Nothing says Happy Birthday like new underwear!*
*the events detailed here occured back in June, 2006

That's what you're looking at to the left here. In addition to the fancy boxers, Aurora also gave me a pair of running shorts and a running shirt. I presented myself with the Under Armour black boxer jock . We'll come back to the picture in a moment.

The running shorts, shirt and boxer jock are made of polyester now a days; moisture wicking material they call it. My memory of polyester is of my little league baseball uniform. That thing was made of polyester, and there were no moisture wicking properties to those little league uniforms. On the contrary that thing was like your wearing your own Easy Bake Oven. A few hours in the hot sun and a kid could easily bake himself a few dozen brownies.

So I put on all my new gear, feeling every bit the runner, and head out for a run with Aurora. As we jog through Prospect Park, Aurora asks me periodically what I think of my new shorts and shirt. The shorts are shorts, and I don't notice a big difference. The shirt is great because it doesn't soak up sweat like a cotton shirt.

The UnderArmour boxer jock, is a whole other story. The point of wearing this particular item is three fold: keep your upper leg muscles warm, hold your private bits in place, and prevent your thighs from chaffing. My muscles were warm, the private bits weren't moving around and my thighs didn't chafe, but I was feeling a little discomfort, chaffing if you will, in a very personal area. I believe the correct anatomical name is Perineum. As the run went on, the chaffing became almost intolerable.

I tell Aurora that the shorts and shirt she gave me for my b-day are super, but I'm gonna melt down these stupid compression shorts, cause they are causing a great deal of irritation in an uncomfortable spot.

We finish the run and are back at our apartment. I have taken off the shorts and the shirt and am only wearing my UnderArmour boxer jock. I'm about to take these off too, when Aurora comes up behind me and says, "Jim, what are you wearing?" I reply, "this stupid UnderArmour boxer jock!". She says, "What's all this stuff in the back here?" while grabbing at my posterior. "Oh my God! Are you wearing your underwear backwards?"

I looked down, at the front of my compression shorts and there was no "fly" like you'd see on traditional shorts. Take another look at that picture above and then look at these:














I stripped them off, turned them around, and sure enough, I just ran four miles with my
underwear on backwards. D'OH!!!

Disgusted with myself, I jumped in the shower to clean up. I can hear Aurora laughing even with the door close and the water running. Then I step in the shower. Have you ever had hot water hit chafed skin? Let me tell it feels like being touched with a red hot poker. YEEEOWWW!!!!

How does a relatively well educated, not crazy person do this? Well, if you look at both shorts side by side, they both have a label on the outside of the waistband. Only, the Polo boxer shorts have the label on the front and the Under Armour shorts have the label on the back.

So what's the moral of the story? Training for a marathon is not easy. It's harder when you put your clothes on backwards, so put your clothes on right way round and you'll find it's much easier to run.

The Marathon is now one week away. You can bet that I'll be wearing my shorts the right way round come marathon Sunday, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

-JP

MARATHON ANXIETY PART ONE

I've had this dream a few times in the last month. Here it is:

I'm in Central Park I've run the 26 miles, I can see the finish line, I hear the crowds, I'm tired, legs tired, but I can make it. I can make it, the finish line is just few hundred feet away. And I STOP.

I look around, there are people yelling, saying "you're almost there, keep going!" I take a deep breath, bend over at the waist, stretch. I watch other runners go past. Then I sit down and remove my shoe that has the timing chip. I look at the shoe, stand up. Then I throw my shoe across the finish line.

I then walk off the course and disappear in the crowd.

Any of you amateur dream interpreters/Freudians out there who have an opinion on this let me know.

Staten Island Half Marathon October 15, 2006

Staten Island Half Marathon

These brave folks rose early in the morning to take a taxi, several subways and the Staten Island Ferry to run 13.1 miles just for the heck of it.

This picture was taken before the race, don't they look happy?

Wait there's more





Eric a.k.a Flash : Super hero or super runner? Hmm. You be the judge.






Piya is truly having a good time. Look at that smile!










Anne looks very pleased too:






Notes on the Race:

All of us started running together, but Flash took off with a "I'll see you guys at the finish."
As we started the first mile, I had the feeling that I might have to go, but I dismissed it as nerves. That feeling didn't go away, I still had to go. I saw a bunch of runners by the wayside taking care of business. I still can't bring myself to do that. Plus there was an announcement before the race saying that anyone caught urinating in public would be disqualified from the race and BANNED from the New York City Marathon. I've worked too hard to be disqualified for urinating in public. Plus what would my parents say?

