World Cup

One month, every 4 years, soccer games galore. What can I say? I timed my morning run so that I could see the start of the Greece-South Korea match and be able to catch the 2nd half of the most interesting Nigeria-Argentina game. 

This sounds totally trite, but one of the things that make NY so great is that it is a magnet to people from all over the world (i.e. me). That is how it felt during my run today. I saw a bunch of people sporting soccer jerseys from Spain, Argentina, England, US, Germany. Bump into 3 Korean guys watching the game in front of a dry cleaning store in Queens and even high five them when Korea scored their second goal. Once back in Manhattan, I got confirmation of Korea's win from one of the many bars open early that were showing the matches. 

I got a glimpse of a very pregnant Paula Radcliffe running the Mini in Central Park along with Mary, but I was not able to see Kara Goucher. I felt like shouting "Go USA", but somehow it did not felt appropriate, so I settled with "Way to go Paula!". And on the way back I found out that Argentina scored early from another bar with large flat screen TVs showing the game in the UES. 

All these distractions helped the 18 miles I ran today go rather fast. My running has been quite unstructured. Thought I tell my self every week that I should run at least 50 miles, I am playing it by ear. Some days I shorten the run or just scrap it altogether. However, I have been consistently running 2 workouts each week: speedwork sessions (getting ready for another 10K attempt in early July) and long run (15=18 milers). 

I am excited about the GMR Team relay next weekend. The only bad think is that I will likely miss Brazil's second group game against a tough Ivory Coast team,. I trust, however, they will play well enough for a win, though I am doubtful Brazil will eventually win the tournament. Oh, that is another blog entry altogether.