I ran the Fitness Magazine 4 mile race in Central Park last weekend. The remnants of Hurricane Ivan were flooding the streets, so I was certain that the race would be cancelled (or that I would chicken out). Neither happened as the sky cleared 10 minutes before the race started.

I didn’t warm up as much as I would’ve liked, but the first 2 miles went suprisingly well (7:11, 7:16). The hills on mile 3 killed me (7:51), but I was able to pick it up at the end (7:29). I actually thought that I looked pretty good at the finish until I saw the pic posted at the NYRR website:

My Finish Time was 29:47. Here are some more pics from the race.

My Dad’s book got reviewed in the Hindu (one of India’s national newspapers).

I ran 5 more races this summer in my quest to automatically qualify for next year’s New York Marathon. The Fifth Avenue Mile was a breakthrough run for me. I easily outdid my pre-race goal of breaking 7 minutes and came within 40 seconds of my best time ever (5:07 fifteen years ago). This makes me think that I might be able to break 4 hours in the marathon next year if I train properly.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/West/08/05/wallofwater.ap/index.html (link now broken)

The sudden release of water from Ralston Reservoir south of Auburn sent a “wall of water three to four-feet high” down the Middle Fork of the American River, said California Highway Patrol spokesman Tom Marshall.

That’s the river that we rafted down a couple weeks ago during our 5th Annual Cousins Trip. If it had happened during our trip, I still probably would’ve been the first one to fall in.

I ran the Queens Half-Marathon on Saturday in 2:11:25. That’s about 10 minute miles for 13.1 hot humid miles. It was especially fun because my parents were here visiting from Wisconsin and I think this is the first time they saw me run. It’s amazing how much of a boost that gave me.

Reported in the New York Times: (free registration required)

One of the most respected Jewish authorities in the ultra-Orthodox world, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, issued the Indian hair ban from Israel on Wednesday, prompting some people in Israel to create lists of stores selling banned wigs and to burn Indian wigs in bonfires, according to Ha’aretz, an Israeli newspaper.

This sounds like a story from the The Onion

India offshores the prime ministership (link broken).

Dan Bern has quickly become one of my favorite musicians. I saw him a while back at the (now defunct) Bottom Line and then again tonight at Joe’s Pub (within spitting distance!). He’s been compared to Bob Dylan, although, unlike Dylan, I can understand what he’s saying. His music is simple and catchy, and the lyrics can go from hilarious to poignant in one song.

He played a couple songs tonight that I haven’t been able to find on CDs anywhere - one called “One More Light” and one about 9/11. Hopefully they’ll be on the “new album” ™

I caught the tail-end of a free presentation on iLife at the Apple Store in SoHo this afternoon. iMovie has been sitting around unused on my computer for too long. Inspired by how easy the instructor made it seem, I finally got around to launching iMovie and creating this montage of our Telluride trip (5.0 MB).

Sung and Lei sent me some more pics and movies from our Telluride trip. I’ve posted a couple of the pics at the end of my Telluride album. I especially like this movie (5.2 M). I’m the one struggling down the slope and then Boris comes flashing through at the end.