Friday, June 26, 2009

A Day To Remember

Wow, what a day! I am happy and sad, exhiliarated and exhausted, anxious and nostalgic, and filled with a hundred emotions that I don’t quite know how to explain…

The day began with some exciting news. Now although I have mentioned this to only a select few before today, I decide to make my big announcement here because most of my close friends already know, and outside of them, my bloggy pals are my closest buddies anyway, and anyone who isn’t a close friend or doesn’t read my blog, well then, they really DON’T need to know. But, after endless hours spent with realtors, lawyers, mortage consultants, and the like over the past several months, yours truly closed on a spanking new condominium today. Wahoo! Although the process was long, and I’ve signed so many legal documents this morning that I felt as if I was signing my life away, I’m proud to say that I’m finally a new homeowner! It’s very exciting, but a bit anxiety provoking at the same time. It’s a two-bedroom condo on the top floor of a medium size building out in Queens with a balcony and a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline. I’ll write more about the new place once I’m a bit more settled, but suffice it to say that although I’ll be moving out of the city and away from Central Park, it’s definitely an upgrade from my tiny studio on the Upper East Side where I’ve been living for more than 6 years. And in case anybody is worrying about my running, Flushing Meadow Park is less than two blocks away from my new home, which means that marathon training will continue as scheduled even after I move out of the city sometime next week.

Speaking of marathon training, I arrived back home in the late afternoon and decided to head to the park for an easy tempo run. Since I’m in base building mode and not racing anymore, I figured it’d be good to reacquaint my legs to doing tempo runs in the middle of the week again. During the racing season the past two months, I had skipped out on way too many of these because I figured my weekend races would substitute for speed training and my time would be better spent running midweek long runs at a slower pace. Just to get back into the swing, I gave myself an easy task of running just 4 tempo miles under 6:32 pace after a warmup loop around the reservoir. Maybe it was because of the great weather today (75 degrees with 70% humidity and a cool late afternoon breeze), maybe it was because of the great news from the morning, but I had a truly glorious tempo run in the park today. My mile splits for each of the four miles was 6:14, 6:16, 6:14, and 6:16 and I ended my tempo run running my best four mile time (25:22; 6:15 average) ever outside of a race. The weird thing was that during the last half mile coming down the home stretch, I told myself NOT to push hard, but just keep the pace as steady as possible. Wow! Considering my 5 mile race pace four days ago was 6:14, busting out a 4 mile tempo run one second slower (without even trying so hard) was quite unexpected. Just for reference, my previous best for 4 mile tempo run on the same course was 25:50(or 6:21 average pace) during marathon training last year. Needless to say, I’m tickled by the prospect of what pace I could actually sustain for 4 miles when I am at the peak of training…

Finally, feeling generally happy but a bit tired after my run, I came home to the shocking news that one of music’s biggest icons, Michael Jackson, had inexplicably suffered cardiac arrest and passed away. Wow. Although I know he was a bit psychologically unstable towards the end of his career and had been accused of some nasty things, the fact remains that he was a brilliant singer/performer and for a period of time while I was growing up, was the biggest pop star in the music industry. I am saddened by the news because I feel as if he never really got the respect he deserved. He was so many things to so many people all around the world that I don’t think the world today can truly appreciate the significance of his contributions back in the day. C’mon, Thriller, Moonwalk, Billie Jean…they are so iconic and typified music and culture in the late 80’s. I can’t help feel that with his passing, a bit of my youth also died with him today. R.I.P. MJ, you will be missed!

20 comments:

Lindsay said...

congrats on closing! signing all those papers isn't too fun, especially when you realize what you are doing to your finances :) a new place, all of your own, is exciting though. hope you settle into your new running routes quickly.

nice job on the tempo - a good confidence-building run is so helpful once in awhile. i hope you are now shutting-up about some of your previous runs :) the improvement from last year is huge! always nice to see.

have fun moving!

Anonymous said...

