Tall Guy Surfing (and now running!)

What NOT to do before running a marathon... (Cologne Marathon Race Report)

2011-10-19T09:59:00.015-04:00

Quote of the Race: TallGuySurfing yelling "WASSER BITTE!" and slamming his fist upon the bar. Two Germans on each of his sides back away slowly. The bar tender hands over a tiny glass of sparkling water. He hands the bartender 5 Euros, slams the water and yells, "Zwei!" The bartender hands over a second and in English he says as he limps away, "I'm taking your pussy sized glass with me!"

RACE STATS:
Location - Cologne, Germany
Cost - Variable. It cost 90 Euros for me and that included timing chip rental. See website here.
Year of Running - Unknown, possibly since 1997 or before.
Sponsor/Race Directors - BMW, Puma, PCU, KVB and other various European sponsors.
Charity - Unknown
Number of Participants - 7,310 (Marathon), 12,571 (Half Marathon) 89 (Ultra - Half & Full), 1,691 (Inline-Skate Marathon), 397 (Marathon Relay Teams), 361 (School Relay teams), 77 (Hand Cycle Marathon).
Available Races - Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon plus Half Marathon Ultra, Inline Skate Marathon, Hand Cycle Marathon, Marathon Relay & Kid's Mini Marathon.
Course Condition - Flat and fast. Mostly asphalt pavement, except for a few small stretches of ancient cobble stone streets (ouch!) near the last few miles.
Pace Groups - We couldn't find any information about pacers at the expo or on the website, but there were pace groups visible during the race in 15 minute increments.
Expo - Held at the convention center near the start/finish line. Average for a race of this size. It was interesting to see so much inline skating gear being sold.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS: - I'm not going to write a lot here because I feel that we probably missed a lot of the "real picture" of what was going on simply because we don't know how to speak or write German. We were able to figure out most of what was going on by relating it to our experiences at large races in the United States. Things were very similar, but also very different. I felt that the race was organized with typical German precision (that's a compliment). The support was probably excellent by European standards. Aid stations were well stocked with supplies although I was not used to "tea" as a beverage during races. It was the little things that were the big differences. The spectators were awesome. I think the only place in the race lacking any spectators was in the tunnel. Everywhere else spectators lined the streets with signs, nose makers and some even handed out their own refreshments (although I couldn't communicate with them).

ACCESSIBILITY:
Excellent. The website and emails regarding transportation to the expo and on race day were very well timed and informative despite being poorly translated to English. We used the local train system to take us to within a half mile of the start line. Cologne also has an International Airport. The city is also a 50 minute ICE fast train ride from Frankfurt (bigger airport).

SWAG:
The goodie bag included a beer glass with race logo on it, the usual miscellaneous propaganda and a personalized bib number. Race tech T-shirts by Puma were available for an extra charge.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
If I was German I probably would have loved it. The finish line was overflowing with German sausages and beer. I did not see any awards ceremony so I can't commit on it. There was a serious lack of water or sports drinks at the finish line. I found soda, tea and beer. There was no ice to be found anywhere so if you want to ice a knee or hamstring make other plans. When I finally did find water it was carbonated and I had to buy it.

MY RACE STORY:
Here's my story of WHAT NOT TO DO before running a marathon. Let me be the first to say that I know better and I can only blame myself for what happened to me. We have a saying in aviation. The 50 hour rookie that just got his pilot's license is safer than the 300 hour guy that's just building time. The reason is you get a little bit of experience under your belt and it's human nature to "think" you know a lot more than you really do and the result is overestimating your capabilities. I feel like I'm at that point with this running thing. A handful of marathon medals and even a 50k hanging on my wall and I think to myself, "run a marathon after 10-days of vacation an ocean away from home? No problem man, you've got this... piece of cake!"
Lesson learned? If you're going to make your next marathon also your vacation make sure you run the race at the beginning of your vacation. Not the end. Here's why:
Jenny and I planned a 12-day vacation to Europe. In the several months of planning we learned that the Cologne Marathon coincided perfectly with our trip, which was to include visited to Barcelona, Spain; Cologne, Germany; and Toulouse, France. The initial thought would be that the end of vacation race is better because we would be fully adjusted to the time change. In retrospect, the beginning of vacation race would have worked out better. I'm used to a little sleep deprivation before a race anyhow!
What happened and where we went wrong was simple having a good time. Barcelona was an overload of the senses. Different food, different drinks and crazy walking walking walking! We walked everywhere. I'm guessing we walked at least a marathon during our time in Barcelona. We took trains too, but there's so much to see and the best way is to walk. We managed an 8-mile tapper run along the beaches. It was amazing and felt great. By the time we made it to visit our friend, Peter, in Germany we were walked out and our nutrition was out of control. It was impossible to find the same foods we eat at home.
By the time race day came I was feeling good, but what I didn't know was my body was tired. I tried to eat right and get plenty of sleep. In fact, I think I got the best sleep in months leading up to the race, but when you're not used to walking as much as we were doing it takes a toll on you.
Pre-race was a little bit of a clusterf*ck. Everything was so well organized by the Germans, except a small little thing called a bottleneck. Getting to the start corrals was insane. There was simply too many people and not enough space. I found myself wedged against a temporary barrier fence for about 20 minutes waiting for the start gun. All my new best friends, some of whom smelled funny, spoke no English and I can honestly say I've never been so crowded, yet so lonely at the same time. Some things translate like body language, smiles, laughter, but so much doesn't and that's where I felt left out. Jenny and I had to separate and get into different corrals. She was in corral A and I was in B.
When we finally started it thinned out after a ways and the course widened once we made it to the bridge going over the Rhine River and into the city of Cologne. The first 10 miles were awesome. The weather was in the upper 60s, but quickly rising. The start time was 11 a.m., which was another factor that lead to both of our demises. How do you eat before a marathon when it starts at 11 a.m.??? It's a lot different than the normal early morning start.
At mile 10 I was feeling really strong and my time was excellent. I was averaging about an 8:40ish pace. I was lured into an irrational thought that perhaps all the walking and odd nutrition actually helped prepare me for this race. I did the math for the finish time at 8:40 and that seemed like a fantasy, but I liked it so I kept going like a fool. Around mile 11 I started feeling a tightness around my ribs and screwed up my breathing pattern. It was a little concerning because it was a completely new feeling. I've never felt it before or since, but it went away by mile 13 and I noticed my pace was beginning to slow.
By now it's afternoon and the sun is high in the sky. It's a lot hotter now; probably mid-to-high 70s (the official high for the day was 78). I push onward.
A little after mile 15, probably closer to 16, I felt a cramp in one of my calf muscles. I tried to run through it and it just got worse. It was like reality yelling at me, "you're not worthy!" It soon forced me to stop completely and try and stretch and massage it into submission. A few minutes later I pushed onward.
Around mile 18 my legs really started to hurt. My feet were heavy and seemed to stick to the ground. I stared down at them to make sure I hadn't stepped in gum or maybe super glue. Now all those spectators cheering everyone on where just getting annoying to me. I'd rather be on a trail in the woods! Then the real muscle cramps arrived. The kind of cramps that leave you with two options -- fall square on your face after having complete leg failure, or stop completely to avoid such a fall. I stopped each time as the cramping seemed to systematically work its way through each muscle in both of my legs. Fix one cramp and another one pops up and says, "Hello there mutherf*cker!"
I start thinking about the finish line and realize that my irrational imaginary finish time will not happen. I start to think about how awesome it would be if I could just make sub-4 hours. Soon that possibility slips away and I quickly start thinking, "OK, well, maybe I can beat my marathon PR of 4:18:00?" Then I realize that is not going to happen. It's just my luck that for the first time in my life I'm running a marathon without being injured or partially recovered from injury and here I am plagued with cramps!
Somewhere around mile 22 or 23 I lose it. I curse aloud at myself. Hell, half these people don't know English anyways. I look around and people are drinking beers on the side of the road having a jolly time. I almost decide to go into a pub and get properly pissed, but I'm in too much pain to even try and think about forming German words with my mouth. I limp along and accept my situation. No more denial. This IS happening. I form a strategy. I will pick a spot that I can see ahead and run to it without walking no matter what happens. When I reach it I'll allow myself a short walk before picking another spot to run to further down the course. This strategy gets me through the race. It's not pretty, but it works and I hobble across the finish line for a very uneventful finish.
At this point I'm nearly a walking zombie. The only thing on my mind is drinking water and finding Jenny. Somehow I've allowed myself to become severely dehydrated or perhaps it's an electrolyte imbalance. It's difficult to think rationally. I'm going on prior experience at this point, but this race isn't like so many others...
I somehow remember to get my medal. I look around desperately hoping to find some water or ice. There's nothing! There is a long tunnel like overpass we must walk through to get back near the expo building where the bag drop is and this "chute" separates race finishers from the general crowd. Unlike other finisher chutes I've walked there is a good quarter mile of nothing. No water, no ice, no food. WTF? I see some paramedics and almost head that way, but the thought of trying to communicate with them scares the hell out of me. "Shake it off Sylvan," I yell at myself and pull it together.
I finally reach the other side of the overpass and I see tables and booths and people standing in lines. YES! Finally! But, my excitement is short lived as I get closer and realize the first thing these Germans are getting after finishing a marathon is apparently wieners and beer. Yup, I'm now confronted with free sausages, hotdogs and beer. This is perhaps the only situation imaginable where I am NOT stoked to make this discovery. I reach another table further down and see hundreds of cups full of different liquids. One of these has to be water, right? Nope. They have cola and tea. Now I'm ready to kill someone, but instead I find a wall and collapse against it and fall to the ground.
The ground is almost peaceful, but almost instantly my legs decide to start cramping up again and this time it's with vengeance. "Mother of God," I scream as I grab my left hamstring. As soon as I thrust my body one way the other hamstring joins in and I'm left thrashing about on the concrete looking like an imbecile. After a few minutes my brain and body negotiate on a position that limits cramping and my only option for the time being is to people watch and try not to move. What's amazing is nobody even asked me if I was OK and I'm surrounded by thousands of people. After about 15 minutes I managed to get up and continue my quest for water. I make it all the way back into the expo building. The Germans are NOT fans of water fountains so no luck here. I go to the back drop and pick up my bag. Inside it is money and at this point I'll pay anything for some water. Jenny is nowhere to be seen and our plan was to meet at bag drop if we didn't see each other after the race. I look around, hang out for a few minutes and then make the decision to get water and come back. Neither of us have cell phones, but we both have money and we both know the way home.
Outside the expo building there are event bars set up for the general public to buy food and drinks. I see one bar serving beer. It's popular and crowded so I opt for another bar that is serving coffee. I ask the German girl if she has any water and she says no. I ask where water might be and she seems confused so I head to the bar serving beer. This is where I'm ignored again and again until I slam my fist on the bar and yell with a deep voice "water" in German. Other Germans near by back away and one of them even tells the bartender something and points to me. I get my water, but it's carbonated. I don't care. I slam the first one and then demand a second. I pay for it. You're supposed to return the glass and I think they keep a small deposit, but at this point I don't care. In my mind I'm saying, "I'm taking your stupid little beer glass with me," and I walk away with my carbonated water.
I head back to the bag drop and this time Jenny is there waiting for me. We hug and I tell her that I bonked. She had been so worried about me she was going around to all the paramedics and asking if they had seen me. Of course, they didn't know much English so she wasn't getting anywhere with them. She ended up having a terrible race as well. Not as bad as me, but not pretty at all. Bottom line: It was hotter than we expected weather wise and we did everything wrong leading up to the race.
But you know what? While I'll never do another marathon in Germany or a similar situation like this one, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything. I'm glad I did it. Having a bad race is just part of running. It's going to happen. And for every bad race there are many many more "good" races. I'm looking forward to the next good race, hopefully the Savannah Rock 'n' Roll Marathon this Saturday!

My official stats:
3,666th out of 7,310 marathon finishers
421st in my age division (30-34)
Chip Time: 4:47:06
Average pace: 10:57 miles (6:48 kilometers)
Splits:
10k - 55:08
15k - 1:22:51
Half - 1:58:31
25k - 2:24:04
30k - 3:02:03
35k - 3:43:18
Total Participants - 21,738 and that's not including another 758 relay teams. It's a big race weekend in Germany.
The Cologne (Koln) Marathon TallGuySurfing grade = B-

Eurotrip!

2011-09-22T15:14:00.002-04:00

In a few hours I'll be on a jet plane high above the Atlantic Ocean tracking a course to the Old World. Jenny and I are embarking on a 12-day adventure spanning three countries. We're beginning in Barcelona, Spain for the tail end of their Patron Saint's festival and then heading to Cologne, Germany to visit and old friend of mine. From there we will spend a day at work with my friend (he's a cargo pilot for a major shipping company) and get to fly with him down to Toulouse, France. After a day there we'll jump seat back to Cologne with him and then run the Cologne (Koln) Marathon on October 2nd.
This will be my first international marathon. Instead of seeing mile markers it will be kilometers. Instead of hearing English it will be German. Instead of seeing Brooks and Nike shoes and clothing it will predominately be Puma and Adidas. I'm stoked!
This will be my 5th time to Europe and first time to Spain and France. I'm leaving my laptop at home and going to test out and attempt to use only my iPad 2. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, I'll be able to update with some posts while over there and some pictures too!

Hurricane Irene SCORE!

2011-08-28T21:09:00.012-04:00

On Friday morning we decided to head south of Cape Canaveral in hopes of catching the conditions just right. As we arrived and spot checked it at Cherie Down Park it was going off and then I realized we were about to score really big!
For the first session we hit it at Jetty Park and it was overhead and super clean. I got two ligament barrels and pretty much lost count of the nose riding mayhem I was creating on my 9'0" Walden Magic. The amazing thing is it really wasn't that crowded.
By noon it was fading away at Jetty Park. I guess it was too sheltered at that point. We headed south to the more exposed Cocoa Beach Pier only to find a few hundred guys in the water. The waves looked enticing and I was game, but one of our friends (a beginner) was intimidated so we headed back to north to Cherie Down again and paddled out to score big again!
This time it was bigger. The drops were faster and waves more powerful. I was in freaking heaven! But, my arms were getting more and more burnt out. By the end of the second session my arms felt like my legs usually feel after running a marathon. We all headed back north with smiles on our faces. Irene we love you!

Here's some pictures from Friday....

On Saturday it was New Smyrna Beach and the north coast of Florida's turn. The wind was now offshore up this way and the ocean was clean and ready for some rippin'.
We met at a predetermined spot where we know of a good sandbar just after dawn. The waves were the biggest we've seen yet. The wind was slightly less than the day before and that was good because it means easy entry. The paddle out was the hardest yet and I had to take several sets on the head, but made it out in about 10 minutes. The outside break was the furthest out of all our Irene sessions; about 3/4 of a mile. The wave faces were around the 8 feet range. It was so EPIC that I surfed for 3 1/2 hours without coming in once. That's a long time for no food or water. I took about 100 waves during that time and they were so clean that I probably could haven't gotten by without having a leash. Super fun and what a stoke! I surfed myself sick... literally. After the session I had to get in a car and crank the A/C to high while drinking three Gatorades and then going to Subway to down a foot long meatball sub (it's what I was craving). Then I went home to pick up Jenny (she went to Gainesville to do her long run with Team Hot Legs) and I laid down on the couch for a half hour before feeling better.
We went back to the beach to visit friends. I didn't paddle back out as I was stoked and satisfied. A thunderstorm rolled through and sent all the Orlando kooks fleeing the beach and hopefully going home. After it was peaceful. Jenny and I went on a couple mile walk. It was a good ending to a top 10 swell of my lifetime so far!

Here are a few pics from Saturday in New Smyrna Beach.

On Sunday we went down to the inlet only to find waist high sets rolling in with offshore winds. This was hardly exciting after the previous four days. We surfed for about 30 minutes and call it quits. It felt like a recovery paddle... like a recovery run, but for my arms.
Can't wait for the next swell!

2011-08-25T21:39:00.002-04:00

After an evening run Jenny and I decided to check out the surf at Flagler Avenue. It was crazy with people and news vans and the parking lot was chaos.
The ocean is still a big washing machine. A few isolated thunderstorms passed by, but then it cleared up and for now it's just windy.
Looks like the best bet for tomorrow will be to go south of the Cape. Saturday will be New Smyrna Beach's day. I'll try and update with some pictures from Jetty Park or Cocoa tomorrow.

So now we wait...

2011-08-25T09:50:00.004-04:00

Drove over to the beach at dawn this morning.
The surf is a lot more disorganized than last night and the wind is fully onshore. Hurricane Irene is starting to show herself. We're only under tropical storm watch here in Florida so we'll probably only get 25mph to 45mph winds.
The news people were on the beach trying their hardest to sensationalize their stories. A few young and dumb surfers were preparing to paddle out. A few traveling surfers were in their cars or on the beach sleeping. I remember those days when I was in high school and our gang would all paddle out during the worst and most gnarly part of the storm. It's exciting and seems adventurous when you're 18-years-old. To an experienced surfer or an older surfer it seems flat out retarded. I'm saving my arms for tomorrow and Saturday when the storm is to the north and the Coriolis effect causes the winds to pull offshore and the surf cleans up. That will be our window. Timing is everything as it'll blow the swell down quickly. Hitting it at the right time is key. Stay tuned for more updates!

Hello Irene!

2011-08-24T21:34:00.002-04:00

Surfed the first incoming long period sets from Hurricane Irene this evening at the Sunglow Pier in South Daytona Beach with a few friends. Waves were a little overhead on me (I'm 6'7") and had a slight chop to them as the wind was onshore, but light. It was a super fun time, but a little test for paddling. Definitely the biggest waves I've surfed this year. I rode the 9'0" Walden Magic. Tomorrow it looks like it'll be washed out with heavy onshore wind. After she passes to the north and heads to North Carolina (stay safe my Outer Banks friends) the winds are forecast to go offshore here Friday and Saturday. That will be the window of opportunity. I'll try and post up some pictures tomorrow and of course when it cleans up a bit. This could be the swell of the year??? Time will tell.

A little random humor...

2011-08-13T10:16:00.004-04:00

Last weekend I sold my kayak and ping pong table on Craigslist. The amazing thing is both items sold in less than an hour of making the post. The other day I decided to do a little experiment with Craigslist to see just how far I can take it and still get someone to buy something.

The subject: My old TV that is collecting dust and taking up space on the back porch.

The experiment: Can it be "sold" with a bit of salesmanship and humor?

The control: The TV is outdated and worthless.

This is how the posting (click the link to see the actual Craigslist post) reads:

"Oh man, do you like the look of an old school color television??? We're talking 2003 here. Yup, before 1080p...z...g or omega alpha high definition HDMI this or that! This retro television set is box-like and heavy with a good size 27-inch screen. No theater view here. We're talking full on square-shaped screen! Yeah, that's right. It's also manufactured by Symphonic (Model WF2703). Never head of that brand? It's okay, I haven't either. It was purchased from the quantity over quality-minded people of Wal-Mart during one of those Blue Light Specials. Wait, is that's a K-Mart thing? Nevermind. Getting back on track. This television was made in Malaysia probably by some poor Asian dude working for $2 per day, but I'll tell you what, it works and it works well! Hook up the cable and tune in some Price is Right or Judge Judy. Bust out the popcorn and throw on the John Wayne Westerns. Fire up that old Atari and hit the Pac-Man. Features include 27" Stereo Sound System (built in of course), Video L-Audio-R on the front and back! And of course Video in cable jack... and don't forget the remote control so your butt can stay comfortably on the couch. It takes only two AA batteries and has lots of buttons!"

So far the only calls I've received have been people asking if I've sold it out of curiosity. The answer.... no. One lady even asked if I'd take her number and call her if someone buys it because she has one she wants to sell too. My answer? No!

North Face Endurance Challenge 50K

2011-07-21T14:08:00.000-04:00

My First Ultra Marathon!
The North Face Endurance Challenge 50k (June 4, 2011 - Sterling, Va.)

Quote of the Race: Paramedic 1: Looks at Paramedic 2 with great confusion and concern while taking blood pressure reading.
Paramedic 2 to Paramedic 1: "It's okay, that is normal for 'these people,'" after seeing Jenny's finish line blood pressure of 100 (systolic) over 65 (diastolic).

RACE STATS:
Location - Sterling, Virginia (Washington D.C. area)
Cost - $75 to $110 for 50K based on sign up date. More for 50 mile and less for all other distances. See website here.
Year of Running - 4th year at this location.
Sponsor/Race Directors - The North Face, Gortex, Jeep, Nuun, Gu, and various local sponsors.
Charity - Karno Kids, Challenged Athletes Foundation, Leave no Trace, Bonneville Enviromental Foundation and runners have option to run for their own cause/beneficiary.
Number of Participants - 325 finishers (50K), 211 finishers (50 mile), 199 finishers (marathon).
Available Races - 50 Mile, 50K, Marathon, Marathon relay, Half Marathon, 10K, 5K and kid's race spread during two days.
Course Condition - Mostly single and double track trails. Little or no pavement surface. Moderate to advanced technical trail with some steep inclines and declines involving switchbacks, rocks, gravel, mud, stream crossings, tree stumps, and lots of dirt/sand!
Pace Groups - N/A. Pacers are allowed for 50 mile participants toward the end.
Expo - Not really. Packet Pickup is held at the North Face retail store in Georgetown.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS: - Great! I felt The North Face did an excellent job for this event. Everything from registration to packet pickup to getting home after the race went smoothly for us and as described on the event website. Race organizers described the event accurately on the website and made available a super informative and environmentally friendly race package downloadable in .PDF format. They also didn't provide any plastic bags upon packet pickup and encouraged participants to bring their own reusable bags to promote a message of sustainability. Everything seemed simple and easy as it should.
Support was adequate if not above par for a trail race. Aid stations were well stocked, manned and seemed to be placed at "just right" distances along the course. Volunteers and organizers were visually "in touch" with each other using radios and cell phones and I witnessed paramedics along the course multiple times.
Due to the nature of the course spectators are very limited to access. There's an area in Great Falls Park where there were hundreds of spectators camped out and then also at the finish line, but that's about it. A few times I came upon day hikers that looked more confused about the runners than anything else. In my opinion it was just right for a trail race.

