Week 3: Running With The CParkers

Its Week 3, and I'm beginning to think that I just might be able to do this whole triathlete thing. I haven't gotten as much "saddle time" (biking) in, but I'm happy with the amount of running and swimming I've been getting on a weekly basis.

Tuesday marked my very first Weekday Running Group Training Session (GTS). Previously, I'd only attended the Saturday run, and the Monday swim. (Monday's swim was good, but nothing really too new, we're just ramping up on the number of lengths we do.) After closing out the "Balls of Fury" soccer season (technically, its running, yes), I joined the Yahoo! group for a training session in Central Park! There was a good number of us (here are a few), a we had a great workout on a beautiful day.


To introduce a few folks, Akhill (with the hang-ten) is on my team at Yahoo! (my actual work-team, Partner Management), and Jeanne/Jenny (with the high-five) is also within the same org structure. We are all under Bill Wise, who is the VP of Display Strategies. That's his unofficial title, for my blog's sake.

Jodie (in the blue) is our veteran Yahoo!/Right Media triathlete. I believe if she completes this triathlon, it will be her third! Mauritza (wearing the Team In Training purple headband), is my mentor, and has also completed a triathlon. We get weekly emails from her to keep us motivated, and on track with our training and fundraising. Sarah S. (in the white) formerly used to be on 18th Street with us, and even at the Park Ave office when she was with us at Right Media. Now she's on 40th Street, and works directly with Mauritza.


Doug is our team captain and is the tall guy in the back with the gray sweatshirt (and the silver logo). I also met 3 additional Yahoos, who are pictured here. They're based at our 40th Street office, and while I don't have much interaction with them now, I'm sure this is going to increase over the next 17 weeks! Dave is in the black t-shirt, Jen is in the darker blue, and Judith is in the white. I hope that everyone that's training is able to complete and cross that finish line on July 18th, myself included!

The run was pretty good, we did 15 minutes out and 15 minutes back, on a side path in Central Park. The main, cement path was pretty crowded, as we had a glorious day in NYC with the sun setting long after we completed our 45 minutes of training. With the 15 out-15 back split, we were also required to stop every 5 minutes, and do 1 minute of squats. We were also split into 3 groups, basic, intermediate, advanced, which equates to newbies, under 8 minute milers, under 6/7 minute milers. Those advanced people are pretty spectacular to watch, and I'd love to be able to run like that at some point.

Regardless, our little Right Media group pretty much stayed together. From our end of the 18th Street office, we had Eran, Jimmy, Akhill, Jeanne, Jodie, and myself. We also ran relatively close with Sarah S, Mauritza, and Dave. The highlight though, was the fact that Jenny and I are pretty much the same age (she is 4 months older), and we're pretty much pacing against each other very well! We even did a final last minute sprint for the last 100 yards where we passed at least 15 people. Overall a great run! A special thanks to Jimmy who ran a little bit ahead of me and Jenny, and kept us going!!

Can't wait for the next one!