The flame will burn in my heart forever

China, I love you and I will miss you.

You were not anything like what I always heard about.

I love your people and your food and your pandas and your Great Wall and your historical Forbidden City and your guys at the park who played me 5on5 hoops and your security guards who cheered for my training laps and the NINE salespeople who helped me buy a pair of Li Ning jet-black running shoes just before the mall closed at 5 before Closing Ceremony and the waitress who cut my meat strips for me at the Korean BBQ and all the people at the Silk Market who wanted to trade pins with me (I only have one now that it's all over).



I love your air to breathe and I trained seven times in it and I love your architecture that is unlike anything I ever have seen before and I love your imagination that showed in a Closing Ceremony that blew my mind when the acrobats swarmed that tower like locusts running upward into the heavens and I love the way the upper rim of the Bird's Nest showed every day of this past fortnight and the way you made me break down in tears standing right there when that happened, because every one of those days I lived it and breathed it, and I loved your CCTV and watching it in my hotel even though I could not possibly understand one word of what you were saying.



Zhongguo, CHAYO! Now I understand what that means. It was shouted by every Chinese fan at every event. China is represented in your beautiful character lettering with two characters side-by-side. The first one, a rectangle with a line down the center, means "IN THE MIDDLE." The second one means "NATIONAL". Literally, it means you are the nation in the middle of the world -- the thinking when that was created epochs ago. Finally, it is correct again.



I love your thousands of volunteers, many of whom walk around just holding hands, just amazing to see 8 or 9 teenage girls all holding hands walking in their blue and khaki uniforms, best buddies always, and how they smile all the time and tried to answer your questions and always asked you questions, especially where you are from and what New York is like, even going so far as to show you how that city is spelled in Chinese character letting. I love your lettering, the motion of the font, and I love when you have small breakthroughs and understand something new in what the characters are expressing. It is nothing like your own alphabet, you realize.

I loved the Men's Marathon. My vantage point was at the tunnel entering the Bird's Nest. I wanted to be right there cheering them into the place before they heard the crowd once inside. Here are two photos below that I took of Brian Sell heading down into the tunnel. (I flew back from Beijing with his sister, who was wearing Brooks courtesy of her brother's Brooks deal, and it was great to spend time with her and hear all the details of what went into Brian's journey, including 180-mile weeks.) You can see how they just followed the blue line for the course.





I love that you have a Monster Cat everywhere in the country. Its name is Hou, the original Monster Cat, seen all over Forbidden City and points beyond. Hou guards hotels, business establishments, restaurants, everything. That's my nickname on the Big Cats national running team, so it was cool to see another Monster Cat.



I love knowing that the world just opened up to you and you to it, and although governments will step in and there will be threatening politics as usual, I love that no matter what everyone will remember these two weeks and for many young people it will be the basis on which they view the world, as nations all connected as one with the ability to reach out through the Internet and touch someone, not some distant feared land of marauders who are always wrong because your way of life is always right.



I love that I had a real, honest-to-God 48-hour birthday while I was here. My friend Maura first emailed me at 12 a.m. Beijing time as the clock struck August 23 in this country, and then I heard a lot of birthday wishes during the course of "my" 24-hour window in China. During that day I worked the medal games in baseball, I got to speak with IOC president Jacques Rogge, the man who just handed off the Games to London tonight, and between games I ran 35 laps for a 10-miler on an Olympic venue and in just 1:21. Then something amazing happened after the usual shutdown of a birthday at the following midnight. I started getting emails and texts from America. From my sons back in Missouri. From friends here and elsewhere. This went on for another full 24 hours, until my friend Jen emailed me about 40 seconds before midnight of my "States" birthday. That was exactly 48 hours from that first email to the last one, and in between I truly celebrated my birthday the entire time, my right to choose, and I chose to have a 48-hour birthday.

On the left in this photo below that I had to find on the Internet is my new friend Paulina Boenisz of Poland. I met her on the way out of the Closing Ceremony. She was sitting on the ground, not wanting to leave. Me either. I went up to her and what kind of shoes those were and she said, "Asics" -- pronouncing it "OSS-ics." I asked her what event she was in here and she said women's 3000 meter running in modern pentathlon. I told her I was training for NYC Marathon. She was having a great time. There are a lot of Paulinas on the Poland team but I found her so I linked here to her bio.



I love that I was around Russian athletes everywhere, from the Great Wall to Customs at the airport. The first picture below is me with the woman from the Russian team who I kept passing for two weeks around the Games. Finally, I decide to introduce myself. This is a picture after Closing Ceremony, outside the Bird's Nest as all the athletes were heading for buses back to the village and then to scatter around the world. Behind us is the Water Cube, where Michael Phelps won 8 golds.



And in this picture, I am surrounded by the Russian athletes at Customs at Beijing Capital International Airport. They were on their way to an Aeroflot voyage home.



Beijing, China, I love you. I am so happy I got to come here. It was heaven for me and all I wanted to do was try to share the experience. I have left a lot of new friends behind like Zhou Yuan, one of the thousands of volunteers at the Summer Olympics, who taught me more about Mandarin language on the bus ride back from the Men's Marathon than I learned in 2 weeks. I taught her a lot about America, and how to pronounce "economy." We laughed the whole ride.



China, you rock -- and Jimmy Page just proved it.

