mid-week training update and a look ahead to the weekend

since the nipmuck trail marathon on sunday, i've only gotten in two training runs of 6 miles each. plus, i wimped out of a nyrr race for the second time in as many weeks! i woke up at 4:15 wednesday morning to the sound of heavy rain beating against my windows and couldn't drag myself out the door and drive into the city for the 50th anniversary run! while it didn't help matters that i had gotten home just after midnight from the b-52's concert at radio city music hall, i would've made a go of it if the weather had cooperated. so i'm still stuck at 6 scored races (and have satisfied the volunteer requirement), for the time being.

sunday is the "need for speed" 50 mile relay from bear mountain to new rochelle. there are 9 legs of various distances. my team, "trying to catch the wind," has 9 members - 7 of whom are women (i had to get permission from my wife to join this team - haha). emmy, anthony and kristen are the only team members i know. i'm looking forward to meeting the rest this weekend - especially the team captain, pam, who has done a remarkable job organizing our team's participation.

another reason i'm excited about the relay is i get to run a portion of my leg with my daughter, katie! i run leg 8 (3.7 miles), which not only runs through my neighborhood, but will, literally, go right past my house. katie will run with me to that point, and then i'll continue on to meet pam at the final exchange point. more on the relay this weekend.

here are the splits from my 2 training runs. tuesday:

7:53
7:49 15:42
7:25 23:07
7:23 30:30
8:07 38:37
7:54 46:31

7:45 average

and, this afternoon's run:

8:11
7:57 16:08
7:35 23:43
7:45 31:28
8:15 39;43
7:48 47:31

7:55 pace

b-52's at radio city music hall

wow, as a fan of the b-52's for almost 30 years, i finally got to see them live at radio city music hall last night! they crammed 11 songs in a 50 minute set to kick off the post-intermission program for cyndi lauper's true colors tour. more than half the material (6 songs) came straight from their new album, funplex. i've been listening to funplex, the first new material from the band in 16 years, for the last few weeks. in fact, the show opened with "pump" the first song of the cd.



while the new material was to be expected, and it was good stuff, they did play some of their old standards. that song selection started with mesopotamia into private idaho, not the biggest hits, but a taste of what was in store.



highlights from their new material included, "ultraiolet," "juliet of the spirits," and the title cut of the cd, "funplex."



the high point of the show was the back to back "love shack" and "rock lobster" to close out the set. carson kressely introduced them as the "greatest party band in the world." the b-52's left no doubt the title belong to them!



the full set list:

pump (fp), mesopotamia, private idaho, ultraviolet (fp), roam, juliet of the spirits (fp), funplex (fp), hot corner (fp), love in the year 3000 (fp), love shack, and, rock lobster. (fp = funplex)

cyndi lauper's true colors tour at radio city music hall

last night pat, katie and i went to see cyndi lauper's true colors tour at radio city music hall. there is no small irony in not staying for lauper's set because the program was filled with so many performers that she didn't take the stage until almost 11 that night! we did see her on stage during the intermission, when she rallied the audience to make its voice heard and partipate in the political process. but, truth be told, we were there to see the b-52s! the rest of the night was a bonus!



cyndi during intermission. at the risk of dating myself, in 1980 i was saw cyndi lauper when she was the lead singer for the band, blue angel! she was great then, and still great all these years later. last night she played up a thick new york accent for the crowd during her get out the vote pitch, which ended with her introduction of a brief video. but she came back on-stage minutes later to correct a misstatement she made (about voting for president on-line). "i've gotten ahead of myself," she apologized. "we can vote for american idol on line, but not for president of the united states yet."



we got to our seats at 7:30, just in time for the indigo girls. katie and i took the metronorth in, while pat met us at radio city after work. we missed the cliks performance, which kicked off the evening at 7. carson kressley ("queer eye for the straight guy") was the flamboyantly over the top mc between performances.



regina specktor, was a one-woman wonder with her off-beat and incredible performance. initially she came off as an edgier version of suzanne vega. but her incredible one handed percussion skills, while simultaneously playing piano with the other, were mesmerizing! and she tossed in quite a bit of scat and vocal gymnastics when she sang, either a cappella or self- accompanied.



kate clinton. the highlight of her comedy skit. introduced to ted kennedy just after he endorsed obama. "how are you doing?" he asked me. "how do you think i'm doing? i'm a 60-year old white woman, with a last name clinton!"



rosie o'donnell with a great set. definitely made headlines referring to her time on "the view" as time spent in a women's prison movie!! but she also talked poignantly about the impact of her mother's death when she was 11 years old. my only regret of the night in having to miss cyndi lauper's set, was missing rosie play the drums and sign back-up vocals with lauper!

stayed tuned for my post on the b-52's awesome set last night!

