NYC Nike Half Marathon

Look at that time! Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie — considered the world’s greatest long-distance runner — won Sunday's NYC Half-Marathon in 59 minutes and 24 seconds!

At 34, Gebrselassie ran the second-fastest half marathon on United States soil. And the second-fastest half-marathon of his career. He has succeeded in every distance from 5K to the marathon.

59 minutes and 24 seconds!

Hmm. Right about then I was just about to leave Central Park with another 6.5 miles to go...

But that's what I love about New York City — people like me get to run in the same race as Haile! Around 10,000 of us.

The other thing about the race that's so cool is the course. You get to run through the heart of the big apple. And the best bit — running down 7th Avenue, past Carnegie Hall, past Carnegie Deli, into an entirely blocked off Times Square where the only sounds you hear are singing, bands and great crowds of cheering spectators. Amazing.




To watch the race, click here.

moodling and dawdling

Brenda Ueland (seen left looking rather frail and rather old and rather wonderful), in her brilliant book If You Want To Write: A Book About Art, Independence and Spirit writes:

"the imagination needs moodling
--long, inefficient, happy idling,
dawdling and puttering".

how cool is that? kind of goes along with that "no time you enjoy wasting is wasted time" that Bertrand Russell said.

so today, here's to lots of happy moodling and inefficient idling dawdling and puttering!

for those who don't know, here's a bit about her that reads as fabulously as her book:

For many years of her adult life she lived in New York, working mostly as a freelance writer and disliking her work. Returning to Minneapolis, she wrote three books and was a long-time teacher of writing. She was knighted by the King of Norway and set an international swimming record (for over-80-year-olds). She lived by two rules: to tell the truth, and not to do anything she didn't want to do. She died in 1985 at the age of 93.

how great is she? the king of Norway? wow. when i grow up i want to be just like her.