mileage milestones

So if you'll recall, I bought this bike.I've recently been able to share my hundred-mile milestones with friends riding along. Of course the celebrations all took place in my head (like most of my celebrations), but they were still somehow satisfying. Celebrate with me, if you will:

mile-rider-occasion:
1000-Holly-tagging along for the Harry Potter release
1100-Richard-movie at the IFC
1200-Collin-home from the Simpsons movie
1300-Ann-dinner at Alejandro's
1400-Amy-mp3 experiment 4
1500-Marcus-ride up to West Point

Mile 1600 is coming up in less than 15 miles, but sadly I don't think even I'll be along for that celebration. Mile 1600 hundred would have already come and gone, but now will probably take place while the fine mechanics at BMW of Manhattan are testing out their handiwork. After a frightening yet miraculously minor incident involving a really bad spot of road, my bike will be out of commission probably until I get back from Costa Rica at the end of October. Oh yeah, and I'm going to Costa Rica until the end of October. I guess that's reason to celebrate.

experimental mp3

Maybe you've heard of the group Improv Everywhere. If you haven't you can redeem yourself by clicking that link and learning about them. On Saturday, I met some kiddies (over 800) downtown for one of their missions. Read about it here or here if you are interested. I'm not going to reinvent the wheel by describing it again. It was big fun and here are some pictures.


Above is an aerial shot of the human bullseye we were instructed to make. As a participant in a yellow shirt, I was one of the darts that got to "shoot" myself into the center.


Above is me trying to wedge my big woman hips through the crowd. I'm easy to identify as I donned my red and white striped helmet for the daunting task.

After our long march, target practice and a game of freeze tag, we were instructed to lie down and were taken through a serious of relaxation exercises. Here's a shot of all of us lying on the lawn. See if you can spot Megan, Luke, Amy, Christina, Yancy and Alejandro...


Here's a shot of us in perspective with the Deustche Bank that caught on fire. We're in the lower right corner. The fire...well, look for the smoke.


Other than that, here's a true story: While we were supposed to be taking pictures of various whatnot, this guy comes up to me with his camera phone and asks if I will be in a picture with him. Not wanting to interrupt the spirit of the experiment, I smiled and he holds up his phone and snaps a shot. As he takes it, I realize that a) I’m wearing a yellow shirt and there was nothing in the instructions about taking pictures with someone with a yellow shirt or anything like that b) he wasn’t wearing earbuds and wasn’t even a participant in the experiment. Just as I realize this, he grabs me and kisses me and wanders off, I can only guess, to do it all over again to someone else. The end.

Bizarre Love Triathlon

So I recently got really excited about doing a triathlon again. You know, that event where you swim and bike and run consecutively? Problem is, I haven't really run more than a couple of miles, biked more than the occasional Harlem Y spin class or swam at all in more than I'd like to admit. So because I need accountability, I bought a membership on BeginnerTriathlete.com that will tell me what and when to do what and track my progress. So I can just sit back, do an occasional push-up and let the good triathlon vibes come to me. So I'm excited about doing a triathlon next year and I'm excited about getting one of those hot tri suits.