AIDS Service Center, Track Meet and Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year, The Trevor Project

Lots of running and eating news to report this past month.  Sorry for cramming it all into one long post!

First, I am so super proud to say that I've received an award from the AIDS Service Center NYC for the work that I've done for them on behalf of Front Runners New York.  FRNY has had a great relationship with ASC over the past few years.  For those of you who aren't familiar with ASC's work, they're a community organization that provides services for New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS.  Their programs include peer education and training, harm reduction, specialized women's services, HIV counseling and testing, and a host of other services that help NYC's most vulnerable individuals and families survive and thrive in the face of HIV/AIDS.

I've actually been involved with ASC for longer than I have with FRNY, since my good friend David Berman used to work with them.  (By the way, ASC holds a great party every June, Safer Sex in the City, which I've been proud to be on the planning committee for.)  FRNY's partnership with ASC started out in 2009 when FRNY's Charitable Foundation provided ASC's clients with hundreds of holiday gifts bags (which consisted of hats and gloves and the like).  We then gave ASC a large financial gift so that they could continue doing the valuable work that they do.  In honor of FRNY's gift, ASC named their new wellness room the "Front Runners New York Wellness Room," and even held a dedication ceremony for it.  That's when I, along with several other Front Runners, received our awards, which honored us for our "spirit of giving" which has "touched the lives of countless New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS."

It was a really touching gesture by ASC.  I'm so proud of the work that they do, and so happy that FRNY has been able to develop a great partnership with them.

The picture above is of me and Sharen Duke, the Executive Director of ASC, and a current member of FRNY.  Sharen actually ran in the 2010 New York City Marathon wearing the Front Runners singlet, and finished in an amazing 4:22:29, earning her the 3rd fastest FRNY Women's Masters time in history.  Awesome job, Sharen!!!

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Remember my post about cheering with the Front Runners at the ING New York City Marathon?  Well, the New York Road Runners did a story about our cheering group in their New York Runner Magazine!  Check it out below!

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This past week was a week of tough races.  Last Thursday was NYRR's Thursday Night at the Races.  I decided to run the mile on the track.  It was my first track race since last year's FRNY Track Meet, when I did the 1200m in the Distance Medley Relay with Team Joy Luck Club, and only the second time I've ever raced a mile in my life (the first one was at the FRNY Track Meet in 2008... a 5:33.42 that may forever be out of my reach now...).

I knew this wasn't going to be the race of my life.  I had done a speed workout on Tuesday, and then a pretty fast 6-mile loop on Wednesday, so my legs were tired even before the race started.  I really wanted to break 5:45, though, but wasn't quite sure if I'd be able to do it.

I was really nervous.  There's something about running on the track that terrifies me.  Maybe it's the fact that everyone is standing in the middle of the track watching you.  Maybe it's that in short distances, you're pushing your body harder than you ever would in a road race.  Or maybe it's that the track sometimes seems dominated by people who are running 4-minute miles.  Either way, I felt a huge pit in my stomach, a feeling of utter terror that I haven't experienced before a race in years, if ever.

Then the starting gun went off.  Through the sheer randomness of how we lined up, I was placed in lane one.  All of the other nine runners in my heat were outside of me on the track.  That meant that everyone had to merge together after the start, except for me.  So for the first 75 meters or so, I was out ahead of everyone.  I didn't know what was going on, and where everyone else was.  Then I realized that I was out in front.  I hate running in front of everyone, since I'm so bad at pacing myself.  Koach Kelsey saw me kind of confused and panicking around the bend, and he yelled out to me to run my own race.  It was definitely comforting to hear that.

Finally, as I was finishing the first lap, I was passed.  This was actually a relief to me, as it made me think I wasn't going out too crazy fast.  My first lap was 41 seconds.

Around lap three was when I wanted the race to end.  I had completely forgotten that feeling you get when you run really, really fast at the Armory, and your mouth, throat and lungs can't deal with the dry, disgusting indoor air there.  I felt like I needed a giant glass of water, but I still needed to go five more times around that damn track.  And I started getting passed by two more people.  Kelsey was telling me to keep up with them, he said he knew I could do it.  I knew I could too, but my legs and my breathing just weren't cooperating.  I felt myself slowing down rather than trying to reach them.  I saw that my splits had fallen closer to 44 seconds.  I just couldn't get myself to push harder.  It was a bit disappointing, especially when I was passed again towards the end of the mile.

But I knew I could still make my time of 5:45.  I managed to pull it together for the last 100 meters, pump my arms harder and broaden my stride a bit, and I charged for that finish line.  I put everything I could into that finish, and got there, at 5:44, just in the nick of time!  OMG, I was so happy!  So relieved that it was over.  So glad I had accomplished what I set out to do.  It was a great feeling.  Even though it was 11 seconds slower than my mile from 2008, it made me realize that I have it in me to run fast, to set a goal and then grasp it.  It's a great feeling.

But it wasn't just me that got myself around the track those eight times.  I think I saw Kelsey 16 times during those eight loops, as he ran back and forth and back and forth to encourage me to do my best.  And then there were at least a dozen other Front Runners, at various points along the track, always cheering me on whenever I ran by.  What a great way to run a race, knowing that I'm being helped out every step of the way by my friends and teammates.  Thanks to all of you who pushed and pulled me along!