At mile one there was a porta potty with only a few people in line. I told Anne and Piya I'd catch up with them later and stopped to use the facility. It felt like an eternity waiting. By the time I got out the whole of the race had passed me by! Not a soul! No one. Maybe a walker or two, but really talk about feeling alone. I figure I spent 8 minutes waiting on line to go. So take my time and subtract 8 minutes and I did pretty well, shoot even if you figure just 5 minutes.

After that I did something stupid and ran pretty hard to catch up with Anne and Piya. I did catch up with them, but it cost me. By the time I got to mile 12, I had nothing left! Ok, I had a little bit left:

You know what's next...

JUST BECAUSE:

October 15, 2006

Staten Island Half Marathon

NYRR Grand Prix: Staten Island List by Name: j purvis Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers Date/Time: Oct. 15, 2006, 9:40 am Location: Staten Island, NYC Weather: 44 deg., 63% hum., wind 3 mph Search Results Wheelchair Finishers Award Winners Statistics Click any blue heading to sort the list. AG = Age Graded.

Last Name

First Name

Sex/ Age

Bib

Team

City

State

Overall Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Finish Time

Net Time

Pace/ Mile

AG Time

AG Gender Place

AG %

PURVIS

JIM

M37

7218

LEUK

BROOKLYN

NY

3177

2033

783

2:22:40

2:19:25

10:38

2:16:54

2092

43.2 %

Notes: So what does the above mean? For comparison here are my results from the Nike Half Marathon:

NYC Half-Marathon Presented by NIKE
List by Name: j purvis

Distance: 13.1 Miles, 21.1 Kilometers
Date/Time: August 27, 2006, 7:00 am
Location: Central Park to Battery Park, NYC
Weather: 67 deg., 76% hum., wind E 8 mph.

Click any blue heading to sort the list. AG = Age Graded.

Last Name

First Name

Sex/ Age

Bib

Team

City

State

Overall Place

Gender Place

Age Place

Finish Time

Net Time

Pace/ Mile

AG Time

AG Gender Place

AG %

PURVIS

JAMES

M37

8806

LEUK

BROOKLYN

NY

9296

5057

2123

2:35:20

2:28:38

11:20

2:25:57

5150

40.5 %

More on this race coming this week. Plus pictures!

-JP

Workout Summary October12, 2006

Distance : 3 miles

Time: 30 minutes

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=488556

Notes: Woke up at 6:00am to the sound of garbage trucks and some honking a horn. Was wide awake and couldn't go back to sleep. Took a look outside, not raining, so I thought lets take a little a jog.

First mile I had tightness in my left "hammy." I heard one of the coaches say that the other day, her "hammy" was hurting. Just didn't sound right. Any way my left hamstring muscle was feeling tight. It loosened up a little bit on the run and more so when I stretched.

Left knee is getting that IT band pain. Wearing a strap and that seems to help. Stretching and ice helps the most. We'll see how the half marathon goes on Sunday.

Work out Summary October 10, 2006

Location: Central Park

Mileage: 5 miles

Time: 49 minutes (that's just under 10 minutes per mile!)

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=488571

Notes: The workout tonight: run marathon pace from Bethesda Fountain to 102nd up the west side. Turn around and do half marathon pace from 102 back down the west side and around the lower loop of Central Park.

Oddly enough I was the only Brooklyn person at the practice. Hmm. A lot of the Brooklyn people are preparing for their marathons coming up, the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco and the Chicago Marathon. I hate to think about it but this experience is coming to an end.

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE AND WHY ARE THEY FOLLOWING ME?

TRIP TO THE TRAILS- THE LAST BIG RUN (20 MILES) BEFORE THE MARATHON



October 7, 2006


These are the fearless and slightly chilled Team in Training New York City Marathon participants. I've never seen so much goose pimpled skin in one place; it was quite disturbing. But there we were, gathered in New Jersey in Johnson Park getting our mettle together for a 20 mile run. No, that is not a typo, TWENTY MILES of running.

My morning started a little before 6:00am.

Here I am leaving my building to meet my fellow Brooklyn teammates. As you can see I am bright eyed and bushytailed. You can see the garbage has not been picked up and the building could use a new coat of paint.

