The Athlete's Lawyer

While visiting family in the Los Angeles area, I found a race running distance from my in-laws apartment. My daughter, wife and I ran over to Balboa Park so that I could try the “Run For Rosanna 5k Fun Run/Walk” on Saturday, July 26, 2008 in Van Nuys, CA. The hot, flat course around this large public park enabled me to see the competition throughout.

What I had not planned on was the fact that the first 3 finishers COMBINED AGES was 48 – the same as my own ! Boy, did I feel the years ! I won the unusual Men 48-58 5000 Meter Run Age Group handily, and was 4th overall in 19:34. My wife and eldest daughter ran several extra miles while I cooled off. Here I am, the evening after the race, relaxing. Maccabiah teammates Jonathon Vakneen, Gary Bub, and my wife had a “mini-reunion” while visiting our daughter, who was working in Santa Monica, California.

Here I am with the Race Director Laurie (Laurie@richmondmultisports.com) after the Richmond Shady Grove Sprint Triathlon.  The “3 Sports” stores were major sponsors of this race, and Richmond has become a hotbed of multisport racing and training.  The RTC is over 600 members strong and is a group devoted to promoting multi-sport activities in the central Virginia Area.  Members have a sophisticated web site for training and racing information, and also get race entry fee discounts.

This summer I was lucky enough to be invited tot he Virginia Trial Lawyers Advanced Automobile Accident Retreat.  After attending two days of intense roundtable meetings with the top plaintiffs lawyers in the Commonwealth, it was time for me to do some racing.  I found myself at the starting line of the the 3Sports Triathlon.  This great mid year pool swim event is staged at the Shady Grove YMCA on Richmond’s western side. The Richmond Triathlon Club pulls out all the stops and puts on a great event.  This was a family and spectator friendly race, put on by Set Up Events, that had over 500 registrants.

After an 8th place indoor pool swim during which I was passed twice (!), I managed 2nd best age group Bike and T-2 splits and firsts for the run and T-1 to win the age group.  The swim consisted of 6 laps in the Shady Grove YMCA indoor pool then transitioned to a lightly rolling very fast 20K bike course. The run course was an out and back all on sidewalks. The finish line was lined with bleachers, spectators and some of Richmonds finest triathletes.

While in “the City of Brotherly love” for the AAJ Convention, my wife and I were able to do some touring on foot.  We went from a reception in one of the boat houses to meet up with the Philly Road Runners Club for their weekly Tuesday night runs.  These all level runs start at the famous “Rocky steps” of the Art Museum and proceed along the river with different sub-groups going at varying paces.  After running with some fleet-footed Temple Law students, we jogged back to the boathouse where we had left our clothes.  I bumped into a friend jogging with her infant son along the same path.  Dr. Susan Rheingold and I have known each other since we were kids, and we have also participated in such races as the Columbia Triathlon together as well.  As I always say, “it’s a small world after all !”

Associate Lauren Holtzman participated in dragon boat races. I had never seen such an event. Then, while attending a national workers compensation lawyers meeting in Philadelphia, I espied a strange looking craft being propelled down the Schuykill River by oarsmen/women. When I asked our hosts at the boathouse what that craft was, they told me it was a dragon boat.

Whenever (and wherever) I have attended meetings of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) and the American Association for Justice (AAJ), I have been able to locate races in or near the major cities where these international law meetings are held. In fact, I usually come hope with a prize, and more importantly, a story about some place that the other attendees have not experienced.

When the meeting schedule was posted, as is my practice, I was able to find a race not too far from the convention hotel in downtown Philadelphia. The “Journey For Joann Triathlon” is an event supporting the Towamencin Community Wellness Foundation in Kulpsville, Pennsylvania.
My wife and I stayed in the town the night before so that I would not miss the start (which I have done, more than I care to remember !). WIth no opportunity to “preview” the course, I nevertheless felt optimistic since it was a short pool swim followed by a short run 1km., then biking and a 5km., so I packed my “pyro platforms” so as to reduce transition times.

The Sunday, July 13th, 2008 race consisted of a .25 mile pool swim, followed by a lengthy “rest period,” 1 km run, 10 mile multi-loop bike ride, and finally, a 3.1 mile run. Mrs. Landau especially liked the pristine pool and the time after the swim before the run, where she could change out of her wet swimming suit and dry off.

Despite learning the bike course during the warm up period, I finished second to a local racer. There were prizes galore, lots of smiling volunteers, post-race fun and I would recommend this fun, short (!) charitable event to anyone looking for a race in this area of Pennsylvania.

On my birthday I had the opportunity to run a race with half the firm’s name in it !

The “Mark Abrams Firecracker 5Km” took place on July 4th at the Fishkill, New York Community Center. The race raises money for Mark, shown here, and this is the second year funds have been raised to defray his medical expenses. The challenging, 2-loop cross-country course saw a number of fast times, and the Abrams family was out in force supporting Mark and this fun event.