ACCESSIBILITY:
Not bad at all. Instructions regarding this were very clear in the race package. As instructed we arrived at an offsite parking lot and were easily taken into the park to the start line in a school bus. The location of this race is accessible from multiple airports including Dulles International, Regan International and Washington/Baltimore International. We had family members to give us a ride, but there are plenty of car rentals available. I'm not sure if the Metro goes close to the start line. I'm guessing it does not.

SWAG:
Awesome! The North Face is one of my favorite apparel companies for a number of reasons, mainly because their high quality products and their corporate responsibility. Depending on the distance each participant races they receive some or all of the the following swag with each registration: The North Face Technical running T-shirt, The North Face arm warmers, The North Face water bottle, personalized bib number and timing chip, hot meal ticket and finisher's medal. Living up to their environmental friendliness, The North Face asks that runners bring their own reusable bags to packet pickup instead of giving out hundreds of plastic bags that will end up in landfills or worse.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
Yummy! Each participant gets a meal voucher. The meal was catered with several options for hot meals. We also received and used our vouchers for a free beer that tasted oh so good! There was also the normal bagels, bananas, water, etc., as much as you want. The post race awards were held on a small stage and done in an appropriate manner. There was an "ice bath" area with multiple tubs, horse troughs, buckets and coolers full of ice water. Runners could chose how much icing they prefer. Paramedics were standing by at the finish line in case anyone needed help. Multiple venders/sponsors also had display tents around the finish area.

MY RACE STORY:
Welcome to my first 50 kilometer race! I should probably write a disclaimer at the bottom of this warning "do not try this at home." I really don't recommend anyone go about their first ultra marathon the way I did. Buy a book, get a training plan and follow the route that experts recommend. However, for entertainment value only; here is what I did. Please also keep in mind that Jenny actually trained for this race correctly with several long runs in access of 26-miles and a proper taper, but that's her story.
Most of the winter and spring since the Donna Half Marathon was spent recovering from my nagging and ongoing Achilles Tendinitis that has plagued me for two years now. After the half marathon I continued getting weekly treatment at a chiropractic clinic and by doing physical therapy. All this meant no real long runs, speed training, hills or anything abusive or interesting. Jenny's goal since her 35th birthday was to run 35 miles at one time. This spells ultra marathon all of it. She started training for it before picking a race. When it came time to decide upon a race it was looking like the final contenders were a trail race in North Carolina or a trail race in northern Virginia (The North Face). At that time (only a couple months) I decided that it would be a good idea for me to also participate in said ultra marathon. I mean, surely I should be able to come up with a strategy only focused on finishing without injury and still be able to finish, right?
When I told Jenny she looked extremely concerned. With some effort and reassuring I "think" I was able to get her to not worry about me and focus on her own race as this race is about her more than me.
In the few weeks leading up to the race I was able to get in a couple long runs, but nothing longer than 11 miles. Mixed into that was the Bay to Breakers 12K race, which my cousin and I actually ran at a respectable pace. I also concentrated on running a lot of 5-and 6-mile runs during the weeks leading up to the 50k. Thinking back, this was completely insufficient and naive for ultra marathon training. Other than being completely retarded my major concern was further injuring my Achilles tendon. It's an overuse issue with me and it seems to get angry every time I increase my mileage so this ultra was in part an experiment to see what the minimum amount of training I could do without injuring myself, but still being able to finish. Yes, I know. I'm stupid.
Fast forward to race day!
We arrive ultra early (it is an ultra) and the sun is rising over the Potomac River. The air is cold and I can see my breath. There is steam fog rising across the glassy water of the river. Just last week temperatures in the metro D.C. area were topping out in the upper 80s and I'm thankful for this unusually cool weather for this time of year. Jenny is covered in goosebumps as we wait in line for the bathrooms. We stretch. We eat. We check in our bags. We eat some more and then we wait near the start line trying to stay warm. Jenny sees some rays of light and moves into the grassy patch of sunlight. I see that she is standing right next to Dean Karnazes and I do not follow. She is looking right at him nearly 6-feet away and doesn't recognize him. He is a small man. Shorter than you'd think until you see him. Jenny looks back at me like I'm insane for not sharing the warm sunlight with her. Then she looks again at Dean. Her face slowly changes from confusion to "oh my God," as she realizes who he is and she hurries back to where I'm standing. The entire situation causes me to laugh out loud. While we respect Dean for the good that he does for the sport, charities and how well he markets himself, we've never really been a fan of his ever since watching his documentary.
A few speeches are made. A few hundred runners that would be considered crazy by an average Joe gather around the start line. Finally, a feeling of "this is completely normal" is in the air around me. An air horn sounds and we're off just as the 50-milers started two hours before and as the marathoners will start two hours later. It's simple. It's easy actually. I tell myself that my only mission is to keep a constant state of forward motion no matter what happens.
Starting only a few dozen runners back, I'm tall enough to see the lead runners blazing down the trail at a pace that would kick my ass in only a couple miles. It's crowded the first few miles. The trail is double track at the most and each time we happen upon a narrow section it bottlenecks slightly, but eventually it thins as everyone settles into their own comfortable paces. I run with Jenny for about two miles in the crowd. It's very apparent that she wants to start passing people and run a faster pace. I tell her to go kick some ass as my strategy is much more reserved. For the next two or three miles I keep catching glimpses of Jenny ahead in the distance, but soon she is gone.
My strategy is a simple one. Run 5-miles. Then walk 1-mile and then repeat until finish. The idea is to sustain a respectable pace without injuring myself. My brilliant plan works for about, oh, I don't know, two or three miles and then is blown out of the water when we encounter our first large hill. It's single track at this point and all the runners in front of me start walking up it. Apparently, their strategy is different than mine and there's no good way to pass them at this point. As I start to walk and realize how damn steep this hill really is I decide that their strategy is far more superior than mine. Yes, walking all the steep hills is definitely the way to go. If I ran up this sucker my legs would be trashed in no time! We sure as hell don't have any hills like this in Florida!
The race continues on and I'm amazed at how friendly the people running around me our. Small talk and conversation commence. One guy is running his first ultra just like me only the longest other race he's ever ran is a half marathon. The runners thin out after the first aid station 5 or 6 miles in and soon I've got lots of breathing room around me. I turn on my iPod and start jamming out to some tunes. I start eating my Sports Beans. Before the race I dumped two packages (24 count) in my pockets and decided that after mile 6 or 7 I would eat one each time my Garmin indicated another mile ran. It is my reward. My pockets are bulging with all these beans and lots of other nutrition. It's hard to imagine that by the end of the race it will all be gone.
At around the 10 mile mark (I think) I start to see 50-mile runners heading back. It's the leaders! The first guy is all alone. Then I see two guys a few hundred meters behind. Then I see a face I recognize. There's a friend of Jenny and mine that is part of the Florida Track Club named Andy Robinson. He's super friendly and happens to be super fast as well. I'm not sure if it's really him so I don't say anything. Who ever it is he's only a few minutes off the leader and he's looking strong with only 10 miles to go after running about 40. Amazing!
The North Face uses ribbons tied to tree branches to mark the trail. Each event distance has a different color. As long as you see the color of the race you are running you are on the right trail. At first there's a ton of ribbons at each marker. As we progress they start disappearing. At the aid station near what would be the half marathon distance there's only three ribbons left; marathon, 50k and 50-mile. This aid station is in the Great Falls Park and it's where the marathoners will turn around. It's also the most accessible spot for spectators on the course. From here we go into the park and run a loop. Those 50-mile freaks run the loop multiple times before heading back. After running 13 miles of trail it's nice to see civilization again. People are cheering us on, there's tons of food and drink to be had at the aid station and the weather is still good. As I leave the aid station I notice only two ribbons remain, mine and the 50-mile color.
"Wow, I'm really doing this," I say to myself.
I'm officially beyond the marathoners, which just seems nuts to me at the time.
I'm not tired yet and I've done a great job of pacing myself. I know from the topo maps that there's some crazy hills ahead of me. I create a mantra at this point to tell myself again and again until the end of the race.
"Forward....forward....forward!"
It's simple. It's true and it's easy. I must continue forward at all costs.
Great Falls Park is absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure why I never visited this place when I lived up this way. The trail is anything but boring. There are tree stumps and boulders to jump over, creeks and mud puddles to avoid or cross and the river is heavy with rapids. At one point I'm so in awe of the view I start going the wrong way. The guy that is running his first ultra follows me and a woman behind us yells we're going the wrong way and saves disaster. Part of the loop requires runners to go on a short out and back before rejoining the second half of the loop. During this section I see Jenny running back. She looks strong. I yell "hey Jenny" as she almost doesn't see me. We turn as we pass each other. She says she's good and I tell her I'm fine. I also tell her I think I saw Andy Robinson. At this point Jenny is about 15 minutes ahead of me.
I make it back to the aid station at the park and with the loop behind me it's time to start heading back, but first I decide to refill my hydration pack and change my socks. I anticipated that changing my socks would help avoid blisters and perhaps make my feet feel better. It's an old hiking trick I've used in the past on all day hikes. This takes me about five minutes and then I'm back on the trail and still feeling strong.
It's about 5-miles or so until the next aid station. The air temperature is quickly warming up at this point. I'm also doing the math in my head and at my current pace I might be able to beat 6 hours. I don't have a time goal, but that sure sounds good for my first ultra and at this point I'm feeling way better than I thought I would and there's no hints of impending injury. I decide it will be a good idea to pick up the pace a little. Hell, maybe I'll even run up a hill.
All goes well for a few miles and then I discover I'm low on water. In fact, I'm freaking out of water! Hydration pack status = EMPTY. According to Mr. Garmin it looks like I've got about two more miles to the aid station. I guess I'm at around mile 23 or 24ish where I should be hitting "the wall" in a marathon situation. Only thing is, I'm not hitting a wall. I'm just thirsty. REALLY thirsty. My body confirms this with my first cramp. It happens in my left calf muscle. It's not what I call a full on "Charlie horse" style cramp, but more of a mild "you can still run, but I'm going to speak to you with each step," type cramp. I've been carrying with me a package of Shot Blok 3X Sodium that is Margarita flavored.
"Why the hell not," I ask myself as I tear into it and start eating the little gummy cubes one by one. It's hard to take Shot Bloks without water and it's definitely not recommended, but for my plight it beats the alternative. I soon start to feel better and I have to admit I'm now a believer in Shot Bloks.
I finally reach the aid station and refill my hydration pack and force myself to eat some food. I start running again and now I'm officially past the "marathon" distance. It's a bizarre feeling that I don't think I can describe with words. For so much of my life I felt that marathoners were crazy and that 26.2 miles was the ultimate distance. I never imagined that I would run a marathon. Then I did one. Then I did another. Then I felt that ultra-marathoners were crazy and that I'd never do one. Well, I must be crazy because now I'm passing 27 miles and looking for 31.
Miles 28, 29, 30 and 31 are surreal. I seem to lose perspective of time. I tell myself forward, forward, FORWARD, but it's slow going. I hit a series of "mini walls" and find ways to get past them. At the last aid station with two miles to go I ask "how much further," and upon hearing the answer I confidently say, "I can do that!" With two miles left I don't think food is going to do me much good. I take some water and dump it on my head and start running, or at least trying to run.
I become somewhat irrationally emotional with myself in the last couple miles. Everything seems to blur together. At one point there's a small levy with about 6-inches of water slowly flowing across the top. It's about 100 feet long. There's a wooden bridge off to the right that most runners use to cross. A girl in front of me that is running the marathon distance runs straight through the water. I weight my options. If I go to the bridge that will require two steps up and two steps down. If I run through the levy my shoes will be soaking wet. I'll take soaking wet shoes over two steps up and two steps down at this point. I charge through the water splashing wildly and it feels refreshing on my legs.
With less than a half mile to go I can see the parking lot and finish line. Just before the finish line I see Jenny walking with her father. They have their backs to me as I approach. At this point I actually start crying a little bit. I'm really going to finish a 50K! Jenny turns around and sees me. She yells my name and jumps up and down. I run up to them and start walking next to them to chat. It's wild to think I'm 100 yards to the finish line and I'm walking and it doesn't bother me one bit. Jenny has just finished doing an additional 4-miles after finishing to accomplish her goal of running 35 miles for turning 35-years-old. I hand her my camera (yes, I carried my camera with me) and she runs ahead to get a picture of me crossing the finish line.
I approach the finish line and they announce my name. By now it's about 80 degrees and I'm ready to finish! I cross the finish line and I'm all alone. It's amazing how spread out runners get over 50 kilometers. A couple of paramedics ask me a few questions, determine that other than being crazy I'm physically ok and then I'm awarded my finisher medal, given a North Face water bottle and released into the finish area.
In retrospect, I didn't beat 6-hours as the last 10 miles were incredibly slow for me, but I did accomplish my real goals. I finished an ultra marathon and I did not injury myself. Jenny and I would also learn that it really was Andy Robinson that ran past me earlier in the race. We didn't see him again that day, but later learned he took 4th place in the 50-mile race. See his recap on his blog here.

My official stats:
145th out of 229 male finishers
48th in my age division (30-39) out of 78 (ouch!)
Chip Time: 6:46:37
Average pace: 13:03
The North Face Endurance Challenge 50K TallGuySurfing grade = A

And I'll close with a few pictures!

My nutrition that I carried along with me. Here's a list of what I actually consumed during the race:
4 Gu energy gels
2 whole bananas
1 orange
An unknown amount of potato chips
An unknown amount of pretzels
2 packages of Sport Beans
1 whole package of Shot Blok 3x Sodium
1 hydration pack full of Gu Brew (2 tablets)
2 hydration packs full of water
2 cups of Gu Brew per aid station
1 bagel (Blueberry flavor)
1 gulp of Mountain Dew (I thought it was Gu Brew!)

Steam fog on the Potomac before the race start

Jenny and I just before the start

Seconds before the start

Dean says a few words at the start

Brooks Cascadias!

And we're off! (I had the Karate Kid running behind me for a while)

On trail!

Across creeks

Along the river

Only two ribbons left (50K and 50 Mile)

Great Falls Park

Absolutely beautiful!

Running on the edge!

Finishing my first ultra marathon!

I'M STILL HERE - REALLY!

2011-06-13T06:42:00.000-04:00

Oh where has the time gone???

It's now June and while I've been charging life full speed ahead as usual, I just paused for a second to look back and realized I haven't updated this blog since February. Holy dolphin farts!

A few comments by some awesome bloggers on some of my old posts (thanks to Jes at Begging For It and Heidi at TriAngel) made me realize how negligent I've been at sharing life's adventures.

The simple fact is I've been slammed. I work in real estate and this winter was crazy in this part of Florida. For whatever reason, the northern winter vacationers all decided to buy this year. It's a good thing because it means I'm not going in the direction of bankruptcy anymore, but the downside was definitely less time to write blogs, which I enjoy.

We did manage a few adventures between the chaos and I'm stoked to share them with you!

Bay to Breakers 100th Year 12k Race

Monterey Aquarium and Santa Cruz/Half Moon Bay

Blue Grotto & Devil's Den (Scuba Diving)

Bring it Wikiki!

It's contagious and I'm infected with S.U.P.

Keep the stoke ya'll and I'll promise to try and keep my blog a little more up-to-date in the future. I've obviously got a ton of reading to do in my Reader as I feel like I've lost touch with everyone.

Blue Grotto & Devil's Den (Scuba Diving)

2011-06-12T18:52:00.009-04:00

Two of my best friends are both named John. I call them the Johns. They are very much alike, yet very different at the same time. Both of them love the water and everything about it... fishing, surfing, diving, you name it. Myself being a waterman, there's no wonder we all get along!

The other day one of the Johns call me up and said, "let's go diving!" That's all I needed to hear and I was game.

The plan - leave early in the morning and drive across the state to the tiny city of Williston and dive Blue Grotto (an ancient sink hole) and then drive across town to Devil's Den (an underground cave entry spring with ancient fossils. Both offer crystal clear visibility and a glimpse into Florida's massive aquifer system. Neither require divers to be cavern certified and are open-water diver friendly, yet offer a feeling of diving in a cave. Both of these locations have been bucket list items on my dive list since I got my certification at 12-years-old.

Here's a few pictures!

The entrance to Blue Grotto. We were a few of the first ones there!

At about 45-feet there is an "air bell" with oxygen being pumped into it (as seen in the top of the photo) under the ledge or ceiling of the underwater opening to Blue Grotto. It offers divers a chance to have a conversation. In this photo I was trying to capture the large size of the grotto while also showing the visibility. It's very low light so it's not an easy exposure.

Another shot of a diver right on the edge of where the light fades at about 50 feet deep. Blue Grotto is about 96-feet deep and it's super dark at the bottom!

Myself and one of the Johns pulling a funny on me near the bottom of Blue Grotto.

The entrance to Devil's Den. Divers walk down into this cave to get to the spring.

A view of the inside platform at Devil's Den.

A large catfish that was following me around.

I really wish some day that those that are addicted to smoking would realize that the world is not an ashtray! Finding a cigarette butt at the bottom of Devil's Den is not a laughing matter.

Finding a fake human skull at the bottom of Devil's Den is a laughing matter!

I think myself and the Johns were the only divers at both locations wearing surfing wetsuits and not ones designed for scuba diving. This is me after diving Devil's Den and being totally stoked!

It's contagious and I'm infected with S.U.P.

2011-06-12T16:37:00.010-04:00

Knock them all you want (Lord knows I have). Call them what you will. Stand up paddle boards are here to stay. In the past decade these boards have gained popularity and seem to be spreading across the nation and world like a virus. From Hawaii to California to Florida to a random lake in Kansas the concept is absolutely brilliant. Simply put, you have the billion dollar plus marketing machine that is the modern day world of the surfing industry (although it seems only a small percentage of the people involved in that industry "actually surf) and NOW there's a way for EVERYONE to surf... well... kind of surf. The allure of "surfing" that this mass marketing machine has created across the globe is NOT something everyone can do. First off, you've got to have a beach geographically in reach. Then that beach has to have ridable waves and favorable conditions to learn. And finally, you have to have a little bit of athletic ability in conditioning, balance, strength and stubbornness. Learning to surf waves is not easy no matter who you are and a lot of people get frustrated and give up!
Now take a large stable board with a massive amount of floatation and give someone the ability to have a higher amount of environmental control -- the paddle -- and calm flat water for beginners and just about anyone can enjoy it on their first time. Just check out this picture! BRILLIANT! It looks like a surfboard. You stand on it. It must be surfing, right? I don't think so, but... well, that's the marketing brilliance of it.
Stand up paddle boarders take a lot of shit from surfers. This is probably in part because of a few SUP guys getting into situations where they don't belong. There are a lot of SUPs at my local break (one of the most crowded and territorial in Florida). I talk to the regular ones. They're nice guys and mean nobody harm. The trouble with SUPs is when they allow a beginner to get into a situation where nature would not allow them on a traditional surfboard. Then chaos soon follows and an out-of-control 11 or 12-foot board, paddle and out of shape human in the line up is bad for everyone. I will say in defense of SUPs. Anyone that knocks stand up paddle boards and says they don't belong in the surf needs to watch Laird Hamilton rip the hell of a few waves in this video here. Perhaps watching that very video influenced me.
After careful consideration and a lot of thought I decided to finally give it a try. My idea was simple; get two stand up paddle boards and Jenny and I can use them to explore the river while getting another type of cardio/core workout other than running and most importantly, it's on the water. Jenny was sold on the idea instantly when I pointed out to her some of the endurance SUP races held around the country. Something to train for!
We asked around, did research and eventually decided to buy a couple of SUP ATX boards. They are by far not the best boards ever made, however, for our budgets they get the job done. We got identical boards with different paint jobs. They are epoxy and they included the deck pad, fin and carbon fiber paddle in the discounted price. As popular as these boards are I know that I can always sell them on Craigslist without losing much money and buy different ones if needed.

As I clicked the "order now" button on the website I felt as if I was betraying the brotherhood of surfers. I was excited and weirded out at the same time.

Jenny was 100-percent EXCITED when she clicked the order button!

We had them shipped to my office. You should have seen the look on my co-worker's faces! The box was so big it hardly fit in my truck.

Later that night we opened them up in my living room. Jenny is ready to go! Each board is 11' feet long and 4.5" thick and 28-pounds light.

We picked a calm, wind-protected canal for our first attempt. Neither of us had ever tried it. The plan I devised was to push off on our knees and paddle around for a bit on our knees to acclimate and then stand up. I was shocked to see Jenny hop up to her feet only after a few seconds on her knees. It was even easier than I thought!

