So, as a new member of the famous NYRR (New York Road Runners), I completed my first ever event today: A 13.1 half marathon.  Now, here's the deal:  I'm not really a runner.  Sure I bust out 5-6 miles in the gym as part of my normal cardio, but I've never been "Mr outdoor, long distance real runner dude."  When I talk about running on the treadmill, I somehow feel...ehhh. That's not "real running!" (don't get it twisted, it does the job and keeps me fit.)
Anyway,  I kind of got the urge to change that a bit.  The ING NYC Marathon has always been on my "I'd love to do that" list.  My years living downtown Brooklyn is where that seed probably came from as the marathon route took the runners right by my place on S.Oxford and Lafayette. It was a big deal for the neighborhood every Nov.  Fast forward many years later.  About two weeks ago to be exact.  I found myself thinking that I should go ahead and at least start doing some races.  That led me to the NYRR page.  Figured...probably should join and get started.  Browsing the page I found the calendar of events and looked for an upcoming race.  Maybe a 3k, 5k.  Nope. Found the Grete's Great Gallop 1/2 marathon and thought "Yeah, it's only HALF, I can do that!"  My thoughts weren't motivated by some Superman complex, DNA arrogance thing (sort of!).  I just knew that busting out 5-6 miles for me was always a non-event so this would just be...2wice the effort.  Right? Right? How hard could it be?  With less than 2 weeks really, I began running outdoors.  5 miles a clip. No sweat really. During these runs though, I discovered how much I LOVE running outdoors, especially in my favorite fall weather.  All in all, I got 3 runs in.  That's it!  My schedule was hectic and I just didn't get the time to prepare.  Either way....it was do or die. To me, it was all in my head and I was convinced that I could pull it off.  I read plenty of blogs/web-sites with "Tips and advice" for fist time marathon runners.  Kept reading stuff like:  12-14 weeks- as the suggested, normal amount of time to "train" for such an undertaking.  Okay, well....I already joined NYRR and I signed up for the race and paid my fee.  (Plus, I talked so much shit in my mind there was no way to go back!)  I barely mentioned my suicide mission to anyone, just one or two people with some running/cycling...distance events experience.  Both of them nearly talked me out of doing the race and scared the heck out of me with their warnings. (they meant well) Either way, too late.  I was definitely going to do this. Oh, one more thing-On the NYRR site, the info regarding this particular event read as follows:

The course for Grete’s Great Gallop Half-Marathon in Support of AKTIV Foundation 13.1M is tough—two laps of Central Park adds up to a lot of hills—so some long-race experience and hill training are advisable. The start is on East Drive near 70th Street. You’ll complete two full clockwise loops of the park, after which you’ll start a third loop and continue for another 1.2 miles. The finish line is on West Drive near 67th Street. Almost all of the course is run over curving roads and undulating terrain, except for one straight, flat half-mile stretch along the East Side that you’ll run twice. Major uphills are at approximately 1.5, 3, 4, 7.5, 9, and 10 miles.  There are water stations approximately every mile, and Gatorade Endurance Formula is available at 1.25, 3.5, 5.75, 7.25, 9.5, and 11.75 miles

Operative words there being "TOUGH-TWO LAPS...SO SOME LONG DISTANCE-RACE EXPERIENCE AND HILL TRAINING ARE ADVISABLE!

I had none!

So, a day or two before race day, I found out as much as I could about what to do, how to do it, what to eat a day or two prior, what to eat the morning of, what GU's are and everything in between.  (no one mentioned my nipples possibly getting sore after.- Chaffing they call that!)
Without getting into everything here, I prepared myself as much as I thought I could.

RACE DAY

Patsi and Max by my side, we headed for Central Park.  The weather was awesome, especially during the early miles. Temperature went up a bit and the sun came out but it was still a gorgeous day. I was nervous right up to the start. Perhaps I'm not Superman.  Maybe my cockiness would  be the end of me.
Long story short (too late!)- I busted out a good 5-6 miles averaging about 10 minutes miles early on, then 11, then falling back to 12 min +. miles eventually.
There was a point a little after mile 10 that I felt my legs freezing up on me and I thought I was done.  The persistant warnings of my experienced friends kicked in. "Don't damage anything for the sake of just doing this!"  I heeded.  Took it slow, walked some then picked it back up and kept running.  Walked some then picked it back up.  My goal was simply to keep running and finish.  Period.  And that's exactly what I did.

