at first when i started posting to this blog again i thought it would mostly be about running and my training, knowing how exciting that is for everyone to read. then i talked to my brother and told him a story about my barber here in brookline and how on a saturday morning he was completely wired and sniffing, a lot! he suggested i blog about everyday stuff like that, with all the interesting details, and i thought that was a great idea. until i realized i'm lazy (i'm sick of saying i'm busy. in fact, i'm sick of everyone's excuse of they're busy. there's fat we could all trim from our day, but i get joy in watching around the horn every evening on my dvr!) and couldn't manage to post every time something interesting happened. so it's back to me running - maybe with a twist thrown in for good measure.
it seems as though the best time for me to post is on tuesday evenings in my office downtown after a run with the city sports running “club”. so if it works, stick with it, right? today was the second time i've run with the "club," and i use that term as loosely as possible because after a decent turn out last week, today the "club" consisted of 4 members:
1. me (the regular)
2. bill* (the guy from atlanta who was in the store because he needed a pair of socks)
3. kyle* (city sports "leader" - i'm using that term loosely as well)
4. alex* (kyle's brother, who also works at city sports)
* - refers to the fact that these names may or may not have been made up by me as i don't really remember their names.
missing from the "club" this week was the running shoe / apparel company rep, who was supposed to be from nike this week. this leads me to one of the points i'd like to make quick mention of - runners love freebies! kyle mentioned that "so-and-so" from nike wouldn't be here, but not to worry, he'd give us a free nike technical t-shirt after the run. this immediately prompted me to inquire if puma actually gave something away last week. in fact they did, according to kyle - one of those small nylon drawstring bags. damn, my cooldown cost me the opportunity to add to my nylon drawstring bag collection! grrrrr. no worries, i did get 1 red nike coolmax shirt today. i picked it from a box that contained about 45 red, blue, and white shirts. really, they couldn't have spared one more for me - the regular club member? i guess it wouldn't have hurt to ask, but i would have insulted myself further by having to ask for an additional freebie.
i normally haven't run with people in the past. i've done most of my training hans style - solo. i think the biggest reason is that it's hard to find the right people to run with - either they're too slow and they hold you back, or they're too fast and you get shattered. however, recently i've been running more with other people - the city sports "club" and a couple of guys from around my neighborhood with whom i work. the area that i've found running with others most beneficial is accountability. when i make plans to go running with someone else i feel obligated to run no matter what - except a real emergency (which doesn't mean "i feel tired"). this past thursday i made plans to run with a partner from work who i've run with on occasion and even gone out with for dinner / drinks. keith is a cool dude, and even dominated the boston marathon this year - his first marathon! as i was driving home that evening, i noticed an apocalyptic sky directly above brookline. after parking and strolling into my apt, it started to rain. not sprinkle, but rain. nine times out of 10 i would have bagged the idea of running. the one other time i would have went to the gym for an easy 5k. but, because keith wasn't interested in staying dry, i had to get out there and run with him. yeah, it was a monsoon. about halfway through the sky opened up and it just started pouring! but, at that point who cares because you're already wet, right? and then the weather in boston has been interesting today. overcast morning, humid and sunny afternoon, downpour at 4, sun trying to break through with sprinkles as i walked to meet up with the "club", and i'm sure you can guess what happened as soon as we took off on the run. yep, cats and dogs were falling from the sky in the form of raindrops! we kept going, because if you don't wuss out immediately and head back to shelter, you might as well log the almost 4 miles we got in tonight. i guess this is a good sign also that i'm not being affected by the weather much. my running is evolving into training... scary.
i'm going to leave off one additional subject that i wanted to mention. it has to do with races, so before i make statements based of my first race of the season on sunday (5 miler - 7:50 pace), i'm going to wait a couple of weeks till i do a couple more. see if my observations really are true.
next week brooks running is going to be the sponsor for the city sports running "club" so i'm going to have to do some name dropping, thanks to julie and her connections at brooks. maybe i'll even wear my brooks hat? and hopefully afterwards, i'll have a free shirt to wear with it.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Are You Fit?
