New Team, New Blog

I have left Team for Kids and joined a new team, here is the link to my new blog:

Race with Purpose

My Interview with Ian Benardo from American Idol

I ran into this guy near Union Square in December of 2005. He recognized me from MySpace and knew I was involved in making the show Highly Questionable. He was the first person to ever recognize me on the street from the show, so when he asked to be interviewed I was happy to accommodate him. It was kind of a strange coincidence that I just so happened to have the HQ mike and camera with me at the time. To add to the weirdness, an NYU film student and his girlfriend were hanging around at the time, so I was able to get him to work the camera. I interviewed a few other people before finally finishing up with Ian. We made the Love episode and put it online on Valentine's Day of 2006, but Ian didn't make the final cut.

Last night I watched American Idol, and at the end saw Ian on the previews for tonight's show. So I scrambled to find the tape on the off chance that he might be featured prominently. I knew he was an interesting character and would likely speak his mind to the judges, and he didn't disappoint. So I edited the video together and threw it up online on YouTube and MySpace to see if people trying to find video of him might stumble upon it. Here it is. Note that the opinions expressed by Mr. Benardo are not shared by the Highly Questionable producers (we both love our parents very much).

The Manhattan Half Marathon: A Race Inconveniently Too Cold for Al Gore

Fat lot of good all those much ballyhooed CFC's and greenhouse gases did yesterday. This is from the New York Road Runners Club website's race report:

Weather: 21°F, fair, 32% hum., wind chill 14°F

Not sure what is "fair" about 14 degrees, but I suppose we all had to run in the same weather, so I guess I can't complain too much.

The night before I didn't have a good dinner, I had some jalapeno poppers while watching basketball at a bar called Rumors on 8th Avenue between 55th and 56th. Then I went to hang out with my friend Farrah and watched 3 episodes of "Dexter" on Showtime on Demand. It is an amazing show, starring Michael C. Hall from "Six Feet Under". Definitely check it out if you haven't already. I think it is actually going "off demand" on January 23rd (they tend to run for limited intervals), perhaps the DVD will be released soon.

After the "Dexter" mini marathon of mayhem I headed toward the subway, stopping at Japas 55 which was right around the corner to perform a couple of songs. I did "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line", did a good job as usual. Somebody was celebrating a birthday so I scored a piece of cake. Not sure if that would help me the next day or not. Got home at a fairly reasonable hour, 11:30, asleep by midnight.

Woke up at 7:30 and headed over to meet my friend KC to give her race number to her. That is a good way to guarantee that you will actually roll out of bed and attend the race, to impose upon yourself an obligation to show up such as delivering a race number and timing chip to your friend and teammate. I also had KC call me at 7:30 as a failsafe. So I showed up and met her outside the Met and we headed to the start.

My attire was running shorts with long running pants over them, running socks with normal cotton socks over them, my grey technical shirt that they gave us when we registered for the 2006 ING NYC Marathon, with my Team for Kids singlet over that, and a fleece top over all of that, which I intended to take off for the race, but wound up wearing because it was so damn cold. I had on new high tech earmuffs given to me by my nephew Charlie for Christmas and a hat. Finally I had a mismatched pair of gloves, well one black marathon glove and one blue sock. That's right, I emulated the fashion of many homeless people here in the city, and had a sock on my right hand (the left hand had to go on the glove because that's the hand I use to grab water with, so I needed the fingers on that side).

I ate a chocolate Gu before the race, which was better than nothing, and certainly better than the honey bun fiasco (see earlier post). I started out fast, weaving in and out of traffic. I did the 2nd mile in 7:00, which is very fast because that mile includes Harlem Hill, the toughest one in the park. After that I maintained about a 7:15 pace until Mile 10, at which point the wheels came off. :-(

Prior to that, around Mile 6, a girl with a pink hat was running near me and I got in front of her and used her to maintain my pace. This is a good method to use to make sure you don't lose your concentration, as I am prone to doing on occasion. It is easy to accidentally slow down if your mind wanders. So I pick somebody that is going a good pace, get in front of them, and if they start passing me or if I hear their footsteps getting closer, I know to speed up a bit. So pink hat girl was behind me until Mile 10, at which point she scooted by me. I was starting to get fatigued, so I let her go. I kept my eye on her until mile 11.5 or so at which point I couldn't see her anymore. It was then that Jack & Philip from my team passed me (I had passed them earlier). Around mile 12 (90th street), KC passed me, asked me how I was doing, I told her I wasn't feeling it and she should go on without me.