In only a few weeks we've been exploring all sorts of waterways. I own a touring kayak and I can confidently say I'm going to sell it and never kayak again. You can see SO much more on SUPs. So far I've paddled within a few feet of redfish, flounder, manatees, dolphin and even a bonnet-head shark. It's also been a great learning tool for Jenny and her surfing. She has practiced her paddle and pop-up on the SUP in a controlled environment and is now taking it to the waves on her normal surfboard. It's helping and I'm stoked!

Half Moon Bay!!!!

2011-06-10T07:19:00.021-04:00

Monterey Aquarium and Santa Cruz/Half Moon Bay

Growing up I was always coast bouncing back and forth between Florida and Northern California. I have family out there so we were always visiting. I learned to ski and snowboard at the ski resorts around Lake Tahoe and Lake Donner (amazingly, I didn't ski the east coast until I was in college). I even drank my first alcoholic beverage in California. Berkley, Sonoma, San Francisco, Sacramento and Richmond were all hot spots for me. In recent years I've returned to visit friends living in the area along with the same family members. A few weeks ago I was stoked to be bringing my girlfriend to the area for the first time. When she mentioned the Monterey Bay Aquarium and how she'd like to see it I realized that I never have explored south of the San Francisco Bay area.

A plan was formulated and we were off! Landing in San Jose, my aunt's hometown, we rented a car with my cousin (Robert and his girlfriend, Athena, both down from Portland, Oregon) and headed south to Monterey. The plan was simple - start in Monterey and work our way north through Santa Cruz, Half Moon Bay and finish in San Francisco for the Bay to Breakers 12K 100th year race.

Sometimes it's best to tell a story with photographs. The following is my story.

We started in Monterey, famous for fish canning and Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck amongst many others. . .

The Monterey Aquarium is truly epic or any ocean lover. I've visited Sea World, The Atlanta Aquarium, The New Orleans Zoo Aquarium, Marineland, the aquarium in Atlantis on Paradise Island and even one of the world's largest in Osaka, Japan... but Monterey is my favorite so far! It's not too big. It's not too commercialized. It has a meaningful purpose. And I would go back again.

The Aquarium is located right on the coastline and draws nutrient rich water straight from the ocean. You might recognize it from the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.

There are many ocean species here that an east coast surfer like myself has never seen. For example a leopard shark (pictured), a seven gills shark, sea dragons, sea otters, etc.

It wasn't long before Jenny found her dear sea turtles (green turtles pictured). Before going to graduate school she did sea turtle research in the Caribbean and Florida.

I've never seen a sea horse that looks like this. Amazing.

Just outside the Aquarium we found plenty of real wildlife including these harbor seals resting on some rocks. . .

And one of the reasons we really came to the Aquarium was for Jenny to see real sea otters. What we didn't expect was to see some in the wild along the coast line.

Next we visited Santa Cruz. This was VERY exciting for me. I didn't expect my travel companions to fully understand my excitement (Santa Cruz should be a pilgrimage for any surfer), but they were excited about the boardwalk. Robert and I decided to do hand stands and continue the tradition we started last year in Hawaii.

Santa Cruz is rich in surfing history. It's everywhere. Home of Pat O'Neil amongst many others.

Probably one of the most famous breaks is Steamers Lane (a right point break north of town). It wasn't very big the day I was there, but there was a decent lineup of all types of surfers.

I immediately climbed over the guard rail (knowing it's the way surfers get to the cliff to jump off when it's firing) and Robert, Jenny and Athena followed. We were soon able to watch the surfers directly below us. I soooooo wanted to rent a board and suit and paddle out, but there were more exciting things for all of us ahead.

There's a little tiny building right at Steamer Lane that has a free surf museum outlining the history of surfing in Santa Cruz. Definitely worth a visit and they appreciate donations!

The Pacific Coast Highway is awesome! Heading north from Santa Cruz is like driving in a car commercial most of the way. It dips into valleys and rises over cliffs of a jagged coastline bearing hidden paths to isolated beaches.

I need to learn to kite surf! It's apparently the thing to do when it's blown out and choppy.

Alas! Half Moon Bay, California - Home of Mavericks! This town is so unlike most coastal cities in California. In a way it hasn't lost it's charm. It reminds me of New England for some reason. The population is fairly small and the homes look more like Northeastern homes than west coast. I dig it.

Jenny, Robert and Athena really couldn't understand my excitement, but the followed me in support as I homed in on Mavericks like a cruise missile approaching its target. After a short walk along the harbor we came upon this shrine remembering Mark Foo.

I walked out to the point below the cliffs. I felt the freezing cold water run between my fingers. I looked out at the rocks protruding out of the water directly offshore. It was flat - hello... it's May. Just what I expected, but in my mind I imagined a January swell with 30' faces crashing down and sounding like thunder. Oh, how amazing it would be to watch from this beach?
After a few minutes we hiked back to the car, bid farewell to Half Moon Bay and continued on to San Francisco and the race awaiting us, but that's a different story.

Bay to Breakers 100th Year 12k Race

2011-06-01T11:55:00.024-04:00

100th Anniversary of the Bay to Breakers 12K Race

Quote of the Race: "Now I am really a Russian Hero," - after playing around with fake accents to talk with while in costume and thinking of the movie Armageddon. Yeah... it's strange, but it's also Bay to Breakers!

RACE STATS:
Location - San Francisco, California
Cost - Varies by date. See website here.
Year of Running - 100th Annual
Sponsor/Race Directors - Zazzle, Mich Ultra, Virgin America, Volkswagen, T-Mobile, Barefoot Wine, American Red Cross, Hyatt Regency San Francisco and many others.
Charity - Breathe California
Number of Participants - 55,000 (officially registered), 65,000 to 75,000 estimated total including bandits.
Available Races - 12 K or bust!
Course Condition - Concrete and asphalt street with a very steep incline.
Pace Groups - Unknown.... perhaps alcohol pace groups.
Expo - Yes, but kind of a joke compared to other races of this size.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS: - Organization is priority when you've got a race of 50,000-plus partially or fully intoxicated runners on your hands and Bay to Breakers has done this year-after-year adapting with the times. This year the big new rule was "no floats." In previous years decorated parade style floats were allowed to be pushed, dragged or kicked along the course. Often times these floats served as transportation for moving alcoholic bars. Also new for the centennial race was a stricter crack down on public alcohol and drug consumption, although alcohol was officially banned several years ago. This year race organizers hired private security forces along with law enforcement to help regulate this rule. San Francisco being the city it is still was slack on enforcement when compared to other parts of the country. From what I witnessed if you were drinking blatantly out in the open you were asked to pour it out. If you were drinking some Gatorade or Redbull that smelled suspicious you were told to carry on.
There is more than enough support along the course with multiple aid stations handing out water and sports drinks. The spectators are usually just as spectacular as the participants, however, the number of house parties along the course were drastically down this year when compared to the previous year. This may have been a result in the city's crack down on alcohol. Despite the "man" trying to put them down San Franciscans still showed up along the course to cheer on runners, dawn crazy outfits and be just as much a part of the event as the participants.

ACCESSIBILITY:
Like any major city this race takes some strategic planning. There are major airports in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose all within striking distance. Sacramento is another option. Plan for traffic if you're driving into the city no matter which way you come from and be prepared for crowds. There are the MUNI and Bart public transportation systems and they are efficient. The race sells transportation vouchers for after the race on its website and they can be purchased with race registration. There are road closures and public transportation schedule changes on race day so reference the website and parking is extremely limited.

SWAG:
Mediocrity at best. The expo is more focused on wine tasting and automobile manufacturers than the sport of running. With a standard registration you get a cotton T-shirt that is low quality and will shrink after washing. For about $30 more you can get a short sleeve tech-shirt that is also poor quality in the world of $30-price-range technical shirts. This year's logo and design on the shirts was 300 percent better than the previous year, but the shirts still lack quality. 2011 was also the first year race organizers awarded medals to all finishers. That was a nice touch being the 100th year. Participants can also print out a personalized race certificate from home after the event on the results page of the website.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
Excellent. The full gamut is available. The only drawback is the three-quarter mile up hill walk/hike from the finish line to the post-race celebration area. This was not a big deal for me as I like to walk a while after a race, but for a lot of the intoxicated runners it can be a struggle. Plus, it always seems to be chilly at the finish line so be prepared.

MY RACE STORY:
After running this race last year with my cousin, Robert and friend Jeanie, as a bucket list race I knew immediately after that I must return the next year. For one, it would be the 100th year and for two, I wanted my girlfriend to experience it. Fast forward 365 days and we are back! This time with Jenny, her friend Tracy and my cousin, Robert. We definitely learned from our mistakes last year and got a nice hotel room. Note to the wise: It's well worth an extra $50-$100 a night for a good bed in the city. Those $100 per night hotels pretty much suck when you want a nice night of rest before a race. We went for the guarantee and stayed at the Omni Hotel in downtown San Francisco, which provided only the highest service.
For costumes this year (a MUST at Bay to Breakers) we collectively decided on "Bathrobes" as the perfect outfit. It allows for you to look like you might be naked under it (we were wearing running clothes) and at the same time can be warm enough for May weather in Northern California, but also opened up if it gets too hot. For whatever reason, Robert and I almost got identical robes completely separate from each other. We both went for the satin kimono-style robe decorated with dragons. Jenny and Tracy both opted for nice and warm cotton robes. As we were getting dressed at 5 a.m. and drinking the standard hydration fluids for this race (RedBull, Gatorade & Vodka followed by a champagne toast), Robert and I started goofing around and somehow came up with the idea we were Russian douchebags. Robert's girlfriend, Athena, helped us draw pencil-thin mustaches on us and we slicked our hair back with gel. I don't know what got into us, but it was down right hilarious. Between this point and the race start we talked to everyone with our horrible fake Russian accents.
The race start line was epic. 50,000 plus people spanning about six city blocks starting at Pier 1. The normal tortilla tossing was happening everywhere along with beach balls and "other" inflatables. Being in corral C it only took us about 10 minutes to get to the start line, but for the first time this year they wave started the corrals behind us and that took nearly an hour from what I heard.
Bay to Breakers does a great job with this race, but my only real gripe about the race itself are the corrals. If you're going to have a race this big with this many corrals then organize them a little better! The race organizers simply state on the website what pace time you should run in each corral and leave it up to the people registering to pick their corrals. This would be great if all runners were responsible, but in a race like this with a lot of the field not even being runners it simply does not work. Instead the corrals fill up and sell out in alphabetical order - A - B - C - D and so on. The end result is a mix of all types of runners and walkers in each corral. In other words, unless you're an elite you're going to be doing some weaving.
Jenny and I had decided to split this race up; her running with Tracy and me running with Robert. We would rendezvous at the finish line. My cousin took off from the start just like last year caught up in the excitement of the moment and began frantically weaving and passing, weaving and passing. I followed in fast pursuit. Our splits increased the entire race, but the crowd did not decrease. Just when I noticed that there were very few corral C bibs around me we encountered the slower crowds of corral B. We passed people for the entire race from start to finish. In fact, the only people I noticed passing us were three Spartan warriors in the last half mile running in perfect formation with each other. It was almost as if they were marching a 7 minute pace. Every so many strides they would bang their swords upon their shields and yell a chant from the movie 300. I was impressed.
We saw the normal chaos throughout the race like the dozen or so people dressed up as salmon running the wrong way down the middle of the street. Or the posse of smurfs cheering people on from the side of the road. Naked people here and naked people there. The funniest one I saw was a middle aged man completely naked standing in a grass field about 40 yards off the race course talking on his cell phone. He was waving his free hand around as he talked. It was so retarded looking that I couldn't stop laughing for a full minute.
This year Robert and my mothers both decided to come watch. We found then a mile or so from the finish line in Golden Gate Park along with Athena. After the race we found Jenny and Tracy and headed up the hill to the post race celebration area. Jenny and Tracy both had an equally insane race experience. We found our mothers and tromped through a few hidden trails to the edge of the park were we had a rented mini van waiting for us. This beat the shuttle transportation 100 fold. From there we drove down to the Cliff House, which is an amazing restaurant with 100+ years of history just north of the park and finish line along the beach. We had the most glorious breakfast/brunch of all time! If you're ever in San Francisco make sure you go eat at the Cliff House!
And that about wraps it up! I'm not sure if we'll do Bay to Breakers again as there are so many more races to do, but I'm completely stoked I got to be part of the 100th year running. Next year I think we will make our way to the Bay area again, but hopefully to run the Dipsea. I'll leave you with some pictures!

The best part about the running expo? Seeing Meb!

Standard Pre-Bay to Breakers Hydration fluids!

Tortillas!

The start line!

La la la la la.... la la la la!

Check out Pooh Bear... no really, I was taking a picture of Pooh Bear!

A look behind me from atop the Hayes Street Hill.

Our magnificent supporters!

This is Sparta!

Momma TallGuySurfing and Me at the Cliff House looking back toward the finish line.

My official stats:
2,806th out of 43,913 finishers
714th in my age division (30-39) out of 5,222 (top 13%)
Chip Time: 1:04:09 (a new 12K PR!)
Average pace: 8:35
Zazzle Bay to Breakers 12k TallGuySurfing grade = B+

Bring it Wikiki!

2011-05-31T11:24:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I get stuck working the weekends. I try and limit this awful behavior to only customers that I believe will be NOT wasting my time. This means they have the means (cash) and mindset (pressure) to buy something. If I work with someone for an entire weekend and there's no contract by Sunday afternoon I feel like I've just D.N.F.'ed a race.

This happened one recent weekend. Both days experienced good surf in the mornings and blown out conditions in the afternoons. Both days I worked in the mornings. I even put off my long run until Monday morning. By Sunday late afternoon I was frustrated at being foolishly suckered into working the weekend with this costumer that now wants to wait until the Fall to buy something. I can't blame the guy -- financially it makes more sense for him. But, I'm still out two days with no exercise!

A visiting friend from Denmark text messaged me saying he was still on the beach and Jenny and I decided we'd go hang out with him the last few hours of daylight. I threw the two SUP boards on top of the Jeep and we were off. The beach was wind swell choppy as expected and after taking a look it didn't look good for either of them to attempt a paddle out on one of these beast of a boards.

We hung out for a bit shooting the breeze and then I had an idea. What if Jenny and I paddled out together on one SUP board? Tandem? That way I could control things and make wave decisions. The more I thought about it the more I liked it. Next thing I know I'm carrying one of the SUPs down to the surf with no paddle. Jenny's right behind me as we walk out waste deep. The water is aquamarine with more visibility than average. It's beautiful despite the chop.

I have her jump up on the mid-section of the board like she is going to knee-paddle (although she's never need paddled before) and I jump up on the tail section so I can manage our center of gravity and keep us from periling. We get into a pattern of paddling together and start punching through several small walls of white wash. It's amazing how fast we're moving paddling together. Jenny thinks she isn't contributing, but I know better because we're moving faster than I can paddle this thing alone.

We sit on the outside a while and I study the ocean. The waves are coming in sets of 3 or 4 and they're slightly crossed up. Not unusual for New Smyrna Inlet. Nobody is out but us. Jenny thinks people are staring at us from the beach. I could care less. I turn us into a wave and yell, "paddle!"

The timing is off, the wave breaks early and a wall of whitewash engulfs us.

I make a mental adjustment for our timing and we nail the next wave. I don't turn us, but let the board go straight as I hop up to my feet. "Stand up," I yell at Jenny. She's still on her knees. I can hear her laugh and know she's stoked. I pull her up to her feet by her arms and there we are surfing this choppy knee high wave for all it's worth - her goofy and me regular. We surf almost to the sand for quite a long ride. Jenny turns around smiling ear to ear and simply says, "again!"

It was amazing how easy it was on such a stable board and how I could control everything from the tail section. On several waves I had to almost lean my entire body off the tail to keep us from periling on the drop-in. Jenny's weight counter-acted mine and kept us from stalling. There's a few mental adjustments to make, but for the most part surfing tandem is a blast and not too difficult given the right conditions. Our combined weight of around 280 pounds was nothing the SUP board couldn't handle. It was only after that I realized how doing this could be an amazing learning tool for beginner surfers. Jenny made a few comments about how intense the paddle into each wave was from her perspective and how when she watches other surfers it looks easy. Then I realized that by doing this she was seeing the surfing experience basically through my eyes - the timing, the positioning, the decision making, all of it. What a great learning tool I've stumbled upon!

We'll definitely be doing this again!

A Good Day ....

2011-02-28T09:01:00.005-05:00

I was stressed out yesterday. A string of unfortunate events with work combined with some bad luck in the past month has left me on edge. Feeling like I should be working rather than playing I was not in my normal "thrilled to be going surfing" mood when we decided to make it a beach day.

The weather was perfect -- sunny and warm. A sense of Spring and a hint of Summer is in the air.As we pulled up to the inlet and assessed the situation (playful little thigh high glassy sets rolling in with the incoming tide) I noticed some commotion in the water. Fighter-jet colored fins breaching the water. Fishing flinging themselves airborne in a desperate attempt to escape. White water splashing about.

No not sharks. Another visitor to New Smyrna Inlet that is even more common than sharks believe it or not -- The common dolphin. An entire pod to be exact!

Dolphin are one of my favorite animals. Intelligent, playful, skilled and the undisputed best surfers in the world. Many times I've shared waves with them, locked eyes and sensed a common bond of "let's have some fun on this wave!" I grabbed my camera and snapped off some shots before grabbing my noserider to join the fun.

Stressed out or not, a paddle out with the dolphins and fun surfing session at New Smyrna Inlet is a cure all!

Hey Boston Marathon, you're acting like a carney!

2011-02-16T18:22:00.006-05:00

I'm going to rant for a bit.

It's going to be about the Boston Marathon and big marathons in general.

If you don't want to hear it stop reading now and go to the next blog on your reader.

First, let me say that I'm not a "Boston Qualifier" and probably never will be. The fact is I'm slow. I'm tall at 6'7" and I'm prone to injuries. Although I've been jogging for years, I only consider myself to have become a runner in the last 2 years and still consider myself "learning." The qualifying time for me is simply out of the question at this point given my circumstance. However, I am an above average athlete when compared to similar males my age. Boston Marathon isn't important to me. I've visited the city. It's fun. It's historic. It's also a northern city and I prefer to have more fun in southern or western cities, but that's just me and my upbringing. That being said, maybe I shouldn't talk about Boston.

However, you see, Boston Marathon is important to the people that are important to me; my friends and my girlfriend. So it's a free country and I'm going to talk about Boston. Today I got the following email from my girlfriend, which was a forwarded piece of information about Boston Marathon and what the BAA is doing now that they seem to have more demand than supply for their little prestigious event.

2012 rolling registration dates - Day 1 (Sept. 12) - Qualifiers who have met their age and gender qualifying standard (3 hours, 10 minutes for men aged 18-34 and 3 hours, 40 minutes for women 18-34) by a margin of 20 minutes or faster may apply for the marathon. - Day 3 (Sept. 14) - Qualifiers who have met the standard set for their age/gender by a margin of 10 minutes or faster may apply. - Day 5 (Sept. 16) - Qualifiers who have met their age/gender qualifying time by a margin of 5 minutes or faster may apply. - Day 8 (Sept. 19) - Open to all qualifiers to register. - Day 12 (Sept. 23) - Registration closes for qualified applicants. Registered qualifiers will be notified of their acceptance by Sept. 28. For 2013, there are new qualifying times. The times will be 5 minutes tougher than they are currently. For example, men 18-34 currently must run 3:10 and women 18-34 must run 3:40 to qualify, but for 2013 these groups will have to run 3:05 and 3:35 respectively.

My girlfriend's only remarks?
"I may have to run another marathon!"

I would normally say running another marathon is a good thing. One should never quit with only running one marathon (it would be my girlfriend's 4th marathon). But, saying you have to run another marathon to qualify for Boston when you already ran your heart out and qualified for Boston is a load of shit. Yeah... that's right. I said it. I understand the BAA is trying to solve the problem in a fair manner, but there has to be a better way. If you want your race to be the most prestigious marathon out there don't screw the people that have shed tears, lost blood and sweat their asses off obtaining that qualification.

I'm starting to hate the Boston Marathon more and more. It started last Fall when the damn thing sold out in only a few hours, which happened to be only a few days before my girlfriend ran her qualifying marathon. And by the way, she ran her heart out on a tough course with little or no support that turned out to be a complete FAIL on that race directors part. See Running for the Bay Marathon for details. Despite that adversity she still obtained a qualifying time knowing she'd have to wait until 2012 to actually run Boston.

And now this load of crap from the BAA. I highly doubt those poor runners that have to wait until day 8 of registration with their hard earned qualifying time will have any chance at all of running the 2012 Boston Marathon.

I can see it now... my girlfriend is already conspiring to run a summer marathon to attempt a time 20 minutes faster than her actual minimum qualifying time of 3:40:00. That means a 3:20:00, which is a huge jump. It'd be about a 15 minute jump for her. I'd say that kind of jump in time is awesome and everyone should strive for it, but not because some jackasses in Boston are punishing those already qualified runners to run faster. That's all the wrong reasons.

