I had another training round today [Wednesday] with six 1000m that went reasonably well: 3’42” – 3’41” – 3’38” – 3’42” – 3’39” – 3’39″…. Of course, a few years ago I was finishing in 3’30… Too bad my friends from the INSEE Paris Club were running 500m’s today (in 1’41”!) Still, with just one more training to go on Sunday in Central Park, I hope I am prepared enough for the race in 10 days…. (It is fairly childish to get focused so much on a back-country race attracting a few hundred runners; however, I have been somehow preparing for this race since 1996, given that I had no hope for a top position prior to turning V2 (French grading) / V50 (UK grading)!)
Archive for Central Park
Good training [2]
Posted in Running with tags Argentan, Central Park, half-marathon, training on September 23, 2011 by xi'anPosts of the year
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics, Travel with tags Central Park, Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R, ranking, The Search for Certainty on August 13, 2010 by xi'anHere are the top posts since last August, before the ‘Og goes on a semi-vacation regime. Even though my attempt at news with the pictures from the tornado in Central Park was rather successful, I am pleased to see that my pet project of illustrating simulated annealing on sudokus attracted more attention over the period!
- Home page 50,619
- Sudoku via simulated annealing 1,306
- Tornado in Central Park 998
- Solution manual to Bayesian Core on-line 953
- The Search for Certainty 827
- Top 15 all-timers? 716
- t-walk on the banana side 592
- Bayes vs. SAS 570
- New Le Monde puzzle 556
- Incoherent inference 547
- A ridiculous email 524
- Of black swans and bleak prospects 486
- About 448
- Bayesian p-values 420
- Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R: 415
- Solution manual for Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R 400
- t-walk on the wild side 394
- “Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R” 376
- Bayes’ Theorem 359
- “Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R” 358
- plagiarism exposed! 356
- Morning visit to The Louvre 352
- Rites of love and math 306
- On resolving the Savage-Dickey paradox 299
- Particle MCMC discussion 280
Maybe the most surprising item is the Morning visit to The Louvre as it is fairly mundane and does not bring much information, only impressions from our quick stroll through the museum… Less surprising is the relative success of the controversial posts like the criticisms of Black Swans and The Search for Certainty, or of Templeton’s PNAS attack against (Bayeian) inference. And a clear interest in Introducing Monte Carlo Methods with R!
Tornado in Central Park
Posted in Running, Travel with tags Central Park, New York city, tornado, trees on August 19, 2009 by xi'an
Last night, there was a particularly strong thunderstorm over New York City and I went to sleep thinking this would be a good thing to bring the temperature down. However, when I woke up this morning, the same sluggish warm weather was there, promising another hot and humid day… 
From the entrance of Central Park, I noticed that the road was littered with small broken branches and tree leaves, as a result of the thunderstorm, but I did more than half a loop of the park before hitting my first broken tree. 
And then there were many, many downed trees, fallen in a fairly concentrated area which was quite coherent with a tornado pattern. From 90th street up to the northern end of the park, by Harlem Meer, there were dozens of major trees uprooted or torn appart or yet completely cleaned from their branches… No clear sign of trees hit by lightning though.
Plus numerous broken branches all around. The major inner road that the half-marathon used last Sunday was blocked at several points by huge trees fallen accross. The tennis courts had been hit too, while the outdoor swimming pool that stood at a lower level was pristine clear of wreckage.
After completing the loop around the park, I came back to my hotel, grabbed my camera and went back immediately for another half-loop to take a few pictures before the park services would clean the roads or even close the park. 
I am actually surprised that Central Park still remains open as there may be loose branches still hanging or weakened trees. The only place that was closed was asmall part of the main road where a few trees had fallen, leaving a wide area to contourn them, with a police car turning people around to use instead a narrower path under the trees with several trunks that were a nuisance to climb… 
I am equally surprised that the potential dangers linked to broken trees did not prevent joggers or people walking small children or dogs from venturing on the smaller paths.
New York City 1/2 marathon
Posted in Running, Travel with tags Central Park, half-marathon, New York city, Paula Radcliffe on August 16, 2009 by xi'anWhen I went running to Central Park this morning, I knew something was on when I saw police stationed at every entry of the park. Almost immediately, I hit an endless flow of runners and one of them told me he was taking part in the New York City 1/2 marathon. This was most frustrating as I would have registered, had I known… This is the fifth time this type of “coincidence” happens to me, after Roma, Venezia, Fairbanks, and Ottawa!!! I then decided to run against the flow to see as many runners as possible, as well as the race track. The track did one and a half loops in the park before heading south in the city along 7th Avenue, I think, all the way down to Battery Park. After two miles or so I came across the head of the race and there was…Paula Radcliffe herself!, less than a meter away from me (for a few seconds!), on her way to victory in 1:09:45!!! I vaguely contemplated running next to her to better appreciate this incredible pace but this could have been against regulation and anyway I don’t know how long I could have stood this 18k per hour pace in such a humid heat! So I kept on the loop within the park, meeting higher and higher numbers up the 1400’s, till I crossed “runners” walking their second mile with very little chances of completing the whole race.
