2007 ING NYC Marathon

So, I finished Marathon Qualifiers 8 and 9 and did the Inaugural NYC Half-Marathon for good measure, so I'm qualified for the 2007 ING NYC Marathon. When the registration for the marathon opened up, I registered and instantly got in:



The only problem is that I'm not running regularly and I've gained a bunch of weight since last year. I signed up for the NYRR interactive trainer and punched in my goals. My goal is really only to finish the damn thing, but if I can beat Oprah Winfrey's time, I'll feel a whole lot better about myself. I think her time is 4 hours 29 minutes.

I told the interactive training web site, my PR for a 5K, my weight, height, and activity level and then I told it I want to finish the marathon in 4 hours 20 minutes and it calculated my Effort Indexed Units (EIU™). What is Effort Indexed Units?

Effort Indexed Units (EIU™) is an innovative new unit of measurement for running. The trademark formula, which is exclusive to NYRR Trainer, computes the relative exertion of running workouts and races.

EIU™ uses a complex mathematical formula to calculate the relative exertion, on a 100 point scale, of any running exercise based on an athlete’s personal record for a given distance. EIU™ allows an athlete to gauge the intensity of their workout in addition to an absolute value such as distance. Using EIU™ as a training indicator eliminates the inaccuracy of “junk miles” and allows an athlete or coach to determine training volume far more effectively than a simple sum of distance ran.

Try entering your PR’s and workouts to see how powerful EIU™ is in practice. The EIU™ value represents how much you exerted yourself relative to a theoretical maximum of 100 EIU™ (or 100% effort) derived from your personal record over a similar distance.

What was my EIU when I punched in all my data? 101%!!! I have to exert more effort than I can humanly exert to beat Oprah!! This is not good, people. This is a wakeup call. And, I think I can get myself into the realistic territory before June when I need to really start working.

The other thing I read on the interactive trainer is that people do better when they announce their goals publicly. This was obviously the case for me early last year. I was riding high on the success of my running. What happened? I blame some pumpkin pie and a minor injury in my back, but it doesn't really matter. Success is a state of mind. If you are determined to succeed, you will, but if you lose focus, you'll fail. I'm determined to finish this marathon without hurting myself and I'm going to do that.

How? I don't know yet, exactly. But, in the meantime, I'm going to post my progress here, publicly, so I can't cheat myself.

In case you're wondering how I did on my last three races, here's the official results from the NYRR site. At some point, I may post my impressions from those races, but probably not. I did pretty awful on all three. The NYC Half-Marathon as a race course WAS pretty fucking cool, so I may take you back there at some point, but not today.

NYC Half-Marathon Presented by Nike
August 27, 2006
Gun Time: 2:59:44
Chip Time: 2:51:32
Pace: 13:05
Overall Place: 10,158 / 10,294
Gender Place: 5,299 / 5,330
Age Place: 2,193 / 2,194 (AWFUL!!!)

Run for Central Park 4M
July 22, 2006
Gun Time: 44:09
Chip Time: 39:52
Pace: 9:58
Overall Place: 2,797 / 3,846
Gender Place: 1,611 / 1,931
Age Place: 654 / 770

WABC Fight/Prostate Cancer 5M
June 18, 2006
Gun Time: 54:57
Chip Time: 51:26
Pace: 10:17!!! :-(
Overall Place: 3,513 / 4,539
Gender Place: 2,467 / 2,885
Age Place: 954 / 1,060

Model Rockets in DC

I'm just wondering... Is it legal to launch a model rocket in Washington, DC? They're sorta harmless when launched with care, but there's just something about projectiles in DC that doesn't seem right. I mean, launching a rocket on the Mall would be so cool, but I just feel like you'd be arrested before the rocket reached the ground.

Just wondering...

I live in DC. Yeah, but where?

I guess I have a lot of catching up to do here, but I just had a quick rant. As you may or may not know, I moved to DC from NJ. There's this annoying habit of people who live in the DC Metro area that makes things difficult. When people ask me where I live, I naturally say "I live in DC". Apparently, this isn't specific enough because they always say "Yeah, but where?" I'm thinking that they have some great familiarity with all the neighborhoods in DC, so I proceed to tell them that I live in Adams Morgan north of Kalorama Park between Columbia Road and 19th Street. Amazingly, they have no idea what I'm talking about and just respond "OH, you live in DC!" I guess saying you live in DC can mean Rockville, MD or Vienna, VA or even 30 miles out by Dulles Airport.

I know it's not just me because I went to see a movie preview the other night and the director of the movie was there afterwards to answer questions and someone asked him how he likes DC, but we were in Maryland.

Maybe I'm being selfish wanting DC all to myself or something, but it just bothers me that I have to clarify DC by saying "No, Really, IN DC". Maybe it's that nobody in their right mind lives IN DC??

I just think about NYC, and I know that if someone lived in Hoboken, NJ they wouldn't say they lived in NYC.