know from DailyMile.com but could not find any. After taking a GU energy gel, which I considered my breakfast for the day, I decided to explore Prospect Park, the off-the-trail part. There is much more to Prospect Park besides the big loop and the lower loop. On Center Drive, I discovered some big yellow fruits that from far away I thought were rocks that were painted on. Close-up they have patterns on them that look like brain lobes. Interesting. A bit north of Center Drive I discovered a smaller lake. Half of the lake had dead/brown algae that some passerby told me is unusual. Normally they should be gone by this time of the year and something must be wrong. Too bad the battery on my cell phone almost drained so I could not take a photo of the lake. From far away I thought the algae-covered part was part of the shore.

Eventually, it was time to get into the corral. It suddenly occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I can use today's race to beat my own pace. Up to today, each time I sign up for an NYRR race, my pace is listed as 10:22 minutes per mile. It is from the shortest NYRR race I ever had, the 5K Coogan in March. It was somewhat cold then and rainy and the distance was short so that was when I ran the fastest. Jingle Bell Jog was supposed to be a 4-mile race but because of some construction work in the park, got shortened to a 6K, or 3.75-mile, race. A tad longer than a 5K (3.1-mile) race, but with the training I have gone through, plus the power of the GU, maybe I can pull it off? At Mile #1, my Garmin said it was 10 minutes into the race, for me. At Mile #2, 20+ . The race course was not even a full big loop but just around the lake, from Center Drive, up West Drive and the dreaded hill, past Grand Army Arch, then down East Drive and back into Center Drive. Again, with the knowledge of what to expect along the course of the race, I took things slow in the beginning. There were many people anyway, better to go slow and let the crowd thin out. At the intersection of Center Drive and West Drive was the first water station. I had no plan to stop for water, as I can survive perfectly fine without any water on these short races. From my almost-daily runs, I can tell at some point that I have had enough of the warm-up and can speed up. It could have been after the water station but the big hill came soon so I decided to climb the hill slowly. After Grand Army Plaza, it was time to kick into high gear. I started to try pass slower runners. Not far from the turn to Center Drive I could not help notice a big guy in front of me, with visible love handles. Fit or not, he was still ahead of me and I could not keep up. But then once we entered Center Drive, I called up some reserve energy somehow and made for the sprint to the finish line. I finally passed the big guy and used the mostly empty left side of the finish chute to complete the race. The Garmin said my time was 37:43 but I am not good at mental division so I still did not know if I outdid myself or not. On the subway ride home, even with a calculator I was not that sure how I fared, since it is kinda hard to divide things into .75 . Even after NYRR posted the result online, I could not view the result page on my Android phone. Trying to view the result page, after finding myself, would only take me back to the NYRR home page. Weird. Only much later in the afternoon, when I finally had a quiet moment to check out the result on the iPad, that I knew my time was 37:41 minutes, or 10:07 minutes per mile. Yippee, P.R. (personal record), baby! Next record to outdo myself - 2:23:40 for a Half Marathon.

Caesars Bay by qaptainqwerty at Garmin Connect - Details

2011-12-03T23:16:00.000-05:00

Testing Garmin web site's cool ability to Share with other web services.

Caesars Bay by qaptainqwerty at Garmin Connect - Details

Dumb Move With Smartphone?

2011-12-03T17:25:00.001-05:00

The Garmin was not my only recent, big purchase. I know, $200 is considered big by us frugal people. After years of using a plain old cell phone, I finally made the jump to a, drum roll please, smartphone. No, it was not an iPhone, but just some Android thingie that the salesperson offered. Much as I would love to have an iPhone, the cost is still beyond my budget. If it is just myself, I could bite the bullet but I have a family plan. The kids have the same phone model so the adults might as well have the same crappy phones. No one is jealous that someone else has a better phone. At least that was the plan. To be exact, I have a Samsung Galaxy S with 8 GB of storage. The OS is Frozen Yogurt, I believe. I read a bit about AndroidOS and the different versions have food names, like Ice Cream Sandwich and Donut. Weird choice of code name. I had to make a cartoon for ATPM.com poking fun at the names.

I never own an iPhone but I had an iPod touch and still have a first-gen iPad. iOS is not perfect but then the experience with Android is even more imperfect. When I got the Galaxy it already had many apps so I do not what apps are standard. I listen to music and such a lot so Music Player is my most used apps. I send files from the Mac to the Galaxy via Bluetooth then manually create playlists. I have not tried hard enough to find an app that would sync playlists, files, etc so it is a pain to manage music. Per Leo Laporte on TWIT, Winamp for Android may be just what I need.

A smartphone is not much use if you do not have a data plan. I think a typical plan with an iPhone is $30 a month. My plan is $10 a month, but for only, you better sit down in case this makes you laugh too hard, a whopping 200 MB. I only do email and Facebook so, hard to believe, but 200 MB is really more than enough. At this moment, I have about seven more days to go before the new month rolls in and I only used 27% of that 200 MB. I did blow that 200 MB once when I tested the tethering feature on the Galaxy and my son watched some YouTube video. Dumb mistake! Still, it is nice that the feature is built-in and can be used as long as your data plan can handle it. Not like how with Apple you have to play the game of cat-and-mouse with jail-breaking.

I can live with the measly data plan, but I wish the apps would behave more like iOS apps. They just don't work right. First time I launched the Facebook app, the one that has the UI more like the latest iPad app, it asks me to "Download Browser. Download my new app: fast and save power Browser!", I clicked "Download", it downloaded something and installed it. Next time again, it offered the same choices of "Download" and "Ignore Forever". I clicked "Ignore Forever" and guess what the next time I launched the app? "Forever" already came and went so it asked me to download again! One time, after being sick of telling the app to ignore forever, I clicked Download and it tried to download from the MarketPlace but lo and behold there was nothing to download. Likewise, trying to post to the Plurk social network is a pain. There's a Plurk app but it somehow needs Maxthon app, which turns out to be an alternative web browser!? Wait, there's more! Each time you want to use the Plurk app, it will just tell you to download the Plurk app. No, to use Plurk, you would launch Maxthon. It is a lousy experience, like how I often envision those people who buy the cheapest netbook running Windoze only to put up with Windoze errors and problems. Maybe my next smartphone will be an iPhone after all. Help me reach that dream by clicking on them Google Ads liberally sprinkled around the blog!

Have G.P.S. Will L.S.D.

2011-12-01T22:44:00.001-05:00

When I took up running as a hobby/sports, one primary reason was the relative low monetary commitment I needed. I already had some sweatpants, sweatshirts, tons of T-shirts, some khaki shorts, the usual guy clothes. For winter running, I put on layers, usually a thick hoodie on the outside, plus whatever gloves I can come across. The only big cost associated with the hobby is entry fees to the races the New York Road Runners organized. As I got more into it, I spent money on tech shirts and compression shorts, tights, and such. A few months ago, I started to stock up on energy gels, too, namely GUs. Luckily they do not cost that much but it's still additional spending. For the longest time I put off buying a sports watch. Some call it G.P.S. watch and many call it Garmin, kinda like how people Google even though they use Yahoo!Search or make Xerox copies using a Ricoh photocopier. From now on, I shall call it a G-watch.

I ran fine without a Garmin, whether it be an NYRR event or out training on my own. NYRR races are usually in Central Park and consist of at most 2 big loops, perhaps a turn somewhere to add a little distance to cover the length of the race. DailyMile's map function works for me and I had a good idea how many Ks I cover during my runs, even if I always have to measure the distance afterward.

It was at the end of the (Inaugural) Brooklyn Marathon (BM) that I decided it was time to get a Garmin. For the BM, I misinterpreted the direction for the course and was going to run a full third loop of the lower loop in Prospect Park. I did not have a Garmin and thought I would need to run two full lower loops, six big loops, finally one more lower loop, in full, through Center Drive, then re-enter Center Drive one last time for the finish line. Good thing I was told not to do another full lower loop and just walked through the finish line. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my undramatic finish was captured on camera. (www.backprint.com , Event = Brooklyn Marathon 11/20/2011, Runner # 207).

I took Monday off to recuperate from the BM. On Tuesday, back to work, in Jersey City, I made a trip to the local running store, Runner's High. There were few choices of GPS watch and they certainly did not have the $130 model, with squarish face, that a few runner friends told me about. I settled for the $200 watch that was recommended. I was a bit disappointed that the watch does not use a micro-USB cable so that I would not have to worry about losing a specialized cable. I was afraid the watch would only measure distance in miles but luckily it can do both miles and kilometers. Of course I went with km, as well as centimeter for my height and kilogram for my weight. I unreasonably expected it to be able to pick up satellite signal, like how a cell phone appears to be able to, but like I hinted at, it was unreasonable expectation on my part.

Assuming the G-watch is correct all the time, it is great to be able to run almost anywhere. So far I have not experienced losing satellite signal. My running routine up to recently was x km out and back. DailyMile's map tool has such a function, Out And Back. I would click along the route to some point of return, then click the icon and my route is complete, double of what I already measured up until then. With a G-watch, I am no longer limited to the few routes I stick to but I can turn wherever I fancy. I just have to make sure I cover at least 8 km (5 miles) during the weekday runs, perhaps more on the weekends.

On Sunday I initially planned to run the Astoria Waterfront, taking the same route when I dropped off TOTA at LaGuardia during her last visit. After parking the car, I decided to give the Triboro Bridge a try. Armed with the G-watch, I was able to just run and not worry if I will run too far or too short. The only factor I had to consider was the approaching sunset. If it was not getting dark so soon on Randalls Island, I would venture about the island some more, especially its waterfront, but there was no time so I only ran from Queens to Randalls Island and then back. I wanted to do 8 km but the trip to and from Randalls Island covered less than that so I simply went to the track at Astoria Park to run some more. I ended up with 8.88 km, a number I am sure many superstitious Chinese think is a good sign.

Today, I thought about running to Kaiser Park but my feet had a mind of their own and took me toward the Aquarium instead. On the Boardwalk, normally I would turn east to get to Bright Playground. Not today, as I went west instead, at first with the former spot of Shoot the Freak as the goal. When I got there, the G-watch said it was less than 4 km so I went further and turned around after I passed the Parachute Jump. Even after I got back near home the total distance was not 8 km so I went a block or two more to reach the distance I wanted.

By the way, "L.S.D." means "Long, Slow Distance" in running lingo. Runners do not do drugs!

The Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon

2011-11-20T20:49:00.000-05:00

The Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon. The day finally came and went, although at time time seemed to move too fast as I battle the nasty hills of Prospect Park.

I got up at 5:15 A.M. to get myself ready for the dreaded subway ride to the event. Before going to bed the night before, I already packed the energy gels, some cash, a subway card, a few pieces of IDs in case I keel over. For some reason I did not set the timing chip on my sneaker or attach the bib to the shirt with safety pins so those tasks I did in the morning of the event. Being a recycler, I even set aside six previously-used rubber bands to bring to the event instead of using the new ones that BM organizers would no doubt provide. Alas, I totally forgot about them when I got out of the house. I will go into details about the rubber bands later.

I could have taken the Q or F train to the event if I was willing to make some transfer from the D train. As it is with weekend track work, I decided to take the D straight to 9th Street Station and walk my long avenues to Prospect Park's Center Drive. As it turned out, I overslept and got off a stop later. No problem, I had plenty of time and it was a nice, cool day for walking.

There was some delay with the portable toilets. The one I came across on West Drive was out there all along for the general public to use and there was no toilet paper - no surprise there. The only usable toilet was a public one at a playground some long distance on the East Drive. Even with the shining example of the Great Grete Waitz, there are still more men than women in most races, the exceptions being those women-only races, so the men's room actually had a line while the women's did not. I still made it back to the start area with plenty of time to kill. The race did not start at 8 sharp but instead at perhaps 8:15, no biggie. By then I already had six rubber bands on my right wrist.

The course of the BM consists of 2 lower loops, 6 big loops, then one lower loop. Or at least that's how I interpreted it. NY1's report also said so, "6 big loop and 3 lower loops." For my training runs, I almost never run in loops and usually head out x kilometers then back home, just tracing my way back. The only time I run loops is on tracks and those runs are limited to at most 4 times, to make a mile, or 5 times, to make 2 kilometers. On the track I would use different lanes as I finish a loop. The two beginning lower loops are easy enough as it is hard to lose track of 2. The six loops worried me. I still do not own a GPS watch for running so I thought I might lose track of the six loops somehow. Luckily, the rubber bands provide a somewhat reliable solution. Each time I finish a loop I would shoot a rubber band to the side of the road. I did it with a lot of fanfare and the cheerleaders on the East Drive was very enthusiastic with their volunteer job. Mind you all the volunteers were great, just that those on the East Drive was more excited, perhaps because that's where people finish the big loops.

The rubber bands helped but I still had to actually run the loops so I can honestly take them off and shoot them away. The hill approaching Grand Army Plaza was the worst, but the West Drive's hills were not friendly either. After loop #3, I saw only 2 more rubber bands on my wrist but afterward saw band #3. It was very discouraging but I pressed on anyway. At some point my calves started to ache and then the thighs too. I thought marathon pains only come in the form of "de agony of de feet"! Fifteen years ago when I ran the NYC Marathon, with inadequate training, I probably felt aches in every leg muscles, but fifteen years is a long time enough to forget these tiny details. I know with the races in the past two years I only felt aches above the feet when I sprinted for the finish line. Luckily, my left foot was fine all along. Eventually I shot the last rubber band away and entered Center Drive ready to do one more lower loop. Remember the course? Two lower loops, six big loops, and one lower loop, right? It turned out after the six big loops you would just enter Center Drive to run to the finish line, which was just a tad beyond where the start line was. I almost skipped the finish line by going to the right of it but an official corrected my course. I didn't get to do my usual sprint for the finish line, to give the false impression that I was finishing strong. My time was somewhere beyond 5 hours, maybe 5:15. No Boston Qualifier :) but it was still a good finish for me. I really need a GPS watch to avoid future scenarios.

The start line.

The start line before the 400 or so runners got behind it.

The inspirational Louis and Heather with me. We regularly exchange messages and such on social networks - Facebook and DailyMile. These folks are fast! They may write about misadventures with stomach problems during races but then they still finish way before me, sigh.

A finisher. Other than the St. Louis race in April where my great oldest sister took photos for me, I have to rely on pro photographers along the course to provide the photos. They may be great or not but definitely cost a lot. I planned to stay at the finish line a while to take photos of finisher but then I realized I had to get home to give my son a practice subway ride in case there will be school bus strike this coming week.

Countdown To Brooklyn Marathon

2011-11-19T08:51:00.000-05:00

In about 24 hours, I will be running the Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon, 9 times around Prospect Park in Brooklyn (duh). That is 6 times the full inner loop plus 3 times the lower loop. The course sounds monotonous, especially compared to the NYC Marathon course, which touches all five boroughs. Perhaps next year, the BM will cover other areas of Brooklyn instead of just Prospect Park.

It will not be the first time I run a marathon. I actually did that about 15 years ago, in the NYC Marathon. I even did it twice. The first year I got in through the lottery. The second year I was on standby and pretty much gave up but then I actually got selected! Even though I was unemployed at the time and single, my "training" consisted of just a morning run to Astoria Park plus perhaps 3 miles around the track. I did not sign up for any races - no LSD like a 15K or Half Mary, no 20-mile run on my own before the big day. No social networks to learn from the pros or get encouragements from cyberspace friends. My finish time was 6 hours 15 minutes the first year and worse the next year. Back then the New York Times printed every finisher's name and I still have those regular newspaper somewhere in the attic. Today, I understand the NYT only list people who finish with 4 hours and change, and only some special edition has every finisher's name.

