Wednesdays with Sam

Look who I get to spend my day with today! Off to nanny now!

Surprise

Got a great surprise on Saturday by way of Anna, who was in town with her gentleman friend (hee hee), Tom. We met at Leezie's, who was at home with the cuter-than-ever Sam, and then walked over to Havana Alma de Cuba, our old go-to place on Christopher Street. We had a yummy dinner (I couldn't resist getting my fave, pollo a la maggie) and had fun chit chatting (Leezie and Sam even stayed for a while, underlining Sam's staus as the coolest baby in the West Village). Afterwards, we joined the hordes of tourists at Magnolia and indulged in some yummy cupcakes...worth the wait, of course!

One of these days, I'll have to get up to Boston to see Anna before she ventures off to law school---she's either heading to San Francisco or New York--but until then, it's always nice to see her in this neck of the woods!

Fast Finishes

While most of us were still sleeping this morning, Bec and Karl were out racing in the St. Anthony's triathlon. And just after nine a.m., Bec crossed the finish line in second place (!) while minutes later Karl breezed through in 17th. The St. Anthony's race is one of the biggest in the nation, attracting the fastest swimmers, bikers, and runners in North America, so there's no doubt that Bec certainly established herself as a force to be reckoned with after her amazing performance. Meanwhile, Karl's well on her way to an astounding rookie season! Congrats to both. Once again, you've wowed me!

Doing my publicist duties with a couple of clips from the race. There's some good stuff here!

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Seeing double: As Laurel Wassner crossed the finish line in 2:10:59 to place 17th in the women's professional division, a familiar face stood off to the side, awaiting her arrival.
Wassner's identical twin, Rebeccah, crossed the line 10 minutes earlier in second.
it was the first time the two competed in the same race.

"I would always wait for her," said Rebeccah, a professional as well. "I would go back and try to run the last bit with her if I was allowed to."

The two 33-year-old triathletes plan to train together for upcoming events. Rebeccah lives in New York; Laurel lives just across the Hudson River in Hoboken, N.J.

"I don't think anybody else in the race could have felt what we were feeling," Laurel said. "It's pretty unique."

From Inside Triathlon:

After two straight second place finishes at St. Anthony’s, Sarah Haskins finally stole center stage with wire-to-wire win in 1:59:24 finish that gave her a 70-second margin of victory over fellow U.S. pro Rebeccah Wassner and a definitive 2 minutes 28 seconds margin over the third place finisher, Ironman 70.3 World Champion Mirinda Carfrae of Australia....Haskins’ fifth-best 1:01:34 bike held even with Wassner, McGlone and Lavelle, while putting a minute on Carfrae and Dibens. At the final transition, Haskins had a 55 second lead.

...But Wassner’s runner-up finish ahead of certified stars like Carfrae, McGlone, Lavelle and Julie Dibens must have been even sweeter redemption after the 33-year-old New Yorker’s disappointing 10th place finish at Tuscaloosa.

“Rebeccah had a great performance today,” said Haskins. “This was more like her win at the Philadelphia Triathlon last year.”

Another Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I could really get used to this amazing, summery weather! We've had four straight days of sunshine and warmth, and I've tried to soak it in as much as possible whether it was taking Sam out for a long walk along the Hudson on Wednesday or venturing out on Washington Street during work breaks yesterday. Today, I've got the windows wide open, the music blasting, and I'm trying to bang out a bunch of columns. Yep, columns have consumed me once more (remember when I vowed to write one a day? Well, that didn't happen) and I have about 15 to write within the span of six days. The big hold up was the fact that I had ten items to write for livestrong.com as well as a few other projects that ate up my time this week. Of course, I'm not complaining in the slightest--having a lot of work to do is a GREAT thing when you're freelancing.

I'm going to take a break now and get some grub. The basketball in my stomach (yes, that would be Baby F, who is growing astronomically) cannot be denied food any longer!