Beijing Birthday Blog

That is what I looked like on my Birthday in Beijing.

Gold, silver and bronze had just been handed out moments earlier to Korea, Cuba and USA baseball teams. I had to see what it felt like. One of the Korean players had left the bouquet behind, so it's one of those you see on NBC all the time. Here is up-close of what a silver medal looks like, as I took a pic of it while talking to Pedro Luis Lazo, who has four medals now.

I wanted to get my picture taken on the podium because I set another PR on an Olympic venue again before the gold medal baseball game today, and because I was was celebrating what proved to be a truly memorable birthday. I ran 35 laps around Field 3, and at 3.5 laps per mile that equates to an Olympic 10-Miler. I started at 4:39 exactly according to the two security guards below and my watch, and I finished at exactly 6 because that was start time of Korea vs. Cuba. I ran it in 1:21, 15 minutes faster than my Colon Cancer 15K (9.3 miles) time, so I am destroying PRs at this point, largely because I am running on the world's fastest/flattest surface -- perfect warning track clay of a Major League-caliber baseball field. I had run 47 laps (Olympic Half Marathon) three days earlier, in 1:56, and Half PR had been 2:12.

I feel incredibly good in my seven training runs here in Beijing. I am going to be so ready for the New York City Marathon on November 2. I have to get back to some reality of hills when I return Tuesday to Upper West Side and Central Park. But I at least did the Great Wall hill repeats so hey, bring it on! I have to again say what B.S. the media show about Beijing air pollution was...it filled time more than smog filled air. If that's because Beijing citizens aren't driving as much, because factories shut down, because of those rockets blasted up into the atmosphere that break up the water crystals above the clouds...whatever the reason...I don't ever remember having better air to breathe for marathon training. I didn't even use my Breathe Right Strip for the 47 laps (Half). I used it for the 35 (10-Miler).

More pictures...and be sure to see new Giant Panda video added in previous post!

One of my 35 laps in the second run. It takes 3.5 laps around the field to make a mile.



Friends always...my two buddies who are security guards for Field 3 at the Wukesong Sports Complex. They would cheer me on, count down the final laps, bring over bottles of water. They were like the best raceday volunteers ever -- always with a huge smile on their faces. Afterwards we all tried to get the pronunciation of each other's names down-pat. I have gradually learned quite a bit about Mandarin and the meaning of characters in Chinese lettering. It would take a long, long time to become fluent.





High light towers...pitching mound dirt from Petco Park in San Diego...soil conditioner brought in from a (literally) slow boat to China from America...and so on. What a field.



One World One Dream...





After putting iceback from dugout onto my right knee, I snapped this shot and then headed over to Field 1 and changed back into my clothes (in "medal" picture above) to work the Korea-Cuba game.

Giant Pandas and Silk Suits

Baby let me be,
Your lovin teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck,
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
(Oh let me be)
Your teddy bear.

Welcome to the world of the teddy bear. Once again, I walked out of a place in China saying to myself: "I can't believe I just saw that."

Today was our second rest day during the Olympic baseball competition, before the semifinals are played on Friday between Korea-Japan and Cuba-USA and then the medal games on Saturday. Sunday is men's marathon and Closing Ceremony, and Monday I fly home to NYC.

This was a true pleasure. I love these Giant Pandas so much it is goofy. They just make you LAUGH. I probably was giggling 100 times and local couples and their children would look at this American laughing and then they would laugh. All these pandas do is tumble around, roll onto their back with a big bamboo shoot and munch on it laying on their backs, then kind of wobble around, find a comfy position and snooze for a while. They like to lay back and have their bellies rubbed. They like to see what other pandas are up to.

On a constant-rain day, I jumped into a taxi, went to Wukesong to retrieve a laptop power pack I left behind last night, and then taxi'd to Beijing Zoo. Here is how you get to the Palace of the Pandas:



Then these are some of the 200-plus pictures I took. See my Photo Album for the captions on each if you'd like. My Canon A540 did OK, very reliable, but if the pics seem just a little hazy it's because of the thick glass and it's not really all that clean because of all the visitors. UNREAL VIDEOS COMING SHORTLY!



















After spending a few hours with the big teddy bears, I hailed a taxi and went to the Silk Market. It lived up to everything I heard about it. It was wall-to-wall Olympians, wearing their warmups, representing dozens and dozens of nations. It was fun to just introduce yourself to any of them and ask what sport they were in. They want to know about you, too. Everyone here wants to know something about the other person's culture. That's the Olympics.

Several guys on the U.S. Baseball Team told me you could get top-shelf suits for a little over $100. That's exactly what I did. They start at a high number and wait for you to come in low, then you barter to basically whatever you want, because no way will they let you go. It is Attack Foreign Shoppers time! You get grabbed and yanked and you hear "Change! Change!" -- which means they want to trade Olympic pins with you. I was wearing a USA Baseball pin. I traded it for a cool India pin with their flag and the 5 Olympic rings.

