Running like the wind!

Holy crap. I ran fast today. Maybe it was the cold. I'm not sure but I beasted and Pr'd my 10k by a solid 2 minutes.

It switched to 26 before I snapped the picture. Crafty thermometer....

Waking up I knew it was going to be freezing. The thermometer read 25 and I read that it was going to be 19 with wind chill. I should been snuggled up in my bed dreaming of Turkey and stuffing but I willed myself to run the race I've grown rather fond of over the last 2 years.

Anyways, long story short. I ran a 6:37 per mile pace which is blazing for a guy like me. So blazing in fact that I finished 12th out of 243 people! 2nd in my age group! That's a silver medal people! They don't just give out those kind of things everyday. Though I didn't actually receive a medal, everyone got to take home a sweet ass apple pie as a reward. I graciously accepted my pie and stumbled to find my mom's car and warm up.

I had to include my boy Youngblood who beasted 23rd. Congrats to him on setting a PR as well!

PS: Thank you Mr. cool old guy who ran beside me for miles 4 to 5.5. You're the man. You may have been 55 and done 20,000 Boston Marathons but today...You were MY little pace bunny. I wanted to pass you at mile 4 but you had such a groovy tempo that I couldn't resist. When I finally started my sprint with a mile or so to go, I looked back and you didn't follow me. Nothing personal. Thanks again. Your pal Bryan.

Turkey Trot 5k? Better make it 10k

I've become a little road racer over the last couple of years. 5 time John Carson runner and soon to be 2 time Thanks 4 Giving 10k runner. I did a little test run yesterday in hoped of seeing if I was able to hold a sub 7:00 minute a mile pace. I succeeded. Let's hope I can repeat this on Thursday. I wish New Ro wasn't so hilly but it seems both my home routes and New Ro trails have ridiculous hills in them.

Try this loop if you're in New Ro. If you finish at my house I'll give you a nutri grain bar and a pat on the back!

Maybe this year I can run the course correctly. I remember studying the course last year and I could have sworn that you had to go through the woods behind the Lowell Elks in order to continue past the 5k finish and on to complete the 10k. I was dead wrong. I ended up crossing the finish line and deactivating my timing chip. As I ran through the finish I noticed everyone was standing around in front of me looking tired and such. I quickly turned around and asked an official if this was the way for the 10k and he looked at me like I was an idiot and pointed towards the road I just turned off of. Hastily, I sprinted back onto the 10k course and beasted my way to a solid finish. According to race results I finished 57th out of 691 but that was only my 5k. I had another 5k to go after that. It also didn't help that there were ZERO signs instructing 10k runners to continue straight or the fact that a crowd had built up and was overflowing onto the race course.

Glory is won or lost on Pawtucket Blvd!

2009 5k results

I love the course too! It's a little uphill at the start and halfway points but it's a true hometown course. I grew up near the area and have run along the river since freshman year of high school when we used to do dreaded "Bridge-to-Bridge" runs for crew.

If I keep the pace I want to hold I'll finish in the top 20, Maybe somewhere around 16 or 17. Unless a bus from Kenya or local high school track team shows up unexpectedly. Gotta watch out for those 10k crashers with their natural African/Crazy white boy speed. Fingers crossed. Wish me luck!

"Celebrate we will / Because life is short but sweet for certain"

Another post put on the back burner for a week. I went to two DMB shows last week! Friday I went with Jules, Michelle Morrison, Michelle, Tori, and Andrew. Had a great time. My favorite 3 songs from the night were in order!

Friday November 12, 2010 - Madison Square Garden

1. Lie in Our Graves
2. Warehouse
3. Bartender (Folsom Field video)

Coming into the concert, My top 3 to hear for the entire weekend was Lie in Our Graves, Warehouse, and Stay (Wasting Time). Who would have guessed he would play 2/3 of my top 3! What a guy. Just swell in my opinion. The one bummer about the show was that he played 7 songs from Big Whisky which I thought was a little much. I love the album and everything but 7 is a little much for me, especially since the album came out last year. 

He also shortened the encore by 1 song because he had a toothache. No worries though. He made up for it on Saturday by playing the song (Pig) and tearing out faces off with the setlist.

Saturday November 13, 2010 - Madison Square Garden

Our seats for night 2!

What a show! He lived up to expectations on night 2. My favorite Dave show by far song wise. (I don't think anything can beat being 3 rows deep in the Pit for Citi Field Night 1). I need a Top 10 for the night because picking 3 is way too damn hard with the setlist he threw at us!

1. Two Step
2. #41
3. Dancing Nancies
4. Don't Drink the Water
5. Pig
6. Time Bomb
7. Everyday (Live @ MSG 11/13)
8. Rhyme and Reason
9. Last Stop
10. Best of What's Around

Amazing time. Went with everyone minus Jules and MMorrison, and added Quinones, Rourke, Chelsea Sheehan and a few others. You would think sitting behind the stage would be bad but it was awesome being able to see everyone jamming out, including Carter shredding the drums. We were actually a lot closer to Dave than most of the people who had tickets looking straight at the stage. 

Citi Field 7/16/10

Also, found my new favorite hangout at Penn Station...Rose's. This little pizza place was throwing down $4.00 32 oz. brews. Just saying. That's the cheapest beer I've found in NYC to date!

I'm glad I got to see DMB again before he his break from touring next year. Looking back, I saw him 4 times. (Bethel, Citi Field N1, MSG N1 + N2) Over time I've found that I appreciate the band more and more. My first Dave concert was SPAC in 2009 and I only knew the songs he played on the radio for the most part. It seems the further I go into their discography, the more I see why people see him 20+ times. He puts on a great show and his music never gets old. So, I leave the post with a salute to DMB, who deserve a much needed break, and I hope they think of recording a new album soon!