After last Thursday's experience, I think I'll run the Mile again at the FRNY Annual Indoor Track Meet in March.  You should join me!  Click below to register:

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Sunday was the Valentine's Day Marathon / Half-Marathon / 10K, the Valentine's Day version of the free race that I did with my parents on Christmas Day.  I had gone to the race intending to run three loops (about 19 miles), but instead, ran-walked one loop, through treacherous ice and snow.  It was brutal, slippery, and dangerous, and it took me almost an hour and a half to finish.  But once I realized that this wasn't going to be my long run of the week, it was actually kind of fun.

Here's a picture of the 10K group.  Some other Front Runners decided to run a second loop.  No, thank you!

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It was Chinese New Year a little while ago.  I invited a bunch of Front Runners out to me and Fatai's annual Chinese New Year's Dinner and Booze Fest.  I decided to do things a little differently this year.  Last year, the gays all complained that the restaurant's set menu was too weird and Chinese-y.  Nobody liked the jellyfish and the baby octopus, and the fried flounder, and blah blah blah.  So this year, I pre-picked all the dishes and just ordered everything a la carte.  I was a little nervous, since it's hard to order for 24 picky gays (and Rachel, a vegetarian).  But everyone uniformly said that the food was MUCH better than last year, so I think it was a big success.

Here's what I ordered.  For just $25 per person, we all filled up on some really tasty Chinese food, and around 20 bottles of wine (plus a bottle of Stoli--thanks, Anthony!).

Soup:
-minced beef, egg white and parsley soup (veggie bean curd soup for Rachel)


Meats:
-peking duck
-sliced beef w/ black mushrooms + bamboo shoots
-pork chop w/ peking sauce
-steamed chicken w/ mushrooms
-diced pickles and bacon w/ snow peas
-beef chow fun


Seafood:
-steamed buffalo fish
-prawns w/ crispy walnuts in mayonnaise (always a big hit!)
-salt baked squid w/ chili
-clams w/ black bean sauce

Veggies:
-assorted veggies + mushrooms buddhist style
-braised eggplant
-braised bean curd w/ brown sauce
-sauteed snow pea shoots

Here are some pictures of the food, fun and booze:

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OMG, it's less than nine weeks to the Boston Marathon!  I'm definitely getting nervous, even though I think my training has been pretty good so far.

I was chatting with my friend Audra the other day, who's also running Boston, and she came up with a great idea.  She told me that last fall, she went out for a bike ride over the George Washington Bridge, where she saw rainbow streamers left by individuals and a few "You Are Not Alone" signs bolted to the railings.  This was shortly after Tyler Clementi, a gay student at Rutgers, had committed suicide.  Audra approached me with the idea of joining together with some other LGBT runners to raise money for the Trevor Project, a national organization that provides a 24-hour confidential suicide hotline for gay and questioning youth.

I have a special fondness for the Trevor Project because, as you might remember from an earlier post, several Front Runners and I created a video as part of the Trevor Project's "It Gets Better" campaign.  If you haven't seen it, or would like to see it again, click below (note that Janice who appears in the video with me is also running in Boston and also raising money for the Trevor Project; so is Paul, who appears towards the end):

In this time when incidences of anti-gay bullying and suicides of gay youth are rampant, the Trevor Project's work is so important.  I'm so proud to be able to support an organization that is working to save the lives of LGBT youth all over the country.  Please join me in donating to the Trevor Project by clicking below so they can continue their amazing work.  Thank you!

Front Runner of the Year!!!

I have some really, really big news to report.  This past Saturday was the Annual Front Runners New York Awards Night -- the one big night of the year when we recognize all of the great running the club has done, all the the members' achievements, and everyone's huge successes.  I'm so honored, and so, so happy to report that the club awarded me with Front Runner of the Year!!!  

I couldn't believe it...I really didn't expect it at all.  But I am so proud to be able to represent FRNY in this really meaningful way.  So THANK YOU, to all of the Front Runners out there, who have all contributed to making the club my home.  It's through the club that I started running five years ago.  And it is because of the club that I've not only grown to love the sport, but have come to find a real family.  You're the people who I train and race with, but more importantly, you're one who  I share the best times of my life with.  You inspire me, you make me proud, you make me happy, and you make me who I am.

Congratulations to the other nominees for Front Runner of the Year: John, Rachel K, Bernie, and Darin.  You guys are amazing, both terrific athletes and wonderful people.  You're all part of the reason why I love this club so much.  Thank you for being you.

This award means especially much to me this year, as I'm beginning my tenure on the Front Runners Board as Men's Vice President.  I'm excited about the opportunity to help lead the club to great things this year, and I'm really happy to be serving on the Board with the great people below.  2011 is going to be an awesome year.  :-)

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The day after Awards Night, I joined seven other Front Runners at Ride Brooklyn for my first group Computrainer session.  For those of you unfamiliar with Computrainers, it's basically like a course simulator.  You hook up your own bike (in this case, I got to use my brand new Cervelo trike) to a trainer, which is hooked up to a computer system.  The trainer applies more or less resistance on your back tire depending on where you are in a particular course.  So it tightens automatically if you're going up a steep hills, and lets off the tension if you're going downhill.  In a group Computrainer session, everyone watches the screen which shows the course's elevation profile, where they are on the course compared to the other bikers, and various metrics like the rider's MPH, % incline, watts expended and so forth.