check out review posted by entertainment weekly online

"the counterfeiters" movie review

last saturday afternoon pat and i went to see "the counterfeiters," winner of the 2008 academy award for best foreign language film. this austrian film, in german with english subtitles, is set in nazi germany and tells the story of the german's plot to flood england and the united states with counterfeit currency. it's not you typical "holocaust" film and, instead, focuses on the moral and ethical dilemmas confronted by the concentration camp prisoners who collaborate with the nazi. based on a true story, it's told not from the perspective of the author, but rather through the life of "sally," solomon sorowitsch.

sally, a world-class counterfeiter, is caught and imprisoned by the germans in 1936. after 5 years in a concentration camp, where he traded on his artistic skills to obtain an easier life in the camp, is transferred to different camp. it's not a random transfer but part of the an effort to collect all prisoners who could assist in a massive plan to counterfeit pound and dollar notes. sally was chosen the very police officer who arrested him in 1936 and is now, somewhat surprisingly, in charge of "operation bernhard," as the counterfeiting plan is known.

the nominal "hero" of "the counterfeiters" is adolph burger, author of "the devil's workshop," the book the film is loosely based upon. burger is the thorn in sally's proverbial side - constantly agitating to sabotage the work being done by the prisoners, regardless of the threats of harm if they fail to produce viable counterfeit notes. the tension between sally and burger, and the symbolic tug of war between personal safety and the collective "good," is played out across the time they spend in the camp.

the film is photographed in grey, muted tones, and never seems to have any bright, in focus, shots. the purposeful cinematography highlights the moral ambiguity of the positions taken by the prisoners. in one scene, for example, a fellow prisoner argues with sally, and threatens to reveal burger as the saboteur. sally defend burger indirectly, insisting that he not "rat out" a fellow prisoner. that is met with incredulous (and i paraphrase), "we're to die because you want us to uphold the criminal's code?" there is no meaningful response, so sally tells him point blank, "if you turn him in, i'll kill you myself."

we're introduced to burger when he refused the "new clothes" offered to the prisoners when they arrive at the camp (when he learns those are the clothes of murder prisoners from other camps). yet burger had no qualms about sleeping on the "soft clean sheets," in the warm bunks they are assigned to, separate and apart from the general camp population. nor did burger, while castigating sally for his blatant self-interest, ever refuse the extra food and cigarettes they received from the nazi.

but the power of film is almost erased by the preposterous hollywood feel-good ending grafted onto the story. the film ends with sally in monaco with a suitcase full of the counterfeit dollars (that he just happened to walk out of the concentration camp with, following its liberation by the allies). initially, he spends the money freely and wins big at the casino. but, while holding 4 aces and about to beat the player with a full house, sally suddenly folds his cards and gives up the pot. then, just as rashly, he grabs the remaining dollars stored in the hotel safe and recklessly loses them at the roulette wheel until - of course - he is rendered broke and penniless.

and as if calculated to further insult the collective intelligence of the audience, the film one ups itself in terms of sheer ridiculousness. sally, with his newly reborn, freshly cleansed soul, is now on the beach at twilight - where he is suddenly joined by the mysterious woman who may, or may not be, a prostitute. her professional ambiguity is a result of her protestation "i am not...," while in the next breath she pocketed the money sally offered her after their night together (conveniently, before he realized how evil those counterfeit dollars were). she offers this pearl, "so you've had a run of bad luck?" to which he replies, "we can always make more."

so be forewarned. before committing to the emotional investment required for the first 9o% of this otherwise excellent film, know the ending is a huge letdown. so large a disappointment, in fact, it may negatively impact the overall view of the film! i am baffled why the film didn't end with the striking and powerful images of the liberation of the concentration camp - which, i my opinion, would have been the perfect conclusion to the film.

nipmuck trail marathon: photos and results

barbara, emmy, rob, and sarah













here is my race report.

check out more photos on emmy's blog!
and even more race photos at printroom!

and the official race results.
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here are some photos from the 2009 race.

rr: nipmuck trail marathon

this was my second nipmuck trail marathon, so i wouldn't get a "high fall risk" sticker on my race bib. in fact, i almost didn't get a bib because i didn't know emmy's license plate number! the race volunteers, under strict - and apparently literal - orders not to dispense bibs without first securing a license plate number, refused to give it to me. what a ridiculous way to start the day! i can hardly remember my own, and i'm expected to know someone else's license plate number?! it was a scene which could've been written by eugene ionesco, and apparently played only for me. everyone else had a license number at the ready, and had no trouble. eventually emmy arrived and liberated my bib for me.

after the license plate business, the race itself was practically anti-climatic. i had a finish of 5 hours in mind. last year i finished in 5:36, but it rained during the race and the trail conditions were pretty tough. with drier conditions (it did rain the night before), the trail would be easier to run this time. the course is a 20k out and back southbound leg, followed by a 14 mile out and back northbound leg. while the southbound leg is the muddier of the two, the northbound leg is hillier. the 1.6 miles from the 17.8 mile aid station to the turnaround at 19.4 miles is almost a straight uphill climb.