And BTW: Good luck to Karl and Bec at the St. Anthony's Tri this weekend!

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In an attempt to do anything but work, I took a few minutes to check out the press pic's from yesterday's Olympic Trials. Among them was this nice shot of Bec and a fellow triathlete on the third leg (note that thought she's behind here, she did in fact wind up passing her before the finish line).

As Bec recounted, yesterday was not her day. The glory--and the Olympic berth--went to her training partner, Julie, who had the race of her life to make it to her second squad in her second sport--an amazing feat. Just as amazing is the fact that I share similar DNA with one (make that two!) of the fastest female triathletes in the nation. Regardless of how Bec finished yesterday, the true accomplishment is that she made it to the Olympic Trials. And how many people can say that?

So congrats to Bec on this phenomenal feat, and here's to an awesome '08 season for both of my pro triathlete sisters. Expect to hear many, many good results from them within the next few months.

Young Frankenstein!

I forgot to mention that we got our second dose of Broadway fun on Friday night...Leezie once hooked us up with tix, this time to Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. The show was silly, captivating, and extremely fun. Plus, the set was one of the coolest I've seen on B'Way...thanks again to L for making it happen :-)

Run for the Parks

On the typical Sunday morning, I meet with adidas Urban Run to do a quick 4-miles along the West Side Highway. This morning, however, we ventured up to Central Park for the annual adidas Run for the Parks. Mark joined our group of about ten for the 4-mile jaunt underneath gloomy gray skies and chilly temps.
Given that I'm not supposed to be running very fast these days, I held back all urges to take off at the gun and ran a super relaxed race, coaching Mark as he fought off a nagging charlie horse in his back of all places. Ouch!

Once we got home, we relaxed with a yummy pancake, egg, and sausage brunch at home...now it's time to WORK!

Go Yanks!

The cutest Yankees fan ever???

SELF!

My first story for SELF is in the current (May) issue! I saw the mag on a newsstand and excitedly flipped through it until I found my piece. I'll buy a copy later on and hopefully scan in the story soon. It's on..what else?...triathlon!

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Sam & Bob

Last night, Mark and I took Sam out for his first official run in the Bob (that's the Cadillac of jogging strollers for those of you out of the stroller loop). Granted, he's had many, many walks in his sweet ride with mom and dad, but now that he's big enough for a run, I couldn't resist taking him out on the west side path. Mark steered him and I ran ahead as we cruised for a couple-three miles; Sam loved it so much that he passed right out on the way home! Later on, we continued the fun by feeding Sam dinner, giving him a bath, and getting him all cute and giggly just in time for Leezie's return from A Catered Affair's (Speed's show) opening night and party. No doubt this guy's a night owl, just like his mom (and his auntie...well one of them at least!).

I've had so much fun being Sam's pseudo-nanny over the past couple of weeks. I'm sure I wasn't the super nanny that my mom was, but I learned a lot about keeping a routine and keeping him entertained while trying to keep up work! It's getting me even more excited about Baby F's arrival in approximately 3 months and 30 days!

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Tune in to Bec's race on Saturday!

Be sure to carve out time on Saturday afternoon to cheer Bec (in spirit) at the OLYMPIC TRIALS! Log onto slowtwitch.com at 1 p.m. Eastern (noon Central) to "watch" the action unfold via live updates. Here's the press release...

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. (April 14, 2008) -- Slowtwitch.com, a leader in online multisport news and information, will be providing live updates from this weekend's 2008 U.S. Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The races are set for Noon (women) and 2:30 p.m. (men) Central Time on Saturday, April 19.
You will be able to follow the action to see which male and female athlete will join Jarrod Shoemaker and Laura Bennett on the U.S. Olympic Team at September's Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

USA Triathlon has three qualifying events for the Games. The first was in Beijing last September, with Shoemaker and Bennett earning the first spots. The Olympic Trials in Tuscaloosa on Saturday will give the top U.S. man and woman the next spots. The final man and woman will be selected after the June 22 Hy- Vee Triathlon in Des Moines, Iowa. Those remaining slots will be awarded based on a points system taking into account the best two races for each athlete left in the running.

Visit Slowtwitch to view the updates on Saturday.

Here's the list of athletes competing in Tuscaloosa on Saturday. (Athletes must be ranked in the top 125 of current Olympic rankings or World Cup rankings)

Women
1. Sarah Kortuem
2. Julie Ertel
3. Sarah Groff
4. Sara McLarty
5. Becky Lavelle
6. Jasmine Oeinck
7. Margaret Shapiro
8. Rebeccah Wassner WHOO HOO!
9. Joanna Zeiger
10. Amanda Stevens
11. Mary Beth Ellis

Cry Baby

Last night, we were lucky enough to catch a sneak view of the new show Cry Baby, courtesy of Leezie. It's a fun show, and though I was entertained, I wasn't completely enraptured by it. I guess it's because it's easy to draw comparisons between CB and Hairspray (similar timeframe, writer, Balmore setting, and bubble gum sweet and upbeat tunes)--and nothing can top the Spray! There were many great scenes and dancing, but there wasn't that one showstopping tune that sent my toes tappin' or my fingers snappin'. Still, it was great to see another new show, and Baby F seemed to love it--he was kicking the entire time! Thanks to Leezie for snagging the tix for us!

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Congrats to Bec and John for their BIG news!

crash bam BOOM

For the second Saturday in a row, Mark and I were privy to the aftermath of a pretty horrendous bang-up on Washington Street...right underneath our window. Early early this morning (around 4 a.m.), we were both jolted from sleep by a loud boom. Mark rushed to the window and yelled that there was an accident...I ran out and saw the melee: One car was haphazardly parked in the middle of the road, it's passenger side completely smashed into the back of another parked car. Cars on either side of that one were damaged and worse yet, there was another car sitting upside down on the sidewalk directly across the street from us. I freaked, thinking for sure there were people trapped inside any of these cars, but we soon realized that only one moving car was involved...the rest were parked (and empty). Two obviously drunk guys stumbled out from the wreckage, seemingly perfectly fine otherwise. Police, paramedics, and the FD had all arrived within minutes (it is a small town, after all!), and we continued to watch the drama unfold as they carted the driver and passenger away in cop cars, then tended to two folks in the back who at first we didn't see...when we realized there were two guys back there, Mark thought that they were for sure dead. But eventually we saw them moving and the paramedics took them away...

We later found out that the driver first smashed into another parked car right down the street, which sent him careening into the first four cars on our corner. The impact sent one flying into an area that just hours before was packed with people eating outside at the Elysian Cafe. The driver had to have been going at least 80mph (in a 25 mph zone) to cause the damage he did...at least two if not three cars totaled.

Funnily enough, exactly one week before, another accident occured on our side of the street in which one car smashed into another car adjusting a parking spot. That one wasn't nearly as bad (at least no one needed to be carted out in a stretcher), but also caused a parked truck to jump the curb and smash into the mailbox in front of our building.

Makes me think twice about parking on Washington Street...

Congrats to ULA!

A big congrats to my roomie for her awesome fifth place finish at the IronGirl Las Vegas Race this morning! She stepped it up big time and hung in there with some major pros--we're talking world champions here!--and came out smiling, I'm sure. I'm so proud!

Inside Tri wrote up a good piece (tho poorly edited..hopefully one of these days they'll get Bec's name spelled right) about the race, featuring a nice mention of Ula...reading this brought happy tears to my eyes!

One of the happiest women in the field is Laurel Wassner, 32, of Hoboken, New Jersey, sister of elite pro Rebecca Wassner. Laurel is making her pro debut nine years after surviving a bout with Hodgkin’s’ Lymphoma and was the first cancer survivor in the United States to earn a professional triathlon license. “Last year my sister and I went to see the Iron Girls race in Columbia, Maryland, not far from our family’s home in Gaithersburg. “I was so impressed,” said Laurel Wassner. “It was run so well and I loved seeing so many women of all ages and abilities having fun together. I saw a daughter, mother and grandmother all race together and I loved the whole spirit of the event.”

Wassner emerged from an excruciating five years of exhaustion, uncertainty after a debilitating process of chemotherapy. But just a few years ago, she got a clean bill of health. “When I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease in 1999, I was on the George Washington University swim team with Jessi Stensland and psyched to start triathlon. But when I was diagnosed, I was sidelined for several years. Mentally and physically, it was the worst feeling. For three years, I felt like I was nauseated and 100 times more tired than I had ever felt before. But when I started to feel better, I did one triathlon in 2005, then a few more. The turning point for me came in 2006 when I went with my sister to the World Championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. It was bigger than any triathlon I had seen before and just really made me want to race. Right after that, I got word from my doctors at the Sloan Kettering cancer institute in New York that I was officially dismissed from treatment. Right then I started training with my sister Rebecca. Some of her hard work and drive mist have rubbed off on me, because last year I won The Nation’s Triathlon in DC. It was the best day of my life – I ran my best ever 10k – 37:15 – which took me past my old college (George Washington).” Later that year, Laurel Wassner took third overall elite amateur at the Nautica New York City Triathlon and second overall amateur at the US Open in Dallas.”

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I have the best sisters!

As I sit here eating tag-a-longs brought to me by Ula, peruse story ideas sent along by Bec, and get ready for a fun day with Leezie's adorable Sam tomorrow, I gotta give a shout-out to my sisters--they truly are the BEST!

BTW...

...I posted new pictures on my other blog. Check it out for some cute-slash-eerie pics of the little guy!

A good Monday

Today I spent most of my day slogging through stories for my latest employer, Livestrong.com. This soon-to-be launched website is backed by my man Lance Armstrong, and is touted to be the go-to site for everything you need to know about health and fitness. They had me writing ten stories in ten days about everything from preventing shin splits to finding the right inline skates. In true Sarah fashion, I waited until the last minute to finish these (in my defense, ten days is really not enough time to research, report, and write ten stories!), but managed to get them all done...for now. I have a feeling there will be more work coming my way as they build up content before next month's launch.

I called it quits around six and went on a great run around the 'hood with Mark. Since Hoboken is only a mile square, you have to get creative in order to get any mileage in. We have a nice route that takes us along the water (with the awesome view of the skyline), down the piers, and back along past Steven's Institute. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep this up for at least another month or so...still feeling pretty good during runs, though I have had to resort to boxy t-shirts to keep my bump covered! (All of my other workout shirts tend to ride up with every step I take).

Afterward, we whipped up a delish dinner of mahi mahi (courtesy of a Trader Joe's stop over the weekend), and brown rice...topped off with a Little Debbie brownie for dessert...(I just couldn't resist...)yum!

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Dedicating this one to the my main sneezes: Bec, my dad, and Mark!

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Today I ventured back to my favorite workspot of all: Mojo. I just love everything about that place. The funky girl behind the waitress, the perfectly-sized tree trunk tables, the Jack Johnson piped through the iPod stereo. It's just got such a vibrant, hip, coffee-shop-in-the-Village vibe. It's definitely worth the bus ride in from the 'Boke.

I worked for a bit, did a phoner, and packed things up when M and Sam arrived for a visit. We chatted for a bit while Sam entertained himself by staring at the light fixtures and making his favorite blubbering-lip noise. As usual, his cuteness attracted attention from strangers, which he soaked up like a pro.

We went back to Leezie's place and proceeded to order southeast Asian food (thanks, M!) for din. Mark joined us and we had fun watching Sam eat his carrots and apple sauce, then playing with him before L got home from work. I can't tell you how nice it is to just be able to pop over there whenever I want and see my mom...I'm going to miss her when she goes back next week!