Anyway, the woman started at 3800 yuan (US550) for a charcoal-gray, pinstriped, double-breasted Armani. I decided my strategy would be to play brokeybroke/airhead. I start at about 600 yuan, under US100. (Exchange rate is 6.8) They make you sit down while you think...they don't want you to wander off. "Oh, I thought I brought more money with me. Sorry." Here is where they latch on like a vise. The woman actually went with me to the ATM, saying to me: "I go with you. Already have time with you. You don't break my heart." OK, we go upstairs, I withdraw some China currency (Mao is on the front of all bills of currency). We settle on 820 yuan, or $120. I have it altered downstairs, and I negotiate from 2 hours down to 1 hour. I wait around, and only 110 yuan to have some massive tailoring done, as the sleeves were too long and buttons needed re-cut/re-sewn. Absolutely perfect. I have a an awesome new suit for low 100s.





Made a lot of friends today, traded cards with the boxing coach for Sri Lanka (nice guy) and Anika of the Sweden women's handball team. She told me what floor they're staying on in the Athlete Village. Unfortunately I'm not in the Village, but will be staying in touch, as she's also a Journalist (when not practicing 20 hours a week to get here). She said this is her swan song at age 30, and they had just lost a 5-8 placement match earlier in the day to China at the National Indoor Gymnasium. Everywhere around me, the same. Belarus, met a woman from their delegation. Met some guys from the Philippines, and was shopping in the same spot as two female athletes from Romania. Who knows -- might have been gold medalists, gymnasts...you never know who you're around. There were basketball players, weightlifters, families of athletes, buses and buses that bring them here from the Village to Silk Market, where there was a story today about the massive revenue they are taking in from all the foreigners...like me.

It's been a great day. Giant RolyPoly Pandas. Armani suit. Now time to work. The New York City Marathon is not far in the distance. I look forward to getting up in the morning and going for a great training run before the 10:30 a.m. first semifinal game here. Everyone, I really appreciate your comments, it is fun to "share" this stuff...can't believe how cool Beijing is. Get here at all costs.

Summer Olympics Half Marathon in 1:56!

BEIJING, China -- Ni Hao! Something amazing just happened for a U.S. athlete at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

I won an event on an official Olympic venue, with a personal, Olympic and world record to show for it.

Yes, I did it again. I invented my own race and this one is big.

I ran a Half Marathon before tonight's USA vs. Chinese Taipei baseball game. 47 laps around Field 3, the warning track all the way around the field, which is one mile for 3.5 laps. It was arranged for me by my friend Murray who is head of field operations at the Olympics. I also BLEW AWAY my Half Marathon PR with a time of 1:56 (2:12 was best), and it was all witnessed by Murray and by three security guards who counted down every one of my final laps and kept bringing me water and by about 40 Olympic volunteers who had gathered to see what I was doing.

I can't believe this just happened!!!

I can't believe how good I felt! It was just at the end of sunlight. On Field 1, the United States baseball team (almost all future Major Leaguers) were taking batting practice before their 7 p.m. game. On Field 2, the Japan team was preparing for its 6 p.m. start. On Field 3, it was me.

The warning track is beautiful red China clay, the field is flat as a pancake, and that all added up to great conditions. I already have told you that all the air pollution scare was media hype to have something to burp about before the Games finally started. I have now had six training runs and this was my big one, with the New York City Marathon just 9 weeks away.



I started running at exactly 4:23 p.m. local Beijing time (did you know that China has only one time zone despite its massive size?). I finished at exactly 6:19. That gave me time to spare, so that I could change into my khaki shorts, Elvis T-shirt and red Crocs, and get set up in the "press tribunes" behind home plate.

Murray is the person responsible for this miracle of Wukesong, which are MLB-caliber ballfields for the Olympics. We are almost done with the preliminary round now. Friday is the semifinal round, then Saturday are the medal games. I got here at 3:30 before a 7 pm start, saw the USA team get off the bus upon arrival, asked Matt L how he was feeling after his mild concussion the night before, found out he wasn't going to play tonight, called in a few paragraphs, and then looked for a place to run since I brought my gear. Murray said I could use Field 1. It is indescribably beautiful.

I started out planning to run 10 miles. I was able to grab water bottles from the dugout coolers along the way, so I was well hydrated. I had brought one GU with me. I hadn't eaten a bite all day because I finished working at 3:45 a.m. this morning. Everything felt good. At one point I bailed off into the perfect, soft outfield grass and did 50 crunches, and as I looked up at the sky, at exactly 5:00, I got chills. Clouds were swirling above me, and I realized that these were AUSPICIOUS CLOUDS!!! You see them every day if you watch the Olympics! They are the curly designs, representing "auspicious clouds" that bring rain and good fortune to farmers through the centuries. I saw Auspicious Clouds!!!!

I did some stretching, then resumed running. Ten miles would have been 35 laps. No hills, flat as a pancake, great on the knees and Achilles, the dream running condition to me -- even in August heat.



Once I got into the 30s, I decided I wanted to do something special. I started thinking about doing 50 laps, for the 50 United States. But calculating the math in the my mind, I told myself I was going to run the first Half Marathon at the Summer Olympics. Here I am, on an official Olympics venue, inside the security checkpoint that spectators and media have to go through to get here...I was going to seize this moment and push myself.

It hardly took any pushing. I was having a blast. I was in my element. I calculated that it would require 46 laps. Indeed, I am checking my laptop calculator now and it required 45.85 laps. As I got to 7 laps remaining, each time around home plate the two security guards in blue shirts would look at me and we would show each other the number on our hands, speaking the same language in that moment. They would bring me water bottles. I would dump one on my head, wring out my shirt and keep going. I would keep two bottles, and toss one on the grass in right field and one on the grass in left field. Then each time around I could reach down and grab it, take a swig or pour it on me, then toss it back onto the grass.

