Our running club had its second club points race last Saturday (check out my hair, hahaha). Reagan was feeling sick, so she ended up sitting that race out. I had a pretty good race though. The weather was beautiful. It was actually a bit on the warm side. I was pretty happy with my time:

Other quick stats:

Distance: 6.2 Miles, 10.0 Kilometers
Date/Time: April 3, 2010, 10:00 am
Location: Central Park, NYC
Weather: 52 Deg. 80% Hum. Clear.
Total Finishers: Men – 4072  Women – 3722  Total – 7794

Hopefully, I can make some progress this year.

Here is my disclaimer: Reagan tells me that sometimes when I talk/write about running, it seems like I’m bragging. So, just to be clear, I would like to say:  Although, I like to get a little bit competitive, I realize I am a very average runner. If anything, the competitive aspect is only to keep it interesting (for me), and to measure personal progress.

I titled this post “Conference Weekend,” because it is the weekend that our church, instead of having local meetings, just has one mega-meeting, that everyone watches on TV/Webcast Billy Graham-style. Okay, not really Billy Graham-style, at all. Lucky for us, everything comes out in print, in a few weeks. Because we missed most of it. We ended up having an insanely busy weekend.

I ran a half marathon in Central Park, Saturday morning. I wouldn’t recommend the course. It is basically just 2 laps of CP Drive. Normally this is fine. But when you are trying to get a good time, the hills at the north end of the park can break your spirit a little bit. Reagan showed up to cheer me on (which helped, immensely) and take some photos. My goal was to score less than 1 hour and 30 mins. I missed it by 5 minutes, but still beat my previous best by almost a minute.

^—-My blistered up feet.

I thought that I was going to have to go into work after the race. It turned out that I didn’t have to. So after having a nice visit with Piper, Reagan and I basically went nuts and tore our entire house apart to accommodate a new shelf that Reagan has been begging to buy for a month or so. In involved moving a 1000 lb. aquarium, dismantling some wall-mounted shelves, patching the wall, painting the wall, re-arranging all of the furniture in 2 rooms and cleaning up a spilled gallon of paint.

^—-Reagan, driving us up to see Piper

We were able to take a break on Sunday morning, while having some superbly delicious homemade cinnamon rolls with a few of our friends, followed by another great visit with our baby. Our house still hasn’t completely recovered from the transition, but it is pretty close. All in all, it was a pretty productive weekend.

It is only Saturday, but this has already been a pretty nutty weekend. Roca Wear hooked us up with some tickets to the Jay-Z show last night. Reagan and I were both completely blown away. We both agree, that it was probably the best show we have ever been to. One of my favorite parts was watching Reagan jump up and down when Rihanna came out. Then again, when Beyonce came out. It was totally crazy. If you want to check out pics and/or read about it, I did an article over on SoJones.

Not withstanding the fact that we got home in the middle of the night, last night, we got up before the sun, this morning (which wasn’t that early, since it was overcast), to get down to Central Park for our race. To our surprise, we ran into a bunch of friends from church, on the way down. They were all headed to Jersey for a canoeing trip. Anyway, it is my first race since I started doing physical therapy. I have to admit that the hills were a little bit tough, after having logged almost all of my miles via treadmill, for the last month and a half.

I was still pretty pleased with my time. I didn’t hit the goal that I was hoping for, but I was close. This was Reagan’s first time running, in a while, so she was kind of nervous. She really did well, though. The way it was set up, this morning, the men ran first, then the women went afterward. This made it really fun, because we were both able to watch the other one, start and finish the race. The weather was perfect for running, and we had a really great time.

It looks like I’m going to be working for the rest of the weekend. So I’m glad that I was able to get all of the fun in early.

Friday night, I was in Central Park shooting this race, when I passed by the croquet garden near Sheep’s Meadow. There was this dude out there playing all by himself. Just practicing his shot, I guess. Anyway, I stopped and talked to him for a while (after sneaking a few shots of him). It turns out that the Parks Dept. gives out permits to play croquet on the lawn there. Apparently there is also a New York City Croquet club. Needless to say, I was pretty stoked to learn about that. Monday nights, the club hosts the garden for public entry. From what the guy said, they give lessons and everything.

Oh yeah, I got a new lense this week. It is a 30mm f/1.4. I used it pretty much all evening. I love it.  One more shot of the croquet garden:

Tonight we had the privilege of attending the wedding reception of our friends Kim and Ryan. It was a really good time. The location was on the roof of one of the Central Park Conservancy buildings. The weather was fantastic. As you can see above, Kim look gorgeous. Ryan looked great too, but Reagan didn’t get a shot of him. We thought it was great that Kim was serving ice cream to the guests. It was really fun to see them together, see some of our friends and made a couple of new ones.

Before we left, we tricked our friend Richard into taking the above photo of us. I think that Reagan looks so hot, in it. And in real life, for that matter. Hahaha

Okay, this race was awesome for several reasons. First of all, The Hardies and the Tolberts were there. Second of all, I asked Zack if he wouldn’t mind shooting the race for the Examiner article. He obliged. Linda, actually contributed as well. Dude, the shots turned out amazing. Zach has some skills. He got some killer shots with the fisheye lens, that made me want to go out and buy one for myself, today. The temperature was only 79 degrees, but it felt like 1000 degrees, being that the humidity was at 94%. It definitely gave more incentive to finish the race quickly though. I scored a 26:39, with a pace of 6’39″. I was pretty happy with my time.

The shot above, is me about to cross the finish (shot by Zack). The one below is Reagan (in true form)  leaping across the finish (taken by Linda).

We had a really great time. To check out some more photos, click over here.

For the last 3 years, Reagan and I have tried to attend the NY Philharmonic show on the Great Lawn at CP. The first year, Reagan went down to the park early with one of our friends to try to get some good position. About then, a full on monsoon ripped through midtown, and they were lucky to make it out of there without drowning. Last year, there was more rain. On top of that, I ended up having to work late, that night. I will admit that it wasn’t even on our radar for this year. Some of our homies invited us today and everything went swimmingly well. It was a really good time. The music was great, Alec Baldwin was the emcee, and there were fireworks after the music. Not a bad lil’ Tuesday night.

^– Some dude selling glow sticks, etc.

^– The Carters

^– Some fireworks

^– Reagan goofing off with the Mareadys on the way home.

Mo’ photos

Sunday morning’s race was a pretty fun one. Luckily, the rain held off for just long enough. There was actually some pleasant misting during the last portion, that felt awesome. After switching back to my “Wave Inspire” shoes, I’m happy to report that I was able to run without any knee pain, whatsoever, on Sunday. My time wasn’t the most amazing. I was aiming for a 6:30 pace, which I managed to pull out, for the first 3 miles. But I couldn’t sustain it. I ended up with a 34:38. I felt extra slow though, since it was a club points race. Club points meant that all of the NYRR track clubs had their fastest guys  in, trying to score points.

Reagan, kind of took it easy for her race. She had a respectable pace, but wasn’t feeling to hot. She ended up with a 40:36. For me, I was just proud to be sporting my custom made Fathers Day jersey. Another kind of cool thing, was that, for the second race in a row, I had a symetrical number. Last weekend I was 77. This week, I was 88. Hahahah.