Random Thoughts on a Friday Evening

The pending stormy weather cut short a trip to Maine, so find myself unexpectedly back in Brooklyn on New Year's Day (hence all the posts). So let's clear out some backlog:

-- First off, apologies for the lack of stuff over the last couple of months (and even when I did post, I concede, they were kind of blah). Work, family and running will always take precedent toward the blog, which impacts the posts ... but even this was kind of strange. And part of it was, after running a fall marathon, I definitely fell into the post-marathon yucks.

What helped? Honestly, while I was away over the holidays, I did a couple of runs that were, well, different. This included a run from "work" to "home" that included some bounding across some highways (not advised) as part of the strategy to simply "head in one direction and then figure out where to go when I got there." And it was a blast. After being so focused on a goal, I needed to, simply put, not be. Running is fun. Never forget that.

So, I'm back. (Yippee!). And one thing I decided is to try to expand the blog a tiny bit more. So, while I'll be focused a lot on running, you might see some tangents (bars, pizza, etc.) that relate to "the running life", but aren't always apparent. (OK, I'll concede, I'm also dealing with some pizza blahs -- that'll be fixed quickly, I think).

-- Wanted to say thanks to "Meredith" who sent me a note thanking me for the blog. The point of doing this is to help folk run in Brooklyn. So will continue to try to do this.

-- The NYT had a great article the other day about my favorite running bridge that gets no respect (Manhattan, of course).

-- How many miles did you run in 2009? And what's your goal for 2010? I crested 1,000 (I think), after a bunch of injuries curtailed me. Hills Are My Friends hit 1860. *UPDATE - I ran 1,120 miles, with a top month of 183 in October (and a low month of 4, in April).*

-- "Results" are here from the NYRR Midnight Run in Central Park - basically a fun run except for those trying to win it. There were 4,465 runners.

-- One Runners World went to Rockefeller State Park yesterday - a worthwhile trip, it seems.

-- The NYRR Web site is devoid of information about this year's indoor track meets at the Armory. However, the Armory has this info about the races ... The first one is Thursday, January 7, and probably features the mile, 800 meters and the 2 mile. Cost is $15 a night (up from $10 last year)