With the utmost in love and admiration of Rachel, who organized and promoted the group Computrainer sessions, I absolutely hated the experience.  I was miserable, miserable, miserable.  And not only that, I felt  utterly humiliated.  And frustrated.  It was just really bad.

I hated not being able to adjust the resistance on my own.  Instead, every few miles there was a crazy 6% incline that lasted for miles and miles.  And you're stuck with it.  You just have to pedal until the damn thing is over.  And the slower you pedal, the longer it takes.  It's just miserable.  And I don't know if my trainer was mis-calibrated or what, but it put SO MUCH resistance on my tire every time I went up a hill...I've ridden up plenty of hills before and none them were as hard as the ones the Computrainer had us do.  (Incidentally, the course that we were riding was supposed to be the bike course from the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon in Idaho.  That's one race that I'm NEVER going to do).

Worse yet was the fact that you just can't hide.  The whole time, everyone is staring at a screen like the one below that tells them exactly where they are in relation to the other bikers.

So basically, everyone saw that I was in last place.  And not only that, but I just got further and further and further behind.  I wasn't even close to the 7th place person.  Now, I know it's not a competition, and we're all among friends, and no one really cares about how slow you are... but it's so depressing when everyone in the room kicks your ass on the bike.  By the time Dan finished the 25 mile course, I was still on mile 16, and I had pretty much had enough.  I went to the bathroom just so I could get a few minutes off that damn bike.  It was just so, so, so brutal.

I paid for six sessions on the Computrainer.  And at the end of the first session, I was all but certain that I was going to sell my other five sessions to someone else.  But now, after having a few days to think about it, I've decided to stick it through all six sessions.  I can't even explain how miserable and humiliating the experience was.  But I have to admit, it was probably the best bike workout I've ever had.  Never before have I pushed myself quite so hard.  Even if it takes the fear of public humiliation to get me moving, it did get me through those 6% inclines.  But probably the thing I enjoyed the most about the workout was being able to train with a group of people who are awesome, who push me to do my best, and who are among my best friends.  It was great sitting next to Rachel, who helped me trudge up those unrelenting hills.  And Peter, Mike and Kyle have all seen me at my worst before too, when we spent a loooong 200 miles together this past year at Reach the Beach.  I know I would never be able to do anything like this on my own.  So I'm going to stick with it, and hopefully, in due course, I will learn to love it, or at least get a little better at it and not hate it so much.

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Here's a picture of the Lane 3 Boys at a recent Monday night swim workout.  What a group of hotties.  :-)  Come swim with us at the Long Island City YMCA on Monday nights!

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I briefly mentioned before in my bitter melon post that I'm part of a potluck group.  We get together about once a month and each bring a dish based on one or two theme ingredients.  Last month, it was gourds (hence, the bitter melon).  This month, it was legumes.  I decided to make one of my favorite dishes, dry-fried Chinese long beans.  Dry-frying the long beans -- sauteing them in a pan with nothing but some oil -- preserves the slightly leathery texture of the beans that distinguishes them from traditional green beans.  Some restaurants cheat by deep-frying them, but then you just end up with greasy beans.  The recipe is below.

Dry-Fried Chinese Long Beans

Ingredients:

(All measurements are approximate and can be adjusted according to taste.)

2 pounds long beans, cut into 3" lengths (can be substituted with green beans, but it's not quite the same)

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2" piece of ginger, minced

6-8 cloves garlic, minced

2 scallions, minced

1 tablespoon chili-bean paste (made with fermented soy beans and chili peppers, available in Asian markets and pronounced "la dou ban jian" in Chinese)

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tsp sesame oil

1 tsp dried chili pepper flakes

ground white pepper

ground Sichuan peppercorns

salt

In a wok or other big pot, heat on high until smoking.  Add vegetable oil and heat until really hot.  Add long beans and stir-fry for 4-6 minutes, until skins start to pucker.  Add half of the minced ginger/garlic/scallion and continue stir-frying for 2 more minutes.  Turn heat to medium, and add remaining ginger/garlic scallion and all other ingredients except salt.  If pan is dry, add a couple of tablespoons of water (or, better yet, rice wine).  Cover and cook for 4-6 more minutes, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender.  Adjust seasoning and add salt if desired.

One Hour Swim and Smothered Pork Chops

On Sunday, I did the Team New York Aquatics One Hour Swim.  The event is exactly what it sounds like...you have an hour to swim as much as you can.  It's all in a pool, and you just keep going, back and forth and back and forth.

I had set myself a goal of doing 3000 yards for the hour.  I had no idea if this was realistic or not, it just seemed like a nice round number.  It meant sustaining 60-second 50s for the whole hour.  I knew I was able to swim that fast for 200-yard intervals, but was really nervous about having to do it for an hour.

Before the swim started, we had about 5 minutes to warm up in our lane. Each of our lanes were divided into two.  I shared my lane with a nice woman whose name I forgot.  On my second warmup lap, I crashed into her.  It wasn't just a bump--my right arm locked onto her right arm and we became stuck to each other.  Then she yelled at me, in front of everyone at the pool.  I was so humiliated.  And I knew then and there that this swim was gonna be a sh-tshow.