With all the training the past two years, it seems like an easy goal for me to beat my younger self. About two weeks ago I completed a 20-mile run in about 4 hours. It was a lonely pre-dawn run from home to Chinatown, over the Manhattan Bridge, then back home over the Brooklyn Bridge. Perhaps on race day, the cheering and excitement will nudge me move faster and complete the race in five hours. Even if that stretch to 5:30 I still beat my younger self.

To quote Steve Lastoe, organizer of the Brooklyn Marrathon, GOTTA RUN!!!

Twenty Miles

2011-11-05T23:07:00.000-04:00

As the Dolly Parton song goes, "Running five to nine, a great way to put in some mileage". Early this morning, in the wee hour of a short time after 5 A.M., I set out for yet another shot at putting in a 20-mile or 32-km run before running in a marathon. I don't follow a strict training program and usually put in 5 miles (8 km) a day then possibly 8 or 9 miles on the weekend. If possible. The longest distance I would run come from the half-marathons that I registered for, usually with NYRR. I vaguely recall the training schedule for intermediate runner that I looked at calls for a 20-mile run a few weeks before the big day. So off I ran around 5 A.M., partly along the D train's elevated tracks on New Utrecht Avenue, then eventually crossing the Manhattan Bridge to get into Manhattan, southward to the Brooklyn Bridge to get back to Brooklyn, then found my way back to Fifth Avenue and traced my way back to starting point. It was indeed a little after 9 A.M. that I got home.

The last time I tried to run 20 miles, I was so tired at some point after 10 miles and ended up walking a lot. Today I knew better about during-run nutrition and wolfed down 6 gu's and two bottles of Gatorade. The feet still felt the effect of the long run but the rest of the body was able to push along fine. I only walked briefly when eating the gu's or waiting for Walk signal.

In case you are thinking about tsk-tsking me, or wagging your index finger while lecturing me on tapering before the marathon, recall that I won't be running the New York City Marathon, which was about 24 hours after i set out for my 20-mile run today. The marathon that I will be in is the Brooklyn Marathon, or the Inaugural Brooklyn Marathon to be exact, about two weeks away on November 20.

NYC Marathon - I'm In, Sort Of

2011-10-30T22:31:00.000-04:00

I wanna be in the Marathon / So freaking bad

Run the whole twenty-six point two miles

The New York City Marathon is coming up fast, less than a week to go. Not too long ago, ads for the Marathon started to plaster buses and subways, walls, and many other places. The phrase repeatedly in the ads is, "I'm In". Compared to the Boston Marathon, for which one must meet some minimum finish time, the NYC Mary is relatively easier to get in. The elite runners still get automatic acceptance but the average person needs to rely on a lottery process. There is also the 9+1 program whereby you run 9 races organized by the New York Road Runners (NYRR) and volunteer at one NYRR event. There are a few other ways too.

To be in the 2011 race, one would have to make the necessary arrangements in 2010. The only viable options for me were 9+1 and lottery, but it was only in July 2010 that I ran the Queens Half Mary and had the crazy idea that I should give the full mary a shot. It was somewhat late for 9+1 so I went with the lottery. $11 got me a chance but it didn't work out. I ended up registering for the inaugural Brooklyn Marathon, a few weeks after the NYRM. I will not be In the NYC Marathon for 2011. Or so I thought.

Some days ago, I found out that the NYRR still needs volunteers for the Start Village in Staten Island. I thought of watching the runners in Bay Ridge anyway since it was not far from me. I would run along the Belt Parkway and get to Fourth Avenue to cheer them on. But being with the runners in Staten Island is an even better deal. Sure it will be challenging to be there at 5 AM but I think it will be worthwhile. With the lousy subway service and the many people needing to get onto the S.I. ferry, I will probably need to leave the house at 2 AM!!! If all goes well, I'll travel to Battery Park by subway, take the ferry across the sea to Staten Island, then run the 6 miles or so to the Start Village. Or maybe I'll take the bus to the Start Village, if time is tight.

So, yes, I won't run in the NYCM in 2011 but I will be a volunteer at the Start Village, to be among all the excitement. With 9+1 done in 2011, I will definitely be in the 2012 NYCM. Just for kicks, I even signed up for the Yonkers Marathon, scheduled for September 2012, for a mere $40.

SAVE THE HOLIDAY MARATHONS - PART DEUX

2011-10-19T22:22:00.000-04:00

So much for my speedy blogging. When I was writing the last entry, http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2011/10/save-holiday-marathon-series.html, I thought the article was too long and most readers would not finish it. So I broke it up into two parts, with the first part briefly about my exploration of Staten Island then segue into my wish to further explore the Bronx, via participation in the Holiday Marathons series. The free, fee-less Holiday Marathons series is a great alternatives for the many paid events out there. Sure there is no T-shirts to have but do you really need another shirt? All you need is other runners to compete against, perhaps some cheering sections, and water and refreshment along the way. But there was some issues between the NYC Parks and Recreation Department and as I wrote the last entry, the permit was not yet granted to the organizers of the upcoming Halloween Marathon.

I waited too long and today through the org's Facebook Page that permit was already granted. I was going to ask everyone to go http://www.thehalloweenmarathon.com/ and fill out a message of support for the event. Well, I am glad that, at least for the Halloween Marathon, all is well and good. I think I will even make the trip, this time running a Half Mary in preparation for the Brooklyn Marathon in late November.

If you still want to know what was all the fuss, the Riverdale Press has it tidily summed up in this article, Parks and Retribution. For info on the opposition to the planned renovation of the Old Putnam Trail, see http://www.savetheputnamtrail.com/

SAVE THE HOLIDAY MARATHON SERIES!!!

2011-10-16T23:09:00.000-04:00

Last Sunday, I ran in the NYRR Staten Island Half Marathon. Getting to the island by ferry took more energy than actually running the distance of 13.1 miles, but overall it was a worthwhile trip. One reason I like the S.I. Half is the chance to explore the island. Staten Island is large and the race route only covered a small area in the north of the island. Still, that is one area I may not otherwise visit.

The Bronx is another borough of New York City that I do not visit that often. My first home in the U.S. was actually in the Bronx, in the Kingsbridge area, to be exact. From time to time I would visit the area if I happen to be up there, but I rarely purposely go visit the Bronx. Sure there is the Bronx Zoo, the New York Botanical Garden, and of course the NYRR Bronx Half Marathon. Except for this year the Half was cancelled because of Hurricane Irene.

For a short time, I thought I would have a great reason to regularly visit the Bronx - the Holiday Marathon series in Van Cordlandt Park, on most major holidays, even on some "fun" holidays like Halloween. The idea is that people normally party and eat more than they should during holidays, so why not burn some calories through running? As a plus, the event is free to participate in, although if you can afford it, a minimum $10 donation is suggested. There are no T-shirts to have, no unique bibs, no electronic timing, and no monetary prizes. But there is camaraderie, water and fruits, trinkets to remember the events by, and a nice trail to run on. The route is about six miles long, so run twice to make a Half Mary, four times to earn a Full, or whatever distance you can get enough people to run with you. I ran in the series once and was looking forward to the Halloween event but trouble is brewing in the cauldron...

NYRR Staten Island Half Marathon

2011-10-09T21:13:00.001-04:00

Some time today I shortly wished that the New York Road Runners is a powerful, maybe even evil, corporation that at a moment's notice makes the City of New York jump through hoops for treats. That the City would ensure the runners of NYRR events get the best treatment they wish.

The day started early, up at 5 AM to try to catch whatever Staten Island ferry before the 7:30 AM one. Or so I thought. It did not help that the D train, a short distance from my house, did not run to Manhattan. I had to jog over to the N line to catch the D! Confusing enough? On other weekends, the N would run on the D line into Brooklyn, for some distance, then resume running with D stations!!!

I got to the ferry terminal in Manhattan around 6:40 AM. I just missed the 6:30 AM boat by about 10 minutes. Who knows, maybe it actually left at 6:35 AM so I really missed it by just 5 minutes. The next boat was scheduled for 7:30 AM! Argh, so I would take the 7:30 boat after all. Now that I work in New Jersey I no longer have the luxury of picking up my bib and T-shirt at NYRR office during lunch, so I was hoping to be in S.I. early to take care of registration etc. I still managed to get everything done in time once in S.I. but the wait in the ferry terminal was unbearable. Breaking my routine of totally fast prior to a race, I had a banana while waiting for the subway and then croissant and coffee while waiting for the ferry. I lucked out and happened to sit near the gate for the ferry. I heard some people could not get on the small boat that the City provided. It would be so nice if the City brought a bigger boat, not for a bigger shark but just to quickly move people to S.I. And more frequent schedules for such a big day! Suspending subway re-route would be nice too, but I suppose that's impossible since NYRR races happen almost, if not, all weekends.

The nice thing about being a non-competitive runner is that I don't have to worry about being at a particular place in the corral. I only have to race against my own records and always run from the end of the corral. There are slower people than me and I would go around them when convenient. I never really worry about when the race really starts. As long as NYRR does not dismantle the starting line, I have some time to reach the mat - only then will my time kicks off.

Mile #1 appeared pretty quick and so were the subsequent miles. The route was no Central Park, with its nice shade, and the hills are formidable. Most of the route was along the waterfront but some parts went through industrial areas and there was no shade whatsoever. I had a GU energy gel a short time before and do not follow the recommended 45-minute interval for subsequent gus. Instead, I took another gu around Mile 4. Between Miles 5 and 6 I noticed the fishing pier on the waterfront. Or was it the Roosevelt Boardwalk? I love to explore Staten Island some more so some day I will have to be back with the bike. I hate driving so going over the Verrazano won't do. Anyway, I was going to use the last gu at Mile 8, but the climb up the hill after Mile 7 was so strenuous I stopped for Gatorade. The walk and the water kept me going until Mile 10, at which point I wolfed down the last gu.

I sweat so much the leather watchband stinks. For today's race, and going forward, I plan not to wear a watch at all. I already hold the cell phone in my hand anyway, its clock will do. Actually, for the S.I. Half, I totally forgot to bring the cell phone. I prepared for the race the night before, laid out all the clothes, packed the fanny bag, charged the phone... Except I didn't remove the phone and charger from the wall socket. No loss, as the time is shown at each mile marker anyway. I knew I started about 6 minutes after the race clock started ticking so I knew what my time was. Mile #13 seemed to take forever to reach but I finally made it into the finishers chute. It was really nice to hear a fellow DailyMiler called out my name. I saw her and called her back. She already finished some 20 minutes earlier and was just hanging out cheering the runners.

In the end, I finished the run at 2:25:14, my third best time for a Half Marathon. It was a hot day but I think it really helped that I wore a tech shirt, to wick away most of the great volume of sweat I normally generate, plus the gus, otherwise it could easily be another 2:40+ finish time. Overall, it was a great day to be outdoor.

A Tale of Two Half Marys, Part Deux

2011-10-02T23:21:00.000-04:00

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I already went into the details of the disappointing Newport-Liberty Half Marathon from a week ago. I think my reasons are satisfactory: extra sweat-soaked tank-top; hot and humid weather; cut-back training distance; and no rest the day before. For the NYRR Grete's Great Gallop, also 13.1 miles in length, less than a week later, I made sure I wouldn't repeat the mistakes.

Lucky for me, the week after the Newport Half my son was finally assigned a bus route closer to home. I still don't have the luxury of running in the early morning but at least I once again had time to do an 8k run. The Newport Half was on Sunday so Monday I rested. The rest of the week I went back to training and even had a day running up Dyker Height's hills. Learning from my mistake, I took Friday off in preparation for the Great Gallop on Saturday. On the day of the race, I made use of NYRR's bag check so I wouldn't have to carry anything extra. It was cold when I left the house so I had a long compression pants, a T-shirt, and a sweater. At the race, I removed the T-shirt and sweater to put on the race T-shirt and left them with bag check. It was my first time using NYRR bag check and I was glad the fellow runners I asked for help were helpful. The race bib came with a small piece of paper that was to be attached, via safety pin, to the bag. When we take the bag back, some NYRR personnel checked the small piece of paper against our bib. It is more secure than the airport!

The weather was in my favor, too. A few days sure made all the difference and the day before the race it rained heavily, so on race day it was just right. What's more, I am familiar with the race route, which was pretty much twice the inner loop of Central Park. It was my first race in Central Park running clockwise, I think, I am not sure if that mattered.

What else could I have done to ensure a better finish time with the Great Gallop? All these years, I always run with an empty stomach. I get stomach cramp and other stomach troubles if I have breakfast before a run. I stop for water or Gatorade, or whatever else given out along the race route, but nothing before, other than a sip of water. After the Newport Half, I read more into pre-race food and energy gels. After checking runner friends on DailyMile.com and elsewhere, I decided to give energy gels a go. The last time I had one of them was from some NYRR race, given out along with the T-shirt and bib. It was pretty yucky and I didn't want to ever eat them again. The salesperson at Runner's High store near my office in Newport said it was not true and sure enough the 3 packs I got there did not taste bad at all. I cannot remember what I got now but I do recall one was mint chocolate. I had one about fifteen before the race, then another one hour in, and finally I used the third one after another hour. (Next time I may follow the package's schedule of 45-minute intervals during race.) It really helped! I felt energetic during most of the race and had a finish time of 2:28, compared to Newport's 2:42. I am sure other factors affected the outcome of the race, too, but it is good to know that I can have food before and during the race to better take care of the body. I already drink Gatorade, when available, during races, so having energy packages is just a convenient way to feed myself. I need to tell myself that because deep down I have this nagging feeling that I am traveling toward chemical dependency. Today energy gels, perhaps tomorrow it'll be human-growth hormone or steroids? Nah, it's just food in convenient packages!

A Tale of Two Half Marys, Part One

2011-10-01T19:13:00.000-04:00

It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. OK, enough with the attempt to parody Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities. Two weekends in a row I had a half-marathon each weekend. In one I did bad and in the other I did better than I thought I could. Conditions are not the same, but there are factors that affected the outcomes.

This past Sunday (September 25) I ran in the Newport-Liberty Half Marathon (N-LHM). I work in the area for maybe 6 years, not consecutively, but that's still a big chunk of time. Only in recent months that I decided to explore the area near the office, during lunch breaks. There is only so much time to explore, on foot, as I don't drive to work. Exploring is best done on foot. I always want to find out how to get to Liberty State Park from where I work, near the exit of the Holland Tunnel. I also want to run along the Newport waterfront. I often walk there during lunch breaks but never have the opportunity to run.

Unlike the typical NYRR races for which people can pick up bibs and T-shirts two days ahead of the event, for the N-LHM you need to do that on the day of the race. I pre-registered so I got my bib and T-shirt fairly quickly. I had no plan to check a bag so I wore a tank-top to the race then just added the race T-shirt on top. It was Mistake #1. It turned out to be a hot and humid day. I sweat easily and the two layers of shirt simply kept all the sweat on me and weighed me down. Only by Mile #5 or so that I had the brain to remove the inside and wrapped the tank-top around a hand, much like tapes on a boxer's fist. If I checked bag I would have wasted a great deal of time. The line was so long! The same goes for the bathroom line. Instead of having multiple lines going to the multiple portable johns, there were just two lines that snaked around the small street.

