food, glorious food....

Another successful, sinfully delicious Restaurant Week has passed, with two excellent meals in one day yesterday. I love living in a city that has created a bi-annual, two-week holiday out of the fact that there are so many world-class restaurants in one city, it would take a lifetime to try them all.

run like the city and never ever stop...

I ran the NYC Half-Marathon this morning.  It was one of the most incredible, surreal, emotional experiences I've had in quite a long time.  The menacing thunderstorms that loomed in the distance when I left my apartment at 5am held off long enough until the race was over.  I joined 15,000 other runners for an amazing race through the best that Manhattan has to offer runners - Central Park, Times Square, 42nd Street, West Side Hwy, Battery Park.  

The highlight of the race was when we finally exploded out of the park and headed downtown.  The hills were behind us, it was time to have some fun.  7th Avenue opened up in front of us, completely blocked off from traffic, Times Square waiting for us.  I don't know of any occasion other than New Years Eve when this section of the city is completely blocked off and the view is incredible.  We enjoyed live music through this entire section of the course.  It's pretty incredible to see runners bust out the Y-M-C-A and laughing their asses off have way through this intense of a race because they are having so damn much fun.

For the record, Team in Training is one of the most inspiring groups of people I have ever known.  I ran this specific race today for Melissa, one of our honored teammates, who is a year older than me, was diagnosed with Hodgkins at age 22, and is a SURVIVOR.  Her email this week thanking me for running with TNT brought tears to my eyes.  My team members, coaches and mentors who weren't racing today lined the entire course and cheered us on.  The last couple miles were definitely painful, and I can honestly say that if it wasn't for our cheering section I would have had a much more difficult time pushing myself to keeping running through the finish line.  We saw our head coach, Ramon, at several points as he biked back and forth along the course to check on his team and scream "TNT rocks the house!" or "HOLAAAAAA" in our faces.  Having just completed a 100-mile ultramarathon in Vermont last weekend and having already raised over $55,000 this year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, he has been an incredible source of motivation for all of us.  My two mentors have reached out to me so much and have inspired me greatly.  

And to think that this is just another step toward the real deal in October.  13.1 miles under my belt.  Now I just need to learn how to do that twice in a row.

otra vez...

If I'm not mistaken, Liz marks Badger numero seis who is on her way to Colombia for a traineeship in the past two years. Me, Jess, Jason, Molly, Erin, now Liz. From one amazing city to one amazing country. I'm excited to follow her story over the next year.

Run Like Hell...

Another successful race in our beloved park. Pink Floyd's fitting lyrics blasted out of the speakers as we crossed the finish line of race number two this weekend. Although the temperatures were already over 90 degrees by 8am, over 4600 runners finished the Run for Central Park. The reward? A much-overdue day at the beach with my kick-ass running buddies :)

keeping the faith....

It's true that the more impact you have, the more you will be criticized. Expect it. Unless you're hiding out in average land, the critics will find you and tell you why you're wrong, unimportant, irrelevant, and so on.

my new york...

There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion.

- E.B. White

I've got a pocket, got a pocket full of sunshine...

What makes one run more memorable than any other? Free giveaways, celebrity sighting, running through a fountain at the park? Yeah, that could do it.

We hit the 10 mile mark for the first time during our long run yesterday morning, as we ran from Riverside Park, past Chelsea Piers, almost down to Battery Park. We scored some free wristbands and energy drinks from the Women's Health Magazine promoters organizing the ARE YOU GAME? event.

People watching opportunities when running in NYC are countless.... including an occasional celebrity, if you are lucky. I have never been the star-struck type, I don't follow celebrity gossip, the idea of spotting celebs in the city has never been something that has impressed me as most of my friends. But, I have to say, when Elke and I passed Nigel, from my admittedly guilty pleasure America's Next Top Model, walking with his wife and kid, we got a little excited.

A few miles before we got back to Riverside, we dashed into one of the playgrounds along the Hudson, ran past the sandboxes filled with children and parents giving us puzzled looks, and underneath the sprinklers, jumping around and laughing like we were kids on summer vacation.

It was a glorious run.

Summer in this city is WAY too hot to spend hours in line waiting for an upgrade....

The woes of a Barranquillero-Gringo lost in Bogota....

