happy birthday neal cassady - 85 years old in heaven today!

neal cassady, the "dean moriarty" of jack kerouac's "on the road" and "secret hero" of allen ginsberg's "howl" is 85 years old in heaven today. cassady was born on february 8, 1926, and died tragically in mexico on february 4, 1968, at the way too young age of 41. during the 40's and 50's, cassady - through his close relationships with kerouac and ginsberg - was an integral part of the nascent beat generation.

by the end of the decade, cassady was a quasi-tragic figure as he found himself in san quentin for marijuana possession. then, in the early 60's he befriended ken kesey and morphed into one of his merry pranksters. cassady become the official driver of the intrepid psychedelic bus "further" - as he criss-crossed the country with a new generation of hipsters.

aside from his unfinished biography, published posthumously as "the first third," and his collected correspondence, cassady wrote no prose or poetry. in that regard he wasn't technically beat generation author in the classic sense. but cassady letters to kerouac in the late 1940's were the inspiration behind kerouac's break from the tom wolfe style his prose then aped to kerouac's more famous "spontaneous" prosody of the 1950's.

one of cassady's more infamous letters - known as the "joan anderson letter" (of which only a significant fragment survives) - was made into a movie, "the last time i committed suicide." put it on your netflix queue and check it out!

happy birthday, neal cassady, in heaven!

ny running show podcast: empire state building run-up & gridiron 4 miler

yesterday's episode (#17) of the new york running show kicked off early (3 in the afternoon) to accommodate a different kick-off a few hours later, in dallas - the superbowl. we had a pretty large group on the line and the topics included the empire state building run-up held last tuesday and the gridiron classic 4 miler run that morning.

listen to, or download, it here, at talkshoe.

2011 gridiron classic 4 miler: race photos and results

what a great day to be outside and run. it almost seemed as if winter was put on hold for the day. the only remnant of the seemingly endless cold that's fallen across the tri-state area was the occasional spots of black ice along east drive during the gridiron 4 miler this morning. the great weather brought out a huge crowd - more than 5,700 runners crossed the finish line!

i ran a 29:16 - off my target of a sub-29 for the 4 miles. after the race, todd, emmy and i ran another 9 miles (a loop+ of the park) to build up the daily mileage. that was fun - and for me it was a pleasure to get in some training miles on solid ground instead of slush or ice! hopefully this weather will last for couple more days before we're tossed back into the deep freeze :O

here are the race results from nyrr.

a couple more photos posted on facebook.

ronald reagan 100 years old in heaven today!

president ronald reagan celebrates his centennial in heaven today. he was born february 6, 2011, and died june 5, 2004, at the age of 93. although i wasn't a fan when he was elected president, by the end of his second term i was one of his admirers. today he's easily my second favorite president, narrowly behind teddy roosevelt.

in honor of his 100th birthday, i'm currently reading "reagan: the hollywood years," by mac eliot. i've read plenty of reagan biographies over the years (including one that focused entirely on his "early" years) - but this is the first book devoted exclusively to his career as an actor and president of the screen actors guild.

happy birthday, in heaven, president reagan!

stefaan engles sets world record with a marathon a day for one year :O

today stephaan engles completed his 365th consecutive marathon when he crossed the finish line of the carretera de les aigues marathon in barcelona, spain, today. according to news accounts it eclipsed the prior record of 52 consecutive marathons set in 2009. there aren't too many details of his accomplishment in the brief cnn new story. it seems unlikely that the marathons were actual "events" - probably 26.2 mile runs each and every day with official races spaced in at weekly intervals?

still, it's an impressive accomplishment - and gives new meaning to regular long runs! to put his mileage in perspective, he ran 9,569 miles in seven countries during his year long event! a few years ago, i ran three consecutive 50ks - which was part of a stretch when i ran 13 marathons and/or ultras in a 12 week span. it was major logistical challenge in addition to the actual physical one of running them week after week.

i really admire engles' perseverance. he compared the daily marathons to a "regular job" - day in, day out. "I am running just as Joe Average goes to work on Monday morning, whether or not he feels like it."

congratulations stefaan engles!

packet pick-up at nyrr for gridiron classic 4 miler

this afternoon i picked up my number and shirt for the gridiron classic 4 miler. it's my first nyrr race of 2011. normally i'run at least one or two central park races in january (the manhattan half and/or the fred lebow 5 miler). truth be told, had i picked up a point towards the 9 + 1 requirement last month, i'd line up for the trrc freezer 5k in fdr state park instead.

i remember the days the when the gridiron was an out and back 5k race - it began on east drive, went across the 102nd street transverse, south on west drive to an abrupt (and inconvenient) turnaround point. the horseshoe shaped current 4 mile course is decidedly more runner friendly.

the forecast is for some snow on saturday - argh (enough with the snow already)! hopefully, we won't get that much - and whatever falls won't linger on the course sunday. in any event, after the race i'd like to tack on a full loop of the park to up the mileage to ten for the morning.

if you're at the gridiron sunday, say hi!

february 2011 race schedule

february, for some strange reason, seems to be a month of conflicts - too many great races, too few days to schedule them. almost every weekend is a trade 0ff, starting with the gridiron 4 miler on sunday. it conflicts with the freezer 5k, the race i'd like to run but will pass up in favor of my first of nine nyrr races for 2011. had i run one or two nyrr races in january, i'd line up for the freezer 5k this weekend.

then, the rescheduled ted corbitt run around manhattan is on deck for the following weekend - which knocks out the stratford sweetheart run. the next day, sunday, the valentine's day marathon in van cortandt park conflicts with the boston build-up 20k. tough call, but right now the marathon has the edge.

and again, the following weekend finds the freezer 5 miler, albany winter marathon, and cherry tree 10 miler all on the same day - argh. i like each of those races - and have run them multiple times over the years. but this year, like the last one, the albany winter marathon has the edge.

the final weekend of the month is relatively conflict free. while the al gordon 4 miler conflicts with the colchester half - the colchester half, despite the long drive, was on my tentative list of 2011 races. plus, with al gordon in prospect park - that's a lot of driving to run just 4 miles. the next day, sunday, is the boston build-up 25k - the final race in the winter series (and easily my favorite of the 4 races).

here's what the schedule looks like:

2/6 - gridiron 4 miler
2/12 - ted corbitt run around manhattan, 50k
2/13 - valentine's day marathon
2/20 - albany winter marathon
2/26 - colchester half marathon
2/27 - boston build-up 25k

as always, if you're at any of them - say hello!!