It was a good thing that I already explored the Hoboken area adjacent to Newport, via the somewhat recently opened waterfront connecting the two cities. The route according to the official web site for the N-LHM showed a short excursion into Hoboken but in reality we didn't even go past the rail yard. We went as far as just past Target and back we went on Washington Boulevard. The part of the short excursion that we would go has not much to show anyway. If the route was to include the waterfront then that's something else, but I suppose there were too many runners to squeeze through the construction area for some new condo and park, as well as the Hoboken transit hub.

It seemed like forever to see any mile marker. I think the tall buildings along Washington helped block out the sun somewhat but once we turned into Grand Street there was no shade. At some point we turned left and eventually ended up in Liberty State Park (LSP). It was indeed nice there but again we were pretty much out in the sun, roasting away. From looking at maps, I know that there is a bridge from the mainland to Ellis Island and at the end of Freedom Way I thought we somehow got onto Ellis Island. Silly me, it was a long way to go before we would pass by the bridge. I like it how the bridge/pier allows people easy access to sea-breeze while keeping some wild areas undisturbed. I can imagine myself running in LSP frequently if I live in the area. There were few photographers for the event but one or two were stationed near the bridge to Ellis Island, to capture the runners with the Statue of Liberty in the background. It really is the back of Lady Liberty but it still makes a nice background. Runners pass the photographers on the way to a U-turn so on the way back they knew ahead that they were there. I put on a determined face for the camera then slouched right afterward.

The hot and humid weather, plus the soaked tank-top, all worked against me. The day before, having to choose between (a) dying of ennui while some females relatives shopped, or (b) running at Marine Park, I chose the latter. Looking back, I think it was an unwise decision. I should have just walked instead. Since the beginning of September, when my son went back to school, he had to take a yellow bus to school. His new school schedule interfered with my running schedule, which is early morning. I used to run then rushed home to drag him out of bed then we walked to school, mere minutes away. Now I have a smaller window and can only run after he see him off on the bus. Instead of the usual 8 km each morning I was doing only 4 km or less. Running more on the day before the Newport Half did not help. Shortly after the start, my left shoulder ached and I couldn't maintain my normal running form. I had to walk more often or let the left arm droop. While the legs do most of the work during a foot race, the other parts of the body matters too.

Two hours and forty-two minutes was my finish time for the Newport-Liberty Half Marathon. The last time I spend 2:40ish for a Half Mary was for the Queens Half, when it was much hotter, in the middle of July. Before that it was the ill-fated St. Louis Marathon 2011 that for me turned into a Half Marathon. In the midst of confusion, I traveled a part of the route twice, once because I was diverted then the second time to confirm that the Full Mary was already cancelled. I would like to think that the more I run the better I would get, but the N-LHM indicated otherwise. The shorter, daily runs probably played a big role, then the extra piece of clothes, the unfriendly weather, and the lack of rest on the day before the race together really ruined it.

I am happy to report that for the NYRR Grete's Great Gallop (13.1 miles, October 1, 2011), my finish time was 2:28. Conditions are definitely different than last Sunday, but I will into those details later.

Spoonie

2011-09-15T20:49:00.001-04:00

The recent big news at Apple, Inc. is the resignation of Steve Jobs as CEO. Taking over Jobs' spot is the Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cook. As a Mac-head, I follow Apple news daily so I am familiar with the name "Tim Cook". The average person may not know who Cook was but now he will.

What is so special about Tim Cook's name? It is what I call a spoonie - by switching the non-consonant parts of the names you can make a somewhat meaningful phrase, i.e. "Took Him" from "Tim Cook". Even better, you can make the 4-word phrase "Tim Cook Took Him", perhaps as an answer to the question "Where is the tomcat?" Like palindromes, spoonies can be very contrived. Note that I took the liberty to introduce the "kim" sound, just because "Cim" looks ambiguous and probably gets pronounced as "sim" or "chim", whatever that means.

Some of you may already know the word "spoonerism" is the proper term for the word play I described. I decided to make up the shorter word just because it is just that - shorter. "Spoonie" may have a dirty meaning in slang but slang is so rich I suspect most normal words have a dirty counterpart in the slang world. Be sophisticated and rely less on slang words!

As a multi-syllabic language, English is not that great for making meaningful spoonies. The few that I know are

crushing blow <=> blushing crow
popcorn <=> porn cop (a member of the vice squad?)
take a look <=> took a lake (something a large creature like Godzilla can do?)

Spoonies are very popular in Vietnamese since the language is mono-syllabic. Every original Vietnamese word has only one syllable. "Saigon", the older but more popular name for the capital city of the former South Vietnam, was made so to look foreign and exotic. (Ho Chi Minh City, or Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh, is the official name.) There is beauty in being mono-syllabic. Words can be safely uttered without worrying about where one syllable ends and where the next begins. Think "nowhere" - which syllable take the "W"? Is it pronounced "no where" or "now here"? Sure, having words spanning many syllables can be fun for poets and such, but for daily conversation, mono-syllables are great to have.

There are many Vietnamese jokes and phrases made from spoonies but after years of not using it enough, or reading Vietnamese, I do not remember that many but still enough for a blog entry. Soccer, or "đá banh", is a popular sport in Vietnam. The spoonie of "đá banh" is "đánh ba", or "to beat up one's father", a big no-no in Vietnam, where children are supposed to have high respect for their parents. Similarly, "đá chanh", or lemonade, can become "đánh cha", where "cha" is another word for "father". Along the fatherhood line, "tắm ỉa", or take a dump right before taking a shower, is a spoonie of "tía ẩm", where "tía" is a more endearing term for "father" and "ẩm" means to carry or cradle. Enough with fathers and their issues... If you speak Viet and know a Viet person, ask them if they know "con Hương bên đèo", which sounds like a woman named "Hương" who lives by a hill (đèo). In reality, it is a spoonie for "con heo bên đường", or "the pig by the road". Likewise, "con Chín bến đò" may sound like a lady, ranked eighth in the family so she's usually known as Number 9 (since the first-born is called #2), switch things around and you have "con chó bến đình", or "the dog by the temple"! Lastly, many Chinese in Vietnam have roots in the Chaozhou region of China. Ask a Viet you know if "ngầu lôi tăng kể" sounds like teochew (or Chaozhou language) and the person may agree. In reality, the phrase is just a spoonie of "ngồi lâu tê cẳng", or "having sleepy legs from sitting too long".

Of course to really appreciate all these word-plays you need to speak the Vietnamese language. No promise, but I may, might, remotely possible, make a vlog or video log, where I record myself uttering these nonsensical phrases for entertainment purpose. A very iffy idea. Writing is hard enough already, videotaping (even without tape) with all the editing and text overlay is even harder, so don't hold your breath.

Lonely At The Front

2011-09-07T22:46:00.000-04:00

Disaster Preparation - Dressed To Run

2011-08-28T17:57:00.002-04:00

"What? There is a fire? Quick, I want to wear my pilot jumpsuit!" That was me during my younger years. I had a yellow pilot jumpsuit that I love and would want to wear it should something happen and we had to leave the house in a hurry. Or so I was told. I admit I vaguely recall having the jumpsuit and the photo below helps reinforce the feeble memory.

Thanks to the recent visit by Hurricane Irene, I finally have a Go Bag made. 9/11, blackout, some other minor storm... after each of those past events I would declare I would make a Go Bag, something to grab and run out of the house. I never did, until this weekend. I only have two 500-mL bottles of water and the bag is already pretty heavy. At most it will last me two days, I think. The recommended amount is 1 gallon per person per day. One gallon is about 3.7 L, so I only have about a quarter of the recommended amount. I do have a flashlight which does not require batteries but is rather human-powered. As long as I have the strength to crank it, it will work. I love the Etón series of emergency devices. Flashlight, AM/FM radio, weather radio, USB port for charging small electronics like cell phone and Nintendo DS, powered by human power or solar energy. In my case, the Go Bag's device also has an alarm clock. I had some snacks and a few change of clothes and that's about it. No important documents in waterproof bag, so I guess my Go Bag is not that ready to go.

Maybe it's an obvious thing so it's not mentioned, but in all the stories on disaster preparation I read, no one ever said that we should wear street clothes as part of the preparation. For me, that would be a shirt or maybe even a sweater, then some kind of pants or shorts to hold the house keys, wallet with IDs and credit cards etc, some cash and coins, and the cell phone. What's the point of having a Go Bag but you cannot go right away because you are not dressed to run out into the street. I should have slept in street clothes last night but then did put it on when I woke up. It's not that I don't want to be seen on TV at a shelter in my PJ, I just want to be prepared. It is not so much as the clothes themselves, it's what I can bring with me and home clothes usually don't have pockets to carry stuff. Maybe it is easy for a guy to say what I just did, but I imagine women can wear something comfy that allow them to run quickly.

Did you wonder if I had some other pilot jumpsuit on this morning? No, for me these days life is all about long-distance running, so the shirt of choice I had was my NYRR Queens Half Marathon 2011.

Vacation Packing

2011-08-20T21:26:00.002-04:00

T-shirts, check. Sneakers, check. Toothbrush, check. For my recent trip to China, considering I pack only the night before, I did OK. Somehow I managed to bring along everything I thought I would need for the trip. Still, I have always wanted to write things down and check them off as I pack, so I finally put it all down in the Google sheet below, incomplete of course:

Qaptain Qwerty Vacation Packing

What I forgot to pack was dedication. The determination to run during the vacation. Granted it was a bus tour such that once the tour began there's nothing you can do but go along with the tour. Most nights we got to the hotel late, when the pool or gym was already closed. There was much walking or standing during most tours, but intentional exercise is always better than the walks during the tours.

I should have treated the vacation the same way I do with a typical day. Get up early enough to squeeze in a run or whatever, shower, then go to work, or in this case, join the tour. Instead, I came up with excuses and did not run a single day during the whole 10-day trip. Twice I did get up early but only managed a walk, which I think is good enough. In the five Chinese cities that I visited, running is not that popular, or at least street running is not. During the two walks as well as other times on the bus, I saw at most two different runners actually running as an exercise. There were other people running, but only briefly to arrive at a bus stop or some similar destination. Maybe people run at night when I already checked into the hotel, or in some public park that I did not know of.

Too bad I didn't manage to run, as the typical block in the visited cities are extra long compared to New York City. I would call them super-blocks. There were no individual homes, only large and tall buildings surrounded by walls. There were some areas that have family homes, maybe at most three stories tall, but those buildings too were enclosed by some walls, again, long block. I love the long blocks as that means less interactions with vehicular traffic. Some of the cities even have footbridges, something I think New York City can make use of. Keep the pedestrians out of the cars' way and there is zero chance anyone will get run over. Some of the footbridges I saw in China even have escalators, and I wouldn't be surprised if others have elevators, too.

My biggest running regret was when we were in Shanghai, on our own after the bus tour ended. I had two chances, two mornings, to run the 1.5-kilometer distance from the hotel to The Bund, a touristy waterfront area. Although I did not know the exact way to get to The Bund, from the hotel I could easily see the Oriental Pearl Tower, so I could not be wrong to run in that direction. The first morning I actually got up early enough but then I was upset that the trip, as it turned out, included a side business trip about the local real estate market. I was scheduled to babysit some kids. Why I didn't just run and shake off the unpleasantness I don't know, but it became an excuse to return to bed. To be fair, even if I ran, I would not made it far because that morning a really heavy rain descended upon Shanghai. The street was flooded badly at most corners. For the second morning, it was the day I was to fly back to the U.S. and my mind came up with more excuses. What if I got hit by a bus so that I would miss the flight? If I survive the impact, that is. What if that, what if this, in the end, no run. I should have stuck to Nike's motto and just do it. Now I only have a big regret.

A typical super-block in a Chinese city. Yay, long stretch of not having to watch out for cars!

China Vacation 2011

2011-08-14T19:20:00.000-04:00

Geek Cruise, that is what I need. Mac-based Geek Cruise, even better. One of these, that's what I will have as a vacation. No waiting around while others do their shopping. Just me and a bunch of geeks. Maybe there will be lectures about some up-and-coming technologies, or maybe classes on some existing apps. That may sound boring to the typical person, but then again, hanging around with nothing to do while others shop is boring, too.

I just came back to the U.S. from a 5-city, 5-day bus tour of Shanghai, China and nearby cities. Each city has its unique culture or history and the tour guides were good, even though my Cantonese is not that good, but I know enough to figure out what they were talking about. It was actually more interesting to hear the stories related to the places we were heading to. For example, the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge's story was about Chinese citizens scraping together to finance the bridge and Chinese engineers overcoming technical difficulties to create the bridge. It was not a beautiful bridge, the tour guide said, but it was the first to be built entirely by Chinese, without foreigner's assistance. Earlier, the Russian helped built two other bridges that also traversed the Yangtze, but disagreement started between China and Russia and Russia recalled its engineers from the Nanjing project. We arrived at the a building under the bridge, took the elevator to some viewing platform and took photos of the area, then got "treated" to an art gallery. The near-extinct art involves painting on the inside of snuff bottles. Not just bottles, but many kinds of glass objects, like globes and vases. The work requires serious skill as the painter would have to pain on the inside of the objects, doing things backward or mirror-reversed. Great stuff, but then we spent an hour or so there as many people in the tour went gaga over the artworks. The visit to the bridge turned into a shopping spree of artworks. Likewise, other visits to factories that specialize in products of the region also turned into shopping experience. Some even appeared to be infomercials! "Buy this set of silk bed spread and blanket NOW and we will throw in another set for free! But wait, there's more!!! We will also include, free of charge, a small handkerchief for you to clean your camera lens or eyeglasses!" Haggling over the prices of some jade jewelry, persistent salespeople offering pearly necklaces or bracelets, medicine men telling us overweight people we need his herbs to live a healthier life... things I do not need to be involved with while on vacation! In Cantonese, some tours are called "duckling tour" because the tourists get rushed about like a group of ducklings. I don't know what these apparently vendor-sponsored tours are called but I think I'd rather be rushed about instead of sitting around waiting for others to shop.

I did have some fun looking for signs with incorrect or bad English to snap. Here is one:

Don't Know Squat About Squash

2011-08-04T00:33:00.000-04:00

Taking care of a melon garden is a lot more work that it seems. You do not just setup some sort of a frame and the melon vines just move in and produce the melons for you. You need to give the garden much water, not by spraying on the big leaves, which make them look refreshing but actually does not do any good. The water needs to reach the soil where originally planted the buds. A handyman would have an x by y frame for the vines to spread. I am definitely not handy and like to use found objects to build the frame. So far I have 2 CD towers which I rescued off the curb from a neighbor up the block. Various poles found in my backyard serve as the vertical parts of the frame. Several short pieces of string from the packinq of a Nerf, when tied together served as the horizontal parts. The strings were not but luckily I have an old garden hose laying around. As the vines spread around, I added pots and poles and even resorted to using two bicycles that I have no other uses for, as part of the "frame."

