undecided

De La Vega pen on mattress outside my house.

Matt and I went to Brooklyn twice on Saturday — first to run over the Brooklyn Bridge (which nearly turned me into a popsicle) and second to see The National. The show was great, and I haven’t stopped listening to them since. Thanks, Kelly, for giving us the tickets rather than resorting to black-market commerce!

Elle took me to see (a slimmer) howie day at joe’s pub tonight. Nobody broke any phones and britney wasn’t there, but the whole night I felt like I was participating in or transported to my college life (but with better beer, better food, and better seats). The show was great, but short — a nice balance of the classics and new stuff. I’m still a sucker for the live fusion of acoustic and electronic music in the ghost->beams of light transition. It’s hard to believe it’s been seven or eight years since the first time we saw him. Thanks Elle!

The thermals played at studio b last night. My ears are still ringing.

Here’s what the campus looked like when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited.

In college, my friend tony decided he was going to run his age in miles as a birthday present to himself. I thought it was such a great idea that I ran part of the way with him for support. That year, I adopted the idea for myself and started running my age on my birthday as well (for years 19 to 21).

Over a couple of beers this week, I jokingly suggested to matt — who shares my birthday — that we should reinstate the one mile per year policy. He bluffed back, and by the end of the night we had agreed to spend the morning of our birthday circumnavigating the island of Manhattan.

The high-stakes bluffing continued through the “are we really going to do this?” birthday-morning phone call, and before either one of us could back down, we set out on our marathon-plus journey.

Our running tour took us by the George Washington Bridge, Yankee Stadium, the UN, the Brooklyn Bridge, Battery Park and through almost every neighborhood in the borough. Around mile 20, storm clouds rolled in and nearly eclipsed the Statue of Liberty. Moments later we were caught in a cold, drenching rain. For a few minutes, we discussed abandoning the run, but we decided that the pride in finishing the last eight miles was worth the temporary discomfort. So we trudged back up the west side with cold water squishing between our toes.

The whole run felt like an adventure, and I’m so glad we did it. Thanks and happy birthday matt!

Unfortunately, there’s no photographic evidence for any of this so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Here’s the (approximate) route:

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There’s no better way to feel intense pride in something you have absolutely nothing to do with than college football. Check out the shirt elle got me to wear while I watched Tashard Choice run laps around South Bend.

NYC - Ivy League Championship, July 22

I’d been looking forward to the NYC triathlon all year, and it was worth the wait. I can’t begin to express how much fun it was to race with nearly every triathlete I know in the area on my home course. Sleeping in your own bed the night before a race and knowing exactly how long or steep each hill is around the bend helps so much. Apparently the rest of the team felt the same way. CU did extremely well, winning the overall race with five of the top 10 finishers! I came in ninth overall in the Ivy League championship and sixth in my age group with a time of 2:14:52, but there wasn’t much time to celebrate. Immediately after the race, I hopped on a plane to Alaska. A special thanks to elle and kelly for waking up early to come watch. If you’re interested, mike wrote a great summary of the race too [click here].

Mighty Montauk, June 9

Racing six days after Alcatraz probably wasn’t the best idea. Nonetheless, matt, pratap and I rode the train (during rush hour with our bikes) out to Long Island for the Mighty Montauk triathlon. I felt uncomfortable the entire race since my body was still covered in open wounds from the previous race, I had to ride on a borrowed bike, and it was cold and raining the whole time. The discomfort continued all the way through the soaked train ride back to the city. The real highlight of the trip was hearing Jenny Thompson, a fellow CU Tri member and decorated Olympian, earnestly exclaim, “Ooh, I want a medal!” upon hearing that they were passing out trinkets to the race finishers.

Escape from Alcatraz, June 3

I “lottery-ed in” to the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon, a race where participants swim from Alcatraz to the shore, ride through Golden Gate Park, then run along Baker Beach (including the 400 step sand ladder). Since the race was my mom’s suggestion, my parents came to watch and spent the weekend cruising around SF with me.

My only (irrational) concern about the race was running into large aquatic life during the swim since the week before the race there were humpback whales in the Sacramento River and recently seals had been biting swimmers in the bay; however, the current proved to be a more formidable opponent. I spent a fair portion of the swim trying not to drown and thought the race would be uneventful once I landed on the shore. Unfortunately, I had a bad bike crash (that ripped a lot of skin and my rear derailleur off) with three miles to go. I pushed my bike back to the transition area and ran the course to finish the race. Despite the setback, I had a great time (especially with my family), and I’d love to do the race again next year if I can get in. Oh, and how awesome is it that my race number was 187?!

I’ve worked on music research with mike and marios for years now, but since we have such disparate taste, we’ve never all been to a concert together… until tonight. We went to see The Flight of the Conchords, “New Zeland’s fourth most popular folk-parody duo.”

After only just finding out about the show today, we turned up at the venue without tickets and were welcomed by the “SOLD OUT” billboard. Undetered, we proceeded to the box office where we were informed that there were two tickets left. After a few minutes pleading with the salesperson, making various financial offers, and finally discussing which two of us should go in, they let us all in… for free!

We got in just in time to hear “Business Time,” a song that has sustained an uncountable number of inside jokes for my friends and me over the past few months. (Who plays their most popular song at the beginning of the set?) The show was hillarious - we belly laughed the whole time. My only regret was that they didn’t play the “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros” gangster rap battle, but for the price I can’t reasonably complain.

You can watch the first episode of their new hbo series here.