So what's the deal with all these marathon's selling out so quickly? Our epic summer adventure plan got shattered due to Ogden Marathon selling out. Is the sport of running gaining in popularity or is it more and more people are realizing the health benefits of running and taking to the road? I think it's great. I really do. I love being surrounded by health-conscience athletes like myself. Most of the time I look around and see myself surrounded by out-of-shape future cardiac and diabetes patients. I just worry about the sport and where it's going. The more and more I think about it the more and more I'd rather run an obscure little known race that benefits a charity. Some of the most fun I've had have been races with less than 100 participants. Last weekend was the 26.2 with Donna Marathon and Half Marathon to benefit breast cancer research and care. This race fielded about 6,000 runners and felt like a big race like Disney or a Rock 'n' Roll event (I've run both). The difference? It was better organized and benefited a charity. I was going to write a review of it now, but this news about Boston made me so angry that it'll have to wait. Maybe I'll become a trail runner. Maybe I'll stop running races all together. Sure would be cheaper. Maybe I'll go run these race courses on a different day and provide my own support. It's a free country. Stick it to the man, ya know?

Getting back to Boston....

Prepare to disagree with me if you like.....

How about do away with ALL runners that are not time qualifying runners? Yes, that means charity runners, celebrity runners and "special" invitees! I mean, come on, if I got invited to run the Boston Marathon for whatever reason, but I hadn't run a 3:10:00 marathon or faster I'd have to decline the invitation on general principal. I mean seriously, if the field shouldn't be increased in size because it can't accommodate it and the demand is there, yet you still want to be prestigious, how about catering to those that really deserve to be there? There are plenty of other charity races out there. Let the charities go. I know it sounds horrible, but considering the situation it seems the only charity the BAA is serving is itself.

I was at a carnival about a year ago with my girlfriend (the undisputed BOSTON QUALIFIER!) and a Carney called me over to his booth. It was one of those classic throw the baseball at the three bottles stacked on top of each other forming a triangle games. Simple game. Knock all three bottles down and win a teddy bear. I gave the Carney a few dollars and he gave me a baseball. Little did he know I used to be a pitcher. I threw that ball dead center into the three bottles. A perfect strike. It hit so perfectly that the two bottom ones exploded left and right at 45-degree angles behind the stand they were resting on and the top bottle fell straight down onto it. It fell so perfectly that it remained standing where the two supporting bottles were before it.

I looked at the Carney and was ready to give my newly won teddy bear to my girlfriend. He hesitated and then claimed that he couldn't give me the teddy bear because I hadn't knocked all the bottles down and one was still standing. He immediately asked for another few dollars so I could try again with another ball. I started to argue with him and then stopped. It wasn't worth it. It's just a freaking teddy bear and my girlfriend doesn't want it anyhow. I know in my heart that I threw that baseball perfect. It was so perfect it not only knocked all the bottles down, but allowed the top one to fall right into place as if I yanked a table cloth out from a dinner arrangement. I simply told the Carney that I wouldn't buy another chance on general principal and that I had won his game on the first shot; fair and square! I walked away and left him standing there.

Hey Boston Athletic Association! YOU'RE ACTING LIKE A CARNEY!

My name is Sylvan McElroy and I will NOT be running your race anytime soon!

And my suggestion to all those duly qualified runners that will inevitably be left out on the 2012 Boston Marathon?

Organize yourselves. Revolutions have occurred in the history of this race. Google Kathrine Switzer if you don't know. Wouldn't it be funny to see a huge group (I'm talking thousands) of runners that have all qualified for Boston, but were denied their registration, to bandit run the race*??? That would be total mayhem.

Just something to think about.

*TallGuySurfing does not condone or support that act of bandit running.

26.2 with Donna (Race recap)

2011-02-16T10:31:00.010-05:00

4th Annual 26.2 with Donna (The National Marathon to Finish Breast Cancer)

Quote of the Race: "This race is great! It's like a Boston Marathon atmosphere! This is what it's all about. I'll see you on the road running (in the future!)" - Bill Rodgers, Four time New York City Marathon winner and masters world record holder for 5k, 8k, 10k and 10 miles - said to Jenny and I after Jenny recognized him in the chute after our half marathon finish and approached him to congratulate.

RACE STATS:
Location - Jacksonville & Jacksonville Beach. Race is an out-and-back that begins and finishes at the MAYO CLINIC.
Cost - Full Marathon: $75-$125 depending on pre-registration date.
Half Marathon: $55-$95 depending on pre-registration date.
Marathon Relay: $250-$300 depending on pre-registration date.
Year of Running - 4th Annual
Sponsor/Race Directors - Donna Deegan and The Donna Foundation, Jeff Galloway Training, The MAYO CLINIC, Publix, Genentech, Amgen, Eisai Oncology, Sanofi Aventis, MENTOR, VitaminID.com, Coffee Perks, 97.9 KissFM, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Macy's, Key Buick, Firehouse Subs, First Coast News, Winn Dixie, GU Energy Gel and more.
Charity - Proceeds go to breast cancer research and care. To date the race has attracted more than 26,000 runners and raised more than $2 million dollars.
Number of Participants - I'm a bit confused about this. According to the announcer at the race start they claimed to have 10,000 participants in this year's race. According to the official race results on the website there were the following:
Full Marathon - 670 Male, 942 Female = 1,612 total
Survivor Marathon finishers - 2 Male, 42 Female = 43 total
Half Marathon - 983 Male, 3,049 Female = 4,032 total
Survivor Half Finishers - 3 Male, 181 Female = 184 total
Relay Marathon - 153 male, 215 Female = 367 total
By my math that's about 6,238 participants not including the 5k runners that raced the day before. Regardless, it's an awesome event with an awesome race field.
Available Races - Full Marathon, Half Marathon, Marathon Relay on Sunday with a 5k on Saturday.
Course Condition - Asphalt paved road with about 2 miles being on hard-packed beach sand along the Atlantic Ocean. This course is flat and about as fast as they come with no hills except for a medium incline bridge that passes over the Intracoastal Waterway.
Pace Groups - Yes, for both Half Marathon and Full Marathon.
Expo - One of the best in the region; hands down. Located at the Prime Osborn Convention Center in downtown Jacksonville, Fla. There were more than 100 vendors and tons and tons of free stuff being given out. First Place Sports was also there selling just about anything running related. The atmosphere is definitely "Female" orientated, but any male runner can find plenty of goodies here.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS:
To date this is one of my favorite races in terms of superior organization, tons of support and plenty of emotion all around. Being a breast cancer fund raiser and awareness campaign everything is pink from the mile markers to the race t-shirts. This is also the only race I've ever attended of this size where there is never a wait for a restroom before, during or after the race. I suspect because it's a race with many more female participants than males they really score on making sure there are more than enough restrooms EVERYWHERE. From packet pickup to checked bags to race day transportation to checked bag pickup everything flows seamlessly without stress or frustration. For being only the 4th year this race could serve as a model for any other race in terms of organization.
The support is excellent. There are plenty of aid stations armed with more than enough volunteers handing out water, Gatorade and GU gels all along the course. Did I mention there are plenty of bathrooms along the course as well??? Medical personnel roam the course on bicycles and this is a closed road course.
This race has a very big emotional factor for thousands when it comes to breast cancer or cancer in general. Hundreds and hundreds of spectators line the course to watch and cheer on participants. Residents living along the course in different neighborhoods sit out in their driveways playing music and sometimes offering their own aid stations stocked with food, water and I even saw one with beer. Even along the more isolated sections of the course there are spectators along the highway and bridge.

ACCESSIBILITY:
This race is set up for easy access by locals or out of town visitors. Jacksonville is accessible by Interstate 95 from the north and south and Interstate 10 from the west. For those flying in there is an International Airport just outside of town with shuttles to many of the race sponsored hotels that have shuttles to the race start before and after the race.

SWAG:
Oh my God! There's tons of swag to be had at the EXPO. For participants there are long sleeve tech shirts (white for male and pink for female), draw-string race backpacks that double as checked bags on the day of race and the normal race sponsor items and coupons inside these bags when picked up at the EXPO. Race finishers get a super cool medal and two beverage tickets that can score beer in the family reunion area.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
Plenty of volunteers line the chute after the finish line with everything a finisher could ask for whether it's water, an emergency blanket, ice packs, post race photographs and oh, don't forget the medal. All finishers get a really cool medal. As the chute funnels out into the Runner's Village there's a first aid station and lots and LOTS of food. Panera Bread serves hot soup, Publix serves fruit (bananas, oranges & muffins) and various sponsors give away their products. Runners easily claim their checked bags and then can filter out into the Family Reunite Area where there's more food for sale, beverages and live music being played. Each participant gets two beverage vouchers on their race bibs good for beer or soda or water. A lot of Jenny's friends that don't drink gave me their vouchers so I had a beer or four! At noon they gave out awards on stage. Top finishers in age groups get backpacks!

MY RACE STORY:
This is a race that I will hopefully remember for the rest of my life. It was one of those times when all the planets and stars align just perfectly and create something wonderful and special and memorable.
First off, it's the day before Valentine's Day and last year Jenny and I (only dating for a few months) ran a marathon relay (Five Points of Life) together on Valentine's Day. We decided after that race that we should always do a race on Valentine's Day. Screw going out for an overpriced meal at a fancy restaurant with a long wait and bad service!
Secondly, it's a Team Hot Legs event (a couple dozen of Jenny's female runner friends call themselves Hot Legs) and by my count nine of them are here on race day. Then there's myself and one other male, Don, who happens to be a 50 Stater (has run 1 marathon in each of the 50 states) and is a father of one of the founders of Hot Legs, Katie. So this race is almost a girl's weekend for Jenny, except I'm here and a few other husbands, boyfriends, fathers are too.
Lastly, Jenny and I are both dealing with on-going injuries so this is our first longer distance race in a few months. We're only running the Half Marathon and everyone else is running the full including three girls running their first full marathon.
Jenny asks me several times in the days before the race if I want to run together? My answers were vague, but consistent; I'd like to run with her, but I'm not sure I can keep up with her with my Achilles tendon being a little bothersome and I don't want to force her to run slow (which can be equally painful). The day of the race comes and we're standing in the corral trying to keep warm and Jenny asks again, "what's the plan?"
I answer with let's run together and see how it goes. Let's make this a fun run. No pressure. Enjoy the course. We find Michelle and Tracy in the start corral, but have lost everyone else in the exciting few minutes before the start.
Jeff Galloway and Donna Deegan both give speeches and then there's the countdown. I'm tall enough to see the 30 or 40 yards in front of me where the elites are toeing the line. There's a purse in this race so the Kenyans and Russians are here. There's a countdown and then the gun fires, music plays and pink graffiti goes everywhere!
We're off.
Like so many races there's some weaving and passing for the first few minutes, but after the first mile everyone has spread out into the proper paces. I would later learn that our first mile is our slowest at 8:48 average pace. Jenny and I fall into conversation. We talk in detail about how cold our extremities are, the Intracoastal Waterway we are seeing along the course and many other random subjects. Before I know what's happened we pass the mile 5 marker. I'm feeling really good at this point.
We run down the beach and it's absolutely beautiful. I was worried there might be good waves to surf and that I might feel like I was missing out, but the Atlantic ocean looks like a lake and there are no waves to be surfed. The conversation continues and we're both feeling great. Part of our strategy is to run a "conversation pace." If we're able to have a conversation then we're "taking it easy," and not going at race pace.
We pass the mile 11 marker and I'm almost dumbfounded about how good I feel. I look at my Garmin and become more confused. After doing the math I figure that if we run the final 2.1 miles at an 8 minute or faster pace I should easily beat my half marathon PR. I tell Jenny this and since we're both feeling so good we decide to go for it. We turn on our iPods for the first time. The first thing I hear is a Spanish lesson. Sh*T! I press forward and get another Spanish lesson. I downloaded some basic Spanish lessons before our vacation to Colombia last month and now my iPod is stuck in Spanish lesson hell when I need it to play something hard and heavy. Finally I get to some music. It's Hoobastank's "Running Away." Fitting. . . so I go with it. Right around mile 12 there is a bridge over the Intracoastal Waterway. It's the only bridge and the only hill. Jenny goes ahead of me as she's better going up and I'm usually better going down so I'll catch her. This is a strategy we used during the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll marathon. Only problem this time is there's several hundred high school kids just before the top of the bridge manning an aid station and cheering us on. It's awesome and I give some of the girls high fives as I run past. Only problem is they are accidentally creating a bottleneck and I get stuck behind several runners and once I'm through I realize I'm not to the top yet. This "hill" ends up taking a little more out of me than I expected and Jenny gets a little further away. I pick up the pace going down and pass a lot of runners, but Jenny still turns and slows down for me at the bottom. We turn the final corner and can see the finish line about a half mile away. Jenny says that Kid Rock's "Bawitdaba" just came on her iPod, one of her favorite running songs. My iPod begins to play "Give it all" by Rise Against. Epic! I look over at her and say "let's do this," and we both start kicking it. We cross the finish line a few minutes later running a 6:55 pace and holding hands! I look at my Garmin and I've shattered my half marathon PR by nearly a minute!
I don't usually buy the race pictures, but this one I might just have to make an exception.
This was one of the most meaningful and fun races to date. Everything about it was feel good! Heck, somewhere between getting water in the chute and getting our photos taken Jenny recognized Bill Rodgers standing over to the side all by himself. He had just finished a few minutes ahead of us and was cooling down. Jenny approached him to say hi and that's when I heard the "quote of the race," at the top of my blog.
After getting some food and icing our injuries Jenny and I spent the rest of the day watching her fellow Hot Legs finish the full marathon. There were quite a few PRs to be had and even a BQ. It's a great race and I'll always be up to run it again.

My official stats (Sunday results only):
214th out of 4,032 half marathon finishers
21st in my age division (30-34) out of 110 (top 19%)
Chip Time: 1:48:31 (a new half marathon PR!)
5-Mile split time: 41:10
Average pace: 8:17 (6:55 negative split on the last mile)
26.2 with Donna TallGuySurfing grade = A

Jenny and Team Hot Legs

Warrior Dash 2011

2011-02-03T09:21:00.006-05:00

Central Florida Warrior Dash (Lake Wales) - Jan. 29-30

Quote of the Race: "I'm never doing this again!" - Jenny after crossing the finish line covered head to toe in mud.

RACE STATS:
Location - Triple Canopy Ranch in Lake Wales, Florida. Also in 27 other locations in North America and Australia.
Cost - $40 pre-registration ($30 if you Google search "promo code for Warrior Dash" and find one that works like we did!) or $50-$60 day of race.
Year of Running - Unknown, but I've heard of it for at least a year or two.
Sponsor/Race Directors - Red Frog Events Production
Charity - Not sure. This venue is out to make a buck. That being said, they do collect your unwanted muddy shoes after the race to be donated to a charity or recycled. I think I also saw something about volunteers and fund raising on the website.
Number of Participants - 6,394 on Saturday. 5,159 on Sunday. Total - 11,553
Available Races - 3.02-mile mud-trail run with 11 obstacles (distance varies upon location).
Course Condition - Take a sandbox and fill it with mud and water. Pack your shoes full of mud and get them soaked to the point they weight three times as much as normal. Now run, crawl and jump your way through that box of mud with 600 friends and that's your course condition.
Pace Groups - N/A
Expo - N/A Packet pickup is day of race and they recommend being an hour early.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS:
Red Frog Productions definitely has their act together when it comes to moving as many participants as possible through this course while keeping the entertainment value at its max. It's the type of event you see, do the math in your head and say "damn I wish I was behind this money making machine!" By providing an awesome event venue mixed with alcohol and music and a moderately challenging race course to the average person they've created an excellent adventure for the weekend warrior-type. Packet pick up was easy and well organized. The only hiccup I observed was a seeming significant number of participants, including one in my group of nine, found incorrect information about themselves in their packets. My friend was placed in the wrong age division (younger) and told to go to a different tent to have it corrected. That tent happened to have the longest line anywhere (even longer than the beer tent!). We arrived 1 hour early as recommended, but didn't have time for that line so my friend ran the race in a younger age division.
The race is organized into waves starting every 30 minutes with about 600 runners each. There is adequate support with an aid station near the halfway point (mile 1.5) with water. Bananas and water are provided at the finish line.
Spectators have a blast at this race lining the course along the final two obstacles -- several rows of fire that participants jump over and a long trench of mud with real barbwire hanging only inches above the water forcing participants to practically swim through the mud. I did not investigate if spectators are allowed to venture out onto the course at any other points and I did not notice anyone along the course other than volunteers. Regardless, the party is near the finish line.
I found that the event website was very informative and that Red Frog Productions executed exactly what was described on the website.

ACCESSIBILITY:
The Central Florida event is located on a ranch near the city of Lake Wales. You definitely need a car to get here. It's about an hour south of Orlando (nearest International Airport) and was about a 2.5-hour drive from Daytona Beach, Florida. Parking was limited on the event grounds and cost $10 per car cash only, which was slightly steep and annoying. A $5 fee would have seemed more appropriate and less greedy by organizers. Upon reflection, this event is not very handicap friendly as well.

SWAG:
Warrior Dash gets kudos in this department. This race definitely takes the old "I'll do anything for a t-shirt" mentality to a new level by providing each participant with a "Warrior hat" that looks like a viking helmet with horns. They also give out cotton T-shirts. We found that the extra large t-shirts were better quality than all the smaller sizes. This is because they were a gray color while the others were plain white and probably more subject to shrinkage after washing. Other swag included bib numbers, timing chip and the normal various coupons and marketing material.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
Now that everyone is covered in mud at the finish line it is time to party! Every finisher gets a medal (of average quality) and the opportunity to take a mass shower. I found that Muddy Buddy (a Competitor event similar to Warrior Dash) has them beat hands down in the washing off department. Warrior Dash was nothing more than a large waterfall that participants walked through like a car wash and tried to rub off the mud. Muddy Buddy provides designer shampoo and conditioner at the washing stations. Later we learned there were showers on the ranch located near the camping section, but this seemed to be a secret at the finish line. The best part of the post race party was the beer. All participants (ages 21-and-up) get one free beer. It was Budweiser or Bud Light. Not my favorite, but I guess fitting for a mud event. It still tasted good given the situation. As for food, we brought our own preferred food in coolers in our vehicles. From what I observed they were selling large turkey legs designed to really make you look like a warrior if eating off the bone while wearing the viking helmet although probably not the diet of choice for most athletes.

MY RACE STORY:
This was my race. Those are the words Jenny said to me as we discussed strategy in the race corral a few minutes before starting. I had talked her into this and recruited friends to run with us and she was letting me know that I should run it anyway I like. Yup, this is not her cup of tea. Eleven obstacles in only 3-miles means not much time to set a pace and cruise. Instead there will be interruptions to the pace every few hundred yards. To some that could mean more opportunity for injuries. For me, it's just plain old boyish excitement. Almost like free running or psychotic Fartlet workouts.
The start horn sounded and instead of fireworks, huge blasts of fire irrupted from the start line. As we shuffled near the start line (in true misfit fashion our entire party of 9 was at the back of the 600-person wave) three of us started the weaving and zigzagging required to pass slower runners and increase our pace. Each time we passed people we'd hear them laughing at our outfits. It was action and reaction! About a half mile into the race the first obstacle came into sight. It was a long mud pit nothing more than a jeep trail full of water. Thinking back at my southern redneck roots I automatically knew it would be deepest in the tire ruts. Sure enough, the runner in front of me falls head first into the water after stepping in the spot that the right tire would hit on a 4x4. I immediately stepped to the right and ran the edge of the water and this allowed me to pass about 20 runners. I went with this strategy for the rest of the race. Simply watch the runners in front of you approaching the obstacle and formulate a plan of attack before reaching it based on the line they take and what happens to them. After racing Muddy Buddy I knew from experience I didn't want to be held up by people in front of me rather than the obstacle itself.
After the first mile it was less crowded and I was alone with the rest of our group somewhere behind me. The obstacles start blurring together. My shoes are super heavy from being soaked and undoubtedly full of sand and mud. For only being a few minutes into a short distance race I'm feeling surprisingly winded. It's gotta be the obstacles I tell myself. They're not hard obstacles, but it's definitely different than running a race at one pace the entire time.
Of all the obstacles the funniest one occurred around the halfway point. It was an incline plank that required balance to run up to a 6-foot high wall with a rope net connecting it to another wall 20-feet or so away. Beyond the second wall was another horizontal rope net leading to a final wall with another plank sloping back down to the ground. I watched the runners in front of me. They went right so I decided to go left. As I reached the first rope net instinct told me to jump into it with my body remaining horizontal and roll across rather than trying to step on the rope and climb across. This was absolutely brilliant as I passed the two runners on the right side of the obstacle in the first rope net. When I reached the second wall I flung my body over it without regard and began rolling across it again. Now for the unexpected. . .
When I reached the bottom of the second rope net I collided with a soft mass at the deepest point. I soon realized it was a body. I was immediately confused. There had been no one ahead of me on the left side of the obstacle as I approached it seconds ago. I was sure I picked a clear line to attack. Then I realized it was a woman. It was a large (obese) woman and she was laying there as if stuck. She wasn't even trying to move! She had made this obstacle into her own personal hammock! She must have been from the wave that started before our wave.
"Oh.... I'm so sorry! I didn't see you here," I said as I was practically laying on top of her. "Are you ok?"
"Yeah," she quietly said.
Not knowing what the hell to do I decided it best to keep moving in the fastest way possible, which of course, was to keep on rolling. I rolled right across her apologizing the entire way and worked my way over the last wall and down the plank. At the base was another large woman yelling some kind of ill-received encouragement to her friend to keep moving. I ran as fast as I could to get away from that obstacle.
By the end of the race I was fairly winded. This surprised me. The obstacles take a little more out of you than you'd expect.
Jenny finished just behind me and as I went up to give her a hug you looked at me, mud dripping down all over her face, and said "I'm never doing this again, " in a disgusted tone.
It was priceless.
We all had a beer and laughed about it later. Warrior Dash is a fun event not to be taken too seriously. It's set up in a way that just about anyone can do it so it's great for groups of friends both large and small.
And by the way... I almost forgot to mention the Hooters outfits. One of my friends worked at Hooters many years ago during college (she now has an engineering degree and thinks teaching calculus if fun) and she was nice enough to allow most of our party (those willing) to wear a bunch of her old outfits. This put us into almost celebrity status amongst the crowd. I literally lost count of how many people asked to have their pictures taken with us.

