Getting By, Dreaming Big

This is a blog for me to share my thoughts on my favorite things: books, traveling, food and entertainment!

Tuesday Travels: Yale vs. Harvard – “The Game” November 24, 2009

Filed under: Sports,Tuesday Travels — readerbean @ 9:14 pm
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View from the Staten Island Ferry

 About a two months ago at an ABC Club NYC event my friend (and co-worker) Rachelle and I were chatting and she mentioned that as a huge College Football fan (she grew up in New Orleans (LSU) and went to Alabama) she really wanted to go to the Yale vs. Harvard college football game because it was the oldest rivalry in the history of college football.  We recruited our other friend (and co-worker) Christina and my hubby Jon and headed out on an adventure to New Haven this past Saturday!

Statue of Liberty from Staten Island Ferry

Rachelle, Jon and I started our early morning with a ride on the Staten Island Ferry.  I love the Staten Island Ferry – it’s FREE and has some of the best views of Lower Manhattan, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty….oh and Staten Island!  Christina picked us up at the Ferry Terminal and it was off to New Haven we went.  We got there around 10:30 in the morning so that we had enough time to tailgate before the game.

The Yale Dome!!!

 We got to the game right on time!  It was Senior Day so all of the Seniors parents were in attendance.  Our seats were 2nd row right on the side of the end zone ($15 – can’t beat that).  Early on Yale dominated the game, holding Harvard from scoring, while they themselves were scoring. 

Handsome Dan

 We thoroughly enjoyed checking out Yale’s mascot – Handsome Dan the bulldog!  He was too cute as he walked around the sidelines.  It wasn’t really until the end of the 2nd half or after halftime that the stadium really filled up.

 

Jon & I at the game

The End Zone!

 

We really had fun at the game.  While I’m sure it’s not nearly as exciting as an SEC game (or other big divisions) it was fun to see all the Harvard & Yale fans wearing “The Game” shirts!  We stuck around until 12 mintues were left in the 4th quarter.  Yale was up 10-0 and we didn’t want to get stuck in a huge line trying to get out of the parking lot. 

Best Pizza Ever!

We then ventured into downtown New Haven to go to Bar and have the best pizza ever!  Upon arriving we soon learned that Harvard ended up winning the game 14 to 10!  We couldn’t belive it.  We waited about 45 minutes for a table, Bar was hopping (although a little understaffed and poorly organized given the crowd).  It was well worth the wait – they seriously have the best pizza!  We took the train back (1 hour and 40 minutes) and were home by 7PM.

 

All in all it was a fun little day trip outside of NYC.  We got to spend the majority of the day outdoors, enjoying sports, good eats and friends!!!  Maybe it’ll become a tradition….

 

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Who’s your favorite college football team?

 

Congratulations Kate! November 2, 2009

Filed under: Family,Life Goals,NYC Experiences,Sports — readerbean @ 7:31 pm
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CONGRATULATIONS TO MY LIL’ SIS!!!!

 

She ran her first marathon yesterday, the ING NYC Marathon!  26.2 miles, 5 burroughs, 5 bridges, and she smiled the whole way.

 

She finished in 4 hours and 27 minutes, rock star status!!!  I’m so proud of her.  In addition, she raised over $2600 for charity thanks to generous family and friends!!!!

 

Congrats to everyone who ran yesterday – what an amazing accomplishment for all!

 

GO KATE, GO!!!

 

It’s Almost the Olympics!!!! July 7, 2008

Filed under: Sports — readerbean @ 1:05 pm

OK – I’ll admit it I am OBSESSED with the Olympics. I can’t watch enough of them and I cannot wait until 8.8.08!!!! I do not know how many of you out there are following the Olympic Trials as closely as I am but there have been some amazing races already and we’re not even in Beijing yet.

Here are some of my favorites:

1) The 800m Men’s Final (Track & Field) – Click Here! One of the best finishes I have ever seen.