Twenty seconds before the swim started, I noticed that just about every other swimmer kept a bottle of water  on the deck.  I hadn't even thought to bring water.  And I was already a little dehydrated from a night of karaoke and dancing Saturday night.  This was going to be a disaster.

My first lap, I tried to keep up with the lady in my lane (46 seconds).  That was way too fast.  So I slowed down the second and third laps (51, 55).  By the fourth lap I was tired.  But after the first six or seven laps, I pretty much settled into a groove where I was between 58-61 seconds for the rest of the hour.  One exception was at the halfway point, where I decided to do one lap of breast stroke to loosen up my arms (71 seconds, followed by two fast 56 second laps of freestyle).

Peter McGrane was standing on the deck, being a great cheerleader.  Many, many, many times when I got to the wall, I heard "GO DAVE LIN!" which definitely encouraged me to keep going.  As my mind was wandering through all those laps, I contemplated asking him to fetch me a cup of water, but didn't want to lose the time.  But then I couldn't stop thinking about it, and the more I thought about it, the thirstier I became.

I stayed relatively on my side of the lane pretty much the whole time.  Two times I bumped against the the lady, but they were both minor.  I was trying to hug the lane divider the whole time, and I'm actually quite surprised that I didn't jam my fingers into it--something that I do with quite some frequency.

After about 45 minutes, I started getting a little bored.  Like that feeling you get when you're running on a treadmill and just waiting for it to end.  I found myself looking at the clock after every lap to see how much more time I had left.  I felt fine physically, but it was just a long time to swim.

Finally, I was in the last few minutes.  I was really happy that I was able to make it the whole hour.  And my very last lap was actually one of my fastest laps, 55 seconds.  And then they called time...  and I was so, so happy I was done.  The longest I've ever swam continuously in my life.  It was so great to be finished.

But my real happiness didn't come until a few minutes later, when I was able to track down my timing sheet.  It turned out, I made my goal of 3000 yards!!  In fact, I had JUST BARELY made it, with 3040--not even a single lap to spare.  Wow!  I was elated.  It was such a great feeling to know that I had done exactly what I had set out to do, to have succeeded in reaching my goal.  It also made me realize how far I've gone in swimming over the past year or so.  Just a year and a half ago, I had my disastrous Metroman swim, where I was second to last out of 190 finishers.  And now, I can go 3000 yards without a problem!

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As you loyal readers of the blog may have noticed, I've become quite a big fan of Southern/soul food (see here, here and here).  So when Jonathan came over for dinner the other night, I was happy to get to test out a new recipe on a real Southerner.  He wanted pork, so I decided to make some tasty smothered pork chops.  Yummmmm....

I cook pork pretty frequently, but I just about always make it Asian.  And it's usually mixed in with a bunch of vegetables, never just a big hunk of meat.  When I do buy pork chops, it's usually the thin variety, which I think is a better vehicle for delicious Asiany marinades.

But this time I got 1" thick chops, better for dredging, frying, and covering in creamy gravy.  Mmmm....   Since this was my first time making smothered pork chops, I decided to loosely follow Tyler Florence's recipe.  Except Jonathan used the wrong pepper mill and put in ground Sichuan peppercorns instead of black pepper, haha.  

They came out pretty good, I have to say, and only took about 12 minutes to make in my cast iron skillet.  I even liked the slight tingliness of the Sicuan peppercorns.  :-)

My go-to Southern side dishes are always collard greens and sweet potatoes, since they're easy and pretty healthy.  But I think I need to branch out into other things.  Still, they came out pretty tasty this time...  I used smoked pork neck bones (very cheap at Fairway!) to flavor the collards.

Jonathan said all three dishes tasted just like back home (except his grandmother would have put an extra stick of butter in everything).  I took that as a great compliment.  Not bad for an Asian guy in New York City.

Bitter Melon, Bitter Cold, Bitter Year.

Good-bye, 2010, and good riddance.  2010 was a pretty disappointing year for me running-wise, and I am glad that it's over.  My total mileage for the year was a dismal 987, which was 25% less than last year.  Thanks to a butt injury that never fully went away and some other unfortunate occurrences, I lost a great deal of my fitness level, gained a ton of weight, missed out on the New York City Marathon, and felt that I lost a part of my identity.

I try to look on the positive side, though, and 2010 did have some good moments.  I managed to run a decent Boston Marathon (though 12 minutes off my PR) despite only about 25 miles per week of training.  I didn't let my team down (and had a lot of fun) at Reach the Beach and the Lockport 100-Mile Relay.  And, thanks to both the FRNY Multisport group and the Tritons, I've grown to enjoy, and have become somewhat decent at, swimming.  My biking, though, still leaves something to be desired; I guess I'll work on that in 2011.

Here's my running log for 2010.  I also kept track of the number of times I went swimming (62), biking/spinning (26...that needs to go up) or did yoga (22).  I'm kind of embarrassed to post it since I feel like the numbers are so low and there's so much blank space on it, but hopefully this will inspire me to train better in 2011 and have a really great year.