Our Warrior Dash gang!

My official stats (Sunday results only):
307th out of 5,159 finishers
37th in my age division (30-34) out of 518 (top 7%)
Chip Time: 28:17
Average pace: 8:45
Central Florida Warrior Dash TallGuySurfing grade = B+

Running with a Garmin

2011-01-23T18:43:00.005-05:00

For the past month I've been experimenting with the Garmin Forerunner 405CX. It was a Christmas gift to myself after MultiSportFit.com trainer Sal Palmieri recommended that I invest in a sports watch with a heart rate monitor (I will explain and review MultiSportFit.com in a future post).

Now I've never been one to be super analytical with statistics, time, pace, etc. Hell, up until the last couple of years I usual ran naked sans watch at whatever pace and time "felt" good. So I was super hesitant to buy a Garmin because number one, they are ridiculously expensive and number two, I'm afraid of becoming "that guy" with his workout charts and annoying watch beeping constantly.

I narrowed down my options fairly quickly. I knew I wanted the Garmin name brand. I've trusted Garmin in other activities including Aviation, Fishing and Hiking so I'm partial and loyal to them. I don't want a Star Trek Communicator on my wrist so that eliminated a lot of the Garmin sports watches. I'm really only interested in pace, time and distance so the Forerunner 110 seemed the logical choice. It's the minimalist GPS watch and a heart rate monitor is optional (which Sal seems to be really interested in heart rate data) so it looked like it is the obvious choice. Then I saw the Forerunner 405CX on sale marked down to about the same price as the 110, probably because Garmin launched a new model at an ultra ridiculous price. Long story short; I hesitantly purchased the 405CX on sale for $199.

After three weeks running with this watch I think I'm in love. It was easy to set up on my computer, which it wireless uploads the workouts I've completed without me even asking. And, the best part? That data is synced with not only the Garmin website, but also others like DailyMile.com, MapMyRun.com and MultiSportFit.com. That right there saves me SO much time. I will admit that I haven't even read the instructions manual and I've only focused on the things I care about like time, distance and pace. The heart rate information is interesting (at one point I had a heart rate of 50 while sitting on the couch!). The mapping is mind blowing. Garmin will overlay the route of the workout to Google Earth and when I zoom in I can see things like me crossing the road to get away from someone walking a poodle.

I'm sure I'll learn more about it and myself as time goes by, but for now I'm stoked. It seems like the right choice and if I ever want to use all the other amazing features this watch provides it's there for me.

No love from Ogden Marathon RD

2011-01-10T17:43:00.005-05:00

What's up with all these races selling out in record time? Is it that more people are taking up running (or dare I say jogging)? Is it a cheap thing to do in a bad economy or recession? Are the unemployed taking out their frustrations by running races? Are more people really living a healthier lifestyle? Or is the "marathon" experience simply just a trend that is popular right now?

Regardless of the reason it's a fact; more and more marathon races are filling to capacity at speeds now requiring the persistence of a Guns n Roses fan trying to get concert tickets in the 1980s or a gamer waiting for the newest Xbox or Playstation to be released.

ARrrrrrggggghhhhh.... I'm frustrated.

It seems each time we come up with an awesome plan it's destroyed by a race being sold out. First, Jenny qualifies for the Boston Marathon only to learn that the 2011 race sold out in hours the week before her qualifying race and now she has to wait until 2012. Then, we devise the running adventure of adventures for this summer only to learn that Ogden Marathon in Utah is sold out leaving us completely out of luck for the "middle" race of the planned 3-race-3-weekend adventure.

I'm determined not to give up easily at this "wall" we've hit. I decided to write the race organizers to see if they'd take a human interest story in us or perhaps bend the rules. Perhaps we could raise money for their charity or something?

Maybe my letter didn't fall in the right hands, but the following correspondence shows that there's not much love coming from the land of Mormons.

Dear Ogden Marathon Race Director,

My girlfriend, Jenny XXXXX, and myself, TallGuySurfing, are avid runners. To live up to the stereotype of "being crazy" we run a few marathons each year. We always try and make an adventure out of it and at the same time give it some kind of purpose. Last year we raised nearly $2,000 for American Heart Association independently and then traveled from Florida to Washington to run the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. We are not professional, not sponsored and nothing more than mere mid-packers having a good time. I'm a journalist turned Realtor and Jenny is a clinical dietitian.
This year during the holidays we created an adventure surely to out rank anything prior and would possibly be newsworthy to the right audience. While searching the Internet on Christmas morning looking at race websites we noticed that the 100th running of the Bay to Breakers 12k race in San Francisco and the BoulderBOULDER 10k race in Boulder, Colorado, are only two weeks and 1,286 miles apart. Both of these are bucket list races in our opinion even if they are not marathon distances. Jennifer is part of an all female running team named "Hot Legs" that has won the all-female overall place in several long distance relay races (Central Florida Ragnar and Sunset to Sunrise) and it just so happens that many of the Hot Legs will being going to Boulder for that race on May 30.
If you're still reading at this point you are probably asking yourself, "well, all that's great, but what does this have to do with Ogden?"
Well, the answer is simple. We are marathon runners and while we'd like to check those two races off our bucket lists, we'd also like to run a marathon in May. At first we were trying to decide which one to do and which one to put off another year. Then we saw it. Ogden Marathon shinning brighter and bigger than ever with all its glory! Set for May 21 (the weekend between B2B and BB) in beautiful Utah with an epic course like we've never seen before right smack dab in the middle between San Francisco and Boulder. When we realized the possibility Jenny immediately started jumping up and down with excitement while I remained somewhat reserved knowing there are so many factors to consider (I was secretly and silently jumping up in down with excitement in my mind).
The original plan/idea:

*Fly from Florida to San Francisco. Meet friends. Run Bay to Breakers. Rent car.
*Spend the week driving east across California and Nevada camping along the way.
*Run Ogden Marathon while taking in the sites, sounds and beauty.
*Spend following week driving across Utah, Wyoming & Colorado to Boulder
*Run BoulderBOULDER with Hot Legs and gang.
*Document and photograph EVERYTHING!
*Fly home, go back to work and be sore and happy!

Doesn't that sound truly amazing? I immediately started thinking of publications I could pitch the story to assignment editors with the hopes of someone giving me an opportunity to get back into the journalism game. We aren't looking for sponsors, but I think we would at least make a good human interest story.

Jenny and I tossed around the idea for the rest of the Christmas weekend brainstorming different ideas and by Monday it seemed like it could actually work.
Fast forward to today (the next holiday weekend where we have time off to plan our "craziness") and we hit our first real snag. Ogden is sold out, as you know. Sometimes I hate Runner's World. Like a surf magazine giving away the location of an epic surf break (surfing is my other passion) this running magazine has put the spot light on your race bringing the masses, which of course is good, but bad for those of us not aware this was going to happen.

The question we have for you is simple. Will you or can you please make an exception for us knowing what we plan to do? It does not appear this adventure can happen without Ogden. There aren't many other marathons on May 21 in Utah or surrounding areas and none have the allure of Ogden. Please, please give this some consideration. Jenny and I would be willing to raise money for your charity. We'd be willing to volunteer the day before at the expo. We'd consider anything at this point. We're two skinny little runners that don't take up much space and wouldn't be in anyone's way.

We hope you have a Happy New Year and hope to see you in 2011 at the mid-point of our running adventure!

Sincerely from Florida,
TallGuySurfing (I used our real names in the actual letter)

Here's the response I received a week later (at least they responded)

Hi Sylvan,

It sound like an exciting plan! Our half and full marathons are sold out but you can still register for a relay team and that can be up to five people. No one has to exit the marathon course when they finish their leg so you can finish together too. If you would be interested in doing that please go to www.ogdenmarathon.com to sign up.

Thank you,

Bree Montgomery

GOAL Foundation (P) 801-399-1773

bree@goalfoundation.com

After reading that I somehow felt like I was just sent a stock letter they are using to send everyone inquiring about the race being sold out. Still determined to break through the wall, I responded with:

Bree,

Thanks for your response regarding our inquiry. We simply cannot afford to pay the relay price for two individuals to run the full marathon at Ogden. Is there anyway you can open up some full positions in the race and take some away from the relay since there is more demand for the full distance than a relay race?

Sincerely,
TallGuySurfing

This time I got a response within a few hours, but my hopes were shattered by what I read:

Hi Sylvan,

I’m sorry but our half and full marathon sold out within 5 and 14 days it was a record for us to sell out so fast.

Sincerely,

Bree Montgomery

Apparently I'm still hitting the wall on this one.

This is a real shame. I was really stoked about this race. I was really hoping to bust a move and stage a return to journalism with this adventure idea, but now the keystone has been yanked. Now I have a sour taste in my mouth and I'll probably pass up Ogden Marathon in future years for other races.
The only thing left that I can think of is to continue with our plans, but instead run the course the day before or the day after their race with no support (being a bandit is below me and surely illegal). It's a free country and I don't see anything wrong with running 26.2 miles down a public road. And besides, for the amount it costs for two people to register I'm sure we can hire a driver to drive us to the start, drop us off and probably even make some water drops along the way. Then we would be free on race day to volunteer for the actual race if powers-that-be at Ogden Marathon would allow or would they turn us away as volunteers too?
If professionally sponsored runners like Dean Karnazes can get credit for running marathons on race courses on days other than the actual race day and do good in promoting the sport then so can we!

Reflections on 2010

2010-12-29T19:35:00.006-05:00

A damn good year and a damn good time; that's what 2010 was all about. I went into the year knowing it couldn't be any worse (financially and business wise) than 2009 and with the attitude of work hard, play hard, laugh a lot and live life, I feel like I accomplished most everything I set goals upon.

By the Months!

January
Amidst some of the coldest weather I've ever felt in my life in Florida, I tackled my first marathon (2010 Disney Marathon) while being injured (Achilles tendon). In reflection - NOT SMART. I opted to run with my dear friend Harrison who was running the Galloway method. It was the coldest day in recorded history at Disney World that Sunday morning at 26 degrees and that caused some severe muscle cramps in my friend's legs. In short, we hiked rather than ran that marathon. Finishing was an accomplishment no matter the time. The mile-18 medical tent looked like a triage center in Iraq! It was months before my Achilles fully recovered and I felt like I was truly running injury free. The best experience of this race???
A few hours after the finish. Jenny and I had the "talk" and pretty much officially became an item. Something good can always come from a negative experience!
As for surfing, I was able to take Jenny down to Puerto Rico where we hit up many a beaches and even fit in a long run over a mountain.

February
This was a rehab month for me. I focused on the physical therapy of my Achilles tendon and slowly eased back into running. Jenny and I got to be a part of a relay team for the 5-points of Life Marathon in Gainesville on yet, another, cold morning. I think we were both either still drunk or hungover from a party the night before.

March
Ahh March! Month of Jenny's birthday, longer days, warmer weather and more running! I was honored with the job of being one of the drivers for Team Hot Legs in the Sunrise to Sunset Relay, which they won the all female division. It was then I learned I can still function well while being severely sleep deprived. We also ran two races in one day by participating in the Trail of Payne 10k in the morning and Hospice Tioga 5k in the afternoon (Jenny did the 10k option). I think I was more afraid of running two races in one day than I should have been. Looking back it was no big deal!

April
Commence travel! Jenny and I flew up to Raleigh, North Carlina, to see one of her best friends for a long weekend. We ran our long run (in training for Seattle Marathon) partly on trails and partly on a hilly country road. It was my first good ass kicking experience with hills.

May
Continue travel! I flew to Sacramento where one of my best friends and I went into San Francisco, met up with my cousin from Portland and ran the 99th Bay to Breakers 12k race. This is definitely a bucket list race. If you haven't done it, do it. And make sure you bring a camera and adult beverage with you! Later in the month Jenny and I got together with a few friends for a romp in the mud at the Muddy Buddy race in Orlando. The race was awesome; being part of the Disney machine was not.

June
More travel! This time about as far away from Florida as we can go and stay in the lower 48. The Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon was a success! I totally bonked toward the end of the race (hills kicked my ass again) and that gave me a lower than hoped for time. However, we raised nearly $2,000 for the American Heart Association and had a damn good time all along the journey! Our families met over a few days in Seattle and then Jenny and I took the train down to Portland for some post-marathon rest while visiting my cousin.

July
This month I dubbed myself "Captain Rest" and made myself in charge of recovery and rest for Jenny and I. It was also the month Jenny made the move and job change to New Smyrna Beach from Gainesville (big major step in our relationship)! Being summer, there was also plenty of surfing.

August
If you had 48-hours notice to drop everything and get on a plane to Hawaii for a week's vacation what would you do???
I know what I did.... I dropped everything and got on the dang airplane! That's what happened when my cousin (Portland) separated from his long time girlfriend a week before his non-refundable all inclusive vacation for two to Hawaii. He knew that if anyone in the family was crazy enough to drop everything and meet him 4,000 miles away it would be me. I gladly took the place of his girlfriend and we did "man" things for a week instead of romantic stuff. Hypoxia at the Mona Kea summit? You betcha! Unknowingly snorkeling into sacred forbidden waters of the Hawaiian Gods? Ooops! Climbing across the top of Rainbow Falls? Why not! It was a great time and I will return -- next time with Jenny and some SURFBOARDS!

September
Just when I thought I wouldn't be traveling for a while.... Jenny and I found a great deal on tickets to upstate New York and visited her grandparents. Other than NYC I've never seen any other part of New York. This was an eye-opening trip for me. I deal with so many people from New York here in Florida and now it's nice to know where they are really coming from. And of course we found a race to run the weekend we were there. The Delta Lake Half Marathon is my favorite half marathon of date! It was gorgeous, uncrowded and super well organized. Not to mention I had a great run (Jenny did too) and got a PR.

October
My birthday month! The biggest event this month by far was that of the Apalachicola Running for the Bay Marathon and Half Marathon. Jenny trained for this race with the goal of Boston Qualifying. I ran the half marathon and attempted to support her through her training as she did for me in the Seattle race. Despite a complete disaster in organization by the race director, the inaugural event actually occurred without any major tragedies. I PR'ed the Half beating my Delta Lake time and Jenny got her BQ.

November & December
My blog writing has dwindled I know. Since the marathon Jenny has been struggling with some bursitis in her hip and since a short distance race in November I've been babying my Achilles tendon so there hasn't been much to write about in the world or running and surfing. But never fear my friends. We've got some ultra exciting plans for 2011 that should provide plenty of material to write about. Looking back 2010 was a good year after all. I ended up traveling way more than I could have anticipated, ran more races faster than ever, and found someone to be happy with.... I can only hope to do as well next year.

Here's 2010 by the numbers:

Leashes Broken - 2
Boards Broken - 0
Contest Surfed - 0
Races Ran - 12
Races Volunteered - 0 (regrettably)
Relay races volunteered as team driver - 2 (Sunset to Sunrise & Ragnar)
Surfing Trips to Puerto Rico - 1
Airline Flights taken - 12
Miles Ran - 1,218 (more than double that in 2009)
Days I ran - 204
Running Shoes used - 4
Marathons - 2
Half Marathon - 2
Running injuries - 0
Days Surfed - 59 (significantly down from 2009)
Trail runs - 16 for 121 miles (1 race)
Bicycle miles - 166 miles on 22 rides
New Experiences - Countless, but still searching for more!

Happy New Year everyone!

Do what you say you'll do!

2010-12-16T15:23:00.003-05:00

It actually came....

And I thought I should show it to you...

Not because I'm saying "Look at me, look at me, I placed," but ONLY because the race director of the Apalachicola Running for the Bay Marathon and Half Marathon ACTUALLY did what he promised and sent out certificates to all those placing in their divisions. (My race recaps HERE and HERE)

I didn't believe it until I saw it in my mailbox. At the race we were told we'd be mailed certificates for placing. After the snafu that was this inaugural race I doubted I'd ever see such a thing, but the race director actually did it. Oh yes, he did! And I'd like to say that's a good start!

It's a good start in improving this race if there is going to be a next year. Do what you promise. Do what's advertised and deliver. . .

"Run to the Sun" Memorial 4-Mile Run/Walk

2010-11-30T11:45:00.006-05:00

Jefferson H. Ridgdill "Run to the Sun" Memorial 4 Mile Run/Walk - 4 Mile

Quote of the Race: "When we turned the corner of that first block we could see you and Jenny already running across the top of the bridge!" - My mother who walked the race.

RACE STATS:
Location - New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Cost - $20 pre-registration (with no fee 'cause it's not those Active Nazis!) or $25 day of race.
Year of Running - 5thSponsor - Black Crow Media, New Smyrna Pennysaver, Publix, Hometown News, Elite Amenities, MultiSportFit.com, Canal Street Tire & Tube, SoNapa Wine Company, Clancy's Cantina, Chick-Fil-A, Daytona Beach Track Club, Pepsi & and other local businesses.
Charity - This race always supports a charity as it memorializes Jefferson H. Ridgdill, a local teacher and musician that passed away after a long battle with cancer. This year's race benefits the LIVESTRONG Foundation.
Number of Participants - 144 finishers.
Available Races - 4-mile loopCourse Condition - Mostly concrete or asphalt sidewalk. Note: this is an open traffic course so there are no road closures, but since it is a loop around the Intracoastal Waterway in a counterclockwise direction there are no major intersections to cross. There are two bridges with moderate incline/declines, but otherwise the course is flat and fast.
Pace Groups - N/A
Expo - N/A

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS: This is the third year I have participated in this race and it's one of my local short distance favorites. It's about average for your run-of-the-mill $20 5kish race, but what is above average is the overall atmosphere. Runners will notice a small town vibe that is relaxing and NOT stressful. Packet pickup and day-of-registration is easy, fast and simple. This year runners received strap-on ankle style chips and while the race was still "gun time," it is small enough that even if you're the last to cross the start line it's only a matter of seconds difference from gun time. I was easily able to toe the start line. Support was excellent with volunteers handing out water at each mile during the race and I was handed a customized "Run to the Sun" labeled water bottle upon finishing. Light breakfast was served pre-race and a full on Chick-Fil-A sponsored brunch was held following the race before awards and prizes. Spectators are minimal, but there were a few lining the sidewalk just before the first bridge.

ACCESSIBILITY:
The race starts and finishes in Riverside Park in downtown New Smyrna Beach right along the waterfront. It's a straight shot from I-95 on State Road 44. There's plenty of parking along Riverside Drive and in the parking lot of the park. New Smyrna Beach is located 20 minutes south of Daytona Beach and 1 hour northeast of Orlando.

SWAG:
For a $20 charitable donation this race gets you breakfast, brunch, chip-timed results & and a decent quality cotton race T-shirt.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
In previous years all finishers received "music themed" medals. This year, only place finishers in age divisions got medals, but all finishers were given yellow LIVESTRONG gel bracelets. Overall winners were awarded trophies and age group winners were given aluminum water bottles, yellow in color with race logo on them. Numerous prizes including, a vacation in St. Pete Beach, Kid's mountain bicycle, gift certificates, free 1-page advertisement in the local newspaper and a sport analysis from MultiSportFit.com were given out in a post awards ceremony drawing. Food was great, because, well, it was provided by Chick-Fil-La... 'nuff said.

MY RACE STORY:
This was the 1-year anniversary the first race that Jenny and I ran together. On that fateful day last year it was only a third date, we were both overcoming injuries and all I remember was something like "dang, this girl is FAST!"
This year I'm feeling the strongest I've ever felt as a "runner." Jenny is overcoming a small post Boston Qualifying marathon muscle injury. We decided that we would not run together since I was really feeling like opening up the throttle on this one and it would be best for her not to further aggravate her injury. We also managed to talk my sister, mother, step-father and friend, Matt, into registering during the Thanksgiving festivities the few days prior so our little race was now a fun social event!
Jenny and I both managed to get right up to the start line. The gun sounded and we were off. I immediately got caught up in the lead pack and after about 200 meters decided that it would be a VERY bad idea to continue to run with these guys and started easing off to a pace that I felt was sustainable. After a block, the course begins a 1/4-mile incline up a high rise bridge crossing the Intracoastal Waterway. I'm used to this bridge from running repeats on it (it's the only hill in New Smyrna Beach) and it's something like 66-feet tall. Still able to see the leaders (only about 10 runners in front of me) I probably charged it harder than I should have and came down fast too...
The Mile-1 marker is right at the bottom of the bridge. I check my watch and it reads 6:50. "Holy sh*t," I gasp aloud! I'm still too fast so I throttle back a little more. I man passes me. I blow past the water station and just after a female runner blows past me. I try and settle into a sustainable pace. It's hard when I know the course from running it hundreds of times at a slower than race pace and now I'm trying to figure out how far I can push the envelop. At the second mile marker I check my watch again and my second split is 7:10. That's a little better, but still seems fast for me. It's overcast and in the low 70s temperature-wise, but I'm starting to sweat like a horse!
I start to slow a bit running up the second bridge (a smaller draw bridge) not by my choice. After the summit I try and make up the time by speeding up, but my body tells me otherwise. I guess it's going to be a Fartlek-style finish to this race as I continue to slow the pace, catch my breath and then speed back up.
I don't dare look behind me. I don't want to know. I want to feel like I'm the predator and not the prey. There is a man about 50 meters in front of me. For the last mile I focus on slowly gaining on him and cut it down to about 20 meters. We turn the corner of Riverside Drive and I can see the finish line. I feel a burst of adrenaline and probably have the speed to over take him. Something strange happens. I don't want to pass him. He's been running hard this entire race and so have I. I'm not racing him. My goal is to beat my PR from October's 4-Mile "Beer Run," and I'll settle for anything under 30 minutes. Besides, I feel like people that surge to an all out sprint the last hundred feet of a race tend to look like douchebags! The race clock comes into focus and I can see 28:something and I know I'm OK. I cross the finish line with a new 4-mile PR! Jenny comes in about 20 seconds behind me and we hug and congratulate each other. She really is an amazing runner! Jenny gets a free post race Massage by KJ and I devour some food. It's a good day.