2 hours and 40 mins later.

Mission accomplished.

I mentioned that perhaps some of you would be inspired by this.  Well, hopefully.
The way I see it is that if regular ol' me can set my mind to do something with little experience and nothing but sheer arrogance, determination, the will to make a commitment and stick with it, then so can YOU!  It's simply a matter of making the effort, which starts in your mind.

They measure of a man is based on what he thinks he can do and actually GETS done.

Measure me!

It's starts from the inside!

ING NYC Marathon-2013?  It's only what I did today....2wice!! Right? Right??

Stay tuned......(I doubt it, but...stay tuned anyway!)

Shout outs and "Thank yous":

First to the love of my life and best friend- Patsi Arias.  To my other best friend and my heart,  Maximillian "Maximus" Skaar.  To my peeps who advised me and had my best interest at heart- Jon Baker and Vincent Chan. To the following artists:  Trent Reznor, The Beastie Boys, Don Davis, Nero, Steve Aoki, Kanye West, Rihanna, Jay-Z, 2 Chainz and Guns & Roses.....for providing me with a much needed inspiring and thumping playlist of sounds!
To my cousin Lorraine Sanabria for continued inspiration as "The Serious Runner" and overall athletic bad ass of the family.

http://www.nyrr.org/races-and-events/grete's-great-gallop

Are they all supposed to be...immortal?

Saw Avengers. A bit...overdone and...somewhat ridiculous but...it is what it is yeah?  To it's credit though,  I guess it's hard not to be overdone.  I mean, it's a movie dealing with 4 super heroes yeah? (I'm not counting the bow and arrow dude or the gorgeous Scarlett Johanson character as super heroes)  Great special effects and definitely some hilarious moments here and there.  

Now,  I'm not a comic book/super hero guy....So, perhaps someone can help me with what may be a few silly questions:

1. The dude with the bow and arrow....he's just...a dude with a bow and arrow yeah? Very good with it but still...no powers, no super strength or anything right?

2. Why does Captain America bother with the mask? His identity isn't a secret right?

3. How does Hulk's pants expand at the waist to fit him when he goes from Banner to Hulk? And how do they always end up purple no matter what color pants Banner is wearing?

4. Nick Fury? Perhaps we haven't seen the best of him yet but..he's just a regular dude too yeah? Supposed to be "badd ass" I imagine with the long leather coat and eye patch but....seems like he was just a dude with a little gun and not very....bad ass at all. Even with Sam Jackson playin' him.  I mean damn, Jules Winfield was more bad ass than Nick.

Anyway,  I'm looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises.  Now there's a series very well crafted and quite entertaining on all levels.

"What's in the box?!"

Se7en, ranks as one of my top 3 favorite films of all time. The climatic ending of the film where John Doe reveals the final two sins of envy and wrath, is a scene in itself worthy of any numerous amount of awards and recognition.

I must have watched this film a thousand times, literally. Each time, finding some small detail or nuance in Pitt's, Freeman's or Spacey's performance. For whatever reason this morning, the movie popped into mind and I posted the incredible final scene to my Facebook page. (#sharingrandomness) To my surprise, watching the scene again, I took notice of something which had somehow gotten by me all the other times: When detective Somerset (Freeman) discovers the contents of "the box", he immediately begins to make his way back toward detective Mills (Pitt) in an effort to keep Mills from going crazy and killing John Doe (Spacey). He hurries across the field yelling for Mills to put his gun down. He even goes so far as telling the other officers above in a helicopter that "John Doe has the upper hand here!" When he finally reaches Mills, it's obvious that Doe has revealed to him the contents of the box: "Her pretty head!" ie: Mills' wife's head. Mills slowly loses his mind as he begins to comprehend the reality of what has happened. Somerset continues to implore Mills to put the gun down and not to shoot Doe. Mills breaks down in pain and finally anger. He becomes...."wrath" as John Doe wants him to and shoots Doe numerous times, killing him on the spot. Now, here's what I never took note of: The fact that Somerset could probably have stood between Doe and Mills or physically tried to restrain Mills in effort to stop him from shooting his gun. It was one of those questions where you think you know better than the director and say "Now that was silly, why didn't he just physically restrain Mills or something?!"