I heard the roars coming from Field 2 as Japan was starting to score on host China. I was inside of five laps left, and then each one came and each one seemed so easy! This was something really new for me. Oh, for no hills ever. The last lap, I sprinted the whole way, and I acted like I was breaking tape when I got to the area behind home plate, and the security guards were cheering. I had made new friends. Then check this out! I went into one dugout and in the cooler were about 20 perfect icebags, used in the morning for Olympic athletes to ice their arms or whatever. I sat with my legs extended on the infield grass for 10 minutes, with an icepack on my right knee, just what the doctor ordered.

Here is what the dirt looks like, so you can see a perfect running surface. I took this pic of LaPorta last Friday:



Now I am working. I just wanted to tell you about that. There is no real gold medal, but I am acting like I just won one, because I just ran the Olympic Half Marathon on an official venue with witnesses and in record fashion. Most importantly, I know now that I am going to KICK...MONSTER...BUTT...at the ING New York City Marathon on November 2.

Great Wall Run

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL GREAT WALL PHOTO/VIDEO ALBUM ON FLICKR









BEIJING, China -- Sometimes you look around you and no matter how long you think about it, you cannot believe you are really in that moment of your life.

That happened to me today on a 4,000-mile structure that was built starting around 210 BC to keep invaders out of what today is the People's Republic of China.

I was on the Great Wall. I was there to run it, but for almost one hour I sat on one of the hundreds of thousands of stone steps, looking out over a gorgeous vista with a wall snaking for many miles, and I just gazed in wonder.

Sometimes I would look next to me at the earthen stones rounded by time and the one-inch crumbly mortar and try to get my arms around it. Dynasty after dynasty worked on this. Humans would live and then they would die, knowing they would pass this capability to be right here on to future generations, that one day their work would have lasting meaning and significance.

I love the Great Wall. I had such a hard time leaving it today. I knew that the last time I looked back at it, it would probably be the last time in my lifetime I would see it. This is my story of the Great Wall Run, 8/17/08.

5:15 -- Wakeup call from the front desk at the Jingmin Hotel.

5:45 -- In the back of a taxi (20 yuan) to take me to Desheng Men station, where I catch the 919 bus (12 yuan) to BaDaLing at 6:00 (first bus out) to Great Wall an hour away up in the mountains.

6:30 -- Bus is packed, I have window seat, and I notice that everything has just spilled out of my upside-down sport backpack. Hundreds of yuan, camera, taxi cards, notebook, blackberryi, ipod, hotel room key, driver's license, two bottles of water...let's see, what else. Could I possibly dump anything more on the floor of a bus and wonder if it would roll all the way to the back and I get none of it back. I can barely bend over in the tight seating with three on each side, and I am laughing while I bend down to gather everything. I think I got it all.

7:15 -- Deboard at BaDaLing. This is where Matt Lauer broadcast from on Today Show right before the Olympics. There is a two-hump camel being pulled along near the main gate. The BaDaLing stretch of the wall is supposedly not as crowded as one that is closer. I am glad I am here for when the gates open. Later in the day, the wall will be as crowded as the Verazzano Narrows Bridge at the start of the NYC Marathon. I walked through a little village that includes a Beijing 2008 Olympics archway. It is auspicious to walk under arches; you see them everywhere in Beijing. I stop in to buy extra batteries and water.

7:30 -- I see it all unfold before my eyes for the first time as I walk through the first archway entrance of stone.



7:45 -- Hill repeats. "Great Steps!" mutters a woman passing me, having to sit down. Let's be clear about this right away. This is all about steps. It is up and it is down. It is basically traversing mountains, as the wall is not all that tall, basically 20 feet or so the whole way, just following the landscape. There is no way I am going to actually run much here. I am going to try to do stairs as best I can until the crowds get thick. My right knee is not going to allow that for very long, either. Mainly this is going to be sightseeing and contemplation. I had envisioned the climbs and descents, but I also envisioned long and level straightaways where soldiers had stood watch for Mongols. There's no level except for five or 10 yards here and there around the 12 Watchtowers.

7:55 -- Having said that, my heart rate is anerobic and I am always sweating profusely. Glad I wore my running gear. This will count as some kind of crosstraining. Marveling at the panorama, the junipers, the fragrant pines, the oaks, everything that reminds you we are all connected as coinhabitants on earth with the same kind of flora and fauna. Also the graffiti. It is mesmerizing seeing Mandarin characters carved artistically by visitors over decades and maybe centuries. I am told that one person's engraving said "1940".

8:15 - Pause for notes, including some of this. I strip off my long sleeve, as I assumed being up in the mountains it might be chilly. Wasn't really, but it was good for the bus ride. I change batteries. I realize that the woman who sold me batteries for 30 yuan gave me dead batteries, repackaged. Xie-xie.

8:45 - I climb up to the Eighth Watchtower. It is the highest point in the BaDaLink section of the wall. Up at the top, I have my picture taken like everyone else, touching the stone arch design that signals a finishing point. I meet a guy named Patrick from California, a web designer here with his wife. We are sitting down and shooting the breeze about Olympic events. Here's us in a pic:



He had been to the men's 100 meter dash the night before and was telling me about the world record. I filled him in on baseball. Some people wanted their picture taken with me. This happens a lot here. It would happen all day on the wall. I apparently am fun to get your picture taken with. One man asked me to sign his arm.