2) Dara Torres in the 100M free and the 50M (Swimming) – Click Here for the 50M free finals and fast forward to about 3:30. Hello – did you know she’s 41 and going for her 5th Olympics. Her first was in 1984, 1984 – it’s heartwarming to watch.

3) Michael Phelps vs. Ryan Lochte in the 400 IM in the first night of the swimming Olympic Trials – click here!

These are just to name a few.

My favorite sports to watch in the Olympics are: swimming, track & field, marathon, beach volleyball, indoor volleyball, diving and gymnastics. What are your favorite sports to watch? Post your answer in the comment section below!

 

The US Men’s Marathon Olympic Trials November 3, 2007

Filed under: NYC Experiences,Running,Sports — readerbean @ 2:53 pm


The 3 of us waiting for the runners to come by one last time!

Jon and Kate sprinting to the west side of the park with everyone!

This is my last marathon related post from our crazy week of 3 marathons (cheering, not running!) Last Saturday New York City hosted the US Men’s Marathon Olympic Trials in Central Park.

Now, I have been talking about going to see these pretty much since we moved here. Rain nor wind, nor chilly temperatures were going to stop me.

Saturday morning, Jon and I got up nice and early (6:50AM) and ran the 2.3 miles up to 72nd Street and Central Park West where we were meeting my sister (equally excited as I was, stop, picture it – poor Jon). We’re jibberjabbering away for like 5 minutes before Jon gives me my first “You’re getting over excited and it hasn’t even started yet” looks. I try to calm down, but I can’t – I mean 1) I love love love the Olympics! 2) I love running, racing and marathons. and 3) I’m actually there to watch an Olympic trials race, in the marathon no less.

We head up to the spot around West 81st Street inside the park. We hear the runners are coming so we quickly get to whatever spot is available and we end up meeting this man who is there to cheer on his son. His son qualified in a 10K and this race was going to be his first marathon ever (how crazy is that?) We chat with him for a bit, the runners come by in a huge pack so you couldn’t really see anything, except for Wardian who went out fast in the first loop. Afterwards we headed up to where we wanted to be stationed and ended up running into my cousin’s ex-girlfriend. I swear for as big as NYC is you can still have small world occurences take place.

The runners come by on lap 2 and they’re more separated into groups. We wait to cheer on all of them and then along with 75% of the crowd start sprinting to the east side of the park to catch the runners as they loop around. We get there in time, find a spot, see the runners again, turn around and sprint back to the west side of the park to see them as they loop around again. We continued this till the end.

It was so fun, everyone was dressed in their running gear and as the race was coming down to the wire you would have thought all of us running back and forth were in a race the way people were running, it was crazy (fun in a good way). The best part though was definitely the end. We’re on the west side of the park waiting for them to get going on the 2nd to last loop and Brian Sell was creeping up (and let me tell you he made up A LOT of ground) on the lead pack big time. So everyone was like is he going to be able to do it. We see them run by sprint to the east side of the park and wait.

All of a sudden Ryan Hall comes running by so fast and we’re all waiting for the rest of the lead pack. No one – 20 seconds, 30 seconds, 45 seconds…then Ritz comes by. Everyone was going crazy, screaming like crazy, couldn’t believe the way the lead pack was spreading out. Now people are seriously sprinting back to the west side! We get there – Ryan Hall comes back again – 45 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute and 10 seconds and Ritz comes by again, then Dan Browne and then Sell right on his tail going up the hill. No Meb, no Abdi…now people were crazy. The sprint to the east side of the park was out of a movie. We get there wait a little bit Ryan Hall come by – 1 minute 10 seconds, 1 minute 20 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds…finally Ritz comes by and then…Sell, he did it, managed to get himself into 3rd place position! People are going crazy.

We knew we didn’t have time to get to the finish. We also knew that the 3 leaders were going to win because they just had that much of a lead and not that far to go. So we decided to stay and cheer on the other runners who had fallen off pace. By the way – that guy from the beginning – his son, finished 9th, 13 seconds behind Meb, in his first marathon ever!!!!! That is crazy – but definitely be looking for Josh Rohatinsky in 4 years, he’s got some serious promise. (Could I say crazy one more time!!!)

