In the movie Top Hat, Fred Astaire sang "Isn't it a lovely day to be caught in the rain." Mind you that he was standing underneath a gazebo with Ginger Rogers. Not running a 4-mile race.

Weather be damned, I ran in the adidas Run for the Parks on Sunday morning. And I achieved a new personal record! 41 minutes and 32 seconds - a 10:23 mile per minute pace. This is nearly 2 minutes faster from the 43:19 that I posted two weeks ago.

I'm glad that I participated in the race, especially since I wasn't sure if I was going to. The downpours on Saturday were torrential and the forecast said that they would continue on Sunday morning. So I waited to see what the weather would be up to. When I woke up, the rain had nearly stopped and it was just misting. Good enough, I thought. I packed up and made my way over to Central Park. When I got to the park at 9 it started raining again. I ducked inside my office building to use the restroom and wait out the rain. When it let up, I made my way over to the start area, near the bandshell. There the rain was continuing but it was light. Ten minutes before the start, the rain nearly stopped. And then two minutes before the start, here it came in torrents! But hey, I was already there, might as well run, right?

I joined around 3600 other hardcore runners, speeding through Central Park in the middle of a rainstorm. I'm told that this particular race usually draws around 10,000 people. I can't blame the vast majority for staying home but also thought it was cool that so many still decided to participate. Even though the rain made for a pretty miserable run (dodging and weaving through all sorts of puddles), I'm pleased that I ran almost two minutes faster than last time. Of course, rain is a good motivator to speed up and get out of there.

After the race, there was little socializing to do. Just get out of the rain and back onto the subway where a hot shower, change of clothes and a big lunch awaited me.

Sorry blog readers of mine. You come here expecting to read what I've been up to yet all you see are those same pictures of me crossing the finish line. What I've been up to mostly has been work. It's going REALLY well and I'm REALLY enjoying what I'm doing and I have some REALLY interesting stories but alas, I can't really talk about it in this venue. But e-mail me sometime and I'll fill you in!

Have another race on Sunday morning. It might rain though. Booo.

Photos of me crossing the finish line at Sunday's race!

(Never mind the clock that says 49 minutes - as I said, it was a long time until I was able to get to the starting line!)

Happy Passover!

I am currently blogging from my parent's house where the first night's Seder is due to begin shortly. And then tomorrow night, my aunt in New Jersey is doing the second night's Seder. So much eating to do!

And speaking of eating, I must blog about a very unique restaurant that my family went to last Saturday night to celebrate my dad's birthday. It is called Marchi's. Located on East 31 Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue, it has been in existance for 80 years. It is in the lower level of a brownstone and there is no sign outside indicating that it's a restaurant. Once you are seated there is no menu. Instead, there is one huge dinner consisting of five courses that will be served to you. This set meal has not changed over 80 years.

First course : Platters of antipasto... celery, melon, radishes, Genoa salami, and a Lorenzo salad consisting of tuna, olives, capers, chopped celery, parsley and red cabbage

Second course : Lasagne with a special sauce concocted by the Marchi family

Third course : Deep fried fish with string beans and cold beets (The beets is the only thing I didn't eat)

Fourth course : Roast chicken, slices of roast veal, fresh mushrooms and tossed salad (Actually, I didn't eat the mushrooms either)

Fifth course : Dessert - a bowl of fruit, lemon fritter and "Crostoli", crisp deep fried twists with powdered sugar

Plus coffee or tea. Bread is included but they do not serve butter because that would detract from your appetite. And then there is the option of purchasing wine.

Mmm. So that is what I ate on Saturday night and subsequently burned off during the race on Sunday.

First of all, happy birthday to my dad!

Second of all, I made my New York Road Runners racing debut this morning! It was the Thomas G. Labrecque Classic and proceeds from the race went toward lung cancer research. Going into the race I had very low expectations for several reasons : first race, never ran 4 miles at a time before, hadn't run AT ALL in several weeks, getting over a stomach flu. And despite all of that, I not only finished the race but experienced a run that was far more comfortable than any of my practices. My final time was 43 minutes and 19 seconds - a 10:49 minute per mile pace. I am very happy about that!