A big congrats on the condo. It sounds like a wonderful place. You'll definitely have to share more about how things go once you settle in. Oh and very cool about having another park to run in.

Awesome job on the tempo run. I am sure you'll be fitting them in a little more.

B.o.B. said...

Yay! Congrats to you new homeowner. Thanks for helping stimulate the economy. Those of us in real estate (ahem) appreciate it.

Well done on your run!

AND great tribue to Michael. He was an ICON.

Susan said...

Congrats on the condo! I'm sure it will be nice to have a place to call your own, and a definite upgrade from a studio! I hope you settle into the new place and find some good running routes. Sounds like you've got a nice view too. :)

Yay for a confidence-boosting tempo run...see what a little rest can do??

Jamie said...

congrats on becoming a homeowner! all the papers you need to sign does feel a bit like signing your life over to the real estate gods :) but it is all so exciting! enjoy your new place and can't wait to hear more about it!

great job on the tempo run too!

nice tribute to MJ. He did have some issues but was a genius musically.

J said...

Congrats on the new place! that tempo run sounds like it was really great! Its fun when the run just goes to smoothly but its fast and it feels great! I knew you still had it!

Running and living said...

Congrats on the condo. I still remember signing those papers with shaking hands. It's a great time to buy, though! Awesome news about the tempo. I guess your legs are already responding to a little rest. Ana-Maria

Aron said...

congrats again on the big condo news!!! i know signing all those papers is scary, exciting, nervewrecking but sounds like you have a great new place on your hands!! finding new running routes will be fun too i am sure :)

awesome job on the tempo!!! i know the first one of the season can be a little scary, at least to me it is! which is why i havent done it yet :) i dont think my legs know how to run fast anymore hehe. but you did great! sounds like an awesome way to kick off training!

Anonymous said...

Congrats! Home ownership is exciting, terrifying, wonderful, expensive, crazy and awesome!

speaking of awesome-- way to nail the tempo-- unexpected speediness is the absolute best. So good for the psyche!

Vava said...

Congrats on the condo, and nice tempo run indeed! I'll reserve judgement on your note that MJ "inexplicably" died yesterday until the coroner's findings are released. I suspect that this will be, in the end, sad and sadly explicable. The poor guys put his body through so much over the past 25 years, and what he must have ingested to deal with the pain from all those surgeries must have ravaged his innerds. Based on some of the recent footage, he could barely stand on his own.

Felice Devine said...

Congratulations!!! That's great news! I lived in a teeny-tiny UES apt for years, too, and I loved it. But, at some point, I needed more space. I hope you enjoy yours!

Chic Runner said...

Congrats on the new place lam! Now does this mean you get to plan new running routes?! How exciting! I wish CA wasn't so expensive.

Nice job on the quick run too. I'm glad it went well for you, because sometimes those can help a lot. Have fun moving and redecorating!

Robert James Reese said...

Congrats on the condo. That's exciting news. And, the tempo run sounds like it was a lot of fun -- not to mention a sign that your running is improving. Nice.

X-Country2 said...

Congrats on the new digs. Sounds like quite the upgrade.

C said...

Congrats on the condo!

{will run for margaritas} said...

I'm new to your blog - but CONGRATS on the new condo - that's awesome!

I'm looking forward to reading more! Happy Running! :)

http://willrunformargaritas.blogspot.com/

Michelle said...

Congrats on the awesome news!

I am excited for you Lam!!!

Irish Cream said...

OH MY GOSH! I am just getting caught up on everyone's blogs now--and CONGRATS!!! :) That is such great news, Lam! Yay for you! :)

Also, great job on the tempo run! You're rockin' it all over the place!

runner26 said...

in case anyone is worrying about your running?!?? That cracked me up ;) Congrats on the new condo!

sRod said...

Still getting caught up...

You did what??

You're now in my borough?!

Congrats on the new place. Are you in Forest Hills? Gosh, I love that area. When do you move in?

Such fantastic news!

 
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