All in all it was the best way ever to start a day and I just hope that one day I get to see the real thing, the Olympics in person. It’s on my list….

 

Meeting Catherine Ndereba – WOW! November 2, 2007

Filed under: NYC Experiences,Running,Sports — readerbean @ 4:21 pm

Thus continues my marathon crazy week! The foundation that I work for had 32 runners running in this year’s ING New York City Marathon Sunday, November 4th. On Thursday evening our foundation and our runners were invited to Gracie Mansion for a cocktail reception and the chance to get our picture taken with Mayor Bloomberg.
We arrived right on time at 5:30PM and I have to say the house is gorgeous. You forget what regular houses look like when you’re surrounded by towering concrete buildings all day! It’s this beautiful old house right on the Hudson River. Right after we arrive this woman offers to take us on a tour of the first floor, explaining the history of the house, the rooms, the significance of the furniture present and the art. I love touring houses so this was right up my alley. And as we head off the front porch and in to the parlor she points out on the mantle a cannon ball that was actually shot from a British War Ship in the Revolutionary War of 1776 at this house. (Are you kidding me? How cool is that!!!!)
After the tour I had the opportunity to meet a lot of our runners, to meet our contact at the New York Road Runners, to meet one of the guys running in the US Men’s Marathon Olympic Trials on Saturday and then to meet Catherine Ndereba! Not only has she won 4 Boston Marathons but she also won this year’s World Championships. I talked with her about her running leading up to the marathon, and how she was feeling, if she was going to watch the US Men run on Saturday and little stuff like that. She was incredibly friendly and very nice and I was glad that I had the gumption to cross the room and introduce myself and not let an opportunity like that pass me by.
She finished 5th on Sunday in the New York City Marathon, while certainly not her best run, Wami and Radcliffe had a commanding lead when we saw them at Mile 11 and I knew then that they were going to be pretty hard to catch.
All of our runners that we saw at Mile 11 looked good and like they were having fun. It definitely made me miss running, or rather since I do run 3-4 times a week, racing! Not that I’m fast but I just love the thrill of competing! I have an inkling that another marathon may be in the not so distant future for me…if not in 2008, then definitely in 2009!
 

Congratulations to Matt & Karen!!! November 2, 2007

Filed under: Family,Running,Sports — readerbean @ 4:17 pm

Sunday, October 28th began what would be for Jon and I the first marathon of three that we were cheering for in a week! We went down to Washington, DC on Saturday, October 27th in order to cheer for Matt & Karen on Sunday as they ran in the Washington, DC Marine Corp Marathon, their second this year.

We got up early on Sunday in order to be out at Mile 1 in time for the 8AM start. Our plan was to see them at Mile 1, Mile 12, Mile 14, Mile 19 and possibly the finish. The Marine Corps Marathon is a great marathon for a spectator – it loops so many times that it’s easy to see runners in multiple locations.

We ended up seeing them at Mile 1 and Mile 4 and then seeing Matt at Mile 12, 14 and 19. Getting to the finish proved just too difficult.

So a big CONGRATULATIONS to Matt and Karen on finishing the DC Marathon with fantastic times!

 

Congratulations to the 2007 World Series Champs – the Boston Red Sox!!!! November 2, 2007

Filed under: My Favorite Things,Sports — readerbean @ 8:18 am

One of the reasons that I didn’t post much over the past couple of weeks was because I was wrapped up in baseball post-season madness! It was very exhausting but so worth every second!

Even though we’re in NYC, we wear our Red Sox hats, visors, shirts, sweatshirts with pride and it was nice to have them win our first year here!

What can you say about this team – other than it truly was a team effort – everyone pitched in and helped bring that title back to Boston and that was my favorite part of the whole thing.

So we’re not moving Wally all off-season in the hope that the position he was in when they won while continue the streak when they come back in April!!!! Now all concentration is on the Patriots….