9:14 -- Judgment call. See my profile pic? It is taken from close to the Eighth Watchtower. Behind me the steps go down a mile or two, and it is mostly steps, sometimes just kind of a slickish 45-degree angle and you have to hold onto the rail. I look out the battlements at what soldiers once saw. I am trying to imagine how they could spot Mongols. Nothing but trees and brush out there. Anyway, I have to decide whether to march down and then follow it as far as you can go, to the 12th Watchtower. After the 12th Watchtower, the wall is largely disintegrated with centuries, weeds growing up through the middle of it. Some parts of 4,000 miles are decayed or simply gone, turned to sand. This section is all beautifully restored where necessary. So I start going down the steps.

9:30 -- Ah, that's about far enough. I go down about 200 or 300 steps, you have to remember that however far you go at this point, you are going to have to come right back and do some serious climbing. I see a U.S. couple coming up my way from the long haul, and the man has a knee brace on, and he and her both tell me to be smart after I mention the right patella tendinitis. I listened to my body. Sat there a long time and thought about life and this creation.

9:42 -- I hear strains of Chinese music, a type of flute, played over a loudspeaker and echoing way out in the distance. It is beautiful. Silence and that music.

10:55 -- View the "Fortress".

11:30 -- "Lounge." That's what the sign says. I follow it, and there is a cold beer and stale corn chips in this skanky, pitted out area with gunk on tables and cashiers to harass you into buying things. Could have done without "Lounge." But my Yan Jing Beer was OK in that moment, because it was bing pee jo. (cold beer...bing is cold/iced)

12:00 -- Judgment call again. Back at the main BaDaLing entrance area on the wall, you can climb down to get back to the village, or you can follow the passage through and then climb another long stretch of wall. I decided to keep working out. The sun was beating down at noon, so the sweat was more profuse. I was hydrating. Now is when some really amazing things started to happen. First, these steps were unbelievable, about a 65-percent incline grade. You are basically lifting your quads straight up and pulling yourself up, one 2-foot-high step at a time. You get way, way, way up there at the top, and then suddenly you are introducing yourself to a man who has a RUSSIA warmup on. (We are pictured here.) We chatted for a while. He was here for "Track and Field" (now called "Athletics"). He said he is a former Olympic competitor, he was my age or older now. I asked him if he ever competed against the USA, and he started rattling off places in the USA he had visited. So our communication wasn't that great, but we were doing the best we could, and we shook hands, and I realized then that we both grew up in a Cold War and he was certainly a key piece of that during their athlete-building machine days. Now here we were, friends -- ONE WORLD ONE DREAM. Then I met a trio from the Estonia contingent. Then Libya. Then a quartet from Central Africa. A big man from there, older, said they were here for Boxing and Athletics. We shook hands and wished each other's countries good luck. I met some people from Brasil, with "Official" on their yellow IDs like mine. Then I met Caitlyn. She is from Dallas. She is here with her "Chinese family". She first came here on a college exchange program. We shot the breeze while we walked, and she said it was great to speak English with someone because her brain hurt from trying to speak Mandarin all the time. We had a pic taken by her Chinese family. I saw a fan with a New York Yankees shirt. He was going crazy over meeting an American, and he is the one who wanted me to sign his arm.

1:00 -- My eyes can't get enough but my knee has had enough of this. I have traversed long stretches, gotten in some crosstraining, met a lot of cool people, posed for countless pictures requested by strangers because I look different, and because I have one of those familiar yellow Olympic IDs around my neck. There is a restaurant/shop, and I stop in and sit down and have another bing pee jo, this time a good one in a bottle. I am looking up at this beautiful hand-drawn wall hanging of tigers. The waitress is trying to sell it to me, we're bartering, and then I realize I had only yuan bills, not U.S., thus not all that much $ with me. Didn't think I'd need it. Would have loved this. I got a T-shirt that a woman there hand-painted, a summer scene of the wall. She signed my name and hers, in Mandarin characters.

1:25 -- Back to the 919 bus stop. On the way, I run into a group from the Philippines. I have a Filipino-bred colleague who told me to be sure to get pics of that country at the Games, and although these are just spectators, it will do. They were a lot of fun. The girl kept flirting with me and I think one of the guys was getting jealous. They were fun. Then I boarded the 919, and it was a long trip back home and I thought about what an incredible day it was on the Great Wall of China.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL PHOTO/VIDEO ALBUM ON FLICKR

NYC Marathon Long Training Run #1

OK. Now I'm ready for China.

Today was a test of my own willpower in my ongoing evolution as a late-life running convert and I beat The Voice, that pathetic voice that says, "Just do the two loops and 11 miles." I heard that voice perhaps 40 or 50 times at Central Park this morning. I ran three loops, totaling 16 miles, in the ING New York City Marathon Long Training Run #1. It was an untimed, unscored 7 a.m. event that is run by New York Road Runners like a typical long race, complete with volunteers and with packs of pace groups, with the option of running up to 20 miles (four loops).

(Thanks to my friend nyflygirl for being one of the pace leaders, nice to meet you.)

