Twice a year, around spring and fall, my morning walk to the subway station near our apartment gets rather, uhm, smelly. Initially I kept thinking that someone walking towards the station with me must be suffering from a certain tummy bug and in the spring I actually thought that Swine Flu must cause vomiting, because the smell was just above any normal kind of New York smell. Absolutely disgusting.

Lately I’ve been noticing the stench in the park as well – turning my leisurely runs (now that I’m no longer training for a half-marathon the runs have all become much more leisurely…much more fun!) into something sordid and gross. After a couple of days of internal dry-heaving every now and again I decided to figure it out and where else to turn that old faithful Google.

The smelly female Gingko fruit

I typed in “Trees smell like Vomit” and thus figured out that it is indeed the female Ginko Tree that drops her smelly seeds every time the seasons change! Ahh – so that explains all the mushy / stinky / fleshy pods that I’d been stepping in. They are coated in butyric acid, which is what you find in rancid butter. Yuck.

Luckily, it only lasts about three weeks every six months and for the rest of the time the trees do lend a bit of greenery to this busy city. If only they didn’t stink so bloody much!

John on the West Side Highway - only 4 more miles to go

After months of training, miles and miles of running, getting sore knees from running with the wrong shoes then spending lots of money on buying new shoes, blisters, cramps, feelings of terrible guilt because I couldn’t get myself out of bed to actually go for that early run, and a lot of carbo loading, we finally did it! The New York Half Marathon is one of the things on my ‘list of things to do’ that I can now safely mark as: Ticked!

After falling ill on Monday last week and eventually spending Friday last week in bed with the most terrible summer cold, my forecast on being able to run was not looking too positive. But I’m a firm believer in ‘Whatever The Mind Can Conceive And Believe It Can Achieve’ and this was put into true practice when I woke up pretty much symptom-free on Saturday morning – the day before the race. I was overjoyed and slightly apprehensive as John and I took our bicycles on a downtown trip in the summer heat, with me checking in with the thumping heart on a regular basis to make sure that it was not failing me. Nope, heart was fine, nose was not too blocked and race was a go.

After two brunches (yes, you read that right, two brunches, at two different restaurants!), we cycled back Uptown and had a lazy sleep, followed by an impromptu dinner party with Rose, Annie and Sam joining us for mounds and mounds of spaghetti bolognaise. Nothing like being forced to eat all those carbs we usually avoid, right? It was great.

Off to an early night of tossing and turning where none of us slept too well (nerves?) and then, all too soon, the alarm went off at 5.15. I jumped out of bed, got dressed after ‘lubing’ my chafing areas and prepared bagels (more carbo loading), pinned our race numbers to our running gear, ensured that satellite connectors were on the right shoes and then we headed out into the humid air. By the time we arrived at our assigned stanchions at around 6.30am, I was already sweating. It was clearly going to be a hot one!

As we waited around for the 7am arm to move into place, the tension started mounting. Rose and I had agreed to run together and I had never been more thankful for having a running partner with me. In between nervous giggles, African bird signalling and some half-hearted stretches, we managed to make it to 7am and finally the shot announced the start of the New York Half Marathon! We were off…on a slow start! I wish I had a camera with me to capture the 10,000 people all starting the race – it looked kind of like a Mexican Wave – the front runners would start bopping up and down and in a wave the ones behind them and then the ones behind them and so forth, til finally it was our turn to start running – what a magical sight!

Two hours and fifteen minutes later we crossed the finish line – drenched to the bone, with aching muscles and the widest grins on our faces you can possibly imagine. John had been done for quite a while (naturally Mr Athletic completed the entire race in 1hr 45mins!) and I think I finally hit that elusive ‘Runner’s High’ when we crossed the finish line! Wow – what a feeling!  We ran around the entire Central Park and then down to the bottom of it, out onto Madison Avenue and straight down through Times Square. Nothing I have ever done can compare to running through Times Square with no pedestrians, no cars, just loads of supporters, singers, a huge karaoke band (Rose and I did a little jig-n-run as we passed the stage) and all those lights. It was pure magic.

Over the course of the 21.1kilometers there were about 11 watering holes where we stopped for Gatorade, energy bites and water, water, water. Another highlight was getting ‘hosed down’ by the randomly placed ‘fountains’ (volunteers holding huge hoses with sprayers attached that went a long way towards cooling down the overheated runners) – by the end of the run Rose and I were both soaked. Sweat or water? Probably a little combination of both.

Would I do it again? Mmmmmm…not so sure about that. But this one, at least, was pure magic!

Yesterday, after running 10 miles (Yes, I did it!), I met my friend Justin for brunch at Cookshop, a new trendy restaurant on 20th Street and 10th Avenue, thinking that we would have a mimosa and brunch and then go for a walk on the new Highline Park that has just opened. Now, one thing I never knew about running 10 miles…it gives you an appetite! I was starving.

Running late, I got the following sms from Justin, “They seated me – your mimosa has been ordered. Mark St James and Amanda from Ugly Betty are two tables over”. Turns out, Betty herself was also there and as Justin and I tucked into our brunches, the waitress led another couple over to the table right next to us. While neither Just nor I could come up with the guy’s name, he was also an actor – if I happen to spot him somewhere, I’ll be sure to let you know. Just as we were contemplating mimosa number two (what better way to celebrate 10-miles on a Saturday with, right?) the waitress brought another known person over, this time to the table right behind us – Kristen Schaal (better known as Mel in Flight of the Concords).

Justin and I had to have a big giggle  - we had clearly selected the hottest place for brunch! (Although I have to admit that I had no hand in venue selection, and I probably would not have recognized anybody other than Mel without Justin’s keen celeb-spotting eye!)

Woke up this morning with a sore throat – not a good sign, considering that the NY Half Marathon is six nights away…

I realize that it’s been a while since my last post, and I also realize that it’s probably not the best way to go to start the whole blogging process again with a rant about the heat, but the truth is that it is un-friggin-bearable in New York at the moment! Oh my word…it’s like living in a sauna. If the airconditioning unit is not on full blast, there is no sleeping, no eating, no watching TV and definitely no working!

This morning I got out of bed and stepped from the cool confines of our airconditioned bedroom into the hallway where the heat hit me in the face with full force! ‘Whoa’, I thought, ‘is this even possible?’ Turns out it was. And it is.

It.Is.So.Damn.Hot.In.Here…

Biggest problem with the heat is that it makes it near impossible to be outside – nevermind run outside. Now usually I would not let this stress me, but with the New York Half Marathon only 10 days away, you better know that I am stressing! Oh boy…please let tomorrow be a cooler one?