 

Reach the Beach – We Finished in 29 hours and 2 minutes! September 20, 2007

Filed under: Running,Sports,Vacation — readerbean @ 12:21 pm

Reach the Beach is the running event that I probably get the most crazy reations from people for participating in. When people here the number 203 miles (even though I’ve said it’s a relay and there are 12 of us) they just can’t get past that. And yes, for us runners it is a source of pride – because hey 203 miles sounds like a lot even if you’re only running 15 of them:)

We arrived at our motel in NH late Thursday night, or maybe EARLY Friday morning (oops!) and got a good quick 7 hours of sleep before our adventure began. Friday morning we headed to Cannon Mountain where this years race was scheduled to begin. There were 12 people on our team (here they are in order that they ran): Boyd, Karyn, Doug, Alex, Peter, Jenn, Matt, Emily, Karen, Jon, Armen & me! We were split into two groups the first 6 runners were Van #1 and the last 6 runners were Van #2. We checked in, went through our safety check and orientation and settled in for a nice cozy breakfast.

At 10:40 AM, our first runner Boyd lined up in at the starting line with the rest of our heat and we were off. For those of us in Van #2 we drove the first six legs and parked at the 1st team transition area where we would wait for the runners of Van #1 to arrive. While a small spot, the bathrooms were plentiful, and there was a beautiful little river with lots of rocks, perfect for having lunch. We also, sat and cheered a lot of the runners that were finishing their legs and handing off to their next van. At soemtime between 3 and 4 PM Jenn arrived to hand off to Matt and Van #2 was underway. We ran until 7:30ish maybe. With Jon, Armen and myself running in the dark. When you run in the dark you have to have a reflective vest on, a head lamp and or a flashlight! My first run was 4 miles so I wasn’t feeling too nervous. I was really excited, that is until I realized that I was running the first mile on a trail in the woods! However, I completed my 4 mile leg with no problems.

We finished and drove to our next transition area to await Van #2 who was running their second legs. It was a high school, or some sort of school, where the girl scouts were serving a big pasta dinner (thank you!). We dragged our sleeping bags out onto the lawn and caught about 2 hours of sleep.

At about 12:45 AM, Jenn ran up a huge hill in the pouring rain to finish her leg and hand off to Matt. Thankfully for us, even though it rained on all of us during our 2nd legs, the rain died down as soon as Jenn finished. Our van had that dreadful middle of the night running time! And in acutality it really wasn’t that bad. Everyone ran well, and it was over before we knew it. I decided to take the advice of Peter from last year and drink a red bull before my 2nd leg since I had been up for almost 24 hours consecutively except for my little 2 hour nap. Not sure what it was going to do to my stomach I decided to take the risk because I had a 6.9 mile run ahead of me. Let me tell you, Redbull really does give you wings! I haven’t felt that good running since the Chicago Marathon. I felt like I was flying and I had the best time running that leg.

So with 2 legs done we drove to our next transition area to await Van #1 who was busy running their last leg. Since it was still raining we all had to stay crammed into our 15 passenger van. At about noon Jenn showed up happy to be done and all but threw the “baton” (really it’s one of those slap bracelets from the 80′s) at Matt. There was a totally different energy to this leg because everyone out there was running their last leg with their ultimate destination in site – we were “reaching the beach”. I got the honors of that last leg, and of reaching the beach. Once again I drank a redbull before my leg, 4.3 miles, I wasn’t sure how my legs were going to hold up. It was amazing, running through Hampton Beach, NH right along the water, knowing all your teammates are waiting for you at the finish, it was very cool!

We finished 59th out of 154 teams in our division with a time of 29 hours, 2 minutes and 11 seconds. Our average pace as a team was 8:27. Overall, not too shabby if you ask me! If you want to check out the pictures from this crazy event click here to see Capt’n Karyn’s cool website she made for us (thanks Karyn!)