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My last race for 2010 was the half-marathon course for The Christmas Marathon, part of a series of free (that's right, FREE) races called The Holiday Marathons organized by a bunch of "passionate marathon-crazed local runners."  The race took place on the trails of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, and consisted of 1, 2 or 4 loops of a 6.55-mile course, depending on whether you were doing a 10K, Half, or Full Marathon.  And especially considering it was free, the race had a lot of fun goodies: candy canes for all finishers (varying in size from normal to humongous depending on how far you ran), Santa hats for everyone, bib numbers for everyone (well... they all said 1225, haha), photographers, bananas, apples and bottles of water.  I was very impressed.

This was a particularly special race for me because my parents were in town for Christmas, and I got to participate in the race with them.  My parents walked the 10k while I ran the Half; it was our first time ever doing a race together.  I think they had a lot of fun, and it was great to be able to take part in the race together, to give them an idea of what plays such an important role in my life.  It was definitely a nice way to celebrate Christmas.

The race itself was tough but fun, and my performance OK.  Although I haven't run this course before, I've run in Van Cortlandt Park several times, on the 5K course or in the VCTC 2 x 2 Relay.  So I knew it was going to be hilly.  And hilly it was.  Right at the start was a steep downhill really rocky trail, where I pretty much had to walk down or risk spraining my ankle.  And about a half mile later was what has apparently been dubbed "Holiday Hill"--a steep but short climb that almost stops you in your tracks.  Of course, they stationed a photographer there to capture everyone struggling up it.

There were only about 100 runners total in all three events, so after a couple of miles, I was just running by myself.  It felt nice, actually, to run in the woods alone.  I never get to do any trail running, so this was a welcome change of scenery for me, and I felt really at peace.

My first loop was about 55 minutes.  When I saw that, I couldn't believe it!  I knew I wasn't running particularly fast, but it definitely felt a lot harder than 8:23 miles.  I tried to speed up a little bit for the second half, but there were just so many hills and obstacles that I was never able to maintain it.  I lapped my parents at around mile 11.5 (their mile 5), and they looked like they were enjoying themselves.

At around 12.5, just as I was turning onto the final finish flat area, some guy passed me.  At first I was like, "whatever," and let him go ahead.  But then my competitive side took over, and I decided I wasn't going to let him win.  So I busted it out and tried to outkick him.  But he had the same idea.  It was a final sprint to the finish, and I even heard people standing by the finish line commenting on how we were neck-and-neck.  With about 20 yards to go, I kicked it up as hard as I could, didn't look back, and ran right to that finish line.  And I won!  Yayyy!!!  Of course, it was an untimed race, and no one will ever see the results, but it always feels good to outkick someone at the end of a race.  :-)

Despite the strong finish, my second loop was quite a bit slower than the first one, and I ended up finishing in 1:54:57.  Not really anything to brag about, but I was satisfied.

The Lin Family Racing Team

Daniel ran the full marathon (he's nuts!) and Manja did the 10K

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One of my goals for 2011 is to be a better biker.  To that end, I recently got a new baby--a brand new, gently used 2005 Cervelo Dual, my very first Tri Bike.  Cervelo doesn't make this bike anymore, apparently deciding to replace it with the Cervelo P1, which, as far as I can tell is pretty much the same thing.  The only difference I can see is that I saved about a thousand bucks by not buying something shiny and brand new.  Back when they did make the Dual, it was consistently rated the best Tri Bike for under $2000.  So I think I got a good deal.

I haven't taken it for a ride yet...but I can't wait!

The seat post looks a little weird because I couldn't figure out how to stick it in when I took the picture.  I later learned to unscrew the little screw.

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Some of the runners and I recently got together for a potluck.  I always love a potluck!  But this one had a theme ingredient (or two) that we had to include in our dishes.  We either had to use a gourd or cranberries.  And it had to be vegetarian.

I decided to forgo this tasty looking Cranberry Soy Sauce Tofu recipe that I found online and go with a traditional Chinese dish, hoping to broaden people's taste experiences.  My gourd of choice was bitter melon--and I was on a mission to make it palatable.

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, bitter melon is extremely, extremely, extremely bitter. Nothing else can compare to it...it's like dandelion greens, arugula and broccoli rabe combined times a thousand.  It's also known for its various health benefits.  In particular, many scientific studies have shown bitter melon to have anticancer, antiviral and lipid lowering effects.  But I like it just for its bitterness.

Nonetheless, I didn't think everyone at the potluck wanted to know how bitter bitter melon could be, so I had a few tricks up my sleeve.  I decided to make a stir-fry of bitter melon and scrambled eggs with black bean sauce.  I thought the sweetness of the eggs and the funkiness off the black bean sauce (they're actually soy beans, not black beans, which turn black in a fermentation process) would offset the bitterness.

In preparing the bitter melon, the white pith inside is the most bitter part, so I was careful to scrape out every last bit.  Then I blanched the slices of melon in boiling water to remove some of the bitterness.  And in the stir-fry itself, I added some sugar and lots of spices to temper the flavor of the melon.

Despite my efforts, when I got to the dinner, I was totally nervous.  In fact, I was sweating bullets throughout the appetizers because they were so tasty and I thought everyone was going to get turned off by my bitter melon mess.  OMG, I should have just stuck with the cranberry-soy tofu!