i'm such a liar. "more to come." actually, i'm not a liar at all - here is more. it's just several weeks later than i originally anticipated. but since i didn't write "more to come later" or “more to come in a day” i'm not a liar at all. hah! i feel so vindicated. anyway, before posting to this blog i enjoy reading my previous post, so that's where i read "more to come" at the very end, but that more never came - until now.
no, i'm not drunk (unlike the previous post). i am high - on a runner's high. i just got done with a "training" run for a couple of races that i have comin' up. this one was sponsored by city sports - although i'm not really sure how it was "sponsored" by them since all we did was meet at their store on boylston st. anyway, it was also "sponsored’ by puma (again, they didn't give out freebies) and harpoon - as their 5 mile road race is coming up in the beginning of june. so before we headed out on the run, the leaders - one from puma and the other from city sports - decided that there was going to be 2 distances, a 3 miler and a 5 miler. i thought i would try the 5 miler, but i didn't commit to anything, until i passed that last bridge. hah! i went out with a couple of guys and a couple of girls, and paired up with one other dude as we headed towards the science museum. armed with my trusty polar hrm, i glanced down and my running partner asked what pace we were clocking. 8:30 - just about right for me for this run, but apparently too fast for him. it was like in top gun when maverick says "i'm gonna hit the brakes and he'll fly right by" and merlin says "you're gonna do WHAT?" the dude practically stopped on a dime, and i was on my own - in no-man's land, trying to bridge an impossible gap. i wasn't able to close the gap, but it wasn't a race so i wasn't too upset. and apparently i was the gap between the 5 miler led by the puma dude and 3 miler, of which i already passed the bridge on memorial drive so i was stuck doing the 5 miler. i still had the 5 mile group in my sights, until we got onto the windy esplanade where i lost sight of which bridge they went over to get back into the back bay area. anyway, to make a long story short (too late, i know), i decided to go with the 5.25 mile group - there was only 1 person in it, me - and ended up in beacon hill, which was about a half mile back to where we started. on my way back (i figured i'd head back in case they were worried about me - i'm sure everyone was wondering "where's dave?") i was making excuse of why i went further like "I didn't know if you guys were going to do a cool down, so i wanted to make sure i got that in." when i got back the 5 mile group was still there (it consisted of 4 people, not including me) and the puma rep who lead it.
i didn't have much to say except "can i get a water," so i was ready to leave after assuring everyone i was still alive (you should have seen the worried faces just as i made it back), and said thanks to the puma rep and the city sports guy (who was maverick hitting the brakes). the puma rep guy then says, "i've seen you around running." now, i love how people communicate - it fascinates me. i've always observed that it's easier to confirm someone's statement or question, and proceed with what you were doing or about to do the second before they opened their mouth. so naturally i said "yeah, i'm sure." i've never seen this dude before, and quite frankly probably will never see him again (he's much faster than me so even at races i won't see him). instead of that being the end of the conversation, or him ending with "well i hope to continue to see ya around" he says "yeah, you run down here with that ethiopian guy." now, kenyan's get all the hype about being the best runners in the world, but there are some pretty amazing ethiopian runners as well - for instance haile gebrselassie. anyway, to be mentioned that i, me, dave papp, run with an ethiopian guy is hilarious - i mean, i probably couldn't ride a segway as fast as an ethiopian guy can run!
what makes this story even more remarkable, and the reason that i'm sitting in my office at this hour having to write this down now, is that i felt similar when i was hanging out with my friend julie, who visited in april to run the boston marathon. julie is an awesome runner, who has even won a marathon OVERALL, and is very involved in the sport. julie knows some people at brooks running, who are great guys, and we visited their booth at the expo the day before the marathon. we talked to a couple of guys specifically, both who exceed at marathons - 1 of who was running boston and the other that was pacing him since he ran london and placed in the top 20! so needless to say, i felt intimidated, but both asked, "are you running boston?" i guess it's not that strange of a thing to ask while at a marathon expo, but along with all the talk about "are you fit?" and racing strategies it made me laugh and feel pretty good.