This could be my favorite running event, if any of you out there are big runners, make it a priority at some point in your running career to team up with 11 other runners and “Reach the Beach”! There is nothing like running through the state of New Hampshire in September with the leaves changing color. It’s a great way to see and experience the state. And the commaraderie of the runners is so fun. I LOVE THIS RACE!!!! :)

 

we are almost off and running… September 12, 2007

Filed under: Running,Sports — readerbean @ 9:18 am

The big Reach the Beach Relay weekend has finally arrived! And I am very excited! Jon and I did Reach the Beach (RTB) for the first time last year and had a blast. This year we’re back for more.

Tomorrow we head up to Boston with our friend Emily and Armen to get all supplies, gear and teammates together. Then tomorrow night we drive up to Northwestern New Hampshire. Our start time for our 203 mile journey is 10:40 AM. We’re in Van #2 this year so the timing of everything will be a little different for us but overall I’m looking forward to another year. Last year it took us just over 29 hours to complete the course hopefully this year we can keep a steady pace again.

To check out what RTB is all about click here! I’m leg 12 so I’m “reaching the beach” as they say and Jon is leg 10. We’re in a van with our friends Emily and Armen and Jon’s brother Matt and his fiance Karen.

Click here to see our pics from last year’s event! Thus I’ll be taking a couple day hiatus from blogging but when I get back I’m sure I’ll have stories and pictures galore!

 

Hiking in Cold Spring, New York September 9, 2007

Filed under: NYC Experiences,Sports — readerbean @ 11:17 am




Whew, so I am way behind in blogging. Part of that has to do with the fact that I started a new job this week and don’t have quite as much time on my hands!

Last Saturday, my DH Jon (who has decided that I can now refer to him by name on this blog – woot!) and I started our day with a 7 mile run around Central Park. It was a great run for both of us and after some time off from running we’re both starting to feel like we’re getting back in shape.

After our run we met up with my cousin Terence (T) at Grand Central Station to take the train out to Cold Spring, New York. Cold Sping is a small town (population 2,800) on the Hudson. T was the only one who had been here before so Jon and I were pretty excited to be exploring a new place. The train ride is 80 minutes long and if you get a seat by the window you literally look out on the Hudson River the whole trip – it’s beautiful.

We arrived in Cold Spring ready for our hiking adventure, which started right away with a 2 mile walk to the trailhead. T had warned us that the beginning part was pretty much straight up, up and up. So Jon and I felt prepared when we arrived at the trailhead. It was pretty awesome! It was definitely, up, up and up and there were some parts reminiscent of rock climbing for sure. There are great resting points along the “hike” that offer spectacular views of the Hudson. It really was beautiful. Right off the area where we were hiking there was Bannerman Island. It has a pretty neat history – click here to read about it.

The first half of our hike was very successful. We were all feeling really good, the views were great, we were making progress, etc. We found a great place to have lunch over looking the river and then decided to continue on until we got to the red trail. Unfortunately, the red trail eluded us so we decided to head back to the yellow trail that was seen as we were working out way to the red trail. We make our way back our energy starting to deflate a little when we happen upon the yellow trail. This picked everyone up a little – “OK, we’re on our way back to the road!”

Then all of a sudden the yellow trail started to go back up and away from our destination – the road. It was at this point that T and Jon decided we should go off the trail. Their arguement was we can hear the cars and see the river we should just head in that direction. So I followed along. We all got really excited as we started to follow this huge water pipe which we figured would lead us to the river. However, it lead us to a huge gorge – straight down. Back we go along the water pipe. Then T chooses a point to turn off and cut straight down through the woods. We follow him, hop over a stone wall and wouldn’t you know it we find the red trail! Let me tell you I was relived. My energy was starting to run low (running 7 miles before heading out on a hike – probably not the smartest of ideas!) and my ankles were bleeding quite a bit!
For there it was an easy walk back to the road and then another 2 miles back into to town. All in all we were walking/hiking for 6 hours! We headed to the Train Depot for dinner al fresco and much needed/deserved beers! Click here to read about The Depot’s ghost story. As we headed home, with seats on the side of the train overlooking the Hudson while the sun was setting, I thought “what a great way to spend a day!”
Hiking is something that Jon and I want to make sure we do a couple more times this fall – however, next time we’ll make sure we have a trail map!!!