I'd signed up for the Nike Half-Marathon--the incorrigible glass-half-full guy that I am--back in May (March ?) thinking, in my incorrigible glass-half-full manner, 'Yeah, me dat!'

Dawns the day of the race--today--only to find me passed out on my bed (aka living-room-cum-dining-room-cum-kitchen-cum-whole apartment aka 'nyc studio' floor, oops, sorry, parquet floor) till well past the start (and possibly even the end) of the race.

To squelch those insidious mom-programmed guilt feelings, not to mention l'estomac that's had a 'big bang' of its own and been expanding faster than the universe, I decided, upon waking, I should at least go for a run in CP. Which I did and which, surprisingly, went not too badly: yes, I still wimped out and walked most of Heartbreak Hill (that 500-ft tall, arbored, monstrosity that rises, and rises and rises and rises...silent, fiendish, arrogant, mocking).

So, I'm done with my workout and I'm shvitzing down the footpath towards 81st & CPW. I come across this nice-looking couple strolling into the park. At first, I don't pay much attention--my brain, such as it is, is already overloaded with trying to normalize my asthmatic wheezes--when, some lone, half-crazed neuron somewhere fires, and I realize I've seen this guy (who's now wearing a French beret kinda thing) somewhere before. So, cliche-cliche, I double-take. The OMG moment, inevitably, strikes: I realize he's that actor who played the gun-toting, hard-assed, yet heart-of-gold, brother of Mollie/Rebecca Howe/Kirstie Alley in Look who's talking too. A shower, lunch and yadda-yadda yadda later, I fire up IMDB: turns out he is Elias Koteas (and he's done some American Dad work, yay!!).

My Marathon In the City continues...