BROOKLYN IN THE HOUSE:

For some strange reason, I agreed to meet at Prospect Park. But the thing is, there were only three of us from Brooklyn heading to New Jersey for the run. Two of us, Piya (here on the left) and I live about a one block away from each other. So why Piya and agreed to meet Anne (she was driving) at Prospect Park (several blocks away) is a mystery to me.

The run was pretty simple; run ten miles out and turn around. The trail cut through the New Jersey country side. At times we were running next to a canal complete with fishermen. Other times the trail cut through the Blair Witch Project setting. Pretty, but potentially creepy.

A great bonding experience: running twenty miles together takes a long time. So in order to pass the time we regaled each other with tall tales, college hi-jinks, work, you know life stuff. None of which I would ever repeat. The trails are like Vegas, "what happens on the trails stays on the trails."

NEW JERSEY WILD LIFE: New Jersey is filled with wild life. Like Bambi here. Bambi and his brood were out in force that afternoon. We saw a lot of deer on the trail (ok I saw five, that's more deer than I've seen in the past three years). A few butterflys, a squirrel or two. But the most exciting moment of the day came around the 12 miles into the run. Piya looked down and saw this brown snake. Piya almost stepped on it. I didn't quite register that it was a snake at first.

The thought that went through my head: oh look at that oddly shaped stick moving across the trail. It didn't quite dawn on me that sticks don't move; I chalk that up to my laser like focus on my running.

Anne however had a different reaction entirely. Her's was more like this:

Anne took off like Olympic sprinter when she saw that snake. I didn't think Piya and I were gonna catch up to her. But when we did, we all had a good laugh.

And the good times didn't stop there.

The topic turned to dance specifically this one:


Ok, that's embarrassing enough, but to try and do this while you're running? Ok, little bit more embarrassing. Totally humiliation is having Coach Ramon see you trying to do the Macarena while running.

After that, the run was pretty much the same: trees, canal, fisherman, creepy twin joggers, flowers, dirt, rocks. When we made it back to the starting point, most of the team was there, enjoying bagels, chips, water, Gatorade, pretzels. They hooped and hollered as we came running in.

Not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

-JP

October 3, 2006

Workout Summary

Mileage: 5 miles

Time: 49minutes

Route: Three Lower loops—1.7153 miles on roads
Start on East Drive at the 72nd Street Transverse (point 5) and head west across the transverse. Turn left/south on West Drive (point 4), passing Tavern on the Green on your right. Continue around the south end of the park to your starting point.

Notes: This was a team run with simple instructions: run this like a race. Surprisingly there were very few Brooklyn people at practice tonight. So few that I thought I missed a memo or something. The run was fine, it was very warm out and dark. The last loop I was huffing and puffing, not gasping but I turned it on and still had some left when i finished.

-Jim

October 2, 2006

Workout Summary

Mileage: 10

Time: 1:48

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=472317

Notes: Do you ever get that feeling that something just isn't right? I got it this morning. I had the strangest feeling that overnight, Manhattan and New Jersey had disappeared. Not in an apocalyptic way, more in, a "we're tired and we deserve a vacation so we're going to Boca for a few days," kind of way.

I had that running through my head as I got ready for my morning run. It was still dark out. I started running down Third Avenue. As I started to get warmed up, I thought, I'll just take a look and see if the Brooklyn Bridge is still there. Yep it was still there. So I thought, maybe I'll just take a quick run across and make sure that Manhattan on the other side of the bridge isn't a mirage. I got to the other side and found that Manhattan had not left for Boca.

Since I was already in Manhattan a little after seven in the morning and still feeling good, I thought, lets take a run over to the west side and see if New Jersey is still there.

I can't really confirm that New Jersey was there, I mean it looked like it was there, but I didn't actually set foot on it. As far as I know it's still there, but I know a lot of people who reside in New Jersey and I didn't hear from them all day yesterday. Coincidence?

Why the big run on a Monday? A couple of reasons: 1) Didn't get a run in over the weekend, more on the weekend later, let me just tell you it involved me, a suit, a tie, and Long Island. Nuff said. 2) Decided to take the offensive and fight off "a case of the Mondays." 3) There is no reason number three. 4) When I got out there, it just felt right. 5) I wanted to see the sun come up as I ran across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Have a great week!

-JP