Now comes the next step – Run Graffiti. Also known as run bombing or fleet-ffiti, the art form involves using a GPS device to track a run, that once mapped creates faux lines, letters, or designs. For instance, the above work by an anonymous runner seems to be spelling the name “Paul”. There’s no telling who this Paul character is but chances are he’s pretty rad.

PLe1derland will continue to track this and other trends in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

The former is the reason I love running. There are few things that compare to the feeling of effortless speed. But it’s fear of the later that makes me a runner. If you think about it it’s really the reason anyone runs – or at least trains. Why else would you pound through long runs, exhaust yourself in a tempo, or do the extra interval when you’ve promised yourself you’d quit after the last three? It’s not simply because runners love pain. There are plenty of less strenuous ways to fill that fetish, (many that involve leather, ballgags, and Mistress Stephana the Goddess of Pain). At the end of the day we’re more than willing to torchure ourselves for the promise that one day we’ll be rewarded, even ever so briefly, by the run.

None of that has anything to do with my Brooklyn Half Marathon last weekend other than the fact that in all of my years of running; grueling workouts in 100 degree weather, miserable long runs in windy snain, painful intervals and hill workouts, vomit inducing races, and the like, nothing (NOTHING) has ever compared to the misery I felt in the last five miles of this race. Awful. It was not just the worst race of my life, or run of my life, it was up there with one of the worst experiences of my life – a hellacious 13.1 mile journey that brought me to the depths of insanity and perhaps beyond.

Yes, I am being a little dramatic, but it really fucking sucked.

Not that I didn’t know that going in. Two days before the race I went to the track to feel out a comfortable pace and turning a 7:00 mile was a chore. But stranger things have happened. I was better trained than now before my 3:24 marathon, and racing and running are different animals. Things could still click. They didn’t.

It started OK. My first eight miles were pretty respectable. Much slower than last year when I left the park on pace for a 1:20, but much better than I had expected. Take out mile six and I was averaging a 6:40 and change. Plus I felt good doing it. There were no satin lined clouds, but it wasn’t like I was pushing it like I was trying to break the tape in a 10K. But at the same time I knew better. This isn’t my first rodeo and there was no doubt in my mind after I rocked a 6:26 mile four that there was going to be a crash and it was going to be ugly. So I kept trying to take my foot off the gas and just settle into a reasonable pace. But there’s no mistaken – leaving the Park I felt good.

Mile 1 – 6:50
Mile 2 – 6:43
Mile 3 – 6:37
Mile 4 – 6:26
Mile 5 – 7:12
Mile 6 – 7:21
Mile 7 – 6:55
Mile 8 – 7:08

Then came mile nine. 8:00.

Let’s take a brief sidebar to discuss the difference between running and racing.

Most people run. Even when they race what they’re really doing is running. I’ve even made the argument that most people never actually run, only jog. Pearl had a great ad campaign that I’ve posted about that said something to the effect of – “If you’ve just run without sacrifice, congratulations you just jogged.” Most joggers see this as elitist hyperbole but I firmly believe that if it doesn’t hurt then you’re doing it wrong. That’s part of the beauty of a distance like 5K. No matter how stupid your first half of the race is you can gut out the rest. In my mind that’s what racing has always been about. You get as close to your threshold as you can stand and you toe that line through the finish. You leave everything on the course. But as I’ve repeatedly been taught, there is no gutting out a poorly run half marathon – lesson that was painfully driven home yet again this day.

After mile nine I started fading fast. And I couldn’t have been passed by more people if I turned around and tried to plow up the course like a salmon going to spawn.

Mile 10 – 8:39
Mile 11 – 8:24
Mile 12 – 9:26

Over these three miles, the three most miserable miles of my life I was passed by dudes in basketball shorts, fat people, possibly even Team in Training people – it was that bad. I was even passed by a dude with one leg. ONE LEG. Granted, this dude was beyond a rock star and I have absolutely nothing but respect for anyone who even thinks about competing a distance race with a prosthetic because I’m incapable of fathoming the extra degree of pain he must be plowing through, but he had one fucking leg man. Think of what that did to my self esteem.

Unfortunately it did noting for my next mile and I limped into the finish just barely getting under 1:40.

Mile 13 – 8:31
Mile 13.1 – 1:05

How about some perspective. Well, it’s about 12 minutes off my PR from last year. No biggie though because I was in much better shape. I ran the Gasparilla Half Marathon with a full sized American flag and ran about the same time. Ouch. In the NYC Marathon my second half would have probably beaten me. Double ouch.