The "culture shock" that a good (American) friend of mine who had lived in Barranquilla for several years experienced when he left the coast and moved to the big city....

Bogota sucks!  Cold, overly organized, not only are people prompt but they expect you to be (???), there's no music playing ANYWHERE, they can't dance, they hardly drink, cars stay in their lanes, people cross at crosswalks and only when the green man appears, and they clear their trays at the food court, the stores have too many fucking choices, and - they're polite - like all the fucking time - they all want something from me, right?  What do they want from me???

oh, and the part that really tickles...

Taxis!

They have these little boxes that keep a kind of count, then they show you on a chart how much you have to pay!

Waaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha!

No tienda domicilio.  No fruteras.  No morning "bollo" "aguacate" "el heraldo" wake up calls.  No tack tack tack Pavlovian dog mouth watering as the butifarra man passes.

I went to get a paper notarized and first of all the whole process only too four minutes (yes, I timed it).  When it was time to give my fingerprint the clerk just handed me the inkpad.  I stared at her dumbly wondering what to do before remembering, way back when in a land far far away where normal citizens were actually trusted, no, expected to place their finger on the ink pad and roll it across the paper ALL BY THEMSELF.  I was giddy.

One afternoon after my nap (they can't take that away from me, not yet!), I stepped out of my stratus seis pupiville apartment to go for a jog.  The air was cool even though the sun was out and I couldn't even break a sweat.  I jogged down a street with trees on both sides before getting to a wooded park where I guy was sitting playing trumpet, another jogging further down the path.  Most surreal - OTHER PEOPLE WERE JOGGING TOO.  What a weird sensation to NOT feel like the village idiot jogging over patchwork cement that looks like it was laid over a fault line.  I sleepily smiled knowing that very soon I would jog past the lampost and back out of the wardrobe doors and awaken from my Narnia-like dream.

And through I'm not a Barranquillero I feel ... "affected" by my time there, I'll end this with a quote from a friend...

"You can take the Barranquillero out of Barranquilla, but you can't ever take Barranquilla out of the Barranquillero."

abrazos to all, 

Chris

My response:

Do you at least have a balcony where you can play your drums or do you have neighbors who will complain about the noise that is disrupting their nice, orderly life?  What about the fact that it's not necessarily a given that every person's house you walking into will have a (or several) hammock(s)?  I can guarantee that iguanas will not roam your new school campus and I think it's pretty safe to say that you will not catch little lizards climbing up your kitchen wall.

Where are the restaurants with plastic chairs?  And when you ask for chuzo desgrenado, they have no idea what the hell you are talking about and tell you that chuzo is ONLY shish kebob.  They drink some shit called Costena, which as far as I am concerned should be called cachaco because the only cerveza costena that I know of is called Aguila.

Be careful if you go up to Parque 93 because there is a TGI Fridays, a Subway, a Hooters, AND a Baskin-Robbins.  You might just think that you were drugged and taken back to Texas.

Buena suerte amigo,

Sarah

Operacion Jaque. CHECKMATE.

The news unfolded before my eyes and I couldn't stop the tears from falling.  I watched the live address by French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, which I randomly caught as I flipped through the channels, as he announced, ce soir, Ingrid Betancourt est libre et en bonne sante sur une base de l'armee colombienne.  Je voudrais d'abord remercier le president Uribe, les authorites Colombiens, et l'armee Colombienne. Que le president Uribe recoive la gratitude de l'ensemble de la peuple francaise.

I heard it in slow motion.  Ingrid Betancourt.  FREE.  Without a single shot fired.  After six years in captivity.  

I turned my laptop on and every single major news source was broadcasting the breaking news.  15 of the most high-profile hostages being held by the FARC - including former presidential hopeful Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans - were just RELEASED.  

I instantly messaged Tiffany to make sure that I wasn't dreaming this.  She confirmed what I had heard was true.  Bogota is already celebrating.  I am still in shock.  This is incredible.  A miracle.  

I can't help but think about everything that has occurred in the past six months.  This is the third time that I have literally not been able to tear myself away from the story as it unfolds - from the international peace protest, to the death of three of FARC's main leaders, and now this.  

Please, please tell me this is happening because I still shaking all over with the possibility that peace is in Colombia's immediate future.

In the words of Ingrid Betancourt, "creo que esta es una senal de paz".