The melon vines had minds of their own! I knew they would climb over the fence into my neighbors' yards, but I didn't expect them to squeeze through the plastic strips in the fence and grow up from there. The melons or squashes in my garden have somewhat spiky vines so I worried the neighbor's grandchildren may get scratched, or at least scared by the vines. So one day I went over to try to guide them back to my yard. Lo and behold, one of the vines had a nice, round squash already! It was so heavy that it pulled the vine down and was sitting on the cement wall. As I tried to lift the whole thing back over my fence, I snapped it off! Oh no, a premature death! The squash whose life got squashed!!! It was not ripe enough to eat so there was nothing else to do but display it on the kitchen for a few days, then off it went into the compost bin. I think it was a girl melon, so I shall call it Melon Chloe. So long, Chloe!

I hope you enjoy the exaggerated melon-drama...

Queens Half 2011

2011-08-02T22:12:00.001-04:00

Someone famous once said, "You cannot cross the same river twice." I think it was either Chuck Norris or "Weird" Al Yankovic (heh heh). The saying kinda makes sense, since the river flows and technically the water you touch the first time cannot possibly be the same water the second time around. This past weekend, for me that "river" was the course for the NYRR Queens Half Marathon 2011.

The NYRR Queens Half Marathon 2010 was the first race I ran in after resuming running, after a break of a few years. In the beginning, I ran just to try to lose some weight. At some point, I entertained the idea of running the NYC Marathon, even though I was, most likely, only logging 3K a day (not even 2 miles!). A half-marathon seemed to be a good yardstick to see how good my endurance was. I did not know much about running in the heat but made sure to stop at every water station just to be safe. I had a baseball cap on and just some khaki short and the NYRR official cotton tee. I walked from Mile #10 to Mile #11 then let some guy soaked me with a hose. Not a good idea, since the wet clothes weighed me down and the water killed my cell phone. The cover for the old phone's charging port was all tattered and anything, especially water, could get inside the phone easily, and the water sure did. I eked by the 3-hour time limit, with 6 minutes to spare. The good thing is the race gave me confidence that I can do a Half Marathon.

This year I got compression shorts and many more races earlier in the year. I set my best time for a Half Mary with the Manhattan Half in January, on a very cold day, like 9 degrees (!), with 2:23:40. I almost matched that time with the Brooklyn Half in May, 2:24:40. It was a decent day, not too hot, and it would be nice if I had the same finish time or better. The weeks leading up the Queens Half NYC was also known as The Baked Apple. It was hot! Like 90 to 100 hot! Still, unreasonably I hoped that would somehow beat my 2:23:40 record. Even though I just took the whole month of June off from running to give the left foot time to recover. The rest helped, but I felt sluggish in the two races in the early half of July.

The day of the Queens Half came and it was not so hot. Still hot when you run but not as hot as last year's. I slowed down for Gatorade and water after Mile #3, #6, and #9, then also #11 and #12. From Mile #12 on I had my cell phone play "Mezamero! Yasei! (Awaken the Beast Within)", from Naruto Shippuuden Season 2, over and over, and that helped keep me going, perhaps even picking up some speed. As usual, when the finish line finally appeared, I sprinted for it. If I recall correctly, I did not feel as bad as when I finished the Queens Half in 2010. Compared the time for Queens Half 2010 and 2011, this year I ran 14 minutes faster, or 2:40:47. People with better capabilities can excel themselves, or set Personal Record (PR) regardless of weather conditions or other factors. For me, I better stick with comparing similar races. Even though this year's Queens Half stayed inside Flushing Meadow Park the whole time, i.e. no College Point Boulevard, it was not too much different. No point comparing apples and oranges, i.e. summer races vs. winter races. Maybe, just maybe, in a few years, with the current running schedule maintained, who knows, I will be able to outdo myself, hot or cold, but for now, I'll be realistic.

Qaptain Qwerty Book Club

2011-07-29T21:02:00.000-04:00

Not too long ago, some famous talk show host, whose first name starts with the letter "O", had her final show. I never watch that show but understand she used to have a book club on the show. I was wondering if I can start a Qaptain Qwerty Book Club to fill the void, now that the show with the influential lady is no longer around.

My reading habit has gone through a major change lately. I used to read 99% science fiction, either Star Wars or Star Trek. Occasionally I would pick something else other than those two "Stars". At some point I got sick of reading about how great the Mandalorians are, that they are not mere bounty hunters with tons of deadly gadgets on them. I just cannot get over the fact that they are just mercenaries and would fight for whoever paying them. So out went Star Wars. I don't have too much of a problem with Star Trek until I came across some book with the Q character. Even though Q is not in that many stories, the whole idea turned me off Star Trek.

For a while I got into the mystery genre and followed Agatha Christie and others, usually via audiobooks. I hungrily tore through the Millennium trilogy, even though it was quaint reading about Netscape and Eudora computer programs in this day and age. One day I decided to go easy on my eyes and would read only books of the large-print format. The selection is not as large but I went with whatever authors I recognize or are prolific. To that end, I briefly got into Janet Evanovich but she lost me on the second book of the Bounty Huntress series, when she spent some time writing about shopping as a therapy. Maybe that's what got me into sci-fi. I need to read about fantastic stuff, not ordinary life angst. In the same vein, story about overworked workers, be it police detectives or filing clerks, seriously turned me off. Luckily, one day just by chance I picked up a book by Bernard Cornwell, one from the Saxon series. Life was hard, no creature comforts, might make right, men with weapons go around killing and looting, but no one ever have to write effing reports for managers to read. Sure, the monks often transcribe parchments by hand, but the monks are the bad guys and sometimes get killed.

Cornwell's works are considered historical fiction. He creates characters out of thin air, or loosely based on real people, and insert them into real historical events. Or at least as real as it was recorded. You know how the victors usually get to write history. It is nice how he plainly point out at the end of the book who are fictitious and who are real. Or how he unfairly makes some historical figures wimpy or bad. It is amusing to learn that in the Saxon world, if you are over 40 years old, you are considered old. Also, women of 15 or so, what we would consider teenage by 2011 standard, are ripe for marriage. I am from Viet Nam and know that women got married early, or at least 50 years ago, and maybe still do, but after 30+ years in the U.S. I sorta forgot the tidbit.

Cornwell's Saxon series has only a few books and I flew through them in a short amount of time, whether they are large-print or not. He also has a series about a soldier named Richard Sharpe. The first Sharpe novel that I managed to find was "Sharpe's Trafalgar" and took place mostly on the open sea. The first few chapters of the book described much about life of the travelers who pay the cheapest tickets. I could not help thinking back to my journey out of Viet Nam. Sharpe knew someone high on the social echelon and got invited to dinner with the captain, but at times he had to eat things that are barely edible. At least he ate. I don't remember if I ate at all. I clearly recall the water smell terribly, whether because it was just scooped right off the river where the boat was docked, or because the plastic container was new. The water did have that weird smell when plastic is new. I vaguely recall eating some kind of sliced bread, or maybe it was just some form of bread. I do not remember eating much, but I doubt I could have survived without food for the multi-day journey. I think it was 8 days. There was not much room where I sat but some rich teenagers with long legs just spread themselves all over. I recall one time going up to the top level and took in some fresh breath of air. At least once I went to use the restroom, at the back of boat. The rest is just a blur. Scary when life imitates arts.

Farewell to Donnell

2011-07-15T22:55:00.000-04:00

It seems my back yard is not the only place I did not visit often enough. Today, after picking up the bib and T-shirt for tomorrow's 4-mile Central Park Conservancy Run at the NYRR office on 89th Street, I went looking for a book for my son's summer reading. He will go to Bay Academy in September and they already sent him a reading assignment for the summer. I figured I know my NYPL pretty well and would just visit some library in the area. I could have gone to the Yorkville Branch, at 79th St. and Third Avenue, since it was the closest library to the NYRR office. However, for exercising purpose, I walked along Fifth Avenue from the Apple Store to the NYRR office and would rather walk back the same way and do my library search from there. Donnell Library Center on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues would then be the best choice. Much to my surprise, the library was closed for good! I just met some visiting distant relatives at MOMA a few weeks ago but I did not notice the library at all. Further research later in the evening revealed that the Donnell Library Center was actually closed in August 2008. That means for almost three years I never went by that place. Either that or I forgot being there in the past three years!

Years ago when I still read Vietnamese literature, Donnell was the place to be. As far as I know, Donnell had the best collection of Vietnamese books in the NYPL system. It was from the Donnell collection that I read "Ngọn Cỏ Gió Đùa", which my late father often mentioned as the only novel he ever read. He was the oldest child in a big family and had much to help the family. He was very interested in futbol and did not care much about literature, but he did read that one book, by Hồ Biểu Chánh. Much to my surprise, the book was really just a re-packaged version of Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables". Different setting of old-time Viet Nam during some war, but same story.

Also thanks to Donnell that I got to read the classic Chinese lit "Water Margin", translated into Vietnamese as "Thủy Hử", of course. My Chinese is too poor to be pitched against the Chinese version and English version somehow just would not cut it for me. I might have read a few other Viet books but "NCGĐ" and "TH" are the two I recall in recent memories. While we are on the topic of Viet lit, one disappointment I have about it is that there seems to be no impartial books out there. Maybe I have not read enough, but the few I came across are either for or against the topic at hand, especially when it comes to modern Viet history. They are more like propaganda materials, for or against the Communist regime, or other topics. It was like reading The New York Post, where every Jew is a hero and everyone else in the Middle East are referred to by some negative adjectives.

My memory is failing me now but I think I used to go to Donnell's media center to watch videotapes or listened to music at the many cubicles set aside for such consumption. Those were the days before the advent of YouTube and the Internet. Certain pieces of music or movies would be available only at some media center, some physical place you have to be at to enjoy the work. It is entirely possible that I am confusing Donnell's Media Center with NYU Bobst Library's. I used to take advantage of the shared resources between The Cooper Union and NYU.

My #1 blog fan used to work near Donnell, I wonder if she has any special memories about it...

No Lemon, Yes Melon

2011-07-14T22:42:00.001-04:00

If someone tells you he is environmentally conscious, would you assume he grows his own fruits and vegetable in a backyard garden? If that is the requirement, then I am not much of a green person, but I really am. I walk or use public transportation, instead of drive, most of the time. I recycle and re-use everyday. I turn off TVs, lights, computers, etc. when they are not in use. But gardening so far has always eludes me. My first attempt at gardening was many years ago when I lived in Long Island City. The group Astoria Residents Recycling Our Waste (ARROW) just turned a vacant lot into a Green Thumb park, with a section set aside for gardening. I helped setup the plots and got one assigned to me. I lived just two blocks away from the new park but weeks then months pass and I never planted anything in the plot. If there was any plot thickening, it was just weeds taking advantage of my absence.

Years later I have my own house with a backyard. Long periods of time would go by and I would not spend any time in the backyard. Last year I decided to maintain a compost bin, even though I did not know what I would do with the stuff once they are made. From a friend in ARROW I got two more containers for composting and spent more time in the backyard turning and messing around with the bins. By chance someone my wife knows has some extra melon buds (?) to give away. The things would normally go to my in-laws but this year they already dedicated their front yard to growing string beans. I do not recall what got into me but I decided to take a shot at growing them melons.

I do not have much soil area in the back yard so I grew one in a large pot while others went into the soil elsewhere. Maybe in the future I will share my un-handyman's trellis but this time I just want to show off the potted melon. As shown in the first two photos, the melon plant has grown large and spreading all over. The tall photo is a Photoshop composite of three photos. I may not have properly merged the photos together, but you get the idea. I just water it everyday and guide its vines so it won't end up in the neighbor's yard. By the way, I actually used some of the compost, made mostly from last year's autumn leaves, in a pot to support the melon vines as they spread onto cement floor.

I have not read up much about growing melons and just play by ears, so to speak. I know these things like to climb but never having grown them before I was amazed to see first-hand how the process is done. The vines themselves have sticky hair to cling on whatever they come across. Then there are these other things that crawl ahead and coil around poles and such for support. I definitely need to read up on melons to know the proper terms.

In case you wonder what's with the title of the blog post, it is a variation of the phrase NO MELON NO LEMON, which spells the same from left to right and from right to left. I love palindromes and cannot pass the chance of using them, but in this case since I grow melons, it is NO LEMON YES MELON. Of course the phrase is not a palindrome any more.

Run Charlie Brown Run

2011-07-04T22:51:00.000-04:00

After about a month off from running, this weekend I am back. The left foot had a spot, around mid-foot on the arch, that was very painful to the touch, so I took the doctor's advice to give it some time to rest. I switched to cycling and it was not very satisfying, but better than nothing. I was supposed to take the whole month of June off, but June 1 was National Running Day, so I ran a short route on that day then began the hiatus on June 2. I resumed running on July 3 so that was about right for a 30-day break.

It was the weekend so it was tempting to put in a long run, longer than my usual five miles anyway. Luckily, the reasonable side of me resisted the temptation and I ran just my old, daily five miles. I picked the Dyker Height route because it involves a hill at the midway point, where I would turn around and head back. The route goes through residential areas only and has no long stretch with no traffic. At every corner is a either a stop sign or a traffic light, something to stop for and look before crossing, so for the whole month cycling I didn't use this route. As I headed home, the sky darkened and by the time I got breakfast it was raining lightly. No problem, the bagel shop where I got breakfast had a picnic table on the side of the building, with a window awning just enough to cover me. It was a nice way to celebrate my return to running - my favorite breakfast of toasted bagel with cream cheese, in the quiet rain.

The next day, Independence Day (July 4th), I finally joined the Holiday Marathons people in Van Cortlandt Park, in the Bronx. In this day and age of pre-registration and sold-out races, the Holiday Marathons (HM) series is a welcomed breath of fresh air. While the typical organized races, whether through Active.com or NYRR, charge $20 and up, the HM series only ask for a $10 donation. You do not get a souvenir T-shirt or official time but there is refreshment at the beginning and at the end of the race. It is really just one loop of 6.56 miles. Run one loop and you have about 10K, 2 loops then you have a Half-Marathon, and 4 times get you a Full Marathon. Again, no medal or any prize whatsoever, but if your goal is to run one of those distance, it can be done without any requirements. The course is a trail most of the time, so it was muddy or bumpy in places, somewhat of an obstacle course and not your typical road races. The volunteers were helpful, the crowd was small enough for me to actually see the person singing the National Anthem, and there was a small cheering section. For a donation of $10, it was a bargain.

The run was great except I unknowingly cheated myself out of a few miles. I am totally unfamiliar with Van Cortlandt Park and the race course. Knowing my slower pace, I put myself in the back of the pack at the beginning of the race. I simply followed the big crowd of people in front of me but eventually there were just a few people, like two, one in the front and one in the back, around me on the race course. As usual, I ran without my near-sighted glasses but could see the road fine. Every now and then I would see the orange streamer hanging on trees as route markers. At forks in the road there were white arrows on the ground to point me in the right direction. Unfortunately, when I got out of the trail and back on the edge of parade ground, I automatically thought that was it, that I would just go around the perimeter of the parade ground. I totally missed the arrow pointing back to the woods. I was supposed to follow some path that intersect the Henry Hudson Parkway then make a U-turn back to the parade ground. Even on my wrong course, I made an early left turn but realized quickly and resumed the course, still the wrong, shorter course, but I was not aware of it. I did notice someone running downhill from the woods onto the perimeter of the parade ground, but I thought it was just someone running a longer route. I imagined there were veterans of the area who knew other longer route. As I approached the finish line, some fast runners were passing me and I simply thought they were on their second loop. Some people are just that fast! As I logged my time, I was amazed how much faster I was. My pace was less than 10 minutes per mile. I found it hard to believe, what with me just came off a month-long break. While cooling down after the race I saw people who I knew on DailyMile.com coming in. I know they are fast runners, much faster than me. A long subway ride home later, I decided to review the race route to find out where I made the shortcut. The Garmin map at http://thejuly4thmarathon.com/the-course/ is hard to see but opening it in Google Earth helped a lot. I found my early left turn and then the right turn that I missed. I still enjoyed the run and felt good afterward.