You guys know how good that makes you feel, when you are absolutely certain that something is going to be "just good enough," and then you just go for it and refuse to give a damn about the blisters on your left foot or the searing pain in your right patella tendon or those objections raised about your business plan or jealous "lionesses" who try to tear you down or literary agents who tell you that your book manuscript is not as good as the proposal? It's all the same. There are two choices in life. Listen to that voice and "settle" on good enough. Or think like General Patton used to think: "You gotta will the body to go on! The mind will say that's good enough!"

Today was one of those days.

It was a perfectly overcast morning, humid and hot, billowing clouds forming on the Manhattan horizon and somehow holding their watery load. I rained on myself instead. During the course of my run, I must have dumped water over my head 20 times. I played "Free Bird" that many times, too. You will think I am slightly insane, a bit of a Lynyrd Skynyrd fixation perhaps, but that is how I roll. The first loop, instead of Shuffle I started with Free Bird, and then I started running Lynyrd Laps. A Lynryd Lap is when you just keep hitting Back on your Nano Red mounted to your left bicep (one still burning from Hep A and B shots; Tetanus/etc on the right), letting it play again and again as your own pace metric, knowing it's about a 10-minute song. It got me up the dreaded North Woods Hill in the upper-left corner of Central Park at the very start of the run, and it got me around the whole first lap. During subsequent laps, I would have stretches of self-doubt and each time I would go to Free Bird.

I ran the first lap (6.1 miles) with my Nathan Fuel Belt, filled with water, GU and apparently 40-pound weights, and after that lap I stopped on the 102nd Street Transverse to abandon it. I stuffed it into my new black ESPN bag in the baggage check area, and then proceeded to lap 2, feeling incredibly lighter, truly a Free Bird now. This is when you hit the three gently rolling hills proceeding south on West Drive, and during that stretch I was eager to settle for the 11 miles, just two laps. My feet were already soaked. I was starting to blister up on my left foot, on the ball of the sole and on the toe next to my big toe (poor second toe has no name, and it also has no toenail at the moment, given that the black nail caused by my April St. Louis Marathon finally fell off last week...common for marathoners). At that point, I lost the 10:30 pace group.

I was running on my own now, which was dangerous, because I do this all the time and I know that if I run by myself, I risk suddenly looking down and noticing that I am walking. "OMG a 1-degree incline! Better walk!" I hate when I do that. Today I was trying very hard to focus on my form all the time, leaning slightly forward and pumping relaxed arms. Still, how would I do with no group? Then the 11:00 pace group suddenly swarmed me from behind, and I hung with them for most of the second lap. Now it was back at the 102nd Street Transverse.

Cat Hill, I hate you. But today I beat you.

At that point there was not even a hesitation. I had run the first lap for 6 miles, and the second lap for 5 miles (the top 1 mile/hill is removed after lap 1). The third lap would be the same as the second, 5 miles, for a 16-mile run. The fourth lap, if one so chose, would be only four miles, shaving off the bottom loop at Central Park, bringing it to 20. Some runners were at that point, but my training program does not call for that yet. Plus, I have a 14-hour flight to Beijing coming Tuesday and I did not want to be paralyzed in pain with tight seating. I decided to go for that third loop, I went back to Free Bird, I put down more Gatorade Endurance Formula, another Powergel (available at 102nd), and made it happen.

It was there that I wound up running alongside a woman who was running her first marathon, with Team for Kids. That is how I began one year ago. I told her that the highlight is going to be race day itself, when being with TFK makes you feel like a VIP. Your own buses, your own tent, complete with private portapotties. I will miss that. She was up to $1900 raised out of the $2500 requirement, and I gave her some fundraising tips that worked for me. We passed the time talking for a mile, and every little bit helps. I said "Hi for third time!" to a volunteer, and kept on. Every now and then, packs of faster runners would fly past, and you would know they were on their fourth lap, heading for 20, and you were working on 16. That was just fine with me. I was in a lot of pain, my left Achilles hurting, running on blisters, right knee really tender, but I was blocking it out and refusing to give in to The Voice.

It felt good to get past Cat Hill for a third time. It felt good to get back to the Start/Finish area, to compliment other runners on a job well done. We're all there for the same reason, to find something deep within ourselves that we never knew was there before. It is an ongoing discovery, one I have been happily making since I changed my life in December 2006 and replaced KOOLS with ASICS and became a marathon runner.

I took a taxi home. I stopped and bought two bags of ice. I went into Alice's Teacup next door and got my customary buttercream-icing cake slice. I slid down into a painful icebath and lasted longer than I ever have before, this time nearly four minutes, and it felt so good to get out that you actually loved going through the pain of getting in. And I had the classic rock cranked on the TV in the living room as I relaxed, knowing today was a small victory on the way to what hopefully will be a sub-5:00 NYC Marathon and a life of Constant and Never-Ending Improvement (CANI). Tony Robbins taught me that. Thanks, Tony.

Olympics update: I fly Tuesday to Beijing, meeting the U.S. Baseball Team there, and enjoying sights and food and silk shops until the Aug. 13 baseball competition begins at Wukesong Stadium. It will last until Aug. 23. Opening Ceremonies are Aug. 8, Closing Ceremonies and Men's Marathon are Aug. 24. I depart on Aug. 25, arriving back in NYC on Aug. 26. It is going to be a tremendous adventure, and here's to great success for not only the whole U.S. contingent but also for the Beijing Games in general. Nothing beats a great Olympic fortnight. This will be the first one I am experiencing in person, and I'm ready.

