Hey today is Halloween and the weather is just perfect. Believe it or not I spent the afternoon at a pet supply store looking at bird cages. I mean the big one, for Parrots. I had not been in a pet store for quite a while, they can be fun places.

Sometimes when she does not want to deal with everything that is going on in the shop floor. Our cat has a warm and safe place to sleep in the comfort of the lunch room.

I saw this little guy a couple of weeks ago while walking home from work on one of those warm days. It did not seem at all bothered by me.
It seems that while we were getting quite a lot of rain here in NYC, upstate they were getting snow. There is a report that a highway was closed because of 9" of snow and it is still October!

The rain was lashing down really hard this morning and in one place the road was a little flooded. I got a new pair of Dunlop wellies this weekend and I was wearing them, so the flooding was not a problem. I did discover that my waterproof pants are not completely waterproof, oh well!

After several days of cold weather it was quite mild when I left for work this morning. The high temperature this afternoon was about 8 degrees higher than was predicted, so it made for a pleasant day.
Yesterday the clocks went back in Europe, but did not go back here yet, so the time difference is a little closer for a while.

Not quite so cold this morning. Utpal and I went out and ran about 6 miles. We then went into the upper west side to help a friend with some stuff in a storage place.It turned into a nice afternoon, but I spent most of it indoors helping the brother and sister of the friend who died sort through some of his stuff.

Surprisingly it was not so cold this morning for the 2 mile race.The last few days have been a little bit stressful, so it was nice to run the race. It was a bit of a struggle since my legs were still tired from the 2 long races I've done in the last 3 weeks. I tried to just keep my form and stay as close as I could to runners I knew. I went through the first mile in 7:36, the second in 7:29, for a finishing time of 15:05. I am very happy with that.

It was cold this morning, 37 degrees F to be precise. It was the first time that I wore my winter coat.
For my friend who died recently there was a viewing at the funeral home. He worked for Homeland Security and there was an Honor guard by his coffin the whole time. It was kind of special. His brother and sister, who I had dinner with last night, are very nice. She is from the mid west and he is from the Pacific north west. I have some idea what is going on with them.

Things have really begun to slow down at work, but it is hard to say if this is because of the economic situation in the US. We have of course had periods like this before and we were busy at times when we usually are not. So we just have to wait and see.
I have other things to think bout at the moment. The friend who died recently will be cremated on Saturday and there will be a service for him tomorrow.

My run this afternoon marks 6 months since I missed a day of running, or in other words I have run every day for the last 6 months. Today's run was cold and very windy, but the legs felt pretty good.

My upper legs have been sore all day. I think maybe I used some muscles during the race that I have not used in a while and of course they were still tired from the 24 hour race. I guess this is the experience of doing the 2 races so close together. My hip flexors seem to be the most sore. Time will heal them. I did jog a couple of miles again this afternoon.

I woke up this morning and I felt like I did after running my first marathon. My upper legs, mainly my quads were really sore. The walk to work helped to loosen me up a bit. This afternoon I took a short nap and then went out and jogged a couple of miles. This is all part of the recovery, which is all part of running the races. I feel very satisfied with the job I did. By the way did I mention that I was 28th out 90 male finishers.

Today I went out to Sunken Meadow Park, on Long Island and ran in a 6 hour race. It was mostly on trails and was quite hilly. It was cold and windy for most of the race. There were about 140 runners, some from the 24 hour race 2 weeks ago. In fact Byron Lane, who won the 24 hour race, won again today, and it was his 41st birthday. I ran 28.71 miles, which wasn't bad since it was only 2 weeks after doing 76 miles in the 24 hour race.

Well it has been a tough week and this morning I woke up with a slight head cold. Plus the temperature is in the mid 40's F. I decided to help out at the 2 mile race today since I have the 6 hour race tomorrow. I will go out shortly for an easy run. The weather is supposed to be the same tomorrow, so it will give me some idea of race conditions. Otherwise everything else is settling down now.

So today was a pretty normal day, after some of the strange days of the week. The weather is turning cooler.
Did I mention that I am running a 6 hour race on Sunday, I seem to recovered from the 24 hour, but with the odd ache and pain surfacing every once in a while. I think things will be OK.

The day began with the confirmation of the death of a friend who was killed while out running. As a result I spent the day dealing with that, but somehow something inside of me that came from previous experience came into play. I have done what I can do and now just have to let things play out. I am OK.

I tried to call the police precinct today to report a missing person and the desk Sargent at first said I had to come in person to do that. The asked me how old the person was, I said in his 50's and was told anyone over the age of 16 is not considered a missing person. I was the told to wait for them to come home. When is an older person considered a missing person? It seems that the police only want to help find young people who can not legally decide to go missing on there own.

Normally when people put out recycling items, there are a few people that come around and take some of the bottles and cans. This morning on the way to work I saw some guys with a truck pull up in front of an apartment building and load in bags of bottles and cans. I guess they want to cash in with bulk items.

