Jinglebell run

I ran the jinglebell run today. The idea of running in a race with jinglebells tied to my shoelaces sounded really fun. Actually running the race was torturous, especially when the road seemed to be going uphill a lot, and everyone seemed to be ahead of you the whole way. All the graduate students wore long-sleeve t-shirts that say:

Grad students are like penguins….
We’re always cold and hungry and we look funny when we’re running.

Which I disagree because several runners from our team won top placings in their age groups. I think, I may be one of few true penguins in the group. As for my goal of running the 5K in 35 minutes or less (hahaha) maybe next year. I ran/walked this race in 40 minutes and 2 seconds. It’s still a personal best

bak kut teh

Mei came over for dinner this evening. When I asked her what she would like to eat, she said, “Bak kut teh,” so that’s what I made. I also microwave-steamed some frozen brussel sprouts with garlic oil and oyster sauce. Both of us had a good time polishing off the whole pot of bak kut teh. Then we each had 2 servings of Diet Pepsi Chocolate cake with cool whip topping, while watching a dvd.

Today I decided to go back to the 13-week walk/run program and followed week 9-session 1 schedule, which is run 10 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 20 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 15 minutes, walk 1 minute, run 10 minutes….58 minutes altogether. Temperature 13C.

The temperature is slowly dropping outside and my room is now constantly at 18C or lower. And because heat costs money, I’m holding off turning on the heater till sometime in November and even then it’ll be set at the lowest setting. So from now till April, I’ll be suffering from a condition called chronic CHF (cold hands and feet), but I do get some temporary relief when I’m in my office, where it’s toasty and warm.

On Monday, I sent the Passat to Klein’s auto polyclinic (everything-also-can-fix garage). I’m back to the good old car-less days…till Thursday when I’ll be $200 poorer It’s either that or keep getting in the car through the passenger side and climbing over to the driver seat. Oh well…

I’ve decided that 15C temperature is the best temperature to run in. Yesterday, I got home early and went out for a run. This time I ran 10 mins, walked 1 min and repeated that 4 times. I’m amazed I could do that. Once upon a time, I couldn’t even run continuously for two minutes. Jingle Bell Run, here I come!

Five-front

This December, there’s a 5K run taking place in Bethlehem. It’s called the Jingle Bell Run and it’s a charity walk/run for the Arthritis Foundation. All runners and walkers will tie little bells on their shoe-laces, and that itself is enough to motivate me to start “training” again. Last year, some graduate students here formed a team and I think on the whole, that team did quite well in the run. However, the temperature is slowly dropping around here and I’m not sure I’m prepared to run in the cold.

Since the Komen Race in NYC, I haven’t been following the Walk/Run program at all. I still go for the runs quite regularly, but not as often as I should and I rarely push myself to go faster or for a longer duration. Today I followed this routine..run 5min: walk 1 min and repeated that seven times. And the temperature was 9C at 5.30pm. I wonder if I could run the 5K in under 30 minutes if I really tried….maybe not, I think I’ll aim for a more realistic target of 35 minutes.

Now that I have the bicycle, I’ll ride to the running track, run/walk, and then ride back…quite fun actually. But I have yet to learn how to shift gears properly, so sometimes when I’m halfway up this tiny hill, it’s already too late and the gears won’t shift at all and I’ll have to push the bicycle

This picture was taken at the beginning of summer. The corn “plants” have now turned brown and dry and the corn is still on the plant! Seems like such a waste, at one time the corn all looked so fresh, green and juicy. If the plants are still there the next time I go for my run, I’ll take a picture of the sad-looking crop.

Komen Race finish line

At last 41:42 mins and 5K (3.1 mile) later I’m finally at the finish line. The clock says a different time but amateur runners were let out about 5 minutes later than elite runners. And the fastest female runner completed the race in about 18minutes! It took me about 15minutes to reach the 1st mile marker

Komen Race getting tough

This was a difficult stretch. I didn’t see the Mile 2 marker and kept looking for it and the second mile seem to last forever. What I didn’t know was that I’ve already passed the second mile marker and the Mile 3 marker is round the corner.

Komen Race manhattan

The runners/walkers are thinning out. Here is probabably halfway through the course. And I’ve stopped to walk twice

Komen Race entering Central Park

I am just entering Central Park after running along 8th Ave. Managed to run continuously so far. The 1 mile marker is ahead.

Komen Race starting line

At last the big day arrives, after several months of some “training,” the 2006 Komen NYC Race for the Cure is here. Here’s the timeline of today’s events.

5am – wake up time
5.50am – start drive to Newark, New Jersey
7.10am – arrive in Newark
7.30am – finally found an open parking garage ($9)(after getting a little lost and encountering several parking garage that’s not yet opened)
7.35am – Newark Penn Station in NJ Transit train to New York ($6.25 round trip)
7.55am – New York Penn station
8.13am – Subway C (8th Ave local) train to Central Park ($2 one way)
8.30am – Central Park (get t-shirt and bib-lucky number-17677), place bag at baggage claim
9.20am – Starting line along 8th Ave at the American Museum of Natural History
9.25am- Race starts for amateur runners
(41min:42sec later) – finally reach finish line (personal best since this is my very first 5k race)
10:10-12pm – Hang around the expo trying to get as many freebies as I could
12pm – Penang Restaurant Midtown Manhattan
1pm – Subway C back to Penn Station ($2)
1.14pm – NJ Transit train back to Newark
1.50pm – start drive back to Bethlehem
3.10pm – back in Bethlehem

I’ve finally registered to participate in the Komen New York City Race for the Cure on September 10, 2006 in Central Park. I have my own page where people can go to and support me by making their donations to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

But I still can’t run 5K continuously yet. The past 3 weeks has been really tough…heat waves, thunderstorms in the evenings, and the particularly tough “week 6″ of the 13-week run/walk program. Week 6 starts of with “run 5 minutes, walk 1 minute and repeat 8 times”, I tried that once but I could only manage to do 3 repetitions. And I’ve slacked off ever since that day.

I’m not really going to push myself to run continuously during the Race. I’ll just do what I can manage, hopefully I’ll continue to train during the coming 4 weeks.

Don’t forget to support me in the Race!