Mile 12 was pretty rough, that is the 2nd toughest hill in the park, Cat Hill. I felt like slowing down and walking up it, but I pushed myself to keep running, albeit at a slow rate. When I got to the top there was a water stop, and I did grab a water and walk as I drank it, so that gave me a bit of a respite. Then I started up again and tried to speed up and finish strong which I was able to do. When I hit th 13 mile mark, the clock read 1:39:00, so I decided to try and speed up and beat 1:40, which would just entail doing the last 0.1 in less than 60 seconds. My time was 1:39:52, so it took me 52 seconds to go 192.5 yards or 577.5 feet, or .109375 miles, for a pace of 7:55 minutes per mile. It felt like I was going pretty fast, and that is really not that fast for me, which goes to show how bad I was doing at that point.

After the race I stopped at the school on 103rd street between 5th and Madison where NYRR gives out the awards and free hot chocolate for the rest of us. I saw pink hat girl and commended her on her great race. We talked a bit about football (her pink hat had the 'C' logo for the Bears) and marathons and I emailed her info on Team for Kids and a link to this blog, so perhaps she'll read about herself here. So thanks to you again pink hat girl, and good luck to Da Bears in the Super Bowl!

Today I was pretty sore, especially in my calves, but I'll recuperate in a day or two. So overall it was a kind of humbling experience. I always thought I could roll out of bed and run a half marathon without really training, and I guess I did to some extent, but I did not perform anywhere near my potential. But now that I'm back in the swing of things, I'll keep improving and do better next time! :o)

New York Half Marathon

This Sunday there will be a half marathon held in New York's Central Park, and I will be running in it. I have only run 3 times since December 22nd - 1.57 miles, 7 miles and 1 mile. :-( Pretty sad.

The "I Have a Dream" Speech

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

How to Become Speedy

Some people have asked me how I have become so fast, knowing that I started out, umm, not so fast. They had heard that my marathon times have improved dramatically since my first one, here they are:

San Diego Rock n Roll June 2001: 4:53:40 (11:12 pace)
ING NYC Marathon November 2004: 4:41:20 (10:44)
ING NYC Marathon November 2005: 3:57:34 (9:04)
San Diego Rock n Roll June 2006: 3:38:15 (8:19)
ING NYC Marathon November 2006: 3:26:17 (7:52)

So I thought I would share some tips based on what I think made me get faster.

1. Join a running team

The most dramatic improvement was between 2004 and 2005, and the change came about because I joined the New York Road Runners Foundation Team for Kids. I had joined to get into the marathon (I had lost the lottery), and I wasn't certain if I would go to all the practices, but once I started attending them I was hooked. If you're like me and have trouble motivating yourself, your teammates inspire you to roll out of bed in the morning or leave work on time in the evenings to show up for the group runs.

That is nothing new, the idea that training more will increase your running ability. In addition, you can take advantage of your team's diversity to increase your speed. With a running team, especially a big one like Team for Kids, you have all different runners of different abilities. You will have people slower than you, people the same speed as you, and most importantly, people a little bit faster than you. As the 2005 season progressed I kept my eye on people that were a little bit faster than me and as I got into better shape I challenged myself to try and keep up with them. I would pick people I admired from afar, people I knew had done several marathons with good times, and would aspire to join them for a run sometime and see if I could keep up with them. I would just join their group during one of the shorter weekday practices (it's not a good idea to try and make a move up in pace on one of the long weekend runs in excess of 10 miles I figured). I remember one key run when I ran with Mark & Spencer & Eugene & others in the 9:00 pace group, it was a Tuesday or Thursday night, and I think we did 5 miles at a bit below an 8 minute pace. I pushed myself harder than I had ever done before, but I managed to keep up, and I stayed at or close to their level (when I was healthy) for the rest of the training season.

2. Speed work

Interval training or speed work once a week is key to getting faster. Again it is always good to run with your teammates (see Step 1). This year the guys and I in the 8:00 pace group would always race each other during the speed workouts and I have no doubt that helped us all get faster by for the marathon. Scott, Spencer, Pete, Greg, Erik, Nathan, Rich, Jeffrey & I were there week in and week out at the Tuesday night speed workouts, racing one another up and down the park drive between 72nd and 102nd streets, and we all had similar impressive marathon times between 3:17 and 3:28 or so.