I also saw a large Raccoon running across someones lawn.

Finally. I have signed up for a 6 hour race this weekend, let me see if I can do 50k.

There was not a lot to do at work today, but I got a lot done at home. My friend Carl from the UK called, we had lost contact for a little while. Hopefully everything is back on track now.

Today I ran with Utpal out to Flushing Meadow and we ran around the lake. it was a beautiful sunny morning with a temperature in the low 50's F.
Later in the day I was visited by some friends, Satu and Jennifer Ferentz. They are the wife and daughter of an old friend Dr Ferentz. He passed away on the same day in August that my mother passed away, only 7 years later. I have a very special relationship with them and it was very nice to see them. They had both come to pay their respects on the anniversary of the passing of my teacher Sri Chinmoy.

It is one year since the passing of Sri Chinmoy my meditation teacher and spiritual guide for almost 35 years. Over this weekend many will come to pay their respects. on a kind of pilgrimage to the New York borough of Queens. There was no 2 mile race today. So Utpal and I went out to run a few miles as a start to this day of remembrance.

I have slipped back into a work week where I don't work on Fridays.The workload has dropped in recent weeks and has allowed me to do this. I did get in a nice run early this morning, I felt like I had quite a lot of spring in my legs. So my recovery from the 24 hour race is good.
I am putting together a website primarily for my writing, my poetry etcetera and will put a link here when it is done, it may be a while though.

Photo by Jowan

Ray Kroliewicz is kind of an ultra running legend in the US, he adds a lot of energy to a race and always seems to get any observers involved. He has a family connection in New York and so has done many races here, though he lives in Pontiac, South Carolina. I have known him for probably 25 years, though we were out of touch for about 15 of those. In the photo here you see him at the start of the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race. Giving some direction ( I guess ) to Gary Corbitt, Ted's son.

Photo by Jowan

The guy with the beard is my friend Luis Rios. I have known him for about 20 years. When he was in his 30's he used to run a lot of races organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and even won a few. Now he runs in some of the same multiday races as me and here he is in the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race that happened this weekend.

When I arrived at work this morning there were 2 Raccoons in the Havaheart trap, yes 2 of them. 2 juveniles, one a little older than the other. They seemed inseparable, which is probably why they both ended up in the trap together. They were quite timid and did not make a fuss when taken upstairs to wait for UPS pickup.
So it's 2 days since the end of the race and my legs did feel a little tired, when I went out for my run this afternoon.

Woke up this morning at my usual time and yes I was a little tight in the old leg muscles. I think the walk to work helped somewhat. I have a sore spot on the ball of my right foot, but other than that everything is good. Last year I ran 72 miles in Quebec and 81 miles in Ottawa, so my 76+ miles this weekend was right in the middle.

IT was supposed to be the perfect weekend for a 24 hour race. Cool and sunny, dry ( no rain forecast). There were 60+ runners at the start of the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race, a lot of old friends and some more recent ones. I got into a comfortable pace, the park where the race was is very scenic so that made the run even nicer.A couple of hours into the race we had a rain shower, but not enough to really bother anyone. I seemed quite comfortable for the first 14.5 hour, then I started to have some problems. I plodded on to the 16 hour mark then took a 45 minute sleep break, this helped and on returning established a solid mix of running and walking. After 1 more hour the rain started and was on and off for the next 4 hours. Sri Chinmoy Marathon team member Arpan De Angelo breifly held the lead in the race and held on to finish second. I was very happy to finish with 76.5 miles, which split the difference between my 2 races last year.
So here I am sore and happy.

Well it's cold out there 46 F and it should be the same during the night hours of the race. Typically I woke up and my Achilles tendon on my right foot is letting me know it is there. It looks like the weather will be pretty much like yesterday, which was very nice in the afternoon. I have time to get an early breakfast and will then take my ride with the other guys from the Marathon team.
The race starts at 10am and so will be finished at that time on Sunday. Wish me luck!

When I went for breakfast this morning I met 2 old friends. Ed Kelley and his wife Kim were in town from Sacramento. It seems Kim's grandmother in New Jersey has died. Ed won the 3100 mile race 2 times and finished second once.It was really nice to see them again.
A few hours later I went out for an easy 2 miles, just to make sure everything is working ok before the race tomorrow.

When I was in college I went to a party and heard the Keep on Truckin' album by Cheech and Chong and later bought the Big Bambu album. I saw a lot of their movies over the years, but never saw them live. They had a falling out and did not perform together after that. Well until now, they are on tour in North America and will be on Long Island later this month. I will however not go and see them, but it's cool to know they are out there again.

With 4 days to go to the start I just received my entry confirmation for the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race this weekend. It seems there will be about 60 participants, most of them local. With 4 of us from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team. There will be a lot of old friends out there, so I will have an opportunity to catch up with them during the race. My running feels pretty good this week, so I am happy.