My official stats:
15th out of 144 finishers
12th male finisher overall
1st in my age division out of 5 - woohoo!
Chip Time: 29:19 (personal record)
Average pace: 7:19
"Run to the Sun" Memorial 4-Mile Run/Walk grade = A

My sister, stepfather, mother, myself, Jenny and Matt after finishing the race. Good times all around!

Speechless....

2010-11-03T08:58:00.005-04:00

Just before bed last night I got a text message from a surfer friend in New York City.

"Did you hear about Andy Irons," she text.

"Nope?" I replied.
The following news was the kind you never want to hear. The kind that makes it hard to go to sleep.

The 3-time World Champion and only surfer ever to defeat Kelly Slater when he was in his prime has passed away. And apparently of dengue fever??? All I could say was 'what the f*ck?' I guess we'll find out for sure when autopsy reports are released, but initial reports saying he got the virus in Puerto Rico and died in Dallas while trying to get back to Hawaii are mind blowing to me. Having traveled to Africa, India, South America and other places where dengue fever is a risk, I personally have learned to take precautions (insect repellent), but also was always under the belief that dengue kills the young, old and weak. NOT an elite athlete.
My thoughts and prayers go out to the Irons family. Andy will be remembered as one of the greatest surfers ever! Mahalo Andy for all the inspiration and aloha you gave to the world of surfing!

Puerto Rico sunset from Maria's (March 2009)

Running for the Bay! Marathon (Pictures and Suggestions)

2010-10-28T11:29:00.007-04:00

A few final thoughts on the Running for the Bay! Marathon:

This morning in my inbox I noticed an email bringing to my attention that apparently my blog is now famous, or at least getting its 15 minutes. One of our gang from the race asks, "have you seen this... you're featured." Clicking on the link I find the story titled Moonlit Marathon on the website of The Times of Apalachicola & Carrabelle newspaper. It's a well written story about the race by a local journalist that mentions my blog in the fourth paragraph and even quotes my race recap!

The first time I write something that I feel is extremely negative, but needs to be said, and NOW I get noticed? Not exactly what I hope for when I write these "hobby posts" of mine, but realizing how I might have a few new readers this week I'd like to make a few suggestions that perhaps could make this race a more successful event in coming years.

There are currently 100 review posts on Active.com for this race as I'm writing this, most of which are negative or constructive criticisms. I've never seen that many before; not even on the Tipple's Beer Run where they got shut down mid-race by law enforcement and there was no beer at the finish line! Some comments are positive, some are harsh and uncalled for and some are useful suggestions. I hope the race director will consider them all and stay the course by holding the event next year.

I feel the problem at it's core was poor communications between the race and the runners. Most of the issues runner's experienced could have been easily avoided had race officials effectively informed the field of what they were getting into so they could have been better prepared. They're a lot of bitchin' and complaining about the lack of support. Most of us train on the road with traffic and no support. If we knew we could have self-supported ourselves, but instead many runners, I feel, felt betrayed by statements on the race website or lack of information about the race conditions at the expo. When my group asked about pace groups the information volunteer at the expo when on to explain about how bicycles would be pacing the leader, but didn't even really understand the definition of a pace group leader.

Here are my suggestions for a successful race next year:
1.) Offer a discount on registration fees to all the runners that participated in 2010 in an attempt to get them to return. While doing so regularly issue press releases on everything being done to correct issues from the inaugural race and any improvements or new features. The running community is close-knit and word travels fast. 700+ runners was an excellent turnout for an inaugural race and an excellent base to spread the word both positive or negative.

2.) If the race is truly benefiting a charity clearly inform the runners exactly who, why, when and how much. There was some confusion about this and there's a huge customer base of runners that strive only to run in charitable races even if only a portion goes to charity.

3.) If the state government want allow the bridges to be shut down for traffic (I'm guessing they won't since they seem to be main arteries) consider other ways to improve safety. Signs could alert motorists of the race and that there are "runners on the road." Line the course with MORE orange cones. Perhaps explore shutting down only 1-lane of traffic. Most runners are used to running against the flow of traffic. I think running with the flow caused an increased amount of stress with some of the runners. Ask for sponsorship from one of the companies making reflective gear for runners to wear. Provide each runner with some kind of reflective gear from that sponsor as "swag" in the goody bag and encourage them to wear them during the race. Most experienced runners will NOT wear a race t-shirt, no matter how nice or reflective, during the race of the t-shirt, but perhaps a reflective anklet or bracelet or LED light. And please, PLEASE try to find a solution to the 5k & 10k turnarounds. This year it was NOT safe, nor clearly marked to have them crossing busy lanes of traffic to get to the other side of the road.

4.) It's pretty obvious and kind of beating a dead horse to ask for more hydration during the race. Thirty years ago runners were used to not having any support. Ultra marathons and trail runners currently are used to not having much support. However, your average modern 5k to marathon runner expects to have plenty if not too many aid stations along the route. If not, we need to know about it so we can carry hydration along with us, or have friends along the course. Consider having water before the race available. Trash the post race chips and sodas. The mini-Cliff bars were great and there was water and Gatorade, but get some bigger cups or give out bottles. Runners need larger amounts of fluid after a race than during. Small cups are great when we're on the run, but after the race it's a waste of paper to have runners going back for 4 or 5 cups and hard on the volunteers. Instead of chips get bananas, bagels, oranges, etc. Not all carbs are created equal and runners know this...

5.) The awards ceremony? Seriously? Hype it up more! Turn off the loud music outside and use those PAs to announce the winners outside where everyone was loitering, not inside the community center when most runners had left or were unaware of a ceremony. It seemed like there was a lack of communication between the timing official and the race director. When asked individually they both seemed to be waiting on the other for something. This was my first race ever placing in my division and I didn't even want to go claim my award. I was told a certificate would be mailed to me. I hope that's true. Check out other races and see what they give out for division place finishers. Something representative of Apalachicola Bay would be awesome. Perhaps a small locally made plaque with an oyster shell on it. Oyster shells are free last time I checked. Have the awards ceremony sooner. Not in the 6th hour of the race. Place finishers rarely stick around until the race course is closed.

6.) Consider tweaking the race course to feature more of Apalachicola and less of St. George Island. After the race I felt like I hardly got to see the city of Apalachicola and let's face it St. George Island has an amazing beach, but otherwise there's not much to see there and the course can't be on the beach as the sand is too soft. Plus, this would decrease the possibility of runners facing stronger winds for longer periods of time on the island. Shut down the main street of Apalachicola and encourage the merchants and residents to come out and show their support. This would give the race a feeling of having more crowd support than the zero crowd support currently experienced.

7.) More bathrooms.... 'nuff said. (Visit THIS race for an outstanding example)

8.) Don't give up. Hold the race again next year. It's a great venue and a part of Florida that everyone should see at least once in their lives. Runners are a wonderful group of people and any town or city should only hope to bring that economic impact upon itself.

And to end on a positive note here are a few pictures from Jenny and my race weekend experience in Apalachicola/St. George Island!

Our party of ten gorged ourselves on a wonderful pre-race dinner at "That Place off 98" in downtown Apalachicola. I think they were a little slammed by runners causing their service to be slow, but dang that food was great!

Jenny on the final stretch of bridge (about 5 miles) somewhere around mile 22. Notice the bicyclist volunteer in the background desperately trying to pour water in cups for approaching runners. There's not even a table as he was lining cups up on the ground.

Jenny crossing the finish line and qualifying for Boston!

My Half Marathon finisher's medal. The full marathon was the same, but with a slightly different ribbon.

Cast netting at sunset on St. George Island.

The bridge between St. George Island and Eastpoint the day before the race. Ironically, there was little traffic the day before.

Sunrise on St. George Island.

Moonrise on St. George Island

Shrimp boats of Apalachicola

Two of my favorite things: Beach and the hour of twilight after sunset!

Jenny and I on the beach at St. George Island the evening after the race.

Running for the Bay! Marathon and Half Marathon, 10k, 5k - Apalachicola, Fla.

2010-10-25T13:50:00.003-04:00

Update: Keith Brantly was NOT a "no show" (see comments at bottom) and I apologize for my poor choice of words and lack of fact checking. Evidently he was at the expo at the scheduled time Friday night and due to being ill he informed the race director he would not be attending on race day. (update on Oct. 28, 2010)

Quote of the Race: "Ouch!" - The only word mustered up during the first few minutes by Jenny between tears and gasps for breath after crossing the finish line and achieving a Boston Qualification time with nearly 4 minutes to spare.

RACE STATS:
Location - Apalachicola, Eastpoint & St. George Island, Florida
Cost - Marathon ($79-$99 depending on pre-registration dates), Half-Marathon ($65-$85 depending on pre-registration dates), 10k ($49-$59 depending on pre-registration dates) & 5k ($29-$34 depending on pre-registration dates. Day of registration is unknown, but I do believe it was available.
Year of Running - 1st
Sponsor - K-Swiss, Cliff Bar, Culligan, LaraBar, RoadID, Ultra Running Magazine, RRCA and various other local businesses.
Charity - Website claims "Wounded Warrior Project," but unknown if any funds or what amount of registration fees were actually donated or if that was just a suggestion to the participants to make their own donation.
Number of Participants - 681 total participant finishers. 237 for the Marathon, 266 for the Half, 88 for the 10k, 89 for the 5k and 1 for wheelchair division. (According to Active.com results as official results on the race website are not posted as of today).
Available Races - Marathon, Half-Marathon, 10k, 5k
Course Condition - Mostly concrete bridge with a few short sections of asphalt paved road. Most of course is along the road shoulder with little protection from traffic and goes with traffic rather than against (runners on right side of road shoulder). Approximately 1 mile of course was closed to traffic. Overall very poor and dangerous conditions that need major improvements.
Pace Groups - None. When asking the "information" volunteer at the expo about pace groups it quickly became apparent that they had no idea what we were talking about. We were told there would be bicyclist "pacing around" during the race.
Expo - Day before and average for a race of this size. Packet pick-up and expo (1-vendor from what I could tell) was held at the Apalachicola City Hall located at 1 Bay Avenue.

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS:
It's sad and perhaps ironically fitting that in an geographic area savaged in recent years by hurricanes and oil spills and desperate for economic recovery would be destined for this horrible fate known as Running for the Bay! Marathon. The idea was good and on paper it looks great! The turnout was even impressive for an inaugural event. We were told nearly 800 were pre-registered. Weather was perfect with a temperature ranging from 58-degrees at the 7 a.m. start to low 80s by Noon. The sky was clear and wind was light to begin with becoming slightly annoying later in the race. Sunrise was beautiful at about 7:48 a.m. The problem at its core lies with the Race Director and what appeared on the surface as a break down in multiple areas of communications, organization, support and logistics. I was part of a party of 11 visitors to this area, all of us eager to spend some money and have a good weekend. Seven of us participated in the race (One 10k, two Half Marathon and 4 marathon). Judging from the amateur design of the race's website and doing some weather research on average conditions for the area we came into the race knowing there could be some quirks and hiccups. None of us could believe what actually happened. As for organization, the race director needs help. From our point of view (and I spoke with him at a very lackluster awards ceremony) he was not a "runner" and needs a basic education on average runner needs. The idea was good. The execution was lacking. The race clearly did not have enough volunteers and race officials did not adequately warn runners what they were getting into. Minutes before the start it was apparent that there was a communication break down as a voice over a loud speaker desperately tried to gather volunteers on a bus. There were a total of 10 port-o-johns for nearly 800 runners at the start line and they were pretty much limited along the course. I only noticed one while I was running the Half Marathon. Also, while standing in line before the race a heavy duty truck pulling a large pontoon boat forced its way through the lines as it was trying to make way to the boat ramps, which should have been closed. Support was seriously lacking in every facet from water, fuel, volunteers, police traffic support, course markers and medical help. The one saving grace were the volunteer bicyclist that seemed to be everywhere trying their hardest to help despite being overwhelmed. Spectators were few and far between. Family members and friends of runners seem to gather around the finish line. There were a few along side the road in Eastpoint, but other than that it was nada. It was not the welcoming crowd of residents lining the streets that race organizers were hoping for and promising on their website. Furthermore, the race was advertised to feature Olympian Keith Brantly. I'm not sure exactly who he is nor was that a deciding factor of my attendance at this race, but as far as I could tell he was a "no show," or they never announced his presence. It was evident that Dane Rauschenberg was in attendance as he had a booth at the expo selling his book and I saw him cross the finish line with the female overall winner.

ACCESSIBILITY:
There's a small general aviation airport in Apalachicola, but otherwise your best bets are flying into Tallahassee or Panama City, both a little more than an hour drive away. A car is a must to get around as public transportation is not readily available. I suppose you could come in on a shrimp boat.

SWAG:
Not too shabby. This is one part where the race organizers came through with their promises. Inside the race packets were a really nice Zorrell tech T-shirt (white in color) with race logo on the front and sponsors on the back. There was the normal coupons (Road ID order form, etc.) and Cliff Bars, Larabars and Cascadia Farms cereal.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
The finisher medals for Half and Full Marathon are absolutely beautiful with a spinning center section and even a pearl embedded on the front. Only problem is they started breaking as runners walked around post-race with them around their necks! The center section is prone to falling out! Overall men's and women's winners received K-Swiss shoes. Age division finishers were given various sponsor swag including towels, water bottles and lanyards, but nothing too special. The race director personally told me that certificates would be mailed to all top finishers, but I'll believe it when I see it. The post race food was one of the biggest downfalls of this race. It consisted of soda cans (Coke products), potato chips, cliff bars (which they ran out of toward the end of the race), water in small cups and mixed-from-powder Gatorade in small cups. After catching my breath at the finish line I had to repeatedly go back again and again for additional cups of fluids simply because the portions were too small. Seriously, how hard is it to have some bananas or oranges or bagels at the finish line??? Again, if race officials had better informed runners of exactly what would be provided at the finish line I'm sure more participants would have been better prepared by providing their own post-race recovery food and hydration.

MY RACE STORY:
I'm going to keep this as short as I can as I've already pretty much trashed the race in the above review and I HATE being negative. I hate anything that makes me be negative so I'm going to focus on the positives for a bit.
We got to the race about 45 minutes early and found it super easy to park within a few hundred feet of the start line. We stood in the bathrooms lines for the majority of our pre-race time and almost got run over by a truck pulling a boat! The announcer had all 700-800 runners line up telling us to get in order, fast runners up front and slow runners at the rear. They gave the hand-crank wheelchair dude (he was the only one) a 2-minute head start and then they blew the horn and we were off. It was dark and initially crowded. Kind of a clusterf*ck as we turned the corner to go over the first section of high rise bridge. There was significant camber and while it did not affect me I'm sure it bothered some runners. The next 5 miles were basically into the sunrise and amazingly beautiful. It looked like the horizon was on fire as early morning rays of light breached the bay.
Listening to Metallica's Ecstasy of Gold from the S&M Album on my iPod, I hit replay and listened to it twice as it was totally surreal. I had worked hard in the days prior to this race on my playlist. It has been a long time since I listened to music during a race and I was stoked about my selection of songs. I even calculated the time of where I'd be at different sections of the race to what music would play. Then at mile 3, or near the 10k turnaround spot, I noticed something. It was quiet. Why can I hear myself breathing so hard, I pondered to myself? It's funny how when you're running it takes a long time sometimes to figure something out. A minute or two later I realize there's no music playing. I check my 5-year-old, 20-gig, iPod Photo and it's dead. I play with it, frantically trying to get it to come alive. I do a hard reboot. Then it's apparently obvious that the battery is dead. It was fresh off the charger and it only lasted 20-something minutes. With 10 miles left to run I grunted at the thought of no music.
So be it.
Last month, I ran to a PR finish at the Delta Lake Marathon in New York with no music. I will do it again!
As I arrive in Eastport, coming off nearly 5 miles of concrete bridges with heavy high speed traffic, I'm feeling pretty good. My legs are fine. My breathing is fine. I'm relaxed and on pace by my best mental calculation to finish around 1:45:00. This would be awesome and I celebrate the thought of such an achievement for a few seconds. There is a section of road closed to traffic so the fear of being annihilated by a car temporarily eases up and I settle in with the runners around me. There a few girls behind me, a few guys in front and an aid station on the horizon. I pull out a GU and slam it. I haven't taken any hydration yet and honestly can't remember seeing any aid stations. I think they were setting up around mile 1, but I must have been too early because they didn't have any water out yet. Now it's mile 6 and while I don't feel like I need anything yet, I force myself to take some water and my own personal GU. We were lucky enough to be staying on the beach on St. George Island so we got a preview of the course a hour before the start as we drove in to Apalachicola. All of us were silently horrified by the complete lack of aid stations so close to the race start. The mile marker signs were there, but we saw them there the day before and what's worse is some of them were blown down or blown away. I could tell Jenny was freaked out. She is attempting to Boston Qualify in the full marathon and did not bring a hydration pack because the race's website claimed there would be aid stations nearly every mile.
Soon it's time to split away from the full marathoners and head back to Apalachicola. I turn the corner and realize I'm completely alone. The pack of runners I've been pacing with all continued on with the full marathon. There's a ditch alongside the road. The thought crosses my mind of ripping off my dead iPod and tossing it into the ditch as hard as I can. It's strapped to my arm and bulky. It's providing "mental drag." The only thing that holds me back is the fact that you can get a discount from Apple if you recycle an old iPod when you buy a new one. I need all the discounts I can get.
As I approach state road 98 to make the turn back to Apalachicola there's a police officer that stops oncoming traffic just for me as I'm still alone. I thank her and continue on down the course. It's now that I realize how poorly marked this course is... I'm thankful I reviewed the map before and was familiar with it from driving it, but holy crap you could get lost without any other runners to follow! I can see a girl and a guy about three football fields ahead of me. We're running on the right-hand shoulder of a busy road so it's unnerving not being able to see approaching traffic. So far there's been quite the random collection of road debris including fun noodles, sharp aluminum siding, a headless seagull, a dead raccoon, hundreds of dead monarch butterflies and too many different types of trash to list. If this race was in my city I would be embarrassed of the trash along the course. The scenery is beautiful though as I can see for miles across the bay. Pelicans are constantly flying over and there's now a light breeze at my back. The sun is out, but I'm not hot yet.
I push on and realize I have no clue of how far I have left to run. The last mile marker I saw was mile 6. I'm on the bridges so I know there's less than 5-miles left. There's no water or aid stations and for the first time I start to feel fatigued. The guy in front of me slows and I start to gain ground on him. He's clearly thirsty like me. The girl seems to slow, but speeds up so I can't seem to catch her. Then I feel myself slowing. I feel as if it continue this hard I WILL relieve myself of whatever is residing in my stomach. That would not be fun, so I slow even more.
There's a sign on the opposite side of the road and as I look back I see it's the 10k turnaround marker. Now I can figure that I have about 3 miles left to go and that I've been running for more than 4 miles with no water options. Surrounded by water, water everywhere... but not a drop to drink!
There's a small strip of land, maybe 1/2 mile, between the long flat bridge I'm coming off of and a high rise bridge leading over the channel and down into the city of Apalachicola. This is the final mile or so of the race. At this point there are two, TWO, aid stations set up in this 1/2 mile or so stretch. At the first one I take water and thank the volunteer. At the second one I take water and dump it on my head. I've now got this damn bridge to climb. I almost have to walk about halfway up. I pass a 10k walker and make a commit about who's idea this bridge was and we laugh. At the top I'm about ready to puke, but I can hear the music at the finish line. I manage to get back on pace going downhill (my strength) and cross the finish line under the bridge with a PR of more than a minute!
A few minutes later, Katie (who just ran a full marathon last weekend) crosses the Half Marathon finish line. After catching our breath and meeting up with some of our other friends (including husbands of some of the girls out there running the full marathon), it's not even a question or a discussion. We simply get in one of the cars and drive to the nearest convenient store where we buy lots of cold water bottles and Gatorade. Speeding down the course with great concern for all the runners including our friends somewhere up ahead with no support, we do take note that there are now more aid stations set up than when we ran the course. We find Jenny first around mile 18 and offer hydration. She refuses and we cheer her on. Next comes Michelle, who also refuses, but is happy to see us along the course. Then we find Danielle and Allison. They're all looking good and strong, but some other runners aren't as fortunate. On the bridge to to St. George Island we hand out nearly all the water and Gatorade to every desperate runner we see. They are thankful and I wonder if the knew we did this on our own or if they simply thought we were volunteers in a car? The most horrific thing I witnessed in this race was a large bottle of water and a stack of empty cups at mile 20 on the ground on a bridge with nobody around it. The last thing any runner wants to do at mile 20 of a marathon is stop running, bend over to ground level and pour themselves a drink! At least as we headed back to the finish line there were some bicyclist pouring as much water as they could for the runners.
We are back at the finish line a short while later and waiting for our runners to finish. Jenny needs a 3:40:00 or better time to qualify for Boston and the race clock passes 3:30:00. I run up to the bridge to look for her and she's nowhere to be seen. I check my watch and it's now 3:33:00. I get very anxious and then I see a familiar stride at the top! Will she make it? I think back to my finish and the time it too me to get from there to the finish line and realize she has plenty of time. As she comes down the bridge I yell out that she's doing great! She goes right and I go left taking the short route. We all cheer her in at the finish line. She's a mix of smiles and tears and can hardly talk. After about 30 seconds she manages to get out a soft "ouch."
That pretty much sums up the race... ouch. But hey, she's a Boston Qualifer with nearly 4 minutes to spare.
All the other girls finish strong and we spend the rest of the day relaxing poor side and grilling out along the beach of St. George Island. The environment for this race was great. It was the organization that sucked. It's the first year, but not having enough water, volunteers or medical help is NOT excusable.
I hope they have this race again next year, but realistically, I can't recommend it to anyone. The race director needs to take everything he has and throw it out the window. Wipe the slate clean, forget everything he thinks he knows about running a race, and start over with the help of a strong running organization. There are some seriously dangerous flaws in this race that must be corrected or the race should never be held again.