the race began 15 minutes late. we ran on perry hill road for a short distance before the trail head for the southbound leg. this was the most congested portion of the race, where all the runners funneled into the essentially single track trail. this was actually a good thing because it forced everyone to be patient for the first few of miles as the runners moved into relative position along the trail. the southbound leg crosses i-74 and, thankfully, there was traffic control at that point. this reminded me of similar road crossings at the long island greenbelt trail.

last year i reached the turnaround in 1:13. i shaved 5 minute off that split and arrived there in 1:07. the return leg was even faster, and took only 54 minutes - a full 14 minutes ahead of last years 1:08 for the inbound leg. i completed the entire southbound 20k in 2:02, 19 minutes ahead of 2007's 2:21. while i was happy with the time, it wasn't as fast as i would've liked. i'd need to run the northbound leg in just under 3 hours to reach my 5 hour target. that was a 1:28 split for each of the 7 miles legs. neither of the 2007 northbound legs had gone that fast; 1:40 and 1:34, respectively.

but i felt good and kicked off the northbound portion aggressively. while the trail head from perry hill road starts with a significant uphill climb, the trail is very runnable for the first few miles. but my real problem occurred about 30 minutes into this leg. out of the blue i heard an unpleasant tearing sound and realized the mid-sole upper on my shoe had ripped open! in a race first, i suddenly found myself with a 2+ inch long tear along the bottom on my running shoe!

i pulled off the trail to exam the it. my concern at that point was all the dirt and grit that would find its way in there. the stability was still okay, but if the tear got any larger it might actually impact my running. i put my trail shoe back on and moved on. luckily, i only needed to stop a couple of times to fish out some debris along the way. while that slowed me down a bit, the real discouragement awaited me at the 17.8 aid station! "only 17.8 miles," was all that went through my head - i just couldn't believe we hadn't run more miles! and now the final stretch to the turnaround point was the toughest part of the trail.

it took 1:46 to reach the turnaround (heralded by giant-size wooden stairs leading downhill to the aid station). it was 6 minutes slower than last year - but pretty much on account of the trail shoe mishap. it was now 3:49 and i'd need to retrace those 7 miles in 1:11, to finish in 5 hours. theoretically possible, yes - but realistic, not a chance. i still felt strong, so i would try and hit my original 1:29 target for the inbound leg. just as i finished climbing back up the giant-stairs, i caught sight of emmy on her way to the turnaround. she had picked up her pace significantly and would catch up to me in a couple of miles.

in fact, after emmy caught up, one of the most dramatic episodes of the race occurred as we crossed route 89 at iron mine lane. after i crossed and was about to turn onto oaks road, some jerk in a steroid fed s.u.v. gunned his engine and tried to run emmy off the road! what a cowardly [expletive deleted] jerk. on the upside, the adrenaline rush from such a frightening experience boosted our pace for the next couple of miles.

it took 1:33 to finish the inbound leg, 4 minutes slower than i my goal - but a minute faster than 2007. my 5:22 was well off the 5 hour target, but still a good 14 minutes ahead of my 2007 finish. emmy had taken even more time off her 2007 finish! she had sped on ahead in the last mile, grabbed her camera from the drop bag, and took a picture of my finish! we both knew rob was having a tough time because we had seen him on his outbound leg as we did the return portion. he was beset by some serious intestinal problems, but still managed to finish the race!

there was plenty of food at the finish - especially pizza! the list also included cold cuts, watermelon and donuts! a good number of the runners had brought their own beer, as well. thankfully for us, rob had a cooler filled with sam adams! they were the highpoint of my post-race rehydration plan!

here are the race photos.

check out emmy's race report!
check out scott's race report!
and one more race report from a different scott :D

next up: a very early wednesday morning (5:30) nyrr 50th anniversary race in central park!

nipmuck trail marathon update: rr and photos to follow

death by trail shoes? what my new balance looked like at the end of the day!!

just got home from the nipmuck trail marathon in ashford, connecticut. what a long day it's been. i left the house just after 5 this morning, met emmy at 5:30, rob at 5:50, arrived at the race just before 7:30, we ran the race, and i walked back in the door just after 6 tonight!

the very short version of the race: i finished in 5:22 - despite the self-destruction of my trail shoes during the second out and back portion of the course. emmy finished a minute ahead of me, in 5:21. despite our similar finish times, we only ran the last 3-4 miles of the race together! rob, unfortunately, had a bad day. intestinal problems kept him out on the course for 6 and a half hours!

the roll call of runners included, among others: jill and joe (who only did the first out and back portion of the course), barbara, and sarah (who was at pineland farms with us last weekend). there was a lot of post-race socializing - and rob, bless his soul, had a small cooler filled with sam adams to rehydrate with :D

more later...

here is my race report.