Memorial Day 2011, Belatedly

2011-06-05T17:25:00.000-04:00

Better late than never! Over the years, as I travel around, whether on vacation, on a bike trip locally, or even during walks after lunch at work, whenever I come across a war memorial I would take photos of the monuments. Below are photos I took of the Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City, the Vietnam War Memorial and World War 2 Memorial on the waterfront in the south of Hoboken, a World War Memorial in Long Island City (it was erected in 1926, people couldn't foresee a World War 2 coming up in about 10 years), a memorial in Marine Park, Brooklyn, and the grave for Sergeant Alexander Kidd (on Governors Island, New York, I think). A belated salute to the fallen!

80s Classics

2011-05-24T23:58:00.000-04:00

Years ago, classics music meant music from the 1960s and older. Nowadays, in the year 2011, 1980s music is considered classics, too. Whatever 1980s music is called, to me it's the stuff I grew up with. That meant America's Top Ten with Casey Kasem on Saturday, Friday Night Video on, duh, Friday nights, and America's Top 40 on Sunday morning and afternoon. Oh yeah, also Solid Gold with Dionne Warwick, which is not always good, but there were good moments. I never got into music enough to learn any instruments or join a band, just enough to recognize most songs that were played on the radio. At some point, Life changed and suddenly one day I don't know any of the current songs or singers. Sure I discovered Jonathan Coulton and whatever songs honored by "Weird" Al Yankovic with a parody, but in general I don't know much else.

This past September when my Son joined the chorus at school I thought he would be singing church music and such. Or maybe worse the typical crap played on the radio these days. Luckily his teacher has a 1980s project for them to work with and Son came home with songs like "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Hit Me With Your Best Shot". Around Christmas time the chorus practiced and sang Christmas songs, naturally, but comes spring and they finally unleashed their 80s classics. Today I got to attend the performance outside Brooklyn Borough Hall. They performed many songs and I recorded them all badly but Journey's Separate Way is one of my favorite songs, so here it is! (Note to self: zoom in before the performance begins and do not zoom back out until the performance is done.)

NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon

2011-05-21T23:02:00.000-04:00

I did it! A year ago I stumbled upon the finish line, sort of, of the NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon, but today I was part of it.

As usual, getting to the starting line is half the challenge, thanks to the MTA's regular weekend track work. I thought I would take the D train to the Prospect Avenue station and walk from 4th Avenue to Park Drive West. Normally the D does not stop at Prospect Avenue, but on weekend it usually does. Alas, the D was not running toward Manhattan, at least not from my station. I got lucky and caught a train just as I climbed the stairs to the station, otherwise I would have to wait a long time. Based on suggestion from the NYRR Facebook page, I took the Q from Coney Island to Parkside Avenue station. I had a vague idea where the starting line was and followed some fellow runners, but since I had to go to my high-numbered corral, I ended up making a big circle around the lake in Prospect Park. I think I walked 1.5 miles from the subway station to my assigned corral. Too bad that distance was not included in the 13.1 miles.

I ran in Prospect Park twice before and was out of breath both times, with just one loop around the inside. To better prepare for the two loops in Prospect Park during the Brooklyn Half, I have been training in Dyker Height. Before I would just go up the hill then down the hill toward the BQE then head back. Lately, I also head toward 80th Street and 12th Avenue, going up and down the hill in the process. I think the training helped somewhat as I did not feel as bad as when I ran in Prospect Park before.

It is not true that once you are out of the park it's all flat. Just right outside the park, we had to climb over the bridge over the Prospect Expressway then down into the Expressway itself, only to climb again into Oy Vey Parkway. I read somewhere that spectator support along the Parkway was sparse and it was true. Maybe there is some local ordinance about noises, or the rich people living along the Parkway don't want to be disturbed. It was a hot and sunny day, but luckily the Parkway was half covered by tree shades so only when we entered intersections did we get some sun. I don't think there is an Avenue A, but the first avenue name I noticed was Avenue H. Slowly the letter increased until we reached Avenue Z, then it was Neptune Avenue then we turned onto Mermaid Avenue. I don't know how it was done earlier when there were many more people, but by the time I got to Coney Island we were directed to get onto the Boardwalk using the ramp near the handball court.

On the Boardwalk, I had "Somewhere in Brooklyn" by Bruno Mars playing on my cell phone but it was unnecessary and ineffective. Some DJ already played loud motivational tunes and support from the crowd along the Boardwalk was great. As usual, I sprinted the short distance on the Boardwalk, not just the 0.1 mile to the finish line, but some distance before Mile 13. After the race I attended a meet-n-greet with other runners who I am friends with on the web site dailymile.com. It's always nice to put some real faces to the faces we see in cyberspace.

I was hoping I would break my personal record of 2:23:40, which I achieved with the Manhattan Half Marathon in the dead of winter in January. I was able to run non-stop, bypassing all the water stations, which were serving frozen water anyway. For the Brooklyn Half, to be safe, I stopped for water three times, around Mile 7, 10, and 12. I was disappointed to discover in the end that my time today is 2:24:40. Even though conditions are not the same, I still hoped I would outdo myself. Other people on dailymile.com sure did best themselves. I don't know how they did it. I just have to train more, I guess.

Somewhere in Brooklyn

2011-05-20T11:34:00.001-04:00

Less than 24 hours to go for the NYRR Brooklyn Half Marathon, yay! I was actually at the Brooklyn Half in 2010, but only as a passerby. I just resumed running after years of off-and-on running. That morning I decided to run along Stillwell Avenue to Coney Island and sheesh, where did all these people come from? I asked one of the runners who were walking to the subway station and learned it was the Brooklyn Half Marathon. What a novel idea, half a marathon instead of the whole thing! I ran the full marathon back in the late 1990s and even ran 2 shorter races and since then I did not keep up with NYRR. Funny how one moment you don't care about nyrr.org and a short time later you regularly visit it to check out the races, not that the site changes that often. I am sure I signed up for those 90s marathons with pen and paper, but not sure how I registered for the 2 shorter races. Maybe NYRR used to mail entry forms to its members? How did we ever live our lives without the Internet?

Bumping into the Brooklyn Half in 2010 gave me an idea. I was just back into running and did 3K everyday, maybe 9K on the weekends. I knew I was not ready for the full marathon, but perhaps a Half is achievable. I signed up for the Queens Half Marathon and managed to finish it under the 3-hour limit. It was one of the hottest days of the summer and I walked from Mile 10 to Mile 11 or one of those miles at the end. The important thing is the goal was achieved. Next I ran the Bronx Half, under better weather and improved my time. Lastly, one freezing day in January 2011 I ran the Manhattan Half and set my personal best of 2 hours and 23 minutes. Maybe it is wishful thinking but for the Brooklyn Half I want to outdo myself again. Conditions are not the same, of course, cold weather vs. hot weather. I was able to run the entire Manhattan Half without stopping for water. But we can dream, can we not?

Fartlek, Anyone?

2011-05-17T23:50:00.000-04:00

Colonoscopy technology is so advanced these days, doctors no longer have to put on gloves and get messy with the camera probing about. Instead, doctors can be assisted with a voice-control robotic arm that does all the work. It all starts with the doctor's command, "See colon, enter."

Seriously, I don't think the technology changed that much since I last had one more than five years ago. It did feel fast. One minute I was having a broken chat with the anesthesiologist then the next instance he woke me up to go to the recovery room. I did not even feel groggy, just bloated from all the gas that went in. From what I blogged last time, I had a nasty headache because of the fasting before the procedure. This time maybe because the liquid diet actually helped somewhat, or maybe because of my recent more active lifestyle, I did not have a headache at all. Not the morning of the procedure, not afterward. Before, if I somehow forgot to have coffee in the morning, or skipped lunch, a headache certainly came in the late afternoon. I think it is mostly due to all the jogging and regular exercise. We have only one body to worship, let us take good care of it through exercise!

Speaking of which, here is just one more joke. Since I skipped running two days in a row, I thought of putting in some miles after the procedure. I asked my doctor about it and he said, "Fartlek, no; fart, yes." OK, such conversation never happened but I did refrain from running today.

Diarrhea of A Mad Man 2011

2011-05-16T21:29:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite scene from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was when Dr. McCoy, having traveled back in time, met a woman at a hospital who was scheduled for some surgery. The good doctor gave her some pill and she was up and running shortly afterward, no need for any messy surgery. Maybe some day colonoscopy can be done without all the, uh, messy preparation.

I will have a colonoscopy tomorrow and, based on what I wrote in 2005, not too much has changed since I last had one. Without going back to the blog, I mistakenly told my doctor that I last had it done in 2001. Good thing it is about time I have one done anyway, as my father had colon cancer that was detected too late.

http://www.qaptainqwerty.com/2005/09/diarrhea-of-mad-man.html

The Holiday Marathons

2011-04-21T23:45:00.000-04:00

In the Vietnamese language, there is a phrase, "Thời Thế Tạo Anh Hùng" which translates to "the situation creates the hero." In other words, for all scheming and planning, sometimes events just happen and you have to react accordingly.

The weekends before the St. Louis Marathon, there were half-marathons that I wanted to sign up for. First, there was a half-marathon in Flushing Meadow Park on April 2, then there was the Unite 13.1 run at Rutgers University the week after. I think the runners community in the tri-state area is big enough to support more than the NYRR and thought of supporting these other organizations. Still, I figured I better get some good rest before and after the marathon. The big day came and it was too hot in St. Louis and the race was shortened to a half-marathon. Only those fast enough to reach the midpoint of the marathon at a certain time were allowed to continue. It was a big disappointment for me. No problem, I will just sign up for other races closer to home. Alas, the Unite 13.1 run was already mostly filled up, with some spots left on race day. While I somewhat looked forward to the long trip via subway and light-rail to Newark, I would only go there if I have a guaranteed spot in the race. Scratch that one. Then there is the Long Island Marathon weekend of May 1. Again, because of some shuffling of personnel at work, my on-call dooty got moved up a week. That is right, from May 8 to May 1. While it is good that I will be able to do something undisturbed (hopefully) on Mother's Day, now my hope for Long Island Marathon is dashed.

But wait, there is a ray of hope! Coming up this weekend is the Easter Marathons, one in a series of The Holidays Marathons. Instead of stuffing our faces with food, or, shudder, go shopping, how about running in a race for the holidays? The Holiday Marathons has races of varying distances - 10K, Half-Marathon, Full-Marathon, etc. All free and commitment-free! No registration, just show up on time and run. Maybe not totally free if you fork over some donation amount, but the suggestion donation amount is still not as much as the typical race that I usually register for.

I plan to run a half-marathon in the Easter Marathon. It is a trail run and I am not familiar with the area of Van Cordlandt Park so a half will do. Eventually, I will definitely do a full-marathon. There will be no medal but I just want to know if I can do it. Check them out at http://www.theholidaymarathons.com/

Thank You Saint Louis!

2011-04-11T11:07:00.001-04:00

It is my last day of the trip to St. Louis to run the Marathon. Even though I did not get to even try to complete the Marathon because it was shut down due to the hot weather, I do appreciate all the people that organized the event, the volunteers, and the spectators. While not as many as those for the NYC Marathon, it was a good crowd.

Special thanks go to

the residents of Soulard with the big banner and the line-up to give us runners high-fives. I recall high-fiving someone dressed up in Superman costume, that was fun.
the lady who gave out slices of oranges somewhere around Mile 11. It was getting hot then and she was properly situated between the water stations.
the lady, sitting by the curb between Miles 12 and 13, who called out my name as she gave some encouraging words. It was a nice personal touch that the bib have the first name printed.
and of course, last but most important, my big sister TOTA (Top-of-the-Arch) and brother-in-law for hosting my stay and making it an all-expense-paid vacation with plenty of time for relaxing and recuperating!

Marred My Thong in the Marathon

2011-04-10T14:10:00.000-04:00

I was all excited and ready for the St. Louis Marathon. Got up 10 minutes before the alarm clock made its noise, was at the runners' corral before the 7 AM starting time, waited patiently for my turn to leave the corral. There were many times more half-marathoners than full ones and we just had to slowly walk toward the starting line. It was not cloudy as the weather report said, a bit warm but not as bad as some hot days I felt in Brooklyn, NY. Perfect running weather, at least in my book. There was plenty of water and Gatorade along the way. I kept a steady pace to conserve my energy for the home stretch. I was sure the last six miles would be challenging. There were some hills along the way, but thinking of the support I got from my Facebook friends, like Deb (both of them), Annie, Rachel, Heather, and others, helped me move forward.

Alas, it was not meant to be. Before I reached Mile 10, where originally the half-marathoners and full-marathoners would part ways, race officials decided the weather was not suitable to continue the full-marathon. Some people mentioned last year's Chicago Marathon. Maybe it was too hot and some people succumbed to heatstroke, or worse. I did see at least two runners lying by the side of the road with emergency technicians helping them.

I was so disappointed I walked a bit after Mile 12. All that planning, of taking easy the first few miles, turned out to be for nothing. This half-marathon will probably not have my best time, since I slowed down for water a few times, because I thought I need the energy for later. I still get a medal that says 26.2 miles, but I know I did not run the 26.2 miles. Now I have to seriously consider the Long Island Marathon in early May.

Countdown to St. Louis Marathon

2011-04-09T18:45:00.000-04:00

About 12 more hours to go until the St. Louis Marathon. Lots of rest and no running the past few days. I don't watch what I eat that carefully, but do plan to have pasta for dinner. There will be only about 3,000 participants for the full marathon, compared to about 15,000 for the half-marathon. If I live in St. Louis, I probably would go for the half, but since I flew here, after all that troubles with security checkpoint, might as well go for the full.

This will be my third marathon ever. The last time I ran the marathon was in 1995, with the year before that being my first marathon. Both times it was the New York City Marathon, back then sponsored by Chemical Bank, I think. It was somewhat easier to enter back then. For 1994, I got selected in the first lottery. The second time around, I didn't get selected and was on the waiting list. I pretty much gave up but then I got selected from the waiting list, so I ran. There was no fee to enter the lottery and the registration was something like $30 or so, a bargain compared to today's fee. If you have the time, you can even go wait on line, in person, and get a paper application that gives you guaranteed entry. The others that enter the lottery would request the form via USPS mail and send it back.

Sixteen years later, of course sixteen years older, I actually think I am more prepared than the younger me. While it is true that I was single, even unemployed, so naturally I had more time to train, I didn't train that much. I was living in Long Island City and would only run to Astoria Park, put in at most 3 miles around track under the Triboro Bridge, have lunch on a bench somewhere then walked back home. At most I ran 5 miles a day and did not enter any official races to gauge my speed. These days I do long runs on weekends and participated in NYRR-sponsored events. I am shooting for a 5-hour finish time, or 5.5 hours top. We will find out in about 12 hours!