Citi Field 7/16/10

RIP My Bike

This post is a week overdue, but the way I see it its like a funeral. When the person dies, it often takes a week or so for everything to sink and and get back to life. In no way am I comparing my bike to losing a loved one, but it definitely sucks when you lose something you weren't ready to part with...

The story goes as this. I ride my bike to Pelham train station 3 days a week for my internship. I've been locking up that bike since June in the same spot. During the summer I was even going into the city 5 days a week and never had a problem. So I get back last Tuesday and go to unlock my bike and I notice it isn't there. I don't know if I've been de-sensitized or anything but I wasn't sad or mad or anything. I was just blah. I looked everywhere. Maybe someone had moved it or the police had confiscated it or something. After realizing there was nothing I could do, no one to talk to or ask what they saw, I started calling people to pick me up because I had night class. 6 calls later, everyone was busy except for Michelle. By the time she got to me I had already walked 3/4ths of the way there. 

This is a picture of what my bike looks like. It was so damn cool. I got that thing when I was in 6th grade or something like that. I took that thing everywhere. I remember biking trails on the bike path in Bedford, riding around the campground at Moose Hillock, hitting a telephone pole on my way to my first day of work in high school and having to go to the hospital :), and of course Erol and I's 20 mile bike ride that we ended up getting lost and being late to night class. Trying to recall memories has actually been fun because I had forgotten some pretty awesome times. One including going to the hospital after hitting the telephone pole. It wasn't the best of times, still got a scar!, but it's like experience, and good bar talk! 

To sum it all up. I'm gonna miss my bike. And in the wake of the recent Glen Island car smashers (now the Glen Island Scumbags), it just makes me sad that even an upscale place like Westchester county can be so unsafe. It's not even like my bike was easy to steal. They needed a chain cutter to get at it. Scumbag. I hope you fall off my bike when you're riding it by the school you dropped out of. Have a good life.

Who Wants Make enough money to buy a Small Kia

Friday was ridiculously awesome. I got out of work early and headed up to East 67th to see a taping of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire with Rourke, Quinones, and Frankie McSpankie. I had been dying to go and it was relatively easy to get tickets because the show has fallen out of its prime time spotlight of yester-year. It was cool to see how everything was run but we all got a little bored during the tapping. There was a guest host (Tim Gunn) from Project Runway. He seems like a cool guy. Def. Uncle material. Why not?

What bugged me the most was that they changed the format of the show. Basically the first 10 questions are put in random order and given random dollar amounts. (Ex. One of the chickie poo contestants had a question asking what kind of hamburgers does Wendy's make. The answer being old-fashioned. That delicious question merited her a cool $25,000!) WTF! It takes the skill out of it in my opinion. People were only walking away with amounts like $8,000 and $21,000.

Welcome back to Who Wants Make enough money to buy a small Kia?

After the taping, we got an opportunity to audition for the show. This involved taking a 30 Question multiple choice test in 10 minutes. I loved it. It was a trivia test. There were 1 or 2 that I honestly didn't know, so when they were calling out the numbers of people who passed, I felt pretty confident. Unfortunately, only 6 people got the nod. I'm assuming they only took people that got every question right. Good news is that you can take the test as many times as you want. Maybe I'll give it another go, next year.

Lie in Our Graves

This morning I'm doing some research on Geek blogs. Sounds boring but these blogs have some of the most interesting stuff out there. Check this thing out.

 

How cool is that! It makes so much sense too. You won't see this catching on anytime soon but imagine all the 20 somethings (including myself) that would want people to tweet a grave. That's insane. I'm amazed at whoever thought of this idea. It's genius.

Speaking of graves...I'm hoping to hear Lie in Our Graves tomorrow night or Saturday! I couldn't resist integrating Dave into this post :)

Working for the Weekend

This weekend is going to be ridiculously awesome. It's as simple as that.

Just listened to DMB Live in NY from this past summer. Got it on Warehouse. It's pretty cool to own a concert that you've been to. In fact, on one of the songs, a guy scream "I love you Dave!" If I knew they were gonna be recording that night I would've gone for something bold. Maybe a a 1..2..3 Go Gaels! for all of Citi Field to wonder what the hell I was talking about. Jokes on you guys....I made the CD. I wish I could've said that. That would have been boss. Here is one of my favorites from 7.16.10 @ Citi Field

Don't Drink the Water - Live at Citi Field 7.16

On another note, I figured I would have Thursday off from my internship because it was Veteran's Day. I was dead wrong. We have school off so I just kind of assumed it was one of those holidays where everyone shuts down the ol' mom n pop shop and grills of some burgers and chills. Direct quote from my boss after asking if we get Thursday off. "Oh...in the real world we work holidays." A sobering truth indeed. That won't stop me from throwing a little Salute America bash though. I've got the rest of my life to work Veteran's day. Sure, I'll be there at 9am ready to tackle a day of tappin away at my computer...but I may need some Chinese food and a couple red bulls to encourage me. Go Gaels.

Do that dance Dave...Hopefully I'll be Two Steppin' as well? 

Life Updating

Blogging is way too hard....

Life updates in easy to read bulletins!

• Dowling and Fall Mets this weekend. 
• Mom and Pops coming for a visit!
• Re-did 5k and dropped 58 seconds. No big deal. I couldn't live with Quinones beating me by 1 second :) Even if I did stop for 250 meters over the course of the test.
• Won an epic soccer game this Tuesday, hopeful,y securing us a spot in the playoffs.
• Won last volleyball game to close out the season.
• Goddam cold, semi starting to go away
• Frozen yogurt stand going up on North Ave! It's like crack I tells ya!
• DMB @ MSG next week! (I've got a list of songs I want to hear :D)