Month: July 2019

Why I love running – July 2019 Version

A lot of the reason I choose Team for Kids was I want to support running as a charity. Running has had a profound influence on my life. To name a few things I can trace my MBA, moving to NYC, meeting my wife, and a good part of my career success to being a runner.

I took up running as an adult shortly after getting my first post college job. I would say I was out of shape but I had never been in shape. But more accurately I was a little depressed, gaining weight and spending a lot of my time indoors.

Running was and still is a way to get outside, socialize, and think. In the early day I was a social runner, using running to meet new people. I also would run and use the time to think about my place in the world. Eventually running even took me somewhere… New York.

My first NYC Marathon in part helped me get into NYU Stern. I was wait-listed at Stern and decided to enter the lottery for the marathon. I was accepted into the 2003 NYC Marathon and finished in just under five hours. A few months later I was accepted into Stern and made my way to New York. Since that day in August of 2004 I have not left.

Later, in 2006 my future wife and I went to watch the NYC Marathon on our second date. It was on this date that we really connected. Our first date was much more casual, a meeting of two strangers at a restaurant in Manhattan. On this second date, two kindred spirits were watching thousands of people accomplish one of life’s great accomplishments, winning the NYC marathon.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to appreciate what being able to return to running has brought me in terms of stability, friends, and mental health. When I’ve hit a point in my career where I struggled I’ve often I wish I had found running sooner then I did in my life.

Today, in 2019, running is giving me time to myself. Whether its before the rest of my family gets out of bed or on the way home from work my time running is my rare alone moments where I can do a little bit of what I once had a lot of time to do. This can be as simple as listening to music or a podcast or as complicated as trying to solve a big problem at work in my head.

Running has had such a profound effect on my life. As such, I’m raising money for Team for Kids so that the next generation might find running earlier in life.

Please donate to Team for Kids here.

I’m running the 2019 NYC Marathon for Team for Kids

To get an entry for my 9th NYC Marathon I’ve decided to raise money with Team for Kids which supports Rising New York Road Runners. Rising NYRR is the NYRR charity that supports running programs schools across the country.

These programs include:

  • Providing classroom materials to educators
  • Kids running events all over the city.
  • Sponsoring Global Running Day
  • Getting kids access to big running events the NYC Marathon.

If you’d like to donate to support me and the kids please do so at this link.

Very late Brooklyn Half Race Report

My official stats

Apologizes for posting about a race two months late. After my heart attack gas scare I wasn’t sure how I would race the Brooklyn Half. Turns out pretty well.

I couldn’t sleep well the night before. The race was on my mind. I was hoping for something that would confirm or deny that I should enter the NYC Marathon this year. Something that either would help me believe that I wasn’t done with running/racing or was. Perhaps even a moment of clarity in what should be my focus right now or some truth, imagined or otherwise, about life.

I think I got some of that.

Having given up on sleep. I arrived early that morning. The sun was thinking of beginning to rise but remained elusively in the distance. The race corrals were a tantalizing close at a mile from my house. Far enough to consider an uber but close enough to bike or walk. I went with both biking and waling.

I borrowed a Citibank to make the climb from my apartment in Gowanus to Grand Army Plaza. From Grand Army Plaza I walked to the corrals. The sun rose as I reached Grand Army Plaza. For the first time in what seemed like weeks it was going to be a perfect weather day.

The month leading up to the Brooklyn half had been one of the rainiest months in recent memories. It rain on the weekdays. It rained on the weekend. It rained during work. It rained after work. It mostly rained when one wanted to run. Which made running an act of defiance. Defiance against the weather.

After getting through security and settling myself in my corral. I began to really enjoy the morning. 5:30 AM did not seem too early. It did not seem to harsh. Instead it seemed like a time for rising. A time to take control of life and all its difficulties.

As the corals filled out. It became crowded. Runners struggled to get to the bathroom as they always have but I had already found part of the clarity that I was hoping to get out of this race. I had re-learned something simple that I had forgotten. I can get up very early and start my day with a run.

When the race started I brought back another truth that had gotten me through the 2017 NYC Marathon. Heartrate monitors can tell you how close you are to the edge during a race. This probably deserves a full article but the gist is this:

  • I can hold a heart rate below 162 beats per minute for a very long time.
  • I can hold 162-170 for 40-60mins
  • I can hold 170-178 for under 25 mins.

In this race I really watched my heart-rate…. and for the full race it averaged 163 beats per minute:

Heart rate in red.

The last mile I really red lined with a heart-rate in the 170s. I ran about 10 miles of the race in and out of the 160s. With all of this heart-rate watching I wasn’t watching my splits… which are a bit all over the place:

Strava Splits

I wasn’t really watching my splits though… And I had no goals going in terms of time. I did do my best and ran a time that I think proves I can still run and have found a bit of maturity in knowing how I can push my body.

All in all, I was completely satisfied with the Brooklyn Half. I put myself out there. Re-Learned a few things about myself. And found I still had enough left to want to race this year. I left the race feeling pumped up for the rest of my running year.