Meet Me in St. Louis

2011-04-08T08:45:00.000-04:00

Boarding pass printed, my one piece of luggage packed, training done, or as done as it possibly be done... I am off to LaGuardia Airport for the flight to St. Louis for the marathon on Sunday!

It's some McDonnel Douglas plane model, so at least I won't have to worry any cracks in the fuselage.

The sore throat is still there, hopefully it will be gone by Sunday. My nose was sniffling two days ago, but as usual a good night's sleep took care of it. I hadn't have that in a long time, just missed a few days of running and it came right back.

Can a pain in the arch be the same as a pain in the arse? I didn't run the past few days so it does not hurt any more going downstairs but I know it will come back on Sunday night.

Being a pessimistic person, I can think of many phrase to describe the possible undesirable outcome of the run. "Misery in Missouri". "Still Lose It in St. Louis". "Marred My Thong in the Marathon".

Only one way to find out, RUN!!!!!

Twenty Miles

2011-04-05T00:02:00.000-04:00

I finally did it, or came close enough. I read somewhere that a few weeks prior to a marathon the runner should run a 20-mile course. (For those who do not know, the marathon is 26.2 miles.) Once before I ran 10 miles, from my home in Brooklyn, not far from the amusement parks of Coney Island, to Manhattan's Chinatown. Other times, I ran half-marathons or 15K races organized by the NYRR. I thought a 20-mi run would be just the 10-mi run with an extra 10 added. The math is simple enough.

I expected to spend at least 4 hours doing the 20 miles. If I run before the sun rises, I would have to bring a flashlight, just to have a source of light on me. I feel better knowing there is a smaller chance some motorist not running me over. For the 20-mile run, I wanted to travel light, really light, so I waited until the sun came out, around 6:15, before I started out.

I mostly followed the D subway line from 25th Avenue to Fort Hamilton Parkway, where the subway goes subterranean, i.e. underground or at least below street level. Next the route went along 39th Street, which like because one side is all dead-ends so I had a long run totally uninterrupted by traffic. At Fifth Avenue I turned toward Manhattan and used Greenpoint Cemetery to again avoid traffic. Normally I avoid commercial areas like Brooklyn's Fifth Avenue, but it was early in the morning, 7ish to 8ish so there was not that many people out on the street yet. The stores were mostly still closed. Soon enough Flatbush Avenue was reached, next it was MetroTech Center. Through the tree grove I tried to get to the street by going between 2 of the Polytechnic buildings, to reach George Westinghouse H.S., but alas that exit was closed. I had to loop back toward 1 CMC and go past Starbucks to head toward the pedestrian lane of the Manhattan Bridge. The ascend on the bridge seemed to take forever but eventually I got to the other side, Manhattan's Chinatown. Maybe having ran this route before made it seem shorter. The first 10 miles were relatively easy to cover.

Chinatown at 8 in the morning was already a busy. Stores and restaurants were opened for business, dim-sum eaters abound, and there were some buses unloading, ahem, losers from Atlantic City, just a wild guess. I did walk a little bit, even though it was relatively easy to run the 10 miles, I was still tired. I continued running once inside Sarah D. Roosevelt Park, near the bike path of the Manhattan Bridge, to Delancey and then toward the waterfront. Over a footbridge to cross the FDR, I was in the East River to continue the run south. I ran this way before, but not all the way to the Winter Garden in Battery Park City. The waterfront is not continuous but it was still possible to run mostly uninterrupted by vehicular traffic. By the time I reached Pier 17 (South Street Seaport), I was so thirsty and hoped that the new playground, Imagination, would have a working fountain. Rats, the place was closed, padlocked for the weekend perhaps. I kept going past the Staten Island Ferry Terminal, along the street perimeter of Battery Park, and past the long line of tourists waiting to get ferry tickets to visit the Statue of Liberty. Shortly later, I was inside Battery Park City. The last time I was in the BPC, I think its southern end was still under construction. Now there are gardens, walkways, arches, benches, everything nice and inviting, but I had a goal to reach. Two blocks before reaching the Winter Garden, still not recognizing it from the outside, I gave up and bought a Gatorade from a street vendor. I walked to the Garden and even sat down for about 10 minutes, under the indoor palm trees. It was warm and comfortable, but I had to get back and soon found myself tracing my path back. By then both feet were aching, even the toes ached, on the left. It helped a bit that I knew what was coming up next, but still I couldn't run all the way back to Chinatown. After cross the FDR via the footbridge, I walked the rest of the way. It probably came out to 18 miles and not 20, but that will have to do. I sure hope the crowd in St. Louis will be supportive enough for me to cover the whole 26.2 miles. My strategy will be 10 miles, a short walk while drinking, then another 10 and some more water, then it's all the way to the finish line. I ran the Manhattan Half-Marathon continuous, without stopping at all, no water whatsoever. But for a full marathon, I cannot do that, as my attempt at a 20-mile run already shown.

Colon Cancer Challenge

2011-03-27T23:52:00.000-04:00

Another NYRR race has come and gone. As you may know, I like long races, 15K, 13.1-mile, etc. When registration for the Colon Cancer Challenge became available, I signed up at once. The day has come and gone.

As usual, the adventure began with the NYC subway. For this weekend, my D train runs on the N line. Pity those tourists with their maps, not much applies on the weekend. The race was scheduled for 1100. I left home at 0900 to leave enough time to pick up my bib and T-shirt. Just for kicks, I ran to the nearest N station, only to wait there for a long time. Not only the subway changes routes on the weekend, it also runs slower. I thought of getting off the D at 47-50 Street Station, but that would mean a walk of over 20 blocks to get to the Bandshell in Central Park. I switched at Columbus Circle for the local C train and got off right at 72 Street and crossed the park to get to the Bandshell. I planned to run 10 extra miles after this 15k (9.3-mile) race so I wanted to save the energy. Part of a marathon training dictates that one should run a 20-mile trip a few weeks before the real thing. I signed up for the St. Louis Marathon and it is just two weeks away and I haven't done a 20-mile run yet.

While waiting for the light to change to cross Central Park West, I read a plaque on some nearby building. What interested me was that the architect was Irwin S Chanin. That Chanin, for which the Cooper Union's Architectural School was named after. Supposedly he was famous for using the "twin towers" design seen on a few buildings around Central Park. I thought of the movie "Ghostbusters" when I saw the building later on from inside the park.

Somehow I thought that it was a requirement to donate some money for research on colon cancer in order to run in the race. I didn't donate anything and only paid the registration fee. I got my bib with no hassle. This time I even saved the NYRR four safety pins as I had them from my previous races. No point of wasting them pins if they are so re-usable. I never thought of it but after getting my bib that my father died from colon cancer, indirectly anyway. It started at the colon but by the time surgery was done to remove the offending cells, the disease already spread to the liver. "I run for my father", some people at the race wrote on their T-shirts or had paper signs taped to their clothes. Conveniently, there was a donation tent at the staging/expo area so I dropped $20.

Stalk-running alert! I got defeated by a stalk-runner today. Somewhere along the route I noticed a woman with a purple hoodie and white headphone passing me. I didn't try to pass her but just maintain my normal speed. Eventually that's enough to pass her, so she was probably running at variable speed. Around Mile #8 she used a downhill to zoom past me but I didn't copy the tactic. I still thought that I should conserve my energy for the 10-mile run after the race. Still, as the finish line came into sight I couldn't help it and started sprinting for it. My stalk-runner was up ahead, way too far for me to catch up. Even though I lost to my impromptu running partner, I still broke my own record for a 15K, the Ted Corbitt Run last year, by 20 seconds or so.

The sprint exhausted me. Gatorade tasted so good just then, I should have grabbed another one. Back at the expo area there were only bagels and apples. My original plan was to resume running once I reach 72nd Street and Central Park West. In reality, I was so tired and cold, I walked all the way along 72nd Street to the West Side Highway, while eating the bagel and then the apple. It was a worthwhile trip, as Riverside Park was so beautiful. At 72nd Street, the waterfront of Riverside Park stretched north and south. I needed to head south for some other business so south I went. I was no longer in a race, and was tired anyway, so I stopped here and there to snap some photos. I measured via Google Earth that to get in 10 miles from 72nd Street and CPW, I would need to go to the waterfront, travel south all the way to tip of Manhattan then loop back north to the Williamsburg Bridge. Somehow I didn't have the energy to do so and only went as far as 23rd Street, Chelsea Pier. At least and at last, I got to discover a new trail. Many times I drove on the West Side Highway and glanced longingly at the beautiful bike/jogging path along the Hudson River.

Looking north. I like the "bar stools".

Looking north. If you don't mind the mossy steps, I suppose you can take off your shoes and let the wave laps at your feet.

Bring your date here for a romantic outing!

Willow!

Some day I will run north to see where this path ends at, but today I needed to head south.

Who you gonna call?

The Eyes Are The First To Go

2011-03-20T19:02:00.000-04:00

Aging stinks. In Vietnamese one phrase that refers to the aging process is "răng long tóc bạc", which transliterate as "loosened teeth and white hair". But then I also heard elsewhere that the eyes are the first to go when a person ages. Being near-sighted, I also heard that at some point in time my near-sightness will help me see clearly. Supposedly, the old person cannot see objects nearby well, but since I'm already near-sighted, I have no problems, right? I suspect that that time has come and gone without me noticing because I now have troubles seeing small things up close, with the near-sighted glasses on. While I understand that the glasses are to help me see far, I didn't have troubles using them to see objects nearby before. Something is up. These days to read the screen of cell phones or other handheld devices, I have to take the glasses off. Maybe soon I'll get bi-focal. Groan.

One of my approach to maintaining decent eyesight is not to make the eyes work so hard. While I cannot help using the computer a lot, I don't watch much TV or DVDs. Instead, I listen to podcasts and audiobooks, being from an iPod or on CDs. Still, not everything is available on CDs, at least not from the public library, so from time to time I still read books. Except that now the words seem too small. Just by chance, when I was busy searching for the last book in the Millennium trilogy Stieg Larsson, the only copy available from the Jersey City Free Public Library was a large-print one. The experience changed my opinion of large-print books. I have to admit it, I like them. I used to think that only old people, really old people in the 70s or worse, would read large-print books. I know now it is not true. Just a few years past the critical 40, I am already enjoying them. After "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest", I already hungrily went through Catherine Coulter's "Knock Out". While large-print books are typically, well, large, compared to pocketbook paperback, for the winter I can usually slip the book into the inside, large pocket of my winter jacket. Things will get trickier when summer comes, but I don't carrying a tote bag to help while away commuting time.

Good news, old folks like me! You don't have to give up reading just because the your eyes cannot stand the tiny print. In addition to audiobooks, there is also large-print books.

Coogan's Salsa, Blues & Shamrocks 5K

2011-03-14T00:17:00.000-04:00

I like long-distance running and usually sign up for half-marathon or 15K races. I am not sure now why I joined the Coogan 5K race (Sunday, March 6). Perhap I welcomed the change of location. After the Manhattan Half, the Midnight Run 4M, and the Ted Corbitt 15K, I have seen enough of Central Park. What was more, Washington Height was an area I visit occasionally, to see a relative, so I looked forward to exploring The Height better, on foot.

I hate driving but NYC subway did not make the trip easier. Coogan 5K was the first race for which I picked up bib and T-shirt on the day of the event. I left home early to allow time for waiting on line to get the T-shirt and such. I knew the D train was running to Coney Island on the N line, but I was surprised to find an N train going to Manhattan stopping at my D's 25th Avenue station. Not a problem, since I knew that I could transfer to the 1 train at Times Square. The only thing was there seemed to be some issue on the 1/2/3 line. A #2 (or #3) pulled into the station but then it just sat there. Times Square is a large station with many other subway lines passing through it. The A and C trains also go to Washington Height but it is a long walk from the 1/2/3 to A/C platform. Luckily, I was dressed up for the race and simply ran there and caught some train just in time.

I thought I knew the Washington Heights area but only recently that I noticed the building near the hospital was a Track and Field Hall of Fame. No wonder on nice day there were these kids running short races on the sidewalk on that block. With the Coogan race, I got a glimpse inside and it was very nice-looking. Too bad I didn't have time to read the many plaques lining the stairwell, to see if I recognize any names. It was a somewhat rushed ascend to the third floor to pick up our bibs.

The race itself was so-so. At barely over 3 miles, it was a very short run. With 7,000+ people and being at the end of that crowd, it took some time for the crowd to separate too, even if I am not that fast a runner. Thankfully, the light rain and the hills added to the challenge. Before long, the finish line was in sight, much sooner than I expected so I didn't do my usual sprint. I finished with 10:22 minutes/mile but it does not mean much because, again, it was such a short race.

I usually run on an empty stomach and did so for the Coogan. After the race, I wolfed down a bagel, a slice of orange, and an apple while walking to the Riverside Drive. Some weeks earlier I discovered that there is no running trail alongside the West Side Highway. The highway actually rises almost to the height of the ridge on which Washington Height sits on. For that occasion, I ran north of the skating rink. This time is my chance to see what's south of the rink. After the quick and healthy breakfast, I walked along Riverside Drive to the rink. I was disappointed to learn that there simply was no riverside path south of the rink. There was no exit, period, out of the rink area that would go along the water. There seems to be some street exit whereby you would have to run on the sidewalk. In the end, I went along Riverside Drive all the way down to 94th Street then to the 1/2/3 subway for the trip home. It was disappointing that there was no "green way" going all around Manhattan Island but I still put in 12 kilometers for the day.

But It Is Home

2011-03-04T22:31:00.001-05:00

It is a cold, rainy Monday morning in Brooklyn, New York. What a gloomy way to get back to work or school.

This time of the week last week, I was in sunny and warm Florida, in the Kissimmee area. The week went by with visits to Universal Studio and Epcot, running along country roads where there was no sidewalks, and reading of "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" by the side of the swimming pool. Believe it or not, I missed home.

Back at home, there was a pile of sale receipts waiting for me to enter into a Google doc. It is my attempt at try to have better control of my finances. Not too long during a purge of my worldly possession, I simply threw out stack of such receipts but over time they've accumulated again. But it is home.

Back at home, my office, now smaller, consists of just 2 flat surfaces and a chair. Printers and scanner are usable but not on a big desk like before. I have a few boxes of stuff to go through before I would buy a computer desk. Messy, messy. But it is home.

Back at home, I have much of what used to be in my office up in the attic. Computers and computer parts that I probably will never use, but just don't have the heart to throw out. Books, board games, newspapers, etc. I tried to be organized and labeled many of the boxes on 3 sides but I still ended up with 2 boxes that simply read "papery stuff".

It is cold and not always sunny, but daybreak comes sooner now. And it is home.

Mount Qwerty

2011-02-02T23:01:00.000-05:00

Perhaps because I recently watched "The Flags of Our Fathers" on DVD, I had this idea of naming the pile of snow in my front yard. It was already a big pile but I made it even fatter and taller. Instead of adding by shovelful of snow, I first dropped a few shovels onto a saucer sled then stepped onto a stool, to reach higher, and plopping the sled atop the pile. The roundish chunk of snow reminds me of the energy balls thrown by characters in Street Fighter or Dragon Ball. Being Qaptain Qwerty, I named the "mountain" "Mount Qwerty". I happened to have a shovel that served me over ten years and was all banged up. Atop the pile it went, with a qwerty keyboard tied to its handle.