I will be leaving the BlackBerry off the whole time, and my email is on the profile here. You can also follow me on Twitter @marathoner

5 Days Till Beijing Trip

MLB/Olympics Trip: The Trading Deadline is Thursday so we have been a beehive of activity with deals and rumors galore. Then my attention turns to the Summer Olympics, where I will be working throughout for MLB as baseball/softball make their last stand as an Olympic sport. Major thanks to The New York Times, which came out with an Olympics edition of Taxi Cards, available at beijingtaxicards.com. Today I eagerly accepted my own set, all 1 x 2 1/2-inch flash cards on a keyring. All you have to do is show the appropriate one to a local in China -- especially good for taxi drivers, obviously -- and you're set. Flip to Forbidden City, Beijing Zoo (pandas), Great Wall (at Simatai or Badaling), Olympic venues (including Wukesong Stadium, which will be my "office" for most of August with USA Baseball Team), etc. I am also gradually learning key Mandarin useful phrases. "Thank you" is "shay shay." "Cold beer" is "bing pee-jo." "I don't understand" is "wo-ting boo-dong." This was a very good day on that front. Thursday I see a doctor for my shots. I am pretty much good to go for non-stop flight from Newark on 8/5. Opening Ceremonies are 8/8/08 (8 is lucky in Chinese custom, which is why it starts on that date), and Closing Ceremonies/Men's Marathon are 8/24. I depart Beijing 8/25. For the second time in three days, a friend or colleague who runs marathons advised me to avoid running outside there at all costs or risk Black Lung. It is apparently that bad. This time it was someone based in Colorado who runs lots of Ultras and wins lots of events. I hate the thought of dreadmilling it for three weeks. It is not going to be pretty for Olympic runners, especially the marathoners. The big difference is that this is their be-all, end-all. They "go for the gold" no matter what, then whatever consequences are their own. Me, I am following an 18-week training program and am on a track to gradually lower the times of my first three marathons from 6:08 (plantar fasciitis/NYC) to 5:21 (St. Louis this April) to 4:45 (goal).

Marathon Training: Today I proved again to myself that you can have a bottle of Merlot at night and then put up your strongest workout the next morning. I looped Central Park, including two interior loops of the Reservoir, bailed off in the grass across from The Met and blew through 70 crunches, planks and my PT stretching like it was nothing. I left 2002 Merlot sweat all over the park, felt wonderful, and mega productive afterwards. This Saturday I am in the New York City Marathon Long Training Run #1 at Central Park, treated just like a race event except that it is unscored, and the mile signs are posted for just the first 5 miles. There are four loops for those who run the full 20 proscribed miles, and it's 16 if you run 3. I will run 16 miles, and then will make a judgment call on whether to go up to 20. I did 16 in this last year and it was my last run of feeling good before a series of injuries set in and impacted my marathon debut.

Trees and Numbers: Rejected today by a literary agent who had been so interested in my book proposal that she was thinking about it during a recent road trip and asked me for the full manuscript via email. Within 24 hours she reported back that it didn't match the intrigue of the proposal and wished me the best. That's how it goes. All you can do is keep networking and present yourself. No means not yet. Walt Disney was rejected by more than 100 bankers before someone finally saw the value in his theme-park idea. Another top lit agent is interested but wants me to write a baseball book first as the logical "rollout of a future author" given my platform on MLB.com for millions of readers every day. I have a feeling that's where this is going, but I have been reluctant to start one from scratch because I spent five years on "Trees and Numbers" and want to give it everything I have with the agent search first. Ongoing ups and downs, today a down. That's when I remind myself that life is just Trees and Numbers...like the original street names in my hometown in Indiana. I thought about that again today as I passed a monolithic Sycamore near the NE corner of the Reservoir, along the East Drive run lane. I was about five miles into my run at that point. Everything in my consciousness right then is Trees and Numbers. One day there will be a book that tells all about it. Agent wanted.

Start of NYC Marathon Training

130 days 18h 12m 52s

That is how long until my third 26.2 mile journey of discovery. The 2008 ING New York City Marathon is scheduled to start on November 2 at the base of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, and this time I will be ready. After building up my base recently, it is now time to officially start training.

I finished that event in 6:08 in my marathon debut last November, landing each right step on a different area for the last 14 miles due to excruciating plantar fasciitis pain. I had tried to compensate by crosstraining at hotels while working the entire month of October on the road for our Major League Baseball postseason, but I felt ill-prepared for what I would face. Although ecstatic about just finishing, I looked forward to progress and in April I ran a 5:21 in the hilly St. Louis Marathon, which included my best Half ever. So my goal now is to go from 6:08 to 5:21 to 4:50.

Here is my plan of attack, and I ask that my marathoner friends feel free to offer any suggestions as appropriate. I am driven.

HEALTH CHECK

I just got off the phone with my local sports medicine doctor's office in Manhattan, and made an appointment for 9 a.m. Thursday. I have three issues to monitor:

(a) There is a growing issue with my right patellar tendon area, tenderness just below the kneecap. I have been icing after I run. Last night I ran around Central Park late after work, and came home and iced it. It ached really bad after the icing. I can tell that at my present "base pace" I could be headed for knee trouble.