Photos to come soon!

My official stats*:
15th out of 266 total Half Marathon finishers
1st in my age division out of 12
Net Time: 1:49:14 (personal record)
Gun Time: 1:49:37
Average pace: 8:20

Running for the Bay! Half Marathon grade = D-

*As I write this I'm still confused about what place I actually finished. I was announced by the race director at the awards ceremony as 1st in my age division and that's what I'm recorded on the official race results "here." However, according to Active.com results I'm 2nd place in my age division with the 3rd place overall male finisher taking 1st in my age division. He's clearly beaten me and is in my age group, but not listed as in my age group division. This is yet another failure in the organization and execution of this event. All I can say is WTF and it's not a big deal to me as I don't consider myself competitive and all I care about is the PR, which I got.

In memory of The Log

2010-10-15T09:49:00.008-04:00

It is with my deepest regrets that I bring to you the news that The Ron Jon Log has left this Earthly world for a better place on this 14th Day of October in the year two-thousand ten.

The Log, age approximately 15 years, died while on the operating table in a small, but soon-to-be well known board-shaping bay in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., after a horrific encounter with a jig saw blade. While The Log's early years are relatively unknown, its last 6 years of adventures are well documented. After a short stint as a learning board along the shores of Bethune Beach The Log relocated to TallGuySurfing's board rack where it spent numerous sessions along the many surf breaks of the New Smyrna Inlet and even a few behind the vessel Quest in the Intracoastal Waterway. Because of its thickness and size The Log provided the stability and float required for dozens of friends and family to learn to surf and catch their first waves. The Log also served as a platform for some of the best and most humorous surf sessions among friends. Infamous memories include Tucker the Labradoodle's dog beach session, Nate's "Mario-kart" scream rides behind the Quest, Brian & Blythe's successful tandem stunt, Jenny's first skurfing attempt, a base for "ding-eduction and experimentation" with its many MANY dings; Chad's first attempt at catching a wave with that same wave being his first successful ride and TallGuySurfing's famous Gator band uniform session amongst many others. It also had a few encounters with shorter boards in a crowded lineup where it ALWAYS won. The Log sported many faces and also many dings. Resin stained orange upon sun bleached yellow from time and exposure, it was a good board and a fun ride. The Log's survivors include Papa Smurf, the 9'0" Walden Magic; Mr. Anderson, the 9'8" Josh Farberow Noserider; the 6'8" Neilson Big Guy thruster; Blue, the 8'2" XXX; Porn Star, the 9'0" XXX; Nemo, the 5'10" Storm twin fin fish; and Alaia, the homemade failure. R.I.P. The Log - may your 9'6" foam and beautiful stringer soon ride again!

Stay tuned for the official announcement of the new recycled and reshaped "Log" in a few weeks. . .

Tipple's Beer Run (4-Mile Race)

2010-10-02T11:30:00.006-04:00

Quote of the Race:
Random spectator friend at the finish line: "There's no beer."
Me: "WHAT?!?!"
Random spectator: "Yeah, right after the race started and ATF agent or someone showed up and shut them down because they didn't have the right permit."
Me: "Are you effing kidding me? That's horrible. What the hell? I'm going to get my T-shirt before everyone finishes and there's a riot!"

RACE STATS:
Location - Tipple's Brews, Gainesville, FL.
Cost - $30 FTC member pre-register, $35 non-member pre-register, $45 day of registration
Year of Running - 1st
Sponsor - Florida Track Club, Zen Fitness & Tipple's Brews
Charity - Fundraiser for FTC
Number of Participants - 417 (finishers)
Available Races - 4-Mile
Course Condition - Asphalt paved road mixed with concrete sidewalks. Flat, straight and Fast.
Pace Groups - None
Expo - None (packet pickup is on race day)

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS:
Considering this was an inaugural race with what seemed like a surprisingly good turnout there are definitely some hiccups that FTC needs to and will undoubtedly address. Overall pre-race organization was with good intention by organizers, but seemed to be overwhelmed by too many participants in a confined space. It's a Friday race that starts at 6 p.m. Registration and check-in was open at 4 p.m., but most of the participants did not or could not show up until after 5 p.m. since it is a workday. We showed up at 5:10 p.m. and waited patiently in an awfully slow line just to pick up our bib numbers and timing chip in a room at Zen Fitness that was not big enough to accommodate the number of people trying to check in at the same time. It would have worked better if it was in a larger room or simply set up outside with more volunteers. I also saw a few participants that were obviously there for the beer rather than the run who were very confused by the check-in process, which was set up logically, but could have been more efficient. Parking was stressful, but organizers gave plenty of warning and suggestions through email prior to the event of where to park. It is, after all, Gainesville. Spectators were average for a race like this as a few people turned out along the course to ring cowbells and there was a large crowd at the finish line cheering the runners down the chute. Support along the race course was excellent with plenty of aid stations handing out water. There was even an aid station (official or unofficial?) with 1/2 mile to go handing out only beer!

ACCESSIBILITY:
Gainesville is Gainesville; the largest university in Florida and one of the largest in the country. There is traffic when school is in session so plan accordingly. There's a regional airport in Gainesville, good taxi services and excellent bus service. Interstate 75 runs within a few miles from the start line making it an easy drive from other major cities in Florida.

SWAG:
Goodie bags (reusable sack-style backpacks) were given out after participants finish the race. Inside the bags were a really nice race logo engraved drinking glass (obviously meant for beer), various sponsor information and coupons and a mini-box of cereal.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD:
At the finish line water and Gatorade were available as well as bananas and Domino's pizza (cheese). The top 3 male and female finishers received prize money $200/$100/$50. Each master winner got $100. The top 100 male and 100 female finishers received a black cotton T-shirt with race logo. NOTE: Organizers advertised that many prizes would be raffled off at the post race party including someone winning their "weight in beer." I cannot comment on if this happened or not because after we found out there was no beer we left to drink beer elsewhere.

MY RACE STORY:
I was very excited about this race the second I heard about it. In fact I registered weeks before Jenny did. Some of our Gainesville friends were planning to participate so the idea was we could visit them, run the race and Jenny can do her last long run (22-miles) before her marathon with some of her other friends also doing it since I'm not training for the full marathon.
We both took off work early Friday afternoon and started the 2+ hour drive to Gainesville and arrived about an hour before race start. There was an amazing turnout (I guess what you would get in a college town if you're advertising free beer) and most of the participants looked like college age students -- young and fast! There were even multiple guys and girls wearing bloomers with yellow racing flats! We found our friends and had time to socialize before the start.
As planned I decided that this race should be hashed. About 15 minutes before the start gun I found my way back to the truck and made my famous concoction of Redbull, Gatorade & Vodka. The last time I dabbled with this nonsense was the Run for Haven 5K back in March. This time around I made the drink a little weaker so I wouldn't be too buzzed. By the time of the start I was wide-eyed and happy and ready to run like a maniac.
It was a relaxed start. Basically everyone followed the race director up a small hill and into a residential neighborhood and then blew an air horn and everyone started running. We were all sort of in the middle of the pack. I took off running and didn't look back. Jenny and Katie decided to fun run together (they have a 22-miler ahead of them this weekend) and I started passing people and working my way into the right pace group of people for me. There were several guys dressed up as pink flamingos (did I mention there was an unofficial costume contest) yelling at the top of their lungs "cawwww.... acaaaaawwww." It was so annoying I decided to run harder to get away from them. There were a group of guys dressed up as construction workers, but looking like that guy from the Village People. Running next to them I could hear them laughing at the pink flamingo guys and joking that they had been outdone and that they were supposed to be "those guys."
I ran harder.
At this point I can see the lead pack breaking away about 100-yards up the road. They are absolutely flying at right around a 5-minute pace. The crowd thins out as we make a turn off a main road and down a narrow sidewalk. I pass up the aid station water to save time. It's only 4 miles and the weather is great!
At the halfway point I'm breathing hard, too hard. I look at my watch and see that my split time between mile 1 and 2 was sub-7 minutes. Damnit! This is way too fast and knowing that I'll never be able to sustain it I slow myself down to try and catch my breath. Other runners begin to pass me. In fact, runners pass me for the rest of the race. I've definitely started too fast on this one. During the last mile I'm forced to slow down a little bit more. I think the vodka/Redbull/Gatorade is getting the best of me. Note to self: Don't do this again no matter how "fun" it sounds!
With 1/2 mile to go I see an aid station. I toy around with the idea of taking a sip of water or splashing it in my fast. Right as I'm about to reach out for the cup I see that it's beer and quickly retract my arm. I'm already feeling like I'm going to hurl and the last thing I want to do is slam a beer or pour it over my head! I get a short burst of adrenaline during the last few hundred yards as there are people cheering and the finish line is in sight. I was hoping for anything under 30-minutes. Before the race I used the McMillan Running Calculator with my Half Marathon PR from a couple weeks ago to estimate my 4-mile race time and it came out at 31:12. After that I decided that anything better than 31:12 would be acceptable, but anything sub-30 would be fantastic!
I crossed the finish line and the clock read 30:35. I'll take it! Someone cuts off my chip and hands me a ticket for a T-shirt. Kickass! I was fast enough to get a T-shirt. I turn around the side of the chute and look back and Jenny and Katie are finishing about a minute behind me. We then learn about the "beer tragedy" going on and assess the situation. Apparently, they are only allowed to serve beer within Tipple's Brewery. Now let's face it. That business is not large enough to accommodate 500 people. Soon a line forms outside the business and stretches down the block. I'm told you have to drink the beer inside as well and can't have an open container in the parking lot. This does not sound fun at all. Then we hear that Florida Track Club is giving out refunds. Soon we decide to go get cleaned up and go out for proper post-race beer and food at a restaurant of our liking.
For the record, I believe that FTC did everything properly and despite a situation gone bad, they handled it the best they can. Giving refunds until they ran out of money and offering to mail refund checks to anyone else that wishes to get one was a good call on their part. I don't know the entire story, but it sounds like some authoritative official has it out for one of the sponsors or FTC. I mean, who the hell shows up in the middle of an event and shuts it down with no warning? They had to have known before hand and could have saved a lot of trouble by making a simple call to the race director BEFORE THE RACE! Florida Track club has issued this statement on their website and emailed it to all the participants:

First and foremost, thank you. The outpouring of support over what happened at the Beer Run was astounding. It was clear things did not go as planned, but the number of people who were supportive and encouraging far outweighed the other side of things. Thank you so much for your support.

Secondly, I want to express my most sincere apology. My team and I poured ourselves into this race and truly left no stone unturned. The specifics regarding the permitting issue are still murky to me, but separately, 2 of our representatives were told on 2 different occasions that there was ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEM with the beer festival. In fact, they accepted payment for the permit. To put it mildly, we were surprised when an enforcement agent showed about 30 minutes before the event and left us with literally no option but to shut down. It was heartbreaking personally, but more so because the Florida Track Club is a non-profit organization that supports so very many other non-profits in town and this race was our most critical fundraising event of the year.

Third, and most importantly, our sponsors, Zen Fitness and Tipple's Brews had NO part in any piece of the event's challenges; this was a Florida Track Club event and the blame lies with us. These are two local businesses that made tremendous efforts to support this event and our community, and they should be commended. Zen Fitness and Tipple’s Brews are models of what good corporate citizens should be and I hope you'll join me in thanking them for their leadership and generosity.

Finally, I want to apologize on behalf of the Florida Track Club. We were told and believed we were in compliance. It's not clear what we should have done differently but I will tell you we WILL make every effort to make this right. We look forward to partnering with Tipple's Brews and Zen Fitness again to bring you an absolutely amazing follow-up race & beer festival.

Again, thank you for your support & encouragement. We hope you'll give us another shot - we can't wait to throw the kind of party you deserve.

Sincerely,
Jake Logan - Race Director

I will close with saying that no matter who was at fault for what happened, it's a shame that an event meant for a good purpose in a town where hundreds of similar events happen each year purely for profit was hampered down upon by some stupid rule or misunderstanding. If FTC holds another event similar to the Beer Run, I WILL give them another chance and participate.

My official stats:
79th out of 417 total finishers
8th in my age division out of 39
Official time: 30:35
Watch time: 30:25
Average pace: 7:38 (with positive splits, lol)

Tipple's Beer Run (4-Mile Race) = C

Post race celebratory drinks at The Red Onion!

Delta Lake Half Marathon

2010-09-23T10:00:00.007-04:00

I've decided to take a more formal approach to writing my recaps & reviews. Here goes my first shot at it!

Quote of the Race:
"What place is this for," says Jenny after hearing her name and quickly walking up and accepting her award at the after-race-ceremony?
"You got 1st place in your age group," I say to her.
"I got first place???" Jenny says.
"Yup!"
"Whoa!"

RACE STATS:
Location - Delta Lake State Park, New York
Cost - $25 pre-register, $30 day of registration (Can you say "holy crap that's affordable!")
Year of Running - 4th
Sponsor - Roman Runners Club
Charity - Unknown
Number of Participants - 150
Available Races - Half Marathon
Course Condition - Asphalt paved road. Rolling hills and flat stretches.
Pace Groups - None
Expo - None (packet pickup is on race day)

ORGANIZATION, SUPPORT & SPECTATORS
Take this race for what it is; a relatively small and super affordable half marathon organized by mostly volunteers on a course around a beautiful dam lake with only partially closed roads to vehicle traffic and it's one of the most well organized races I've ran to date. There's no official timing chips, but they did an excellent job with results (the official results were only 1 second off the time kept on my wrist watch). There were aid stations every two miles and somewhere between mile 6-8 there was an unofficial aid station with unknown volunteers handing out their own water and candies, or at least it appeared that way to me. There is minimal crowd support, but the spectators that did come out sporadically along the course are a much welcomed treat for runners. The course is not entirely closed to traffic and in some sections runners must run along the shoulder of the road. However, traffic is so little that I never felt endangered (except for the last 1/2 mile, which was my own fault and we'll get to that later). State Troopers on bicycles paced back and forth along the course and firefighters helped close off some roads. I give the race director an A+

ACCESSIBILITY
Coming from Florida this race seems out in the middle of nowhere. A rental car would be a must and the nearest major airport is about an hour away in Syracuse. Pre-race traffic was non-existent and even driving through Rome (the nearest city) at 8 a.m. was a piece of cake. The State Park (start/finish line) had plenty of parking, excellent facilities (with showers) and there was no fee for entrance.

SWAG
A recyclable shopping bag by a local sponsor contained the goodies at pack pickup. Enclosed were a Delta Lake Half Marathon souvenir cup full of chocolate candies, long sleeve high quality cotton Race T-shirt (color is black), bib number, state park brochure/map and safety pins. Not bad for $25 race registration cost. Organizers conducted a free raffle drawing of dozens of prize giveaways from sponsors after the race awards ceremony.

POST RACE AWARDS & FOOD
At the finish line organizers handed out water, Gatorade, bananas & sliced oranges. At the post race finish party area about a quarter mile away there was more food including hot dogs, cookies, coffee, yogurt, apples and more water. Awards were given away to the top three finishers in each age group (10 year age groups) and the top three female and male overall finishers.

MY RACE STORY
Jenny and I arrived about 45 minutes early. This race doesn't start until 9 a.m. How freaking cool is that!?! We had plenty of time to pick up our packets, use the bathrooms and scrutinize over exactly what to wear (it was about 49 degrees at start time). A random gentleman dressed in a suit and tie (probably on his way to church or coming home from a long night out) pulled up to the start line in a sports car, got out and belted out the National Anthem a capella with no microphone. He was awesome. After that and very abruptly, the race director yelled through her bull horn, "on your mark, get set, go!"

And we were off, just as simple as that. No timing chips, no corrals, no fireworks, nada. It's been a long time since I've run in a small race and it was almost comforting to have a simple start. It was only a matter or two or three seconds until I crossed the start line. Jenny and I agreed before the start that we'd go our separate ways. She's faster than me hands down and I wanted her to be free to run it, race it, tempo it or whatever she felt like plus get a longer run in at a faster pace as she's training for a full marathon less than 5 weeks away. I also wanted to try and PR this race. We were told by the race director on the phone that it's a flat course with a few small hills in the first few miles (Warning: this course is NOT flat by Florida standards). I've only participated in two other Half Marathons, both while being injured (Achilles tendon) with times not worth mentioning. In fact, I consider my Half Marathon PR to be during the Seattle Full Marathon in June when I crossed the halfway point right at 2 hours.

Today I'm feeling strong. I'm not injured. I'm well rested and there's very low humidity and favorable temperatures for me. It's time to race. I decide in the first 1/2 mile that anything under 2 hours will suffice. There's a few larger groups of runners to run around in the first 1/2 mile until we find a group at our paces. Jenny runs ahead of me and for the longest time I can see her ponytail bouncing back and forth. I think I lose all sight of her at some point after mile 6.

I'm wearing a L.L. Bean tech T-shirt, Nike running shorts, Brooks running hat and Brooks Adrenaline (with about 250 miles on them) shoes. The temperature is right at that critical envelop for me of almost being too cold, but just right. As we pass the first mile marker I look at my watch and it reads 8:10. "Crap, need to slow down," I tell myself while forgetting that some of the first mile was down hill. The field spreads out and soon there are only a handful of runners around me. We're running through residential neighborhoods. To the left there are lakefront homes - very large and very expensive looking. To the right are some equally impressive looking homes. Occasionally, someone is standing along side the road cheering for us. There's an ever-so-slightly breeze. It feels good on my skin. I'm not sweating. A few runners around me are sweating profusely. I can't help but think of how they'd probably have a heat stroke in Florida.

I pass up the first aid station, but decide to take some water at the mile 4 aid station. I manage to get a mouthful on the run without stopping and discard the mostly full cup near a volunteer with a trash bag (there were no trash cans). Some time after this a group of runners pass me. I begin to ask myself if I'm slowing down. I still feel strong so I keep going at what I feel is a sustainable pace. I begin to ask myself when I'll crash. The last Half Marathon I did, while injured (because I'm stupid), I crashed at mile 8 and actually got passed by a speed walker all because I started out too fast. Today I'm going faster than that "too fast" start last December. This echos back and forth in my mind. It's like some psychological warfare playing games with my subconscious. When will I crash? Will I crash? Maybe if I had some music I'd be distracted. It'd be nice to blast some Papa Roach or Rise Against right about now. . .

At the 10k mark and aid station I'm right around 50 minutes if I remember correctly. This might have been a 10k PR for me, but only mile 6 was marked, not mile 6.2. I decide that I'm a little slower than my 10k PR and that's a good thing because I don't want to crash in a few miles. I see the aid station approaching about a football field away. I reach into my gel pocket and pull one of three GUs out. It will be the only one I feel the need to take during this race despite my going for greatness in bringing three of them. It's "chocolate outrage" with caffeine. Yummy. This time I managed to gobble all of it down in two swallows and just in time to grab a cup of water from a kid that can't be but 7-or-8-years old. He's holding it as high as he can reach and looking up at me with that expression I know all too well; "wow that guy is tall!"
As I take it from him I say, "thanks big guy!"
Then I start to try and drink the water while running. I'm forced to stop and take three or four walking steps in order to ensure I get a LOT of water to mix with the Gu. Just before I resume running I look back at the kid and see him turning to his parents and smiling ear to ear. The giant guy called him a "big guy!"

The next several miles are uneventful. Everyone has kind of found their pace. There are three guys in front of me and one woman. I don't look behind me nor do I care. I'm pretending I'm the predator in this race, not the pray. I never see the mile 8 marker and for a while I start debating with myself of if I'm still in mile 8 or in mile 9... or perhaps I'm approaching mile 10? Soon I see mile 9 and as I pass it I realize I'm still feeling strong and I haven't crashed! I check my watch and then start doing the mental calculations in my head to keep myself occupied. It's a strange thing to try to do time/distance problems in your head while your exerting yourself near Vo2 max. I conclude that at my current pace I will most definitely break 2 hours. In fact, I might be on pace to finish in the low 1:50s. Then I remember the super long downhill stretch that we drove on our way to the race and how basically the last mile is all downhill. Another runner back at mile 3 mentioned the long downhill stretch near the end. If I calculate a long downhill mile into my pace I might be able to finish under 1:50:00. Having a Half Marathon time with the second number starting with 4 sounds a hell of a lot better than 5.

As I consider this I start to feel slightly fatigued. I decide I need to pick up my pace and I need a mantra. If there was ever a time for a mantra it's now! I'm feeling stronger than I've ever felt in a distance race. Without any major catastrophe I will surely PR, but after re-accessing my situation I want more. What would I be happy with no matter what at the finish line? I decide on "finishing strong." No matter what I want to go with negative splits these last few miles and finish strong. Finish Strong.... FINISH STRONG! I yell it in my mind at myself every few seconds as I push myself harder. At mile 10 see a volunteer holding a cup of red liquid. "What is it," I ask as I quickly approach and make eye contact with him. "Gatorade," he replies. "Awesome," I yell as I take it and slam as much in my mouth as I can without gagging. I hear all the volunteers in the background laugh a little behind me. I must look like a maniac. I feel like a maniac! Finish strong bitches!

"Only a 5k left to run," I tell myself. Who's pray? Finish Strong! Those are the only three things floating around in my mind now as we approach mile 11. The same three guys and a woman are still in front of me. They are spread out for about 50 yards with the closest to me being 20 yards away. I pass the first guy on the outside (he was hugging the shoulder) and keep pushing it. Finish strong! Next is the woman. She's wearing long pants, long sleeve shirt and a sleeveless vest over the shirt. God, she must be burning up! She has a gray ponytail and is listening to her iPod. I lay chase for some while and it seems I can't make much progress. I can't believe there's a gray haired woman kicking my arse! She seems to always pull away on any uphill stretch of the course. Finally, there's a long straight flat section and I manage to pass her. What an amazing athlete. I hope she places in her age group!

We reach the mile 12 aid station and all I can think about is the final downhill stretch. Still two guys in front of me, both looking like their in my age division of 30-39 years old. I'm good at downhill. I actually like downhill. Runners always complain about how hard downhill can be and how it'll trash your legs without warning. I have no idea why I'm good at downhill, but I LIKE IT! I take a cup of water and throw it all over the back of my neck and shoulders. It's cold and it feels good and there's no point drinking anything at this point in the race. 1.1 miles to go!

We turn a corner past the "dam" and the aid station and there's a hill that looks like Mt. Everest. I'm sorry for the language, but I belt out the biggest "what the F*ck!" as I look up at this beast before me. Nobody said anything about one of the biggest hills of the race being in the last mile. This is a huge blow to my plan of finishing under 1:50:00. I check my watch, do the math and realize I'm going to have to run something like a 7 minute mile to break 1:50:00 and apparently it's going to be partly UPHILL!

I shorten my stride, lean forward, look down (not to the top of the hill) and swing my arms more violently in an attempt to defeat this monster. There are still two guys within 40 yards of me. They are the only two runners in sight. About halfway up the hill I hear someone huffing and puffing behind me. It's a small short guy and he passes me with an amazing stride. He's new. I haven't seen him the entire race and he's definitely running a sub-7 minute pace uphill! I attempt to pace just behind him and soon realize there's no freaking way! He passes the two guys in front of me and I change my focus on keeping pace with them until we get to the top of the hill. Finish strong!

As we reach the top of the hill I feel myself running harder and keeping my breathing pattern the same. At the top I pass the first guy. Now I can see the long stretch of downhill road leading up to the finish line. Time to finish strong! I don't look at my watch. I just start running faster and faster. I let gravity pull me downhill. I imagine all the increased distance of my stride during that instant in each step where my entire body is airborne and free of the pavement. The machine of a guy that passed me on that hill is rounding the corner and I can barely see him passing the 13 mile marker. He is soon gone. Only that last guy in front of me. He's wearing a white shirt with thin orange stripes on the sides. He's only a few feet away and hugging the shoulder. This part of the road is not closed to oncoming traffic and occasionally there's an oncoming vehicle. Just as I decide to make my move and run on the outside (the only real estate available) and into the road I see a large truck quickly approaching us. I'm shoulder to shoulder with him and I'm in the traffic lane. Rather than drop back behind him I gamble and decide that the truck will probably swerve away from us. Not the smartest decision of the day! The truck passes the point where most drivers would begin a swerve. Crap. No time to get out of the way now! At the last second the truck veers away from us only slightly. The side mirror misses me by an arm's length. I feel the wake turbulence hit my body and with that a huge rush of adrenaline shoots down my spine. I smile, deeply inhale a breath of air and tell myself to "use it."

The adrenaline helps and soon I find myself at a full on sprint. The guy in the white and orange shirt is somewhere behind me.... pray.... I pass the 13 mile marker and can see the finish line. It looks SO FAR away. I can't believe that I'm physically able to sprint at this point! It's really not my style to sprint to a finish line so this is new for me. I can see Jenny standing in the crowd waving and jumping up and down. She's stoked about my time. Then I can hear her yelling my name. Finish Strong, finish strong, finish strong, FINISH STRONG!

As I cross the finish line I nearly collapse. During the last few steps I felt as though my legs were about to buckle. I stared at the clock the entire way through and watched as 49 disappeared and as the seconds behind the 50 ticked away. Whatever, it doesn't matter, I finished strong. Stronger than I've ever finished any race. Jenny is literally jumping up and down. The race director (I forgot her name) comes up and introduces herself as she remembered a telephone conversation with Jenny and thanks us for running her race while visiting "all the way from Florida." I tell her how impressed I am with her race and overall everything. It was a truly awesome moment. Later we find out Jenny (who finished nearly 9 minutes ahead of me and that wasn't even close to her PR time) got 1st place in her age division and was 4th overall out of all females. She's amazing!

My official stats:
40th out of 150 total finishers
7th in my age division
Official time: 1:50:21
Watch time: 1:50:20
Average pace: 8:25

Overall it was a great experience. I finished strong indeed and remained injury free. I can truly say that I left it all out there and now feel freshly energized about running. I'm registered for another Half Marathon next month in Florida with an all flat course and can't wait to see how I do without the hills, although temperature/humidity could still be an issue.

Delta Lake Half Marathon = A+ across the board!

After the race with Delta Lake in the background.

TSA FAIL

2010-09-20T22:26:00.004-04:00

I would like to know what kind of threat almond butter poses to plane, crew and passengers in the eyes of the Transportation Security Administration?

Not only did I find TSA failed with a capital FAIL on a recent trip with my girlfriend and I to Syracuse to see her grandparents, but apparently almond butter could possibility be used to hijack an aircraft??? I'm baffled. This super healthy (and expensive) food item is not explosive that I know of and with the consistency of, well, soft butter, it certainly can't be used as a blunt object to knock someone upside the head. Here's what happened.

While driving through an Amish area near Lake Oneida, we stopped at an Amish country store. I was absolutely blown away by the low prices of their products, mostly food items produced locally (obviously the Amish aren't worried about making a greedy profit). Almond butter, cashew butter and peanut butter were all for sale. A large container of almond butter costs around $3.50. The same amount in a grocery store in my home town runs about $10. I decided to buy two of them. My girlfriend purchased one almond butter and one cashew butter. At the airport we checked in and approached the TSA security screening area. Before I knew it we were both questioned about our bags and then taken to the "special" area for further inspection. Now these "special" areas are right next to each other, not more than 5-feet apart. Two TSA security officers diligently searched our bags for explosives, nukes, machine guns, bazookas or whatever. What they found were three containers of almond butter and one of cashew butter between the two of us. Like well trained dogs e,ach TSA officer removed the suspect item and informed us they would need to run the bags through the scanning machines one more time. Fine, whatever. We set there waiting patiently, undignified of our quest to live a healthier life by eating good foods. My TSA inspector officer comes back first.

"Sir, the almond butter can't go with you," she says as if she's made some heroic feat for national security. "You can check it if you are checking any bags."

My response?

"Mame, that butter costs more than $10 per jar in Florida and as you can see from the prices clearly marked next to the product description and ingredients list it is simply not worth it to pay the airline rapeage charge for checking my bag."

She looks at me and says, "OK sir, I'll throw it away."

But wait, there's more!

I pass my girlfriend as she's still waiting on her bags to be scanned over again. She whispers, "did they take your butter?"

I nod and walk away silently. How in the name of national security is almond butter a threat to passengers and crew? It's obviously not a threat to aircraft if TSA is alright with stowing it below in the cargo hold where line guys will surely smash the living hell out of it before tossing it into the plane. That's going to create one hell of a mess in my bag!

My girlfriend is soon released and walks my way smiling. "They didn't take my almond butter or my cashew butter," she says.

TSA FAIL!

Thanks TSA. Not only did you rob me of my healthy almond butter, but you reassured me that your practices and control policies are completely inconsistent. I feel safer now.

Hawaii on a whim!

2010-09-11T11:32:00.015-04:00

Ahhhh Hawaii! How different my view of your majestic shorelines, vog covered volcanic hills, pristine reefs, lush green hiking trails and friendly residents is now that I've visited, circumnavigated and learned so much more about the "Big Island" than I could ever grasp from books and videos.

A couple of weeks ago an opportunity came up I couldn't let pass. A close cousin to me, like a brother, invited me to join him for a week's vacation to Kona, Hawaii. The trip was all paid for, non-refundable, and the unfortunate event of a break up with his girlfriend left him in need of a good friend to explore the island. All I had to do was find last minute airfare, which seemed impossible until I got some amazing help from some other family members that happen to work for the airlines. Before I knew it I found myself 4,000 miles from Florida climbing down the steps onto the tarmac of the Kona International Airport.

I never thought of any of the Hawaiian islands being my "dream" destination. I've been fortunate enough to travel around the world and I've seen some pretty amazing places. Knowing what's out there, I have a pretty long list of higher priority destinations than Hawaii. After this trip my attitude is definitely different. I want to go back and I want to go back soon! In a week's time, Robert and I drove nearly 500 miles and circumnavigated the largest island in the chain. Here's my best attempt to portray our adventure in the following photo essay.

We spent our first full day driving north from Kona and then south exploring the coastline and beaches. The first beach was Kekaha Kai State Park. I thought I forgot my snorkel at the hotel so I spent the entire time swimming around with no snorkel only to learn later it was in my backpack on the beach. Oh well, we had a blast. I decided to attempt a "rock run" in a sandy spot surrounded by reef that was about 20 feet deep. Leaving my fins with Robert, I dove down and picked up the biggest rock I could find and ran across the patch. I think I made it about 15 feet and then my lungs felt like they were going to freaking explode so I dropped the rock and broke for the surface. I've seen Hawaiians doing this in surf videos and I had to try it. I think it would be an amazing way to cross train for surfing. Talk about building up lung capacity while exerting yourself and trying to stay relaxed all at the same time. Three times of doing this and I was exhausted! I wish we had clear enough water here in Florida. I'd do it every day.

The second day we drove to the northeast side of the island to the Waipio Valley. The landscape changes a ton we crossed over to the windward side of the island. It goes from a dryer arid landscape to lush green tropical vegetation. We rented an AWD vehicle and were surprised they wouldn't let us drive down the valley unless we had true 4-wheel drive. That's ok, because we decided we would walk down and back out. To hell with the car! I got so excited about the sheer beauty of this place I had to do a handstand next to the cliff!

After several hours of hiking around the Waipio Valley we stopped and ate our lunch. There are numerous finger valleys along the shoreline. If I lived here I'd backpack in for several days at a time and camp out. It'd also be an amazing place to sea kayak around the bluffs and into each valley/beach.

Robert and I could see a waterfall miles away up into the valley from our lunch spot on the beach. I wanted to backtrack to the main road and try to find another trail to it. Robert all about continuing on a marked trail named "King's trail" that appeared to go along the opposite side of the valley hoping it would cross over and we could get to the base of the waterfall. Well, this didn't quite work out. We hiked miles and miles before giving up as there was no clear way to get across the valley. We were told that in Hawaii you can go anywhere as long as you don't cross a fence or cross sacred ground. There were tons of fences. It was an amazing part of the day with all kinds of fruits growing everywhere and a beautiful tropical canopy pictured above.

Looking back into the Waipio Valley from the river mouth at the beach.

Robert picked up an avocado. It was so ripe it was almost purple. He thought it was a pear because of the shape. I told him it was an avocado. Not believing me he poked his fingers into it and got a big green surprise. We split it and ate it there on the spot. Hands down.... one of the best avocados I've ever had!

This is far as we got to that waterfall. We snorkeled around a bit in the river and saw some crawfish-like creatures. The day was getting late and it was time to hike back to the vehicle.

Nobody said it would be easy. 1,400 feet elevation gain in .9 of a mile with not one switch back. The sign said it was a 25% grade. I believe it and my calves were freaking pissed at me the next day. Seriously, it felt like I had ran a race or something. I am NOT used to hills like that coming from Florida. I went on MapMyRun.com and attempted to plot out our hike. It came to about 10 miles.

Next we drove to the southeast side of the island. This is the land of volcanoes with the major city being Hilo, were we stayed one night at the Green Turtle Inn. I wouldn't recommend it for it's accommodations, but for price and the knowledge the owner can share with you it's unbeatable. The photo above was from a beach north of Hilo near Wainaku. I wanted to surf it really bad, but Robert doesn't surf, I didn't have a board and we had bigger and better things ahead of us.

I shouldn't have ate that avocado. Man, it made my lips explode. I must be allergic! Haha... just kidding. I don't know what the heck these were, but we had quite the laugh with them!

The biggest banyan tree I've ever seen. I just had to climb it! This was at Rainbow Falls.

We hiked around to the top of Rainbow Falls. Probably weren't supposed to be there, but you only live once!

One of Robert's best friend's parents actually live in the city of Volcano near Volcanoes National Park. We stopped in to say hello and had a wonderful lunch before getting a tour with them of the park. Above is the Kilauea caldera in the background. It's been erupting since 1983!

While VNP wasn't my favorite part of the island I think there's definitely some fun hikes to be had here. I kept imagining the crazy trail runs and races they could have in the park. By the way, hiking at mid-day on top of black lava rock is HOT! Not Florida hot, but hot enough!

If Jenny was with me I had a feeling we'd be running this trail! :-)

After hitting up VNP and the area around Hilo it was time to get back to the Kona side of the island. We started off early and did the epic Saddle Road drive that crosses between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, the two tallest peaks in all of Hawaii. Mauna Kea is a dormant volcano and also home of multiple observatories. Scientists and astronomers love it up there because of the lack of light pollution and the high elevation making it one of the best places to star gaze on Earth. It's also home of the Keck Telescope, which is 8-stories high! If you're a space geek like myself all of this is fascinating, but I won't bore you with it.

The drive up Saddle Road is almost as fun as the destination, the top or nearly the top of Mauna Kea (13,796 feet). It truly is an epic drive where 4x4 or AWD is recommended.

The last half mile or so has to be hiked to the official summit. Robert and I found we had the summit to ourselves for nearly 2 hours in the middle of the day. We took turns running the route back in forth until we were both clearly hypoxic.

Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain in the world (once you take away the ocean) at around 33,000 feet. That's taller than Everest, but not higher. Definitely worth a hypoxic handstand!

Yoga anyone??? Note: Robert and I switched jackets since mine had a hood and he wanted to go back to the car to retrieve something. The crazy thing about being up there was if you were in the wind it was really cold, but if you moved away from the windward side of the summit it was pleasant.

Yup, that item he went to retrieve was our boardshorts, snorkels and dive masks. How many people do you think have stood on top of Mauna Kea ready to swim? The Big Island is one of the few places in the world that I know of where you can be surfing and snow skiing in the same day. There wasn't any snow on top of Mauna Kea while we visited, but a lot of the year does have snow pack.

We stayed up there for sunset. Quite a few people showed up for sunset so we weren't alone anymore. The temperature dropped down to 36 degrees and it was beautiful. One of my top 10 sunsets! After dusk we headed down to the visitor's center at 9,000 feet where they have amateur astronomy night on Saturdays. There were dozens of large telescopes with people operating them and it was free to view at the Heavens. I looked at Venus through a 16-inch telescope and it looked as big as the Moon does to the naked eye. I could even see the day time side and night time side of the planet. This was hands-down the best star gazing I've ever seen with the Grand Canyon being a close second and aboard a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean being a third. Sadly, I did not have a film camera, tripod or cable release to do any time-lapse photography.

I did however, have some fun underwater equipment that we played with on our last day in Hawaii all along the northwest coast as we visited the city of Hawi and checked out the Pololu Valley lookout (north of Waipio Valley). The above and below pictures are from the reef only a 100 feet or so off the beach at Lapakahi State Historical Park south of Hawi.

I'll close with a picture of me on the first day after snorkeling the reef at Napoopoo near the Captain Cook Monument. There was a sea urchin shell about 25 feet underwater with the last 10 feet being in a small crevasse of coral. Robert spotted it and asked me to go get it as he couldn't free dive that deep or hold his breath long enough. Me always being up for a challenge said, "ok!" I had no problem getting into the crevasse (not having a tank on my back made it real easy), but as I was swimming out I was more concerned about my head clearance than my legs. I lightly brushed some coral and it sliced open my leg in four different spots! I can't believe I got reef rash and I didn't even get to surf!!! Having experienced scraps from reefs surfing Puerto Rico I was a little concerned about bacteria and polyps. The only thing I could find in my backpack was hand sanitizer. Without thinking I squirted a huge goop of it on the open wound and rubbed it back and forth with my hand. The burn was worse than getting cut in the first place! It was then I learned that it was nearly pure alcohol. Ouch! I might as well have squeezed a lemon on it! Oh well, later on I used some hydrogen peroxide and am happy to report no infection. So that's it. Hawaii! I'll definitely be back and next time I'll bring Jenny and probably check out Oahu and Kauai!

Aloha my friends and Mahalo for reading!

Three words

2010-09-11T11:27:00.002-04:00

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

So..... how is everybody? I feel like I've been away from the blogsphere forever! Jenny and I ran this morning. She did the first of two 20-milers on the schedule for her upcoming Running for the Bay Marathon next month. I biked the first 9 miles and ran the last 11 miles (I'm only running the half marathon).

Yup, 11 miles for Sept. 11th.

GOD BLESS AMERICA!

PS - Don't worry. I'm getting back in the groove of things and will post pictures and a recap of Hawaii tomorrow!

On my way to Hawaii with no surfboards! WTF!

2010-08-26T00:13:00.002-04:00

Note: Couldn't find any free WiFi in all the airports yesterday so I'm posting a day late, but I'm in Kona, Hawaii, having a blast!

I suppose I should explain the details of my last post. Here it is in a nutshell.

My closest cousin, whom lives in Portland, Oregon, went through the unfortunate event of breaking up with his girlfriend toward the end of last week. Timeliness was not good in this break up as he just booked a vacation for two with airfare, hotel and rental car to the Big Island of Hawaii. Rather than lose his money (non-refundable) and not go he invited me to drop everything and step in probably knowing I'm a good candidate for an adventure that should cheer him up. Yesterday was a blitzkrieg of madness with me basically trying to accomplish a weeks worth of work, planning, covering, packing and stressing all in one day. And on top of all that the feeling of sadness that I'm leaving Jenny behind on this adventure although we talked about it extensively and agreed I should seize the day.

So here I sit somewhere over southern Utah at altitude in route for LAX where I'll board another plane to KOA (Kona) in a few hours. My day started at 4 a.m. on 4-hours of sleep. Man, it's going to be a long day. I feel like it should be night time and it's still technically morning. I've traveled around the world on a ship, but the longest series of flights I've ever gone on in one day was a Eurotrip from Orlando to Boston to London to Vienna. Today is definitely going to rival that day. I've packed four cameras to fuel my shutterbug habit, a dive mask and snorkels (fins were too large for a carry on), lots of boardshorts (I definitely intend to find some waves), T-shirts, hiking shoes, Brooks Cascadia trail runners and that's about it. I just purchased a guidebook on Hawaii in the Salt Lake City airport. I had no time to research anything on the Big Island before I left and sadly, most of my knowledge of Hawaii comes from reading surfing blogs, magazines and such, which pertain mostly to Oahu or Maui.

Expect pictures!
Expect a good story!
Expect randomness!

Two cousins and life long friends are going to be on the loose in Hawaii!

Kona?

2010-08-22T19:27:00.002-04:00

Looks like I'll be making a last minute trip here on Tuesday for a week....

Kona...

Big Island of Hawaii...

Anyone know of anything awesome to do here???

-Your TallGuySurfing about to be totally stoked!

House cleaning...

2010-08-10T16:06:00.003-04:00

Recently, I did a little house cleaning. While attacking my closet I sorted through a nightmare of shoes. Yes, I have far more shoes than your average guy. Not as many as Imelda Marcos, but far more than average. I learned long ago that it's well worth the money to treat your feet right and pay extra for good shoes than suffer injury and pain from the cheap ones.

After sorting out a bunch of my "pre-runner" shoes, the shoes I ran in before becoming a serious runner (pre-2008), I was left with six pairs of shoes currently in the rotation! SIX PAIRS! Yes, I think I do have a running problem. I don't even currently own six surfboards. Well, I almost own that many, but still... I'm not buying anymore running shoes for a least a few months. Yup, I'm putting my foot down!

So what about all those other pre-running shoes? The old Adidas, Nike & Timberlines (I'm pretty hardcore Brooