Manhattan Half-Marathon 2009

One of my biggest flaws is the fact that I always want to do beyond my best, unfortunately most of the time I get negative results from trying too hard. In running, the ING NYC Marathon was the best example -- the harder I tried the worse result I got. It was a really rough week, but I committed to run well in the Manhattan Half-Marathon so I had to fulfill my own obligation to kick off a new running season with a good race.

I missed three days of running due to severe shin splints on my right leg, and my training didn't go well prior to the downtime, so I was a bit hesitate to set up a goal before the half. Additionally, the temperate dipped to teens over the weekend and it felt like single digit when you were outside at 7 in the morning, it was brutal. Thankfully there was no wind or it could’ve been worse.

I wasn't going to take a chance and wore 3 layers for the race, and 2 more light jackets for pre-race. Shorts were not an option so I kept my running pants on. My gloves were unable to block off the cold and my hands were freezing, and red.

With the new course in Central Park, the baggage area was pretty far away from the start. I waited and waited and finally had to remove the extra clothes for the race. NYRR Staff Bill told me I should walk around or warm up, but my heart definitely wasn't there this morning so I just stood there until I headed to the start.

The start was relatively clean because runners from Corral #0 mostly knew what they were doing. Though, some runners who weren't supposed to be there sneaked in and they weren't fast -- we had to weave around a few of them as we began to loop around the park twice.

Like the Great Gallop, my aim was to keep a good running form early in the race and maintain it throughout. I also wanted to stay under a 7 min pace so I could count 7, 14, 21, etc. on my Garmin. At one point I was a minute and a half under the 7:00 pace, which was roughly about 6:50 pace or so and I felt pretty comfortable at that pace.

Running Central Park anti-clockwise was tough because of the hills, and going up the Cat Hill and Harlem Hill twice were definitely brutal. Though, I was able to suck it up and ran with the flow, so I didn't lose too much time going up the hills.

The other challenge was that I couldn't take any fluids at the stands because they were cold if not icy, and I didn't want to freeze my lungs or put water on myself. Knowing that my sweat was turning into ice, I definitely didn’t want to put water or Gatorade on myself.

Late in the race I really thought about things that took place during the week and the night before. It was a moment where I could reflect and running was the only sport that could provide the space for me. If you ask me why I run, here’s your answer.

The finish was at the 72nd Transverse and I thought about Race for the Cure back in 2007, it was a good day. As I approached the finish line, the runner in front of me was too far ahead and I had to settle and pace myself to the finish.

I could compare this finish to the Brooklyn Half last year. My finish time was 1:31:06 (6:57 pace), which wasn't too bad, but at the baggage area Bill could tell that I was disappointed. Though, I did try my very best and with the icy sweat and little tears perhaps from the cold, I had to be OK with my performance.

My friend Annie also ran the race. I intended to watch her finish but since I was freezing, I stayed for 5 minutes and bailed.

My next race is going to take place in two weeks in the Bronx. I just hope it's going to be warmer because the Grand Concourse is very unforgiving when it’s cold and windy.

NYRR Thursday Night at the Races - Men's 1-Mile 1/8/2009

So I did it. I bought my new Asics spikes and took them to Washington Heights for my first NYRR race of the year - an indoor track event at the New Balance Track & Field Center at the Armory. It was the first time in 18 years I ran in an indoor track event and I was really nervous before the race.

To be honest, I knew the field was really competitive as more than half of the field would run sub-5 minutes in an one-mile race, add to the fact that I hadn't ran a miler since the Continental Fifth Avenue Mile in 2006 (5:41), I decided to keep my real expectation relatively low... although I wanted to run a 5:30 in the race.


The Armory was really a first class facility and I was really impressed. I arrived early and ran 2 laps on the open track to warm up. My spikes were new and I pretty much had to adapt on the fly, like I said I hadn't ran with those in 18 years!

The atmosphere was pretty tense before the race, and this guy came to me and asked me about the race format since it was his first time to run in this venue. When I asked him what his Fifth Avenue time was, he said 4:52... I was like okay brother you'll be fine. Anyhow, it was a long wait before I got to do the draw because there were so many dudes racing in the miler, and I think I took the track in the seventh heat out of nine tonight.

I drew 11th before the race, that means I had to start on the outside lane and had to cut in before the first turn. The start was really smooth I didn't really push it and I was able to cut in second after the cone. I tucked in before the leader and ran closely behind him for the draft. In the first half of the race I had this determination like I had in the marathons, it was a great feeling and it brought back a lot of childhood memories especially when we made the turns.

Though, my lungs started to struggle after lap 4 and I began to fade slightly. It turned out the leader wasn't a rabbit as he started to increase his lead and my form started to collapse. After all, it was the first time in 2 years I ran like this so it wasn't a surprise to me. By lap 6, three more guys passed me and two more passed me on the final lap, so I finished 7th out of 14 in the race and my finish time was 5:32.8 -- a 9-second PR in a miler.

It was rough in the last 200 meters because I didn't have the kick I normally had in road races, and I couldn't stop coughing after the race. Originally I signed up the 800m as well but since my cough didn't subside, I didn't want to push it and withdrew from the race. After all, my priority is road racing, although it was a great experience back on the track.

Now I want more. For sure I'm not going to kill myself doing this but this is something I miss dearly. I'm going to do it again on Feb. 26th and hopefully I could do both 1500m and 800m next time.

June Mid-Distance Doubleheader

A Flat Race in the Sun

When you play multisports, there is a small price you need to pay. After my Goofy Challenge in early May, I went back to play softball every week and unfortunately, I pulled my left Achilles tendon two days prior to the Japan Run. It was a fly ball to right centerfield where I had to make a sliding catch. My left foot was trapped in this nice grassy field at North Meadow in Central Park, and I knew right away that something was wrong. The pain finally caught up two innings later.

I was fine walking, but I just couldn't walk up and down the stairs properly or in running, I couldn't generate power running uphill nor downhill. The pain got more severe Saturday night and I had to ice it before I went to sleep for the race the next day.

It was business as usual on Sunday as I walked to the start very early from home for the 8 am start. Since the cap of this 4-miler was 3,000 (Why? look at how much stuff I got in my goodie bag!) I thought I might be able to set a PR in this race. After pre-race festivities including the introduction of Japanese top female marathoner Reiko Toso (she also ran the race), we took off at the 102 transverse for the start.

There were fewer people in the field, and I probably ran too fast on the transverse entering West Drive. I was running at 6:12 pace before going uphill and by 96th Street, I started to feel a little strange -- I couldn't generate any power from my strides. The feeling was very similar to my struggle back in January at the Manhattan Half, where I was really sick the day before the race. Though, I wasn't really physically sick this time -- it was just the pain from my Achilles.

I was able to hang with the front group until 86th Street, but for some reasons I just knew I didn't have it The pain then got worse, and I had to change my strides to compensate. By the time we made the hairpin turn on the 72nd Transverse, I was greeted by the sun -- in my face. It was getting hot and I just couldn't attack anymore. To add insult to injuries, I stepped in a pothole [again] at the corner of 72nd Street and East Drive, and it was my right foot that stepped in it. Great.

Surprisingly, I was still running at a good pace but now I had to tackle the Cat Hill. To tell you the truth, I really had nothing going up the hill I was sweating and I had no control of my left foot. By the time we ran pass the Met, my pace shot up to 7:00/mile. I knew it was time to lower my expectations and just carry myself home. The cheers at the Engineer's Gate and a guy yelled "Go Flyers" gave me a little boost, but as I looked ahead the front pack was starting to drift away. I had nothing to respond.

In the end, I crossed the wire at 26:25, which was 50 some seconds slower than Adidas Run for the Parks I ran in late April. What are you going to do? When it's not your day it's not your day. With the injury and the heat, it was not a bad showing but I could have finished first for the New York Flyers! I guess the second place, the first loser, wasn't too bad on this day.

Stats
Overall Place: 97/2491
NYF Team Place: 2/39
Finish Time: 26:25
Pace/Mile: 6:36

A Fun Race in the Rain

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the New York Road Runners, the NYRR put together a free race on June 4th for 5,000 runners at 5:30 in the morning.

I repeat, 5:30 in the morning on a workday! When I saw the posting I immediately signed up -- not because if was free but I thought it was something cool, especially that fact that it would be my 50th race with the NYRR as well!

Since I raced on Sunday I really didn't want to kill my Achilles, I immediately lowered my expectations and wanted to treat the NYRR Anniversary Run as a training run. I wanted to take it nice and easy, have a cup of coffee, go to work, and play softball in the evening.

But that wasn't really the case, as rain was expected that morning.

Despite the forecast, it was the first race where SC and I put the band back together. We met up and headed to the start line at 5 in the morning, and realized that the rain was coming down quite hard. Though, the actual storm actually came at 5:15 when we were at the start. The scene was quite surreal actually, "We must be hardcore," I said.

Only 1,700+ runners showed up because of the rain, and I promptly went to SC's corral since I wasn't going to race in this run. Thankfully, the rain did slow down once we got the race rolling, and it turned out to be a really nice run in the park, even though it was a little wet.

SC and I picked up the backmarkers one by one just like we did back in November at the Philadelphia Marathon. Since I wasn't pushing I was really able to enjoy the dawn and the park. Running is supposed to be fun, nice and easy, right?

We ran strong for the entire 5 miles and we crossed the finish line at 39:16/39:17 (7:51 pace). SC wanted to run under 40:00 and she did it in style, excellent work! More importantly, we both agreed that it was a great way to start the day. I had a lot of fun, and Happy Birthday NYRR!

Stats
Overall Place: 574/1784
NYF Team Place: 18/52
Finish Time: 39:16
Pace/Mile: 7:51

A Tale of Two Beaches (Part II)

Recovery was the key after the Brooklyn Half-Marathon, as I had 26.2 miles to go the next day. Unfortunately, I went out of my PowerBar Recovery Mix and I desperately tried to find something with a "#3" on it after the race. I didn't want to go to Paragon at Union Square because I needed to get some rest, and didn't want to make an extra stop in between Brooklyn and home, so I went straight back to the Upper West Side and hoped Super Runners had it.

Nope, they didn't. I did chat with one of the salespersons there (I assume he's a Kenyan runner) and we talked about the Goofy Challenge I was doing. He said a friend of his was going down to Jersey to qualify for Boston, and I was like "If I didn't run today, I would try that, too." He then suggested me to go to GNC for some recovery drinks.

On my way home I saw a Mister Softee truck, I was like "What the heck, I need some calcium!" so I bought myself a vanilla cone before I headed home and hit the shower. After a brief recess, I trekked up to GNC but they didn't have what I wanted... no PowerBar #3 shake, no Amino Vital Pro, but I found Accelerade. I never tried that before but I really had no choice (and no time) so I bought a bottle. For dinner, I had Barilla Plus pasta and chicken, which I bought as a Manager's Special at the Food Emporium. I shop there like, once a year?

Since I had to get up at 1:30 am to catch the 4:00 am train, I pretty much had to force myself to sleep early. Though, the damn Mets were on I had to stay up for that. In the end, I was only able to catch like 2 hours of sleep and my six alarm clocks roared in the middle of the night.

I quickly packed my stuff and jetted out of my apartment around 2:40 am. Since there was only one special train going down for the New Jersey Marathon I didn't want to (and couldn't) miss it. When I stepped into Penn Station, I reunited with all the drunk kids from the [Long] Island. I used to work the graveyard shift and take the 3:49 am train back to Central Islip, seeing kids lying on the floor all over the place at the station was a norm to me. But the NJ Transit entrance was locked up, as it turned out the "Marathon Train" was also a "Hush-Hush Train" because it was free. I bumped into two runners and we had to look for the train on the platforms -- a scavenger hunt in the middle of the night. Finally, we found it and it was on track 13.

It was a lonely ride down to the Jersey Shore as the train was only about 5% filled. Thanks to my iPod I had some entertainment during the 1-1/2 hour trip, but I wasn't going to read anything because I was tired.

We finally made it to Long Branch, and the weather didn't look too promising at the time. It was very humid with the Atlantic mist and fog filling the air. My digital camera didn't work properly because of the moistures, but the good thing was that the staging area was in a hotel and we had a nice shelter to drop our bags and going to the bathroom like 3 times, before we headed out to the start.

People were very energetic before the race and the race itself had a good crowd. Unlike the NYRR races, there were no seeding corrals (just like old times), and the fact that we started with the half-marathon and the relay runners made it a bit tricky. I heard a lady said, "Just don't get sucked in." She was right, the half-marathon runners only needed to run 13.1 miles, and the relay runners only needed to run 10k/person, and we were going to run 26.2 miles!

And just like old times, we had to deal with slow runners who elected to start from the front. Thankfully the field wasn't huge we quickly went through the dodging stage by mile 2.

I started to get down to 7:30 pace, but I urged myself to start to save fuel on mile 6. Since I had experience running a marathon before I knew what my weaknesses were, and with the 13.1 miles I had the day because I knew that I couldn't go all out for too long. Meanwhile, I had to keep myself from thinking about the half I had the day before because it would affect me psychologically. The whole time I kept reminding myself that the Brooklyn Half was a week ago.

And then I saw two guys in fluorescent green singlets, "Aussie" and "Gee" from Team for Kids. Of course I ran for them last fall so they were kinda my teammates. I first passed Aussie and then Gee, but we went back-and-forth for 3 or 4 miles. We also caught up with the 3:30 pace group by mile 11.

Looking back, I think I ran too fast 1) battling with the TFK duo and 2) holding the 3:30 group behind me before the half. I didn't like running anywhere near the pace group because there were too many people running as a pack, and there wasn't any breathing room in between. Anyhow, we returned to the shoreline to finish our first lap (the NJ Marathon is a two-lap race.)

I started to slow down a bit after the half, as I just completed a full marathon in 2 days and now I had 13.1 miles to go. My pace began to fall back to 8:12. "Aussie" and "Gee" were pulling away and I couldn't hold the 3:30 pace group anymore. They eventually passed me around mile 15.

I had to maintain the pace, but I quickly consumed the two PowerBar gel packs on me and had nothing left. I was vulnerable. By mile 18 I had to stop for bathroom but the johns were so far off the course! I had to walk through a grass area for that and lost some time there.

I returned to the track and I was praying for one more gel pack in order to boost my energy. Thankfully when we reached the Theater District a kid handed me 2 packs (I dropped one) and I kept it in my pocket for latter use. I then caught up with a runner and he said "Hey, good job!" and I told him I had to slow down because I was doing a Goofy. I was kinda rude though (or I didn't have the sense at the time) to encourage him to keep on going as I jetted away. Bad manner for me, poor guy...

I definitely hit the wall between mile 18 and mile 22, but that GU gel pack helped me to get through the final 4 miles. I spilled some gel on my hands and they were now all sticky! I just didn't like that and I had to look for water to wash that off. In the final four miles, my pace went back down to the 8-minute range again and I felt better as we returned to the shoreline one last time.

I knew I was going to break my PR by then, but I was determined to have a strong finish. The sun just broke through and I wasn't going to miss the opportunity for a nice finish. I finally crossed the finish line with both of my arms in the air, where I broke my PR by 11:43 at 3:45:04 (Previous PR: New York City Marathon 2006 at 3:56:47.) It was a pretty good achievement.

Like the NYRR 8000, emotion took over I just couldn't believe what I did. And I kept my promise to my partner that I was going to finish under 4 hours. Though I wasn't able help her to break the barrier because she couldn't run in this race.

I truly enjoyed the experience I had in New Jersey. The event was well organized and gave a lot of value to us -- the runners. I might want to run this race again next year!

Next Race: 6/1 - Japan Day @ Central Park 4-Miler

Stats
Overall Place: 432/1703
NYF Team Place: 2/9
Finish Time: 3:45:04
Pace/Mile: 8:35 (PR)

A Tale of Two Beaches (Part I)

To be honest, I can't believe I did that myself.

A lot of things happened in March and April, and the New York Road Runners didn't make my life easy as they moved the Brooklyn Half-Marathon April 26th to May 3rd -- the day before the New Jersey Marathon due to Passover. Like the role I had in the Philadelphia Marathon, I was supposed to be a pacer in the NJ Marathon, but well... things happened and the deal fell apart.

For the longest time I went back-and-forth of whether I should run the Brooklyn Half or the NJ Marathon because I signed up both. At one point I was going to drop New Jersey for an obvious reason, but then I revisited the opportunity and asked myself, maybe I could do both.

I really had no long distance training since the 13.1-mile training run on March 2nd at Central Park, where I slightly hurt myself running on the trails. Though, judging from the performances I had at the NYRR 8000 and the Adidas Run for the Parks 4-miler, I knew that I was in mid-season form and I shouldn't pass this opportunity to really challenge myself. Moreover, thanks to the NJ Marathon organizer where they added a special "4 a.m. Marathon Train" from Penn Station on race day, I didn't have to worry about overnight accommodations. Eventually I decided to do "The Goofy" on May 3rd and 4th. Actually it was like racing in the Indy 500 and then the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend!

The anxiety of running both races didn't really sink in until Thursday afternoon at my softball game. I was thinking about the races during the game and tried to preserve myself as much as I could in order to build up my endurance. Though, I had some Brooklyn Lagers at the Dive Bar that night... Brooklyn Lager and the Brooklyn Half? What a match!

On Friday, I first went to NYRR headquarters on the Upper East Side to pick up my Brooklyn Half packet, and then took the NJ Transit to Long Branch, NJ to pick up my marathon packet. Long Branch was a really nice town and I truly enjoyed my brief stay down there! When I picked up my packet in the "Big Tent" people were very friendly. As a matter of fact, it was so relaxing down there I didn't really want to take the train back to NYC! But I had a race Saturday morning in Brooklyn so I had to go back.

I got up bright and early on Saturday because the subway ride to Coney Island was... looooong. I got on the Q train at Times Square and it took forever to get down there. Whoever invented the iPod, thank you!

I was assigned to the first corral (#0) based on my Run for the Parks pace (6:23), but I wasn't sure if I was going to go all out because of the marathon the next day. Well, when you got the adrenaline rush you just couldn't back down and I didn't. We started on the boardwalk and since I ran the same race twice before, I knew how to tackle the crappy wood logs and it was actually a nice run next to the beach.

On the boardwalk I was focus, and consistently ran at 6:45 pace for the first two miles. And since I started from the front it was a smooth sail early, as we stormed down to Ocean Parkway for the yawner. Ocean Parkway was pretty much a flat straight and you had to run flat for four miles. Since I had a few flat traning on the West Side Highway the flat section didn't bother me anymore, and the whole time I was just trying to keep the pace and occasionally looked for people to draft to save some energy. Though, near the end of the straight I wanted to have some PowerBar gel on board and when I reached the back pocket of my new shirt, it wasn't there! I guess I dropped it somewhere, oh well...

As we entered Prospect Park, my previous Brooklyn Half experience came into play. The NYRR often falsely advertised the Brooklyn Half as a flat half-marathon... not true. When you hit Prospect Park you would realize that you run uphill 90% of the time. Lesson learned, as I saved enough fuel early for the final 4 miles in the park.

Unlike the previous years, the hills weren't as steep solely because I had something left in my tank. I was able to re-pass some runners who used up the power2pass on Ocean Parkway, and it really helped my psychologically. In the end, I crossed the finish line at 1:32:57 (7:05 pace), which set a new personal record that I set two months ago in the Bronx Half-Marathon (1:34:11). I actually felt pretty good after the race as I walked back to the finish line to watch other people crossing the wire.

But unlike the Manhattan Half-Marathon and the Bronx Half, I was by myself when I exited the park, and tried to get ready for the next race within the next 20 hours.

Stats
Overall Place: 483/5832
NYF Team Place: 7/109
Finish Time: 1:32:57
Pace/Mile: 7:05 (PR)

Run Around the Park for the Parks

As I stated in my last blog, I was flat the week before the Adidas Run for the Parks 4M because of the surgery I had on Monday, and the aquathlon qualifying the next day in which I burned all my calories in a pool of chlorine at Asphalt Green. I planned to have my West Side Highway 6-mile run on Wednesday but I had to cancel it because of the lingering pain on my lower gum line, plus some giant headaches that kept me from sleeping. I still refused to take any painkillers, and I only took two Tylenol 8 hours the whole time! Last year when I broke my arm (Monteggia fracture) I only took half of the painkillers the whole time – the doctors and nurses were impressed.

Enough with the drugs. The 4-mile wasn't on my schedule initially, but after the NYRR moved the Brooklyn Half-Marathon to May 3rd I had to enter a race to bridge the gap in April. As a matter of fact the New York Road Runners really messed up my schedule this year, but everything happened for a reason, right? Ironically, the Run for the Parks was the first race that NYRR seriously implement the corral system so it was a good opportunity for me to test it out. In the past they tried wave starts based on AG time, and they had corral system in place for the NYC Halfs, but nothing compared to the system we had on Sunday. The start used to be dangerous because some slow runners opted to start from the top of the grid and put themselves at risk (I don’t like to run over people and I don't like to weave around them.) Not anymore. Overall the system was pretty successful.

Based on my time from last year's 5k run at Shea, I was assigned to the first corral (corral #0.)

Unlike the NYRR 8000, I headed to the start early this time around. Since it was a heavily sponsored race, I got to check out some tents for goodies, and watched the kids’ races before I walked to the start. It was cute watching some 2-year-olds run 25 feet to the finish line.

When I arrived at the start the mood was a little different. People were more serious in my corral I probably missed some of the fun I used to have previously. Nevertheless, I was there to do my own thing so they didn't bother me, and I didn’t care.

Despite the new system, the start was on time and off we went at 9 am on the East Drive. The start was smooth because people around me were running at similar pace, but I had to squeeze in between two guys as we approached the uphill before the Boat House Curve. Going up a steep hill early wasn't really my thing, but I was able to maintain the speed at 7-minute pace as I tackled the most difficult part of the race.

My pace went down to around 6:30 outside the Met, and the field started to spread out -- the sub-6 runners began to drift away from me, but I was able to maintain my focus and hold the runners behind me. As we entered the Lebow straight, I began to pick up the speed and got my pace down to 6:00.

I wasn’t in perfect shape and I began to look down at the asphalt... I wasn’t sure what I was thinking at the time, I just tried not to do anything drastic – to speed up or slow down. I just wanted to maintain the form and hopefully I could carry myself back to the 72ndTransverse.

We cut across the 102nd Transverse and began to make the return trip on the West Side. There were two rolling hills that we had to tackle but they didn't bother me. And after 86th Street it was pretty much all downhill and I was able to pick up some speed again.

Before we entered the 72nd Transverse we had to deal with the hairpin, and the entry was very tight. Thankfully there were only two people around me at the time and we were able to stay on our racing lines. Though, I didn’t have much left in the final 200 meters, I picked it up a bit to pass those two runners and crossed the final line.

My finish time was 25:34 at 6:23 pace/mile (4th as a member of the New York Flyers -- my first race for them,) and my previous best was 27:41 at the Holiday 4-Mile back in December. A 2:07 PR was pretty good within 4 months, but now I have to go back to long distance races as my next race is the Brooklyn Half on May 3rd.

Stats
Overall Place: 169/5865
NYF Team Place: 4/72
Finish Time: 25:34
Pace/Mile: 6:23 (PR)

1,650 Yards and 33 Laps: The Stars and Stripes Aquathlon Qualifying

My plan to compete in an aquathlon last year shattered when the Manhattan Island Foundation canceled the Freedom Tower Aquathlon in September. It was a good thing though, as I had two surgeries on my left arm back in April and I probably didn't have the arm strength to swim a mile in open water anyway. As a matter of fact, my football injuries affected my running as well since I had no upper body strength for long distance. The Staten Island Half and the NYC Marathon were good examples.