(b) Left Achilles tendon. This is the same problem I had leading up to the St. Louis Marathon. It never went away, so it was chronic. During that run last night, it was daggers at about the 2.5-mile mark, and a few times it made me want to stop, though I didn't. I don't want to push it to the brink of rupture, so I also need to have the good doc show me how to manage it. (I hope I don't get a layoff.)

(c) Weight. The last week I have been trying to eat smarter, and still I squeezed in a PB&J sandwich and milk just to apparently piss myself off. I was just raised that way. I can't survive just eating almonds. I am trying my best, and I am drinking water constantly, and I know I should eat a little something every few hours. Eating late is my biggest problem due to my schedule, I think. This is the area where I drive myself crazy and I will do my best, but right now I am carrying too much weight and I would like to drop at least 10 as fast as possible. I have a ton of nutritional guidance including from my athletic sons; hopefully I can be strong in this area. I often suck really bad in this area.

RUNNING SCHEDULE

I am not running with Team for Kids this year, so I'm on my own somewhat. I am going to use one of the training schedules that are thankfully posted on the NYC Marathon site. This is the one I will follow:



There are other plans from which to choose, suiting many different levels. You should take a look at this page for yourself.

My base right now is just fine for the start of this. But again, it might be affected by whatever the doctor has to say Thursday so stay tuned.

Bob and Shelly Glover are the two authors of the Runner's Training Diary that I use, so I am very happy to follow their plan. I know that many thousands of other NYC Marathoners follow it so I'm in good company. It has all the speedwork breakdown I will need to know as well.

STRENGTH TRAINING

Time for me to get serious about my NY health club membership. I will use the Xpress Line with its eight machines to work all the major muscle groups. That will help me avoid the natural wear that otherwise happens to the joints, causing knee and hammy trouble. I was doing this before the STL Marathon and I know it made a difference; my quad lift was much better in that race. That is where I will work the core as well, and as usual I will bail off in the middle of many runs onto the grass of Central Park and just do crunches, side-ups, planks, leg lifts/etc right there under the sun to sweat and hopefully lose more weight.

PROFESSIONAL CHALLENGES

If it's like last year, once again I will deal with a tough (one I love!) October schedule, where I am constantly traveling and at ballparks for the Division Series, League Championship Series and World Series. Last year I got lucky with a World Series sweep in Denver. This year's World Series starts on Oct. 22. If there is a Game 7, it would mean that my travel day is Friday, Oct. 30 (Expo day). And if I'm on the West Coast (let's say the Angels are Game 7 home team and I return from L.A.), there will be some jetlag to go along with the obvious challenge.

This time, there is another big challenge. I will be working the Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. I leave Aug. 5 to get there in time for Opening Ceremonies, and will depart on Aug. 22, the day after Closing Ceremonies (and men's marathon, which I can't wait to watch). I will be going everywhere the U.S. Baseball Team goes, buses to the Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, other events, wherever they choose, so those Olympic athletes will dictate my schedule. While I am there, I will try to adhere to the above training schedule as religiously as possible. I have been told about the occasional "black air" as pollution is worse there than anywhere on the planet, but others have told me that it clears away for extended stretches. I will deal with the schedule and the air, and I will deal with a full day of flying one way and a full day of flying the other way, and unless something changes it will be hello middle seat for me on both of them (knees).

EQUIPMENT AND MUSIC

I have the tunes to rock the bod with the pod, but papa need a new pair of shoes. The Brooks Glycerines I bought for the STL Marathon have been gold, at least as far as I can tell (knowing the knee is barking). The woman who sold me those correctly discovered that I have high arches, which no one bothered to check before. That made a difference. I might get the same ones, but I am tired of green, and I am up in the 300s with them now. I need to rotate shoes. I am good on other equipment, a closet full of the right gear. I need more GU, lots of GU.

FINISH LINE DANCE SONG

I already have a reputation as that guy who dances across marathon finish lines. No one else does so I guess I am 2-for-2 and officially the solid gold dancer of the marathons. I am undecided on what song to dance across the NYC Marathon finish line to this time, so it's TBA. I am open to suggestions. Last year, in honor of my TFK lime green racing singlet, I danced across the finish line to Peaches & Herb's solid gold classic Shake Your Groove Thing:



EXPERIENCE

I just know that this is going to make a huge difference in my second New York City Marathon. I know what to expect. I am not going to stop at a pay phone booth on the street in Brooklyn this time and call my Mom collect or stop to pet an English Bulldog for five minutes (that put me over 6 hours!). I am going to "chunk it" and focus on 10-10-10: 10 miles, 10 miles, 10K. I am going to stay in the middle of the streets, rather than last year when I hugged the right shoulder so that I could high-five 1 million kids (seemed like it)...that saps energy.

There is a long way to go, but I know from last year that 4 months flies fast. Especially when you factor in one month spent in China and one month spent working the MLB postseason. That's half of my upcoming training, so that tells me right there that I have my work cut out for me. I will be disciplined, I will try my best to eat right and keep guzzling oceans of water, I will remember that not long ago I was smoking cigarettes and lifeless, I will have the heart of a champion.

Please come along for the ride and leave comments and tell me what's up in your world, too. It's time to train for the New York City Marathon!