You are currently browsing the archive for the Outdoors category.
First: My street.
And now for the main event. Today I ventured down to Central Park for the ING New York City Marathon. It was great! The lighting and angles were tricky, as I was going from shooting objects 50 meters away to 5 meters away, but I couldn't give up the great back drop of the shot. Here's what I was dealing with:
There was great "dappled" light, as they say, but I was constantly adjusting my f-stops and EV comp just to deal with the rising sunlight. I kept blowing out my pictures (and hey, I'm a little rusty here! Read the last post and you'll mebbe understand. Cut me some slack) and all you could see was white.
I snuck onto the course before the closed it down and snapped a few shots. The grandstand in the back is the finish line. As you can see, the early morning runners were getting their fix before the pros rolled on through. Next year I have to remember to bring my boxing gloves and "Eye of the Tiger" mix tape and run up and down the last 400 yards before I'm kicked off to make up for those 364 days of non training I have to endure.
I also snapped this picture of the mounted horse patrol getting ready before the race.
It's fall in NYC. And now onto the race photos. As I mentioned, the light and depth were messing with my mind and I am a little out of practice, so I didn't very good shots of the winners of each category. The following are my favorite pictures from the day (note: I shot nearly 600 frames today and came away with only 12 or so).
Those are the wheelchairs and the hand bikes.
Does anyone else besides me see the comedy in the name of the runner in blue? His last name is AWOL and he's running (presumably away from something).
And finally, possibly the best frame I shot all day.
The type of morning were the air is soft against your skin and you could spend all day outside, doing nothing in particular, but just enjoying the beautiful weather.
Sorry for not posting all week. I find my weekdays have become increasingly packed. I am totally fine with that, but when I want to write about something that happens on Monday, it’s difficult to recall every last, minute detail on Saturday or Sunday (yeah, I have that bad of a memory).
This evening last I went to one of the most quirky events I have ever been too. I wish I had brought my camera to show you visually, but alas, I forgot it up in the Bronx. This event was so rich and rare, that I don’t think many New Yorkers are even aware it exists. I traveled with a friend all the way down to the Bowery (F train to Delancey), a truly quirky, hipster-filled neighborhood that is one of the remaining neighborhoods to be gentrified. It still has it’s "we are who are are, and you can go eff yourself if you don’t like us" attitude. Aesthetically, the Bowery still has the feeling of early 1900s NYC. Many of the old tenements are still in tact, but in rough shape. It feels like you’re in West Side Story or Taxi Driver (you know, the one with De Niro).
I hope I’ve created enough suspense as to what this event is. Some will dig it, other’s will have a "WTF, mate" reaction. What did I go see you ask yourself…
I saw ‘Shakespeare in the Parking Lot.’ Yes, that’s right. I went and saw a performance of Romeo and Juliet performed in a parking lot down in the Bowery. It was a pretty sweet concept. They performed the original play (none of this West Side Story, Jet-Li or Leo DiCaprio BS), but set it in modern day NYC (costuming, scenery, et al). I always have mixed feelings when they do something like that. I saw The Alchemist in London where they did the same thing (kept the original script, but wore modern garb) and I didn’t like it. I thought the director did a decent job adapting this production.
Something that also made this production cool was that since you were in a parking lot, there was no back stage, there was no curtain to go hide behind. Actors would just run off the main acting strip and go chill next to some car for a while until they were suppose to come back on. I saw the Friar chillen on the sidewalk listening to his iPod. Tybalt left several times to go grab something to drink from the bodega. The narrator would stand with the audience and walk around the entire production as the play progressed. I really liked that touch. They were just part of it all, hiding behind nothing, doing their own thing. It was sweet.
On to the casting. The supporting cast was most excellent. Mercutio and Benvolio were awesome. Mercutio actually reminded me of TUBOB and the pictures I have seen of him that have been floating around the internet. I really wish I had brought my camera, if just to snap a picture of Mercutio.
I had issues with the lead Romeo. The dude who was playing Romeo delivered his lines well, but it just wasn’t there. He had no passion. He showed no pain. I saw no spark between him and Juliet. I was disappointed. Also, his costuming was a little off. While everyone else looked like they were from the Lower East Side (disheveled, almost derilict), Romeo looked Hell’s Kitchen (muscle shirt, designer jeans, too cool for school). It was disappointing.
As much as I didn’t like Romeo, I was very happy I went. It was an awesome American interpretation (how much more American can you get than a parking lot?) of a great play. Damn, I wish I had brought the camera!
Yes, yes, the rumors are true.
I am running a half-marathon.
Why a half-marathon?
Well…
stick with me here on this one…
I have a goal of being awesome next fall for rugby season. I wanna rule the pitch. So, how am I to do that? One way is to be fitter than everyone else. But the problem is I’m not so good with setting a long term goal and keeping with it. So I’ve gotta set shorter term goals upon which will deliver me to my ultimate goal. So, a shorter term goal which incorporates my longer term goal is running a half-marathon. It’s here in London at a place called Silverstone. I don’t know exactly where it is, but I’ve been told it’s a race track.
Believe it or not, I’ve been training too. 
I try to run four times a week. Sometimes I only get in an intense 30 minutes, sometimes I go as long as an hour and a half. No matter how long I run for, there is always one common thing: I always see really interesting things.
The other day is a prime example. After my morning class, I had two hours to kill so I preplanned. I brought my running stuff, changed and shoved my street clothes in my backpack, threw it on my back, and took off. I ran up Kingsway, hopped a louie, and went all the way down Oxford Street to Speaker’s Corner. From there I ran down through Hyde Park to St. James Park, cut across to Buckingham Palace, ran along The Mall to the bottom of Trafalgar Square, and finally cutting over to the Embankment Station on the Thames. Running along the water, I finally nipped up at the Temple tube stop back to my school. All in all, it was about five miles, and I rocked it in about fifty minutes or so. My pace varied though, because all along the way, I kept seeing the most amazing things.
While running through Hyde Park, I saw this team of horses pulling a carriage with no one in it. I thought this rather peculiar. Then I realized what was going on. There was one guy riding separately, giving instructions to the team of two navigating the carriage. I thought that was pretty cool. Then, about 300 yards after them, there was another team in training. And then I realized, each team was breed specific. The first team of horses were the white-ish looking horses with the black spots all over and the second team of horses were all brown. It was the Queen’s horses and the new driver’s being trained. It was pretty dang cool.
Then, when I was running down pack Buckingham Palace, there was a team of formation of all black horses being ridden by the equivalent of our cavalry. They were ridding down the road and the only traffic that they yielded to was emergency vehicles. It was an impressive sight.
So yeah, I’ve got seven weeks until I have to run 13.1 miles. All my friends think I’m crazy, mainly because the race is the day after Saint Patrick’s Day. I think it will give me an excuse not to go crazy. I’ve got a lot of training left to do. The goal is to finish in less than two hours. I’m feeling like I can do it.
I’ll let you know of my progress.
I know, I am a dork. The sole reason behind this admission is that I have Wikipedia as one of my favorites on my tool bar (it actually comes in handy from time to time when you run across the obscure allusion). I happened upon Wikipedia this morning and, much to my suprise, the featured article of the day is Banff National Park. Ahhhhh… Banff National Park. Pristine. Peaceful. In a word: Immaculate. Quite possibly the first thing God made, and then the rest was just details. I visit at least once a year to indulge in some of my favorites: skiing, hiking, biking, running, eating, sleeping, relaxing, shopping. This year, I sadly will take a rain check, opting for Italy (rough life, eh?). But I will always have a place in my heart for Banff National Park.
