New York

Our lively conversation continues around Timo’s and my own careers where we find similarities in our thinking. Timo is of the opinion that he has achieved his place among the best triathletes of our time by very determined hard work. In his own mind, he is not the most talented athlete and I seem to be thinking the same concerning my past career as a corporate attorney - my talent never was in the details. This brings the question what actually is pure talent? When reading about different success stories and talking to various well-established persons, I find quite similar consensus among them: my determination made me who I am today.

Two days later I have arrived to Gramercy Park hotel in Manhattan. I have stayed in this establishment both in the shabby days and now after Ian Shrager took over the operations and turned the hotel back in one of the melting pots of New York. Upon arrival to the hotel the hopeful “paparazzi on call” asked: “sir, are you someone famous?” The reason for this was that the hotel has accommodated such great names as Humprey Bogart, who married his first wife at the hotel, the Kennedy family, Babe Ruth, Bob Marley, David Bowie and Madonna, just to name a few. At the Hotel’s Rose Bar, you can still spot celebrities almost on a daily basis. Surrounded by masterpieces of Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst and Julian Schnabel I find myself wondering how did all these well known characters receive their success and talent? What was their master plan?

The next day I joined the Empire Triathlon Club athletes at Central Park for a run training. I was welcomed to join their training by the founders Alison and Jess, who established this vivid club some years ago. I arrived to our meeting point at Columbus Circle; the gathering point was at the New York Running Company (NYRC). I received such a warm welcome to the day’s training by Allison, fantastic coach Chris and by Mike, who is with NYRC. He also welcomed me in clear Finnish with a polite “mitä kuuluu?” After 15 minutes of warm up we were under the “Strawberry Hill” on top of which sits John Lennon’s memorial. We did 12 hill repeats in the crispy New York air for 30 minutes. I was pleased to see I was not the only Nordic in the group. Olaf from Sweden cheered me all the way up during the session, sometimes with “Hyvvä Suomi!” whoops! I ran together with Emily and she gave me a much-needed push, as my running is quite tough after almost 3 months break due to a foot operation. During our cooling down run, we stopped around the John Lennon “Imagine” memorial, a truly nice gesture from Mike and Chris who wanted to take me as a guest through to this beautiful shrine. After the training I did some grocerie shopping at the Wholefood Market at Columbus Circle. Some of my training buddies were there as well, with happy smiles and high fives I returned to the hotel having gained new friends and richer of another great experience among triathletes.

We started our weekend at the Brooklyn Flea, a hip market area at Dean Street (metro Franklin Avenue). The atmosphere and the food market was awesome experience. Surrounded by the smooth music and delicious fumes we were carried away towards the evening and a concert at the Scandinavia House at Park Avenue. The concert was performed by the young and talented artists of Youth Chamber Orchestras with the Sibylle Johner. After a decent dose of Nielsen, Krieg and Sibelius we were joined at the dinner by our friends, who also acted as the sponsors of the evening’s concert. At the heart of the Greenwich Village, our discussions turned back to the essence of the hard work, right attitude and of course - talent. The dinner panel was quite unanimous of the fact that a talent without hardworking attitude and humble mind is a wasted talent.

It is now 4:30 am in the morning and I am about to take off for the most amazing 1,5 hours run on the empty streets of Manhattan up along Broadway, to the Central Park and back on the Park Avenue. The ambiance will be like in the movie Inception, very true but surreal. The elevator stops on the next floor and a young gentleman steps in, he is obviously still on his own night run. He is measuring my runner’s outfit and after a while looks into my eyes and says with smiling face – “Carpe Diem”.

I start my run with light mind – the dude is right. The heck with the master plans – just work hard and seize the day! 

Heikki Jaatinen
on IM 2015 journey

Gramercy Park Hotel
Empire Tri Club
New York Running Company – Columbus Circle
Chris Mosier (Facebook)
Brooklyn Flea
Scandinavia House