All this snow brought the worse side of humanity, something my friend Salabencher would readily quote "Tragedy of the Commons". Most people's goal was to remove snow from their property. Dump it onto the street is the obvious thing to do, but my neighbor went further by dumping onto the driveway that I just cleared. When confronted, she ranted on and on in broken English and made no sense whatsoever. Further down the block, five or six parking spots were lost to a snow mesa. I suppose some of those houses have their own parking spaces in the community drive, but not all of them. Last but not least we have the people who built big piles of snow right on the curb, so that when it rains heavily the water has no place to go but form large puddles.

Manhattan Half-Marathon

2011-01-29T21:08:00.001-05:00

A question for those who regularly run in races: Is there such a thing as stalk-racing? There you are running in a race when you noticed someone in front of you and decided to overtake her. You did, but then she passed you. So you pumped a little harder and pass her again, only to have her pass you yet again, and so on and so on. What is the proper phrase to describe that situation? I think it is a good thing, something attainable and it keeps you from giving up the race too quickly, especially when you do not run in a group. I hope it is not illegal or unethical because that was exactly what I did at the Manhattan Half-Marathon.

The race start time was 8 AM, but knowing how unreliable NYC subway was on the weekend, I left the house at 6. According to some poster I saw in the subway, the D train would not go to Manhattan's Upper West Side directly, but instead in two sections. Strangely, an F train showed up and stay on the D's regular route until midtown. That's weekend NYC subway for you, full of surprises.

It was a cold morning. Approaching the race corral, I overheard someone said it was 9 degrees. The CNN screen near Columbus Circle said 14 degrees and it remained the rest of the race. The runners anxiously waited in the corral while moving about as much as possible to stay warm. Eventually, some local celebrity ended the National Anthem with "In the land of the freezing {wink, just kidding} and the home of the brave..." then off we went.

In the beginning, I stalk-raced some woman in a blue sweater. At some point, either I outran her or she left me, we were not together. Instead, I noticed a blond woman in purple, pony tail, with a white in-ear headphone, who kept passing me. I cannot tell now who started this 2-person race, but we sure kept together and took turn passing each other, for at least the last quarter of the race. On downhill trips, I would try to get more springy or lengthen my stride. I would lose her only to have her overtake me later. At the last water station, I skipped it, same for earlier stations, such was my plan to finish the race faster. My "running partner" slowed down for water but not for long. I suspected she only stopped one step to pick up a cup of water then kept running afterward, somehow drank and ran at the same time. Eventually, she was on my heels again, maybe even passing me again. Somehow I managed to pass her but this time I purposely slowed down both to (a) encourage her to keep up; and (b) to save energy for the sprint at the end. I always sprint after Mile 13, i.e. sprint for the 0.1 Mile of the 13.1-mile race. And sprinted I did, for the last time leaving the "stalker" behind. Closer to the finish line, some Chinese guy said to me, "Come on, you and me", supposedly a challenge to the finish line. "Sure, let's do it", I said, although by then my reserve energy was already gone. I still ran faster than most of the course but I was no match for this latest challenger. Oh well, I still managed to shave ten minutes from my best Half-Marathon time. I did see my "race partner" but she was heading toward the park exit. Years ago, for some 5K race, I did the same with some Asian girl and in the end she thanked me for the encouragement then we went our separate ways. This time I figured nothing would come out of it so I didn't pursue, uh, the matter any further.

HOLY CANOLI

2011-01-20T23:53:00.002-05:00

HOLY CANOLI!

by SA£ SANTU¢¢1

All I want is a canoli

And of course to say “Hi”

To my shrunken Little Italy

The reason, I think, I know why

Better believe it, Mr. Bertucci

It’s what your neighbors call “feng shui”

(One of the things I remember from high school English class is "local flavor" - literature that celebrates something special/mundane but particular to a place. This is my contribution to New York City local flavors. Instead of explaining the poem, I'll leave it to you to do your Googling or looking things up in Wikipedia to get the gist of the matter. Just so you don't get distracted, I substituted certain characters in the byline just so the real person - I am sure there are many - will be less likely to come across this note.

Oh yes, I am on an eye-rhyme roll! Hmm, eye-rhyme roll... does that not sound like an item in a bento box?)

A Cuppa Joe

2011-01-19T22:20:00.000-05:00

The introduction of the "Trenta" size at Starbucks got me thinking about going back to it just once to see how monstrous this thing is. On second thought, the fancy labels applied to their cup sizes and staff members, among other things, so far has held me back. Here is what else is on my mind...

Quit correcting me, all I want is a cuppa joe

Don't ask me the size of my shoe

Just add milk and two sugars to my pint

I don't care if you have Wi-Fi by Sprint

Life is short, there is much to do, to live

But your queue makes me feel less alive

As usual, meters in poetry I cannot handle. Give me a kilometer and I know it has 1000 meters...

No rhyme or reason? Well, reason yes, rhyme, hmm, only to the eyes.

Qaptain Qwerty Crosses the George Washington

2011-01-17T15:44:00.000-05:00

From time to time, I have a personal reason to be in the Washington Heights area of Manhattan Island in New York State, usually with a few hours to kill. Only recently that I realized I can kill those hours by running to the neighboring state of New Jersey, via the George Washington Bridge.

A co-worker once told me about his bike trip along the West Side Highway northward to the GWB, crossing over to NJ then southward to wherever he lives. Much as I love to carry out such a bike trip, for me to cycle from the Coney Island area, the southern end of Brooklyn, to Manhattan then northward, the time required can easily take half a day. I don't have that luxury so running from Washington Heights is the next best thing.

I prefer intersecting vehicular traffic as little as possible so starting out at Highbridge Park (around 160ish Street) made the most sense. At 178th Street, with a view of The Apartments, as often mentioned in traffic reports, I turned left to head for the Bridge. I expected a ramp running along 178th Street and leading into the bridge. Instead, the ramp was perpendicular to the bridge, pointing south then turned 180° to lead to the bridge.

The Apartments, those that are often mentioned in traffic reports.

Broadway and 178th Street.

No ramp can be seen leading into the bridge.

Even though it was cold, I was not the only person on the bridge. There were some fellow joggers, a few pairs of walkers, and a few small groups of cyclists, all decked out in fancy tights and such. Maybe because Washington Height itself is already on a high point of Manhattan, I did not feel much of an elevation and before long I was on the bridge's midpoint already.

No snow here!

I was hoping to find signs that say "Welcome to New Jersey" or even "Welcome to Fort Lee" but none was found. Not in the middle of the bridge nor at its New Jersey end. Maybe there was some sign on the lower level of the bridge. On the Jersey side, I only went as far as the entrance to Palisade State Park. No walking path was visible and there was much snow so I did not venture into the Park but instead headed back for New York. Again, no sign welcoming the runners and such to New York. Oh well, I guess it is just a travelers' bridge, not for tourists.

On the bridge, there were many signs about suicide prevention. Not too long ago, a gay student who was outed by his classmates jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge. Unlike Manhattan Bridge or the Williamsburg Bridge, the railing on the GWB has no fence so it is easy to do so, if someone feels miserable enough.

The George Washington Bridge.

Welcome to New Jersey. NOT!

Palisade State Park.

Time to head back to New York.

How do you like the title of this entry? I was of course thinking of the famous painting called "George Washington Crossing the Delaware."

KOREAN BUFFET BBQ

2011-01-10T07:41:00.000-05:00

KOREAN BUFFET BBQ

All-you-can-eat Korean BBQ

With good company, how three hours flew

The designated cook allergic to seafood

Designated driver thought all was good

Beef brisket, pork chop, and chicken gizzard

We were hit with a meat blizzard

Just as we were in food heaven

Hoped the "food" went to bovine heaven

By and by the hostess cut off our grill

Which was fine as we had our fill

The fun was over

The wallet much lighter

With just T-shirt and jean

We had nothing to dry clean

Forwarders in the Age of FB

2011-01-07T22:26:00.000-05:00

Back in the days, when e-mail was the primary form of electronic communication, some people just love to forward every little joke or "warning" that fell into their Inbox. Fast forward a few hundred years to the Age of Facebook. It seems those same "Forwarders" are now our FB friends. Things are a bit different but essentially they entertain us with the latest news about addictive games they are playing, with YouTube videos, with witty remarks like "I am bored", etc ad nauseum. Or so they thought it is all entertaining. It is not. What's worse, because of their sheer volume, these so-called status updates crowd out all the other posts. It is the equivalent of speaking at a party using a megaphone, or having a seat on a crowded subway car and spreading your limbs all over. In the beginning of my Facebook experience, I was guilty of inadvertently posting too much about the few games I play. To gain the widest publicity possible, all apps on FB love to post onto your Wall every little interactions you have with it. You can take control of the situation by making the proper settings. From anywhere in FB, go to the upper right corner, click Account then Privacy Settings. Go to the Apps and Websites section in the lower left and click Edit Your Settings. In the Apps You Use section, click Edit Settings. Find the apps that you no longer want it to write to your Wall and click its Edit Settings. As an example, my dailymile app can post to my Wall. Should I want to change that, I would click the Remove next to the Post To My Wall setting.

In the ideal world, everyone who reads this article would rush to their FB settings and tell all their apps not to post to their Wall any more. That will not happen. Even if it does happen, that would take care of just the posts from the apps. What to do about the YouTube videos and such? Hide 'em! I think everything on your Wall can be hidden one way or another. Put the mouse over it and an X gadget will appear on the upper right of that item. Click it to see the different ways you can hide it. You can hide just that one instance or the person who posted it. In the example below, and it's just an example because I do not mind posts from the App Store at all, there is a third entry. Maybe it is there because App Store used that App Publisher to do the posting, who knows.

Use it on someone who posts too frequently to keep your Wall manageable. You can always go visit their profile page if you think you miss out on something. Worst case scenario, you can always Unhide them by going to the Most Recent link (or whatever you may have it set to), choose Edit Options at the bottom of the list, and remove your friend from the bad list. Unfriending someone because they post too often is drastic, so is quitting FB altogether. Just hide them, it can be undone.

New Year Resolutions, With Feasibility Ratings

2011-01-02T18:48:00.001-05:00

All right, here we go with the usual New Year Resolutions, but this year they come with Feasibility Ratings. Yup, "feasible" is my preferred word over "doable", which is so lame. For crying out loud, it's just "do" with "able" tacked to the end. Any decent wordsmith should avoid words formed from a verb and "able".

Here's the list, with Feasibility Rating, 10 being easily achieved and 1 being impossible.

Lose twenty pounds. That's 9.07 kilograms for us Metrics-lovers. I would have said 10 kilograms but the scale I own has only pounds readings. Maybe some day when it breaks I will buy a dual scale. While my exercise regiment from more than a year ago has resulted in some weight loss and a general good feeling, my weight seems to plateau at 190 pounds, my spare tire is still there, if not bigger, and my running pace is still around 11 minutes/mile. It's time I add a better diet to the formula. Lose some weight which I believe in return will result in better speed. Feasibility Rating, or FR for short = 9.
Digitize everything I own or can lay my hands on. Like photo prints and yearbooks. My mother has a great collection of photos, many in black & white, brought from Viet Nam, as well as more recent photos of our lives in America. What a treasure trove for the family tree! I am almost done with my own high school yearbook, but there is the junior high school one, college, and wife's high school. Someone from her year was looking for it and I offered to scan the whole thing in. FR = 2.
"Possess Less", that's my new motto. Possessions possess the possessor, so I heard. At this point in life, I think I have all that I need. Well, an iPod touch would be nice. When you know you have something but don't know where it is, or cannot easily locate it, that's when you have too much. Or not organized enough. Having less will help you be more organized. Being a green pack rat does not help, of course. I just hate to simply throw things out, but at least I live on a street with heavy foot traffic, so things will, mostly, disappear fast when I put them out on the curb. FR = 5
More production, less consumption. I fancy myself a producer - via this blog and the occasional cartoon or other artsy works. Of course, Facebook can be a detractor, but I can work my productions into FB, too. I just hope my contributions won't get lost among the many "status updates" that some of my FB friends churn out by the minutes. Writing a series of tutorial on how to avoid polluting the FB news feed, or how to keep the news feed free of pollutants, would be a win-win product. FR = 7

Midnight Run 2011

2011-01-01T23:17:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, blog readers!

Thanks to my newly found love for running, 2010 New Year's Eve was different than previous years. Instead of going about my normal routine then perhaps remember to watch the ball drop in Times Square at midnight, for 2010 I celebrated the new year's arrival near the Central Park bandshell, as a participant of the New York Road Runners' Midnight Run, which was sponsored by Emerald Nuts.

The Midnight Run was rated as a fun run, so there was no official time, you just have to time yourself. It was more like a run between two parties. Before the run there was DJ music and healthy food and water, plus a costume contest. After the run, more DJ music and pretty much the same food and drink, the difference being bagels and tangerines. It was a good alternative to the Times Square overcrowded party. You may have to pay to be at the parties but at least here you have toilet facilities and it was definitely not too crowded.

At the stroke of midnight, there was a fireworks display over the big lake in Central Park, a short distance to the runners' left as we waited in the corral to get running. I usually try to take photos of the runs but at night it was hard to capture anything decent. Below is a decent video I took of the fireworks. You can hear me getting impatient near the end. It was very crowded in the corral. If I do the Midnight Run again, I will just show up at 11:45 and wait all the way at the end of the corral, where hopefully it will not be so crowded. I hate being packed like sardines in a can.

Last Post of the Year 2010

2010-12-31T00:20:00.001-05:00

It is now 12 minutes or so into the new day of December 31, 2010. If there is anything you wish you could do, or do more often, in the year 2010, now is the time. Losing weight takes time so that won't count. So is quitting smoking or changing job. It has to be that can be done within the hour, I suppose. For me, that would have to be making a blog post. How circular, eh? A blog post for the end of the year, just for the purpose of having something up.

Normally I post at night, at the end of the day. As my exercise regiment requires, lately I do not stay up past midnight. Need to have a good night's sleep to wake up early the next day for an 8-km run. Or some form of exercise. Today is an exception. For the past many years, I always welcome the new year at home. Some years I remember its arrival and watch the festivity in Times Square on TV, some minutes before the ball drop. More often than not, I totally forgot about it and would realize it only when people on the street tooted some horns. This year, it will be different.

I have signed up for the Midnight Run, organized by the New York Road Runners and sponsored by Emerald Nuts. The runners theoretically will run from the old year into the new one. Just something different to do. It will be a short, 4-mile run with no official time. I don't care too much about the pre-race party and don't look forward to the subway ride home, but much as I hate changes, I'll take a chance on this one. Maybe I'll have some photos to share 24 hours from now when I arrive home safely...

Blizzard of December 2010

2010-12-30T23:17:00.002-05:00

Click on the collage to see the bigger picture. Sorry for the delay, but I want to play around a bit with some software I have laying around. Posterino 1.6 was used to make the 3x5 grid of photos then Comic Life Deluxe was used to add the snowflakes. Using the Spray feature of Comic Life Deluxe, I was able to overlay the snowflakes of various sizes. Alas, unlike real life, these flakes are not all unique.