It was at that moment that I recognized yet another, deliberately genius choice in the making of this film. Detective Somerset throughout the entire film is a man dealing with his frustration over crime, justice and an imperfect legal system. He is tired. Worn down and worn out. He has seen much chaos, much evil and cannot make sense of any of it. In essence, has given up on trying to.

That moment, as he tries to tell detective Mills not to shoot Doe, he is once again, caught between wanting to do what is right, the "legal way" and what is actually "just" the illegal way. He knows Mills will be held accountable for shooting an unarmed, restrained suspect, yet he also knows that Doe truly deserves to die. Not being able to make sense of good and evil or crime and punishment once again has him more or less indifferent. He has felt useless in his later years as a cop and feels as if most of his work has been pointless. So, it quickly made sense to me that he would stand there, convincing Mills not to kill Doe, but at the same time, not really take any action to prevent it.

Anyway, just my small observations and yet another example of great directing and the perfection of this film.

Perhaps you have a different take.

One last thing:

The very last line of the film belongs to Somerset in voice over:

Somerset

Ernest Hemingway once wrote- "The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree, with the second part.

You can view the gripping ending at the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1giVzxyoclE&feature=related

Oral doesn't count huh? Ok.

Okay so....

I may be late with this story but that's because I don't actually watch the Braxton reality show...whatever it's called. Not my thing. I just happened upon this gossip type news from another web-site while reading something a bit more pertinent to my interest.

Anyway, let me first start by saying: I don't think she's a slut and could care less. I mean, she could be. Who knows. I don't know her. I haven't slept with her and as far as I can recall, she's never blown me. Which...brings me to the point of this quick blog entry.

When asked about why she performed oral sex on some random dude outside of her marriage, Ms. Braxton says:

" It wasn’t about getting back. It was about my own self-esteem." 


? Okay ? So.......self esteem yeah? She wanted to see if another man would want her to blow him? See if she still "had it", could get a man aroused? Or, she wanted to see if she still had the SUPER HEAD skills to get another man off other than her husband?

Continuing.....She says the following:

“Honestly, Auntie Jamie, I’m one of those people, I don’t have but so many notches on my belt. When it comes down to it, numbers mean a lot to me, and I’ve never been the type of woman to spread myself thin and let every Tom, Dick and Harry—or every Tom’s hairy d*ck—to associate with me and my body; not to sound vulgar. 
I don’t allow that with my body; I just don’t. I do not. I did not, and I will not.”

? Okay...again ?

So....based on that...and I'm just....curious here.....Not to sound vulgar....She doesn't have too many notches on her belt and doesn't want to add any more...(belt being, below the belt and inside her) BUT....her mouth is a different story yeah? So....on that premise.....she may have had a WHOLE lotta penis..(sorry to my conservative fam and friends reading) in her mouth and that's no issue! ? ?! So "Tom, Dick, Harry and whoever are free to get off in her throat and that doesn't count toward the "notches" thing yeah? Wow...how's that for "Braxton Family Values" yeah?!

See...this is just curious to me because ....and allow me to be perfectly frank..I mean CHARLES here: I've always been of the thought that most black women (yes, I'm making this a race thing)....would prefer to have full on sex rather than put lips to stick. Just my thought. This is a stereotype I've heard and have had experience with. Black women swearing that oral/giving head.....is faaarrrr more personal and not something they do to just any and everyone. Only someone they love or are truly feeling. (Although, I've heard that whole speech and still ended up receiving oral....fun) Hell, I'm not even disagreeing with them. Kind of don't want to think a woman you're with has been putting too much in her mouth. Like to think she's had some discretion yeah?

Ladies....please.....if I'm wrong.....shout me out. Fellas, am I right? Have you heard this?

Anyway.....I couldn't help but post up on the subject when I read this. I just find some of it....weird and disturbing. Not judging her, just pointing out the obvious that her sexual/moral logic meter is kind of....off.

One more thing:

I wonder what percentage of men would be more pissed that she blew another man vs. actually just having sex. ? I mean, if we go with the whole 'oral is much more persona, sacred" thing...well then.....she really violated yeah?

Oh, keep in mind....I'm not faulting her for her extamarital oral exploits. Her husband apparently had it coming. Then again....so did the other guy!

See link below for story:

http://www.theybf.com/2012/01/19/trina-braxton-reveals-the-dirty-deets-about-her-oral-transaction-and-says-shes-not-a-slut

C'