In the end what did I learn? Bring a Metro Card? When in doubt carry an excuse flag? Realistically, I learned nothing. I’ll likely do the same thing again down the road, and likely post about how much that experience sucked as well. But at very least it’s imprinted a memory of pain that I’ll carry with me into my training – which at least on the short term is geared at finding my satin lined cloud, picking another race, and trying to escape the neckless dudes with bats. In short, Paul Leone will rise again! Take that one legged man!

http://blg.mktg.com/index.php/2010/05/umbrella-masacre-2010/

As Tuesday’s wind and rain subsided, the city woke up to a stunning work of contemporary art that might be the most ambitious project the City has seen since Christo and Jeanne-Claude installed The Gates in Central Park. Part statement of the tragic interplay of man vs. nature, and part parasol graveyard, NYC’s sprawling streets became the tragic canvas of literally thousands of mutilated and abandoned umbrellas forlornly lying—twisted, mangled, dead. There’s no telling who the unnamed artist who conceived this staggering work is, but it raises the bar for public artists everywhere.

Sigh.

Anyway, checks my steez at www.runboston2010.com.

Whatever, details.

So I have no idea what I’m thinking at this point. It’s still coming down hard with 30 mph gust rocking the snow up against my half naked body like I’m standing next to a snow blower. But I get to the corner and I make a right, then a left, then a right, and next thing I know I’ve done 9 miles through Times Square. And this wasn’t like a walk in the park kind of run, I was doing 7:30 miles on ice covered streets.

Anyway, that started a thing for me, and I’d run a second short short snow run on the day the runner Station went down. This time I added a shirt, and a flag.

So when a coworker asked if we wanted to run through the blizzard yesterday I was like “obvi, and I’m wearing my split legs and bringing my flag.” And from that point on things just got silly. We picked a route for optimal exposure (pun intended).

Video to come but the pictures below tell a lot of the story.

Snooki from the MTv Show Jersey Shore is best known for getting clocked in the face by a drunken Bro-bot while wearing an Ed Hardy hat. And by best known I mean primarily associated with, and by that I mean I’d have no clue who the fuck that oompa loompa was if I hadn’t seen the animated gif file of her getting her face mangled by a knuckle sandwich and watched it for three straight hours as I giggled manically. That’s wrong right?

Yesterday URLesque jumpstarted Sean Ahern‘s attempt to meme this gargoyle by posting a nice clean transparent image of her on his tumblr page. Above is my hat into the ring. I call it “Snooki Crossing the Delaware”.

This comes from an email I sent to coworkers today. Now that I’m a Digital Strategist my lone concern is strategery and digital. This blog will become the staging point. Do not fear the 1derland. Embrace the 1derland. Embrace.

I often remark on the fact the world wide information superweb is a vast land of hope, wonder, and pornography – which it is. The amount of pornography is both vast and wonderful giving us all hope. But it’s so much more than just a place to find broadband speed smut. The internet is a friend, a research partner, a teacher, an entertainer, and a place to find hundreds of hilarious compilations of people falling down, (like this awesome one for instance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AbQpzn6t4c).

Now that I’m now a Digital Strategist, staying current with what’s happening on the inforwebs is not just a way to waste time between meetings – it’s now a way to waste time between meetings, AND my like my job. Or something. I think? But since I wrote it in my job description it’s safe to say it’s true until someone tells me different. I’m pretty sure that’s in the playbook.

Being that I’m a giving man, (and Paul Leone most certainly is a giving man,) I’ve decided that I want to share my daily finds with those of you who spend your days buried in spreadsheets and budgets. In this way we can all participate in the awesome. Expect about 4 links a day, feel free to submit anything you find, feel free to forward as necessary, and if you’d prefer not be on the list respond with “unsubscribe” in the subject line and my automatic mailbot will tell you to F-yourself.

Enjoy.

PL

…

Web Learnings from 01/26/2010

I’ve been digging stop motion for a while, and no one does it better than PES. I checked out his site for the first time and the commercials are amazing. Check Nike, Scrabble, and Beasty Boy (maybe especially Beasty Boy), but it’s all pretty choice stuff.

http://www.eatpes.com/

I have this weird thing this winter for running around in 2.5 inch split leg shirts when it starts snowing. Whatever, it happens. But according to this at least I’m not alone. None of them have an American flag though. Advantage? Paul Leone.

http://www.urlesque.com/2010/01/26/naked-snow-angels/

Really cool designer who does stuff with a different random object each week. Maybe next week he’ll find a use for all those extra Human Race shirts we have in the back. Hammock?

http://design-milk.com/mercado-negro-by-ramon-coronado/

I’ve played with this twice and lost.

http://www.zigzagphilosophy.com/

BONUS ARTICLE: I get this distinct feeling that Michelangelo would have been my BFF. Dude had authority issues, a thing for naked chicks, and some very secular beliefs. Opposites attract.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18386_7-mind-blowing-easter-eggs-hidden-in-famous-works-art.html