Race Report: Grete's Great Gallop (Half Marathon)

Hold on Meb Keflezighi, I'm gonna let you finnish, but Grete Waitz is the best NYC marathon runner of all time. 

Today I ran in Grete's Great Gallop, a half marathon named after the greatest NYC marathon runner of all time, Grete Waitz. She was a Norwegian long distance runner who won the NYC marathon nine times. And by all accounts she was an amazing human being with incredible sportsmanship and an advocate for women and sports. She was a very close friend of Fred Lebow (the founder of the NYC marathon) and can be seen in the documentary Run For Your Life, running her final NYC marathon in 1992 with him after he was diagnosed with brain cancer. It took them over 5 hours. In 2011 she lost her own battle with cancer. I know several people who have been touched by her legacy.

I wasn't sure how today would go. I knew I was going to finish the race, but I didn't know how I was going to feel. It was the longest distance I've run since finishing the race in Cape Town in April.

Waitz's husband and long-time partner opened up the ceremonies, someone sang the national anthem and we were off! I made myself hold back a bit during the first few miles, which I think was the right thing to do. What kinds of things do I think about during a long race? Holding back for one thing. Today I thought about how four years ago (November will be four years since I ran my first marathon, NYC 2008) I thought of myself as a solid ten-minute miler. The NYC marathon was not only my first marathon but it was also my first race ever. Even though I've been a runner since my middle school years I never hung out with serious runners before and I didn't have a real frame of reference for what ten-minute miles means. I thought that was pretty good, I guess. I still do! I guess I just hadn't experienced what it was like to feel competitive, both competitive with others and with oneself. Today I thought about this, and I thought about how it is somehow miraculous that now it's hard to run as slow as a ten minute mile. I looked down at my watch: 8:30s on the uphills and 8:00s on the downhills. I'm in better shape than I was in my 20s.

At some point my shoe became untied and I had to stop and tie it. It happened again. This time I double knotted it but it was too tight. I had to stop and retie it a third time. I don't know how much time I lost. After stopping for the third time, I looked down at my watch and saw a 12-something minute mile and cursed outloud. I looked up and saw one of my coworkers in the crowd. Oh shit, I thought. I hope he didn't see me say "Goddamnit. Fuck."

By mile 8 I had slowed down to about 9 minute miles, give or take. At mile 10 I hit a wall. I don't remember ever hitting a wall in a half before but my legs felt really heavy and I felt like I was running against air made of oatmeal. At this point, on an uphill (is Central Park made completely of hills?) when I was really feeling defeated, a cool breeze seemed to come out of nowhere and I swear I felt like it was Grete's spirit uplifting me, encouraging us all to keep going. These are the things I think about when I'm running a long distance, to keep me going. Thank you, Grete.

Earlier, around mile 8 I think, I ended up near a woman who was making really loud and dramatic sex noises on an uphill. I mean she was one "oh god" away from being Sally in the restaurant scene in When Harry Met Sally. I kind of laughed a little because I'm juvenile (between blowing snot rockets: I'm not saying I'm not responsible for doing weird things when I run). I bring this up because I could not get away from this woman. For the rest of the race, every time I thought that I'd lost her, there she was, still making Sally sex noises. Uphill, downhill, it didn't matter.

At mile 11 I realized that I was in real danger of not getting under 2 hours in this race. How is this possible, I thought. I was in a real panic. I kept looking at my watch and doing the math and really did not know how I had run this race so slowly. This is when I ran my hardest. My legs were tired and I felt disoriented but just like the Grateful Dead, I kept on truckin'. Because of this I felt pretty strong finishing even though I was probably running a full minute slower than my pace at the beginning.

Final time was...wait for it...1:59:57! Not my best half marathon time ever, but I got under two hours.

They passed out bagels and smoked salmon at the end of the race. 

Me and Shamala. Her husband, Paul, got 7th place overall! 

I enjoyed a veggie burger topped with a fried egg at Maggie Browns, with my friend Jon (who also ran today) and his girlfriend and kids. 

Friday Picture Wrap-Up

If you live in Brooklyn then you're familiar with the habit of people leaving their unwanted books out on the sidewalk. This past summer I started to take pictures of these orphaned books whenever I passed them. The piles almost always make sense somehow. I can imagine what kind of person has left each particular pile. Or at least this is what I like to do.

This Friday Picture Wrap-Up is dedicated to imagination, and what imagination says about you.

I Just Spent all my Money at the Vet Potato and Leek Soup

Last week I pulled something (a good guess would be a muscle) on the inside of my thigh. Not from running or doing a funky interpretive dance in my living room or something else fun, but from walking several blocks to the vet with my cat in my arms (Kitty Gus has made previous appearances in this blog here and here, as well as here). He was in a carrier, and I don't know how much that weighs but Kitty Gus is a heavy-weight champ at 14 lbs. The average weight of a cat seems to vary wildly on the internet, but to put it in perspective, a gallon of milk weighs about 8 1/3 lbs.

How does a person pull a muscle in their leg carrying something heavy? I am not sure! But it could have been the stress because he was sick and I was trying my hardest to cradle him gently and not jostle him too much since he was pain. It turned out he had a blocked bladder (with crystals and debris!), and he was straining but unable to urinate, which meant he had to go into surgery immediately to clear it out. I'm happy to report that he came out of surgery well and after a few days in the hospital he was sent home after he ripped out his own catheter in the middle of the night and used his litter box. Did I mention he is a heavy weight champ? 

Yesterday I ran for the first time in four days, for a little over an hour at a slow, easy pace. I didn't listen to music so I was able to hear a drunk man tell me that I looked like I was ready for the marathon. Thanks, dude!

Since I just spent roughly eight million dollars at the vet I made a huge pot of this soup yesterday after my run. I will call it "Oh Shit I Just Spent all my Money at the Vet, Potato and Leek Soup". You can make this for less than $10 and it tastes even more delicious the next day. It pairs very nicely with free faucet water. 

Potato and Leek Soup

In a medium size pot heat up 1/4 cup of olive oil. 

Add 4 cups of chopped leeks (I found large leeks at the farmers market and used two).

Throw in some salt and sweat the leeks stirring constantly at low heat.

Throw in 6-7 cloves of garlic (whole is fine since you will be using a blender later).

After the leeks have turned bright green and cooked down, add about 4 cups of water.

Throw in 5-6 large chopped potatoes, with skins on.

Add more water if the liquid does not cover potatoes. Add salt and pepper. Add two large sprigs of Rosemary's Baby...err, I mean rosemary. And boil until the potatoes are very soft. 

Remove rosemary sprigs (if some leaves have fallen off into your soup, leave them) and ladle your potato/leek mixture a little at a time into a blender and add vegetable stock (from a qt box of vegetable stock).

Puree the potato/leek mixture with the stock a little at a time and transfer to larger pot. Keep repeating until everything is pureed and you've used the whole qt of stock. 

Simmer on the stove adding a couple of teaspoons of apple cider vinegar (or lemon juice) until the soup has thickened. 

Pita Crackers 

I had some stale whole wheat pita bread so I turned it into crackers for my soup!

Massage oil into both sides of pita bread and on one side sprinkle with course sea salt, paprika, and dried parsley flakes. Place pita directly on oven rack and heat in oven at 350 long enough for the pita to be very dark and crispy. 

I just started reading Haruki Murakami's memoir What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, and I learned that he likes to listen to Lovin' Spoonful when he is running. So, in honor of this fun fact about this literary genius and in honor of Kitty Gus I have here Lovin' Spoonful's "Nashville Cats". Meow.