There is only one aquathlon this year from MIF -- the Stars & Stripes Aquathlon on July 13th. It's a 1.5k swim/5k run in the Hudson and at the Hudson/Riverside Parks. As I'm steering my way towards a triathlon, this is a good opportunity for me to get some open water experience and the swim-run transitions. Since I've been a competitive swimmer all my life (only in a pool), the learning curve wouldn't be too great for me.

So what's the big deal Mr. Clorox?

I was unprepared, and I needed to swim a mile in a pool under 45 minutes in order to qualify for the aquathlon. Like I said I'm not a distance swimmer and I had never swam a 1500m before (I'm more like a 100m breastroker) so it was something new to me. Moreover, I wasn't able to access a large pool because the pool at NYSC was more like a hot tub (a 15-yd pool) I had to find out how to approach the qualifying in advance and tried to minimize any anxiety before the big swim.

I returned to Asphalt Green, the place where I used to go to when I lived on the Upper East Side, to get my qualifying done. They have an Olympic size pool (50m) there, but since I'm not a member I could only access the 25-yard as a drop-in. And the drop-in fee... $35!

367 days after my elbow surgeries and 1 day after my gum surgery, I went to AG on April 15th to qualify. With softball starting next week and several NYRR races on the horizon, I just couldn't delay this anymore. I wanted to get this over with.

Both of my arms were still sore from spending way too long in the batting cage and doing infield practice at the park on Saturday, and the discomfort from my gum surgery a day before really didn't help. As a matter of fact, I refused to take any painkillers/controlled substances to minimize the pain, so I had this giant headache after a long day of work and I felt really odd. But then, I was determined to get this over with and nothing could stop me.

Qualifying I could handle, I just hated to deal with all the paperwork and the drop-in fee! I went to AG and the front entrance dude told me about the fee, and I was like "Whatever, just get me in." So he gave me an armband to wear as a non-member and I was like "You're not serious, right?" The truth is, he just messed up my aerodynamics with that thing flopping around but he said, "It's the policy." Fine.

I hadn't been to Asphalt Green for more than 4 years and sure it changed a lot, but one thing didn't change -- the locker room. It was messy with water all over the place and it really smelled like a toilet! Towel service? Forget it. But wait, I just paid $35!

But I didn't care. I just wanted to have the paper signed that was my goal, so I went straight to the lifeguard desk. By the grace of god they had a very nice guard supervisor there and he told me he could witness my qualifying, it was easy! Of course I wasn't there just to qualify, I wanted to swim as fast as I could to evaluate my LD performance. I brought along my Speedo Stars & Stripes cap, my Speed Sockets and my Fastskin Jammers, and I wasn't about to fool around in the pool.

And there I started. The first 6 laps I swam like "normal" -- like sprinting for a 200m, but then it dawned on me that I had to swim 27 laps more… and I promptly forced myself to slow down. I was doing 4 strokes per breathe at first, and I had to switch back to two, in which I wasn't accustomed to do normally.

As the qualifying worn on, my left arm started to hurt because my metal plate in it didn't want to cooperate; my right oblique hurt because I had am oblique injury back in March. The middle of the qualifying was actually the toughest part but I was able to go through that.

And all of the sudden a dude wanted to share my lane and asked me if I we could do circles. There were only 2 people on the lane just get in and stop asking questions you amateur! I finally yelled at him as I was finishing my lap "I can’t stop, I'm qualifying here!" That actually woke me up as I began to finish the final 5 laps for the 1,650-yard swim.

Unofficially my time was about 35 minutes -- still a little off in an aquathlon standard but I had to make 65 turns and to deal with people on the lane. I went to Patrick the Lifeguard and he provided me everything I needed, then I asked him if he really checked my time and he said he had been checking from the chair. Congratulations Patrick, you did your job!

And I bumped into Ohio State alum and swimmer Dan Sullivan. He was playing with his water polo team at Asphalt Green and we got to do some chit chat before I walked out of the pool. Congrats on the new born Sully!

With no towel service, I had to trek back to NYSC to get a shower. Overall it was a cool and unique experience, and I look forward to swimming in the Hudson on July 13th. And don’t you worry I refuse to swim in the East River! Time to get back to the land and have my training run before Sunday's adidas Run for the Parks 4M.