oh, so my response to the puma rep who said i run with the ethiopian guy was a mumbled "i... don't... know..." and a quick departure from the store.
no, i'm not drunk (unlike the previous post). i am high - on a runner's high. i just got done with a "training" run for a couple of races that i have comin' up. this one was sponsored by city sports - although i'm not really sure how it was "sponsored" by them since all we did was meet at their store on boylston st. anyway, it was also "sponsored’ by puma (again, they didn't give out freebies) and harpoon - as their 5 mile road race is coming up in the beginning of june. so before we headed out on the run, the leaders - one from puma and the other from city sports - decided that there was going to be 2 distances, a 3 miler and a 5 miler. i thought i would try the 5 miler, but i didn't commit to anything, until i passed that last bridge. hah! i went out with a couple of guys and a couple of girls, and paired up with one other dude as we headed towards the science museum. armed with my trusty polar hrm, i glanced down and my running partner asked what pace we were clocking. 8:30 - just about right for me for this run, but apparently too fast for him. it was like in top gun when maverick says "i'm gonna hit the brakes and he'll fly right by" and merlin says "you're gonna do WHAT?" the dude practically stopped on a dime, and i was on my own - in no-man's land, trying to bridge an impossible gap. i wasn't able to close the gap, but it wasn't a race so i wasn't too upset. and apparently i was the gap between the 5 miler led by the puma dude and 3 miler, of which i already passed the bridge on memorial drive so i was stuck doing the 5 miler. i still had the 5 mile group in my sights, until we got onto the windy esplanade where i lost sight of which bridge they went over to get back into the back bay area. anyway, to make a long story short (too late, i know), i decided to go with the 5.25 mile group - there was only 1 person in it, me - and ended up in beacon hill, which was about a half mile back to where we started. on my way back (i figured i'd head back in case they were worried about me - i'm sure everyone was wondering "where's dave?") i was making excuse of why i went further like "I didn't know if you guys were going to do a cool down, so i wanted to make sure i got that in." when i got back the 5 mile group was still there (it consisted of 4 people, not including me) and the puma rep who lead it.
i didn't have much to say except "can i get a water," so i was ready to leave after assuring everyone i was still alive (you should have seen the worried faces just as i made it back), and said thanks to the puma rep and the city sports guy (who was maverick hitting the brakes). the puma rep guy then says, "i've seen you around running." now, i love how people communicate - it fascinates me. i've always observed that it's easier to confirm someone's statement or question, and proceed with what you were doing or about to do the second before they opened their mouth. so naturally i said "yeah, i'm sure." i've never seen this dude before, and quite frankly probably will never see him again (he's much faster than me so even at races i won't see him). instead of that being the end of the conversation, or him ending with "well i hope to continue to see ya around" he says "yeah, you run down here with that ethiopian guy." now, kenyan's get all the hype about being the best runners in the world, but there are some pretty amazing ethiopian runners as well - for instance haile gebrselassie. anyway, to be mentioned that i, me, dave papp, run with an ethiopian guy is hilarious - i mean, i probably couldn't ride a segway as fast as an ethiopian guy can run!
what makes this story even more remarkable, and the reason that i'm sitting in my office at this hour having to write this down now, is that i felt similar when i was hanging out with my friend julie, who visited in april to run the boston marathon. julie is an awesome runner, who has even won a marathon OVERALL, and is very involved in the sport. julie knows some people at brooks running, who are great guys, and we visited their booth at the expo the day before the marathon. we talked to a couple of guys specifically, both who exceed at marathons - 1 of who was running boston and the other that was pacing him since he ran london and placed in the top 20! so needless to say, i felt intimidated, but both asked, "are you running boston?" i guess it's not that strange of a thing to ask while at a marathon expo, but along with all the talk about "are you fit?" and racing strategies it made me laugh and feel pretty good.
oh, so my response to the puma rep who said i run with the ethiopian guy was a mumbled "i... don't... know..." and a quick departure from the store.
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