Speed work involves running fast for short distances, doing several repetitions during a workout. For example we would would often run fast from 90th street up to 102nd street (about 0.7 miles) and then jog around to cool off, yet keep moving, for 2 - 3 minutes, and then run back to 90th Street at a fast pace. We would repeat the back and forth between 3 to 5 times. Ideally you should run your last interval as quickly as the first one (I never did, I always tried to "win" the first couple and would be gassed at the end - don't imitate me in that regard).

3. Compete in Races

When most people talk about getting faster, they mean recording faster race times. And like any other activity you might engage in, if you want to improve at it, the best thing is to actually get out and do it. Practices on your own and with your teammates (see Step 1) are all well and good, but they are not races. The only way to get good at races is to actually sign up and do them. I run a lot of the smaller NYRR races that are held nearly every week and I think they are quite helpful toward increasing your speed. There is nothing like the presence of other competitors to motivate you to run faster.

Ultimately though, the beauty of running is you don't have to beat other people, you really only need to improve upon your own times. So your goal at each race should be to PR (set a personal record). An exception would be if you are doing the race as part of your training program for a bigger race, such as the 18 Mile Marathon Tune Up held by the NYRR 6 weeks before the marathon every year. Otherwise you should go in conscious of what your PR for that distance is and try and beat it. If you've never run that distance, figure what a good time goal is based on your paces for races of similar distances and give yourself a goal. Then come up with a plan on how to beat it. I like to give myself round numbers as goals, such as a 1:30 half (beat it in October), a 20 minute 5K (missed it by 6 seconds in November), and a 40 minute 10K (beat it in December). But again it all depends on your ability, so your goal may be a 5 hour marathon, or a one hour 10K, or a 2 hour half. Just set the bar a little bit out of your reach so you'll have to work for it.

I hope this helps. If anybody has any additional ideas, feel free to post a comment.

You Guys are Great!

Great job everyone! Donations are pouring in!

Here's the 2nd marathon preview again!

Here's the 1st one!

Finally, here's the link to donate!!
Last name Kelly, Entrant 72936

You all rock!!

Final Day to Order DVD & Another Preview Video

Here is a 2nd (out of the 4 on the DVD) marathon video, I apologize about the quality, but again it is compressed to be viewed on the web. The quality on the DVD is excellent. With the DVD you will get this video plus the 3 other ones set to cool songs, all the footage being of you (maybe) and your teammates (definitely) running the 2006 ING New York City Marathon with Lance & Shannon Miller. Someday long into the future your kids or grandkids may doubt grandma or grandpa (you) when you say you competed in the NYC Marathon with the 7 Time Tour de France winner. They may even conclude that you are suffering from delusions and use that as an excuse to have you committed to a nursing home involuntarily. Buy your DVD and keep it as proof! Do you know what they do to old people in those places? Better safe than sorry.
You will also get several other videos - approximately 50 minutes of content all together. Oh just buy the damn thing already. You've never spent $30 drinking during an evening? What did you have to show for it afterwards? A bad hangover. I used to routinely bet $30 and even more than that on a single hand of blackjack. Do you know how long a single hand of blackjack lasts? Under a minute. $30 is less than half of what Nathan Miller tips each of the 14 doormen and maintenance guys in his building for Christmas every year. How many $30 toys did you buy for your kids this Christmas that they have already stopped playing with and WILL NEVER TOUCH AGAIN? I am so sick of you people. Buy the video or I will hunt down all 960 of you who have not yet bought it and MAKE you buy it. Do you think I'm joking? I'm going to start at the top of the alphabet and work my way down. So Abbie Bookman, if you haven't gotten your video by midnight tomorrow night, don't be surprised when your doorbell rings at 12:01 and I am standing there with a machete and a DVD. Do I sound like I'm kidding? Try me.

Please make your fully tax-deductible donation on behalf of last name Kelly, Entrant 72936!
Donate $30 for Mary-lynn Kelly here! Now! Last chance!

Did I mention the money goes to kids? Free shipping? Enhanced probability of entering Heaven or your religion's equivalent thereof upon your death?

Click below to see 2nd marathon preview video
Preview video # 2 and final one

Thanks in advance to those who donated or will donate soon! The rest of you I'll deal with later.