When I arrived at Central Park this morning, it was cold. I wore a t-shirt underneath a sweatshirt and was planning on taking the sweatshirt off prior to the race, but it was way too cold for that. Most of the other runners seemed to be bundled up pretty good as well. When I arrived at the registration area, I heard someone say my name. I turned around and it was a former classmate of mine from Vassar. She was also running in her first race, her reason being that her roommate is involved with the lung cancer charity and basically forced her to. So I pinned my race number to my sweatshirt, attached the scoring chip to my shoe and was ready to go.

I lined up at the 11-minute per mile marker and it was crowded. They announced that 7000 people were running. The website later said that 5368 people finished the race. Lots of no-shows or were lots of people unable to finish? Anyway five minutes passed between the blowing of the horn and the time that my group was able to get to the starting line. And from there, we were off! The first mile seemed to be endless. Part of it was uphill but besides that, it seemed to be excessively long. I later saw NYFlyGirl and she told me that the mile markers were in the wrong places, so the first mile seemed longer than the second. The second mile was more fun because it involved turning a bend. When I got to the second mile marker, I raised my arms in victory which elicited some laughs from the people nearby. Each mile marker had a water station so I took advantage of the H2O. Those were the only times I stopped during the race - to drink - which surprised me because I had to often stop and walk during my practices. I think that all in all it was easier because I was running alongside thousands of other people. That made it motivating to keep on going and more fun than practicing alone. Finally, I arrived at the finish line. Victory! Well, not "victory"... that went to an Ethiopian guy who ran the 4 miles in 19 minutes. But I finished and felt good doing so. Which, I consider to be a huge victory.

Next race - two weeks - the Adidas Run for the Parks!

Remember when I said yesterday that it was nice to have a bullpen that could pitch a 1-2-3 ninth inning?

Never mind.

I started my new job today and lived to tell the tale! It's actually the first time that I've ever worked in Manhattan and that in and of itself is very exciting. All in all, it was a good first day and I think things are going to work out fine. And I now have my very own Blackberry!

Mets won yesterday which means they are in first place and undefeated. (I'll enjoy it while I can!) Furthermore, it is very nice to finally have a closer who is capable of pitching a 1-2-3 ninth inning. After the heart attack inducers that were John Franco, Armando Benitez and Braden Looper, all I can say is welcome to the team, Billy Wagner!

The song going through my head right now is Peter Gabriel's "Big Time." That was the theme song for last night's WrestleMania 22 and the annual WrestleMania party that I host was a big success. Briar came from Maryland, Gans came from Boston and Bartow came from Long Island. The original nVo was joined by Gans' cousin Andy and a great time was had in my new apartment, watching on my new TV. As per tradition, enormous quantities of Chinese food and cake were consumed.

The company has since departed and thoughts turn to the new baseball season. As promised, here are my picks!

NL East
1- Braves (because they ALWAYS come in first)
2- Mets (wild card - laugh all you want, T.A.B.)
3- Phillies
4- Nationals
5- Marlins

NL Central
1- Cardinals
2- Astros
3- Brewers
4- Cubs
5- Pirates
6- Reds

NL West
1- Dodgers
2- Padres
3- D-Backs
4- Rockies
5- Giants (Barry Bonds distraction will wreck them)

AL East
1- Yankees (because they ALWAYS come in first)
2- Blue Jays
3- Red Sox
4- Orioles
5- Devil Rays

AL Central
1- White Sox
2- Twins
3- Indians
4- Tigers
5- Royals

AL West
1- Angels
2- A's (wild card)
3- Mariners
4- Rangers

Playoffs
Cardinals d. Mets
Braves d. Dodgers
White Sox d. A's
Yankees d. Angels

Cardinals d. Braves
White Sox d. Yankees

White Sox d. Cardinals (Back to Back World Series titles?)