But to my surprise, people actually enjoyed it!  I think I had done a good job of balancing the bitterness so you could tell it was obviously bitter melon, but it wasn't quite as aggressively bitter.  It went really well with the eggs and black beans.  Here's the recipe in case you'd like to try it out.  Enjoy!

Bitter Melon with Eggs

2 quarts water

3 medium sized bitter melons (about 1.5 - 2 pounds)

6 eggs, beaten

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 T. vegetable oil

1 T. soy sauce

1 T. sugar

1 T. fermented black beans or prepared black bean sauce

1 tsp. sesame oil

salt, ground Sichuan pepper, ground white pepper to taste

1.  Bring water to boil

2.  Cut off ends of bitter melon.  Cut in half lengthwise.  Remove seeds and pith.  Cut into slices on the bias about 1/4" thick.  (Note: do not peel the bitter melon)

3.  Blanch bitter melon slices in boiling water for 3 minutes.  Drain.

4.  In a skillet or wok, heat vegetable oil and garlic.  Add bitter melon, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, and beans/bean sauce.  Stir fry until bitter melon is tender.  Add eggs, stirring slowly until egg is cooked.  Season with salt and ground pepper.  Remove from heat and serve.

November... Indian-Chinese, Cheering, Biking and Beef Parts

Sorry for a long post!  This has been a busy month with running and eating!

Right before Thanksgiving, the FRNY Multisport Mondays group got dinner after our swim workout.  Aneesh suggested we go to Tangra Asian Fusion in Sunnyside, Queens.  I'm generally not a huge fan of Asian fusion, since I think it usually take the most overdone aspects of Americanized Asian cuisines and combines it to make dishes that are completely boring and lacking of an personality.  But Tangra was different.  First of all, it was an Indian-Chinese place, which I've never been to before. The restaurant boasted of taking Chinese dishes and cooking techniques, and preparing them in the style (and with the spices) of Indian food.

But what made me really appreciate the food at Tangra was that it wasn't the sort of "Asian Fusion" that's invented by a chef or restaurateur because it's the trendy cuisine of the time, like all those places in Chelsea and Hell's Kitchen that make a better lycheetini than a tom yum soup.  No, at Tangra, you got the sense that the cuisine was made out of necessity, by generations of ethnic Chinese expats who found themselves in the ghettos of Calcutta or Delhi, forced to recreate their favorite dishes with unfamiliar ingredients.  There were spices like cardamom, coriander and turmeric, rarely used in Chinese food, that worked very well in our dishes.  Overall, it was a very tasty dinner.  I'm hoping the Multisport Monday group makes these dinner outings a regular thing (are you reading this, Rachel?).

Derek playing with his food.

They brought out a big flaming ice cream platter for Philip's birthday! (It wasn't really his birthday, though)

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I spent a busy weekend in November cheering on Front Runners in various races.

The Saturday before Thanksgiving was the NYRR Knickerbocker 60k.  Yes, that's right, 60k.  Or 37.2 miles.  Or nine times around the middle four-mile loop of Central Park.  Seven Front Runners were crazy enough to run that race. This was Anthony's first Ultra, and I decided to help pace him during one of his loops.  I got him on his 8th loop, so by that time, he had already run about 28 miles.  He was in amazing spirits when I ran with him, and was even doing quite a bit of talking as I ran with him.

Anthony finished in 6:08:09, which is a 9:53 pace.  Personally, I think it's a little nuts to want to run for six hours straight.  But it's just amazing to me to see how much Anthony has really progressed as a runner over the past two years since he joined FRNY, and how he was able to set a goal of doing an Ultra and finishing it.  Congratulations, Anthony!!!

Here's a picture right after Anthony's 8th loop, as I handed him off to Kelsey to finish off the race.

Later that day, Kelsey, Jonathan (who had just done the 60k!) and I took a Chinatown bus to Philly, to cheer for the Front Runners running the Philadelphia Marathon (and to hit some gaybars).  Ten Front Runners went down to run the race, a few more did the half, and even more joined as part of Cheer Force One!

Ray K had an awesome sign.  People were cracking up as they ran by:

We had an ambitious plan to see the runners at four different spots along the course, miles 1.5, 5, 16 and 23. We actually were able to hit all four spots in time to see the runners go by (Although my original plan of jogging the four miles from mile 5 to mile 16 was replaced with taking a taxi.  It was much warmer and faster.)

One of the highlights of the marathon was seeing Ryan run a fabulous race.  After being sidelined with a heel spur for much of 2010, Ryan came back, stronger than ever, to run a 3:15:48, qualifying for Boston with 11 seconds to spare. Way to go, Ryan!

Bernie ran a great race too.  Here's team Cheer Force One celebrating her PR and BQ time of 4:00:38.  Awesome!

Afterwards, Cheer Force One celebrated in true Front Runners fashion by having a boozy brunch.  We went to Mixto, a Cuban place in the heart of Philly's Gayborhood.  I couldn't resist the "Bacon Bloody Mary," which was made with bacon-infused vodka and garnished with a slice of crispy bacon.  It was really good.  And potent.  :-)

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For Thanksgiving, I went to see my parents who live in San Jose, California.  While there, my older brother and I embarked on what is now a family Thanksgiving tradition--we made the trek up Mount Hamilton, which is the highest mountain overlooking Silicon Valley. The 19-mile road to the top rises over 4,000 feet.  I honestly can't describe how brutal this ride was.  I pretty much had enough after the first couple of miles.