Merry Wordscraper Christmas

2010-12-24T23:20:00.000-05:00

Merry

Christmas

Wordscraper

friends

Facebook

Check out the game at http://apps.facebook.com/wordscraper .

If you find waiting for your turn unbearable, play some "word games"in the forum.

My favorite forum games are "Sleepless in Seattle etc" and

"Quite Witty Even Reasonable Typewriter Yack"

The Running Jokester

2010-12-24T23:09:00.000-05:00

Some short time after the Queens Half-Marathon, I decided to run in the New York City Marathon. It is one thing to want to run the Marathon and something else altogether to be accepted for it. Some speedy people may get in automatically but for regular slowpokes like me the lottery is one of the few options available. About 15 years ago when I ran the NYC Marathon, I don't recall of a 9+1 system, i.e. run 9 qualifier races and volunteer for one event and you are guaranteed a spot in the race. I really dislike the lottery system, especially now that it cost $11 just to be in the lottery. I am going for the 9+1 option, although I decided to run too late into the year and won't have enough time for the 2011 race.

The recent uproar over the NYRR's selection of runners for the NYC Half-Marathon didn't paint too nice a picture of it. It appeared money-hungry, ready to grab as much as it can, without a second thought of serving the local runners community. Still, to me, it's the volunteers that I come across the most during the races. It seems a lonely and possibly unappreciated job, as people rush about aiming for their best times. I try to greet them and thank them as I pass them during the runs. I like to be funny and even quip jokes with them. I hope they didn't mind but here are some of my "running jokes":

Where are the Four Loko? (Asked at a water station. Four Loko is a caffeinated alcohol recently banned in NYC. Supposedly it worked too much like a drug. I got a few loud chuckles with this one, or at least I heard people behind me laugh, not sure if it was a coincidence...)
Where's the shortcut? (All the races I ran so far weaved through the streets or the park. Surely there must be a shortcut, although you would be cheating yourself only if you take one.)
What are they serving at the finish line anyway? (It's a good way to encourage oneself to keep going, but I knew for sure it would be cold bagel, banana, or apple. No toasted bagel with cream cheese, orange juice, or coffee. I guess that's what the stores are for.)
Should I keep going? (Best asked a mile or half a mile from the finish line. The answer, of course, should be "Yes!")
Can I borrow that? (Shouted to a bicyclist passing by. I got some laugh along the Grand Concourse during the Bronx Half-Marathon.)

Ted Corbitt 15K

2010-12-19T22:16:00.003-05:00

This morning I ran in the New York Road Runners' Ted Corbitt 15K Race. It was a cold morning, somewhat like the morning I ran from my home to Manhattan's Chinatown, about 16K away. I did the 16K without stopping for water, not that I had any with me and most stores were not open yet at 5:30 in the morning on a Saturday anyway. I only paused here and there to not get in the way of the typical NYC drivers, who turn whenever they want and more often than not don't yield to pedestrians. The experience prompted me to try a new strategy to improve my time in today's race. I stopped for water only once, which was also the time when I slowed to a walk. It would not help to get choked by water going down the wrong pipe because I run and drink. I still had to sprint near the end, at the 9-mile marker. (I know, it was a 15K race but all the markers are in miles. I suppose the NYRR hasn't upgraded their signage to go with the metric system.) My best time, up to today, was at the Bronx Half Marathon in August of this year - 11:54 minute/mile. Today's time is 10:57, almost a whopping minute, which is a lot in racing circles. Of course, the Bronx Half's distance was 13.1 miles while today's race was 9.3, so who knows, another 3 miles more and I may not have a better pace. On the other hand, maybe because it was my first race in Central Park, there appeared to be too many hills on the course, so it may not be as long as a half-marathon but definitely more challenging.

Running without taking in fluid along the way is probably not the best way to run, but we all have different capabilities so find your limit and try to exceed it.

Oh, no photos this time either. What would be the point of trying to shave a minute off your pace only to spend some time pausing and taking photos? I will just have to wait for Bright Room to make their offerings.

What's the word for...

2010-12-19T20:08:00.000-05:00

So "refudiate" and "vuvuzela" are the popular words of 2010, but there are words that I wish to know to describe certain popular scenarios or activities.

In these days of multitasking on the computer, with instant messaging a popular form of communication, a typical computer screen can have multiple chat windows up at any given time. Eventually, you end up typing a response intended for someone but sent to another. Hopefully it will not be something like "I really do not like Mr. So-and-So" and sent to Mr. So-and-So! The chance of having such a mistake increases greatly if you use Microsot's Office Communicator. A new chat someone initiates with you simply jumps to the front and commandeer whatever chat you may have going at that time. So, what do you call such a mistake, which involves sending an intant message to the wrong person? Instant mistake? Lame AIM? Mis-chat?

Another typical office faux pas involves conference calls. Leo Laporte wants everyone, or at least everyone who listens to his many podcasts, to use GoToMyPC or GoToMeeting, but I don't know anyone who does. I do spend a good percentage of my time on conference calls, the old-style one with everyone on a phone, voice-only conference, that is. Unless you use some old phones from the late 90s, your phone probably has a mute button. Maybe you have a sudden urge to eat potato chips during the conference call, or need to chat away on some obtrusive OCS window, that is, typing noisily. So you have the mute button pressed. Then suddenly your name is mentioned in vain on the conference call and you need to defend yourself, verbally, of course. You rant on and on about how much money you saved the company by whipping up some kick-ass KiXtart script blah blah blah for twenty-five minutes. Then you realized you were still on mute! What do you call that? Malk (short for mute-talk)? Tomute (talk-on-mute)? Mutestake?

As Foreigner once sang back in the 1980s, I want to know what that word is, I want you to show me.

Friend Finder - Beyond Facebook

2010-11-11T15:58:00.001-05:00

Facebook is a great place to find high school classmates but it should not be the only option. Explore all the avenues. One approach is to use the average search engines, be it Google or one of its contenders. The trick is to enclose the full name in quotes. Just typing "John" and "Smith" into Google's search box would give results like "John Wong" and "Peter Smith", among other Things get better if you have the middle name or middle initial. When searching with middle initial, be sure to use it with and without the period. For example, search for "Joe M Wong" as well as "Joe M. Wong". Always go for the more unique names although I did get lucky and found someone with a common first and last name thanks to his middle initial and a business photo.

There are many other social networks that you should explore. One big hassle with the web is the need to open accounts as you come across new sites. Luckily, some of the popular social networks, such as Plaxo, readily accepts accounts from the popular sites, like Google. Even if you have to create a new account with a site, take the plunge. Some sites have school networks so there may be someone you know from high school waiting to be found. I must say my own venture into Friendster, Gather, etc got me only messages from scantily clad women and no new leads.

In this day and age, the ideal contact would have an email address but you don't always get that. There are many web sites that cull info from the white pages etc to give you info on phone numbers and addresses. I used ZabaSearch, WhitePages, SwitchBoard, etc. and actually found a few people through those phone directories. Again, unique names help, although in general these phone directories also list the members of the household. If you happen to know the names of someone's siblings, high school sweetheart, or a parent, the extra info can help narrow down the results. With free weekends and weeknights, it may not be so bad, cost-wise, to call people in series until you are done with the results list, but it is better to go with the more likely names first.

With the philosophy of leaving no stones left unturned, find high school friends outside of Facebook means using search engines, coupled with using quotes to keep the first name and last name, or even middle initial, together. Join other social networks and look around. Every person found can potentially lead to another person, or more. Lastly, while email is ideal phone contacts should not be overlooked.

Find High School Friends On Facebook

2010-10-21T21:50:00.000-04:00

I recently had a 25-year reunion with my high school classmates. Some people liked the event so much they wanted to have another soon, like for the 27th or 30th anniversary. A committee was quickly formed but it was decided that they will use a professional organizer for help with the locale, hotel, air travel, etc. I don't know what they will do about finding more classmates. We had about one hundred classmates for the recent reunion, with perhaps 200 to 300 on Facebook. Like sending out resumes, the number of people actually going to a reunion will be a percent of the people located, so it helps to find as many people as possible. Here's what I and other members of my reunion committee did to find people.

Recall that we already had a Google Doc with all the student names from the yearbook and the commencement roster. The next thing we did was to search for people in Facebook, the definitive social network of the day. I discovered that there are a few high schools named Newtown around the world. There was one in Australia, another in Pennsylvania (albeit that one was Marple Newtown High School), one named exactly the same as mine, right nearby in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. My Newtown was in Elmhurst, Queens, New York. Facebook is smart enough to offer the choices but people still make mistakes so not everyone who indicated that they graduated from Newtown High in Elmhurst really belong there.

With about 300 people indicating they are Class of 1985 from Elmhurst's Newtown High, the search is almost over, right? Even if you subtract 5% for those stumblers from the other Newtown, you still have about 280 people to put together a party with, yes? Unfortunately, some of those people may be just placebooks, i.e. inactive people on Facebook, like those fake books that take up space on a shelf just to show what a full shelf looks like. Take away another 5% or so. It's time to tap into the general population on Facebook.

In these days and age, some people think it is easy to find people on the Internet. Those Classmates.com make it sound easy, but it is far from it. Especially if you don't want to spend any money. Still, everyone is on Facebook, right? All you need to do is type in the person's first name and last name then your old friend would be a Friend Request away. In reality, many of the people we tried to locate had common names that when searched by names alone returned too many hits. "John Smith" is understandably too common a name, but names in other ethnic groups that may sound uncommon to us turned out to be extremely popular for those cultures.

The clever idea my search partner, M.P., in the Reunion Committee came up with was to search for unique names. Sure there are some names that we were mistaken about their uniqueness but there are some that are truly unique. Remember that I mentioned before about the commencement roster listing middle initials? Combined with the unique names, the middle initials can really help pinpoint a person. There are many people to find and some people keep in touch with a small circle of friends years after graduation. Always hope that those people with less common names are still friends with those with common names. Sometimes we get lucky and the person has a photo that is recognizable. One of the fun in locating high school classmates was seeing how people change yet certain traits remain. Find 'em, Friend 'em, let's party! M.P. was so good at it that she triggered FB's spam detector and got her account suspended. The lesson here is to go easy with the friending on FB. Spread the work out among the other board members.

Life is not always so rosy. There were cases where we found the people, confirmed their identity, maybe even befriended them, only to have them, for whatever reason, drop off FB altogether. Whenever possible, grab your friends' regular email address and keep it somewhere safe. Someday FB may start charging money for its use and people may leave it en mass, like some of those groups that sometimes proclaim.

High School Reunion - Friend Finder

2010-10-03T22:22:00.000-04:00

In the old days, I imagine, looking for high school friends so many years after graduation means getting together physically to pore over the yearbook and call people one after another. Perhaps two people would open their own yearbook and call each other then go over the names and assign them accordingly. Depending on how long back you go, there may be no telephones to use and you would send out copies of a form letter to the last address known for a person. Clacking away on typewriters, running the letter through photocopier, fill out the blank after "Dear", sign the letter then fold it, stuff it into the envelope, and address the envelope. Finally, lick the stamp and affix it then lick the envelope to seal it. What fun!

My recent search for high school friends didn't happen like that at all. We were well into the Information Age, with the Information Superhighway running through our houses, at high speed no less. We didn't have to get together physically. One of us was on the west side of the U.S. and three were in New York City, although different parts of the city and rarely see each other, at least for me. We got on CONFERENCE calls, not one-to-one calls like the days of yore, to discuss things to do and progresses. We actually sent out a few paper letters and they didn't do much good.

One thing we had in common with the old-fashioned approach was the yearbook. Regardless of how the process of finding friends is done, it has to start with the yearbook. However, we had a "copy" of the yearbook in the form of a Google Doc, a spreadsheet, to be exact. It took some time to type in all the names but it was worthwhile. We could sort the list by last name or by first name, or later as we got more info about the students, by other columns, like whether they were on Facebook or indicated they were interested in the reunion. Having all the student names in digital form allowed us to also use the search function to find the names. After 25 years, some of us may remember only the first name of a classmate. By searching for just that first name and coming across all the last names that go with the found first name, perhaps something in our mind would be jolted to come forward.

Besides the yearbook, we also had access to the commencement roster. For some reason, the roster had few or no typos at all so it was a good source to fall back onto. After typing in the names from the yearbook, I also added the names from the roster. An additional bonus with the roster was many of the names had middle initials. If you have to find someone whose first name and last name are common, the middle initial makes a big difference. Yet one other usefulness with the commencement roster is that it may have names of people who somehow were not in the yearbook. Maybe someone transferred into your school after the yearbook photos were taken.

Whether you plan to do the work of finding high school friends with your committee made up of classmates or use professional search service, the yearbook, in digital form (read: searchable), plus the commencement roster if possible, will get you to a great start. It is good to have a pack rat on the committee who can type at decent speed.

How To Run A Successful High School Reunion

2010-09-30T22:57:00.002-04:00

Five hours, two years, a quarter of a century. Amazing as it sounds, they all went by in a flash. Just a few days, I had my high school reunion, a Silver (25 years) Reunion as a matter of fact. It took about two years of planning and lasted five hours. I was part of the Reunion Committee and based on the feedback it was a great success. Partly for me to look back some day on the event and what led up to it, partly for anyone wishing to organize a high school reunion, here are the process on how to run a successful high school reunion.

You need a committee. It is a lot of work for any one person. We were lucky to have people who good at dealing with the various vendors (catering hall, photographer, DJ), taking notes during meetings and sending them out, finding old friends or at least reaching out strangers with the same last names and first names in hope they are your old friends, balancing the checkbook, make polls, keep lists of attendees, and taking care of many other tasks required of the committee. Not only we put in the work, we also put some some money to get things going. After all, vendors mostly require deposits.

You need a place to hold the event. Not one who cares about dancing and drinking, I would have suggested some quiet place to reminisce the past, like a library of sort. Luckily, we decided the event to be held in New York City so there were many choices to choose from. We settled upon the Astoria World Manor and pricey as it may be, it was a great choice. Great location, not too far from the two airports in Queens and near a major highway, roomy hall, great parking, good service, and fancy décor. Of course, depending on the size of your party, you need to find something that fits. Whatever, you cannot go wrong if you have dancing and drinking.

You need lots of participants! According to my yearbook, there were over 800 students, a large population. It was 2008 so naturally we went mostly with Facebook (FB) to locate those 800+ people. One nice thing with FB is that when opening up an account, people get to indicate their high schools and such. The info is then collected in one place, sorted by graduation year, ready for others to pore over. We found many people this way but it helped also to have our own high school group. We also had premium accounts with Classmates.com and MyLife.com and they helped somewhat. Don't forget the personal connections. Many people kept in touch with their own small circle of friends over the years. If you are lucky enough to connect with an individual from these circles, you have a good chance of locating even more. Don't be surprised or discouraged if someone responds coldly upon being found. Twenty five years is a long period of time, people change, or maybe no longer care about certain aspect of their past. Or maybe they are too tight with their privacy and freaked out when they somehow got found. Just move on to the other grads.

I got pretty good at finding people, both through free services on the web or premium accounts so perhaps I can delve into that area in greater details. The process may not be earth-shattering amazing and probably can be found out there in the library or on the web, but it's something that worked for me.

Happy Organizing!