Here we are about halfway up.  You can see the Lick Observatory, at the summit, waaaayyyy behind me.

I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say it took us about two and a half hours to reach the top.  So, like, 8 miles per hour average.  I can run faster than that!  The good thing is, I think we beat last year's time by almost an hour!  So maybe I'm getting better on the bike after all.

When we reached the top, there was snow on the ground and it was freezing!  But we got a good picture and were very happy to rest our legs a bit.

Going down the mountain was not as simple as just letting gravity bring us down.  There are two dips along the route, for about a mile or so each, where you have to go back uphill.  When I reached the first dip, my quads just completely gave out.  I had nothing left to give.  I had to get off the bike, and my quads were throbbing.  That's never happened to me before...they pretty much completely seized up.  I stood there for a few minutes, massaging them and trying to warm them up.  (I think it was a combination of the intense hill climbing, followed by the freezing cold descent that caused it.)  For the rest of the descent, I was in agony.  Even when I was just going down, I could barely muster up the strength to spin the pedals.  I had to stop another time to massage my quads.  It was pretty rough.

In the end, we finally made it up and down the mountain.  I was so glad it was over.  And I was ready to tackle some turkey.

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I mentioned before that my parents have a persimmon tree in their backyard.  When I came back to NYC from California, my carry-on bag weighed about fifty pounds, since my mom insisted I fill it up with persimmons.  If anyone wants some, I have about a million still left in my fridge.

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This past Sunday was the Joe Kleinerman 10k, a club points race.  The night before, I carbo-loaded / went drinking at Ralph's Italian Restaurant in Hell's Kitchen.  Ralph's is a kind of nondescript neighborhood Italian place, not one of my favorites, but Dane love it since he lives around the corner.  One thing I don't like is that their menu doesn't include my favorite pasta dish--linguine with frutti di mare.  But on this day they had a special: a linguine with frutti di mare that included a half a lobster AND came with fra diavolo sauce.  OMG so perfect!  It totally made my night.  :-)

The next morning, I could feel the glasses of wine that I had the night before.  I could tell when I woke up that it wasn't going to be a good race.

And in fact, it wasn't.  I probably ran faster on Saturday's fun run.  Oh well, whatever.  Maybe next year will mark my return to racing competitively.

Waaayyy underdressed for the 30 degree race!

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I'm kind of surprised that I've never posted a blog entry about my tasty homemade Chinese beef noodle soup.  It's one of my favorite things to cook, and it's my absolute favorite comfort food.  So I was excited that Mike Terry came over Sunday evening, which was one of the coldest days so far this year, because it meant I could make a nice big pot of "niu rou mian." (牛肉麵).

The meal started off with a trip to the Deluxe Food Market, my favorite Chinatown butcher, where I got all the tasty cuts of beef that I like.  First is beef brisket.  They call it "beef frank" at Deluxe food, which I don't really understand.  In Chinese food, the whole point of the brisket is not the meat itself, but the layer of gristle / silverskin that's attached to the underside of it.  You have to cook it for a long time in order to get it tender enough to be edible, but it has a fun, chewy texture to it.

Beef shank / shin meat is also a very gristley cut of beef.  But here, the gristle is marbled throughout, like the fat in a filet mignon, so that each bite is combination of tender and chewy.  Yummmm.  

Beef tendon is one of my favorites.  It's tough and rubbery if undercooked, but if you let it simmer for a few hours, it practically dissolves in your mouth, leaving a wonderful, gelatinous, meaty taste in your mouth.

Last was the tripe.  Cows have four stomachs, but the second and third one are the ones I think people usually eat.  The second one, called the "reticulum," is where honeycomb tripe comes from.  The third one, which I prefer, is called the "omasum" but is known euphemistically in Chinese as "100 leaves," since the many layers make it look like the pages of a book.  The thing with tripe is that before you cook it, you should boil it for a long time, a couple of times in order to get the stinkyness out.  After all, that's where all the digested food hangs out until it's ready to be...eliminated by the cow.  But once you get the smell out, it tastes really good.

100 leaves tripe, next to the "pork uterus," which I have never eaten.

To make the meat, I just simmered everything in a big pot for about two and a half hours.  In the pot was water, lots of soy sauce, sesame oil, rice wine, brown sugar, Chinese five spice powder (which is a combination of star anise, cinnamon, cloves, Sichuan peppercorn, and fennel seeds), whole star anise, dried orange peels, some sweet bean paste, and scallion, ginger and garlic.  

Two and a half hours later, I cut up the meat, put it on some noodles with some of the braising soup, added some blanched baby Chinese broccoli shoots, chopped scallions and cilantro, and spicy bean paste.  Mmmmmmm....  the perfect way to warm up on a cold winter night.

Cheering to Dinner...and It Gets Better!

It's been almost two weeks since the New York City Marathon, and I have lots of news to report.

First off, cheering for the marathon was SO MUCH FUN!  I have to admit, the weekend leading up to the race was kind of a bummer for me.  As I mentioned last year, marathon weekend is one of the biggest weekends of the year for Front Runners (next to Pride weekend), as we host a big pasta dinner, a pancake breakfast, and the water station at mile 24.  But this year, I couldn't help but think that I was an outsider, undeserving of all of the carbs since I wasn't running.  When it seemed like all of Front Runners, indeed the whole city, was preparing for the run of their lives, to me it felt like it was just another day.

To get my mind off of not running the marathon, I tried to completely immerse myself in cheering for those who were running.  I was determined to be the best Front Runner cheerer ever!  To that end, Mikey and I dubbed our cheering squad as CHEER FORCE ONE, and we embarked on a momentous crafting project--making a huge banner with the FRNY logo so we could cheer our teammates and have them notice us as they ran by.  It was one of my first major sewing projects since last year's yoga mat bag.  And it came out really well!

Sunday morning, team Cheer Force One gathered at Mike's house in Greenpoint, where we were treated to a yummy breakfast spread.  My favorite was a marscapone whipped cream that went on the French toast.  Very tasty.  :-)  Oh, plus we had some mimosas and Irish hot chocolate, and I made a giant thermos full of bourbon and hot cider.  Heehee, we were definitely going to be toasty despite the cool temperatures.

Our first stop was around mile 8.  This was a great spot to cheer from, since everyone was still feeling pretty fresh, looked good, and were happy to see us.

As you can see, there were about a dozen members of Cheer Force One!

Here's John and Rich, the 2nd and 3rd Front Runner finishers, whizzing by us at mile 8.  John ran a 2:41:53--that's a 6:11 pace for the whole marathon--and came in 159th out of almost 45,000 finishers!  Pretty amazing that his marathon pace is faster than the pace for my 5k PR (6:12).

It was somewhat bittersweet, though, to see another group of Front Runners come by.  Mikey, Cenk, Darin, Manja and Marty formed a 3:30 pace group and all came by together.  For the week leading up to the marathon, even two days before the race, I seriously debated doing the marathon and running with them. They looked like they were having so much fun; it would have been great to run the whole race with a group of friends around to help pace me.  But in the end, I decided that it was wiser to just be a spectator.  Trying to run a marathon with the little training that I had, and just coming off two injuries, was probably not a good idea. And I didn't even know if I could run a 3:30...I would have been really upset if I had set out to run a relatively modest pace for a marathon, and not even be able to keep that up (my Blue Line Run was at about a 3:30 pace, and we all know how that went).  

After Team 3:30 came by, Team Cheer Force One headed to our next stop.  I had wanted to try to see the runners at three locations--Miles 8, 18, and 23--but John was just too damn fast, and we decided that we probably wouldn't be able to make it to 18 in time for him.  So we went directly to Mile 23, around 95th and 5th, with our banner, hot toddy, and bullhorn in tow.

This was a great spot, pretty much at the top of that looooong 5th Avenue hill that I always hated running this late into the race. With our banner, I think the Front Runners could see us cheering from far away, and it was good to think that we might have helped boost their energy and spirits as they motored up the hill.  We stayed there for a while, and got to see everyone from the lead men to the middle-of-the-packers.  It was great to see so many Front Runners!  And every time a Front Runner came by, I went berserk and started screaming, jumping, and waving the banner. By the end of the day I had no voice left.  But it was so much fun!!

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My other big news of the week is that my running club, Front Runners New York, released its video for the It Gets Better Project.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, the It Gets Better Project is a collection of videos that were made in response to a recent and heartbreaking string of suicides following instances of anti-gay bullying.  The videos are directed towards kids facing bullying and harassment or considering suicide.  It's a terrible tragedy that 9 out of 10 LGBT students have experienced harassment at school, and more than 1/3 of all LGBT kids have attempted to commit suicide.  I hope our video can reach some of these kids and possibly make a difference in their lives.

I'm so proud that FRNY has decided to take part in this project, and I'm so honored that I was able to have a part in it.  Please take some time to view the video and forward it to your friends, families and colleagues, especially to any young people or anyone who works with young people, like teachers and coaches.  Together, I think we can really help make a difference in the lives of countless LGBT youth.

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This week, Front Runners also restarted its indoor track workout season.  Our first workout was Tuesday.  Even though this will be my fourth year doing the Armory workouts, I always get butterflies in my stomach before every workout.  And it was no different on Tuesday.  Our first workout was 8x400m.  I was really nervous.  The last time I ran on a track was at the Lockport 100 Mile Relay in July.  And I have lost like pretty much all of my fitness since then.  So this was going to be interesting.

I decided not to run with the "fast" group, settling instead in one of the "medium" groups.  I didn't want to run first in the group either, so luckily Tsing was in my group and I was able to tuck in right behind him the whole time.  My plan was to try to just maintain 90-second 400s.  The first one was a little slow, like 93 seconds, but we gradually got faster and faster.  I finished the 8th 400 in 84 seconds, and I felt like I could do a lot more.  It felt great to be back, running fast-ish.  But for now, I'm trying to take it easy for a few weeks; there's no sense in rushing into the speed workouts right now.  I have my eyes on Boston in April 2011.  Until then, I'm going to train smart, stay as injury-free as I can, and enjoy my gradual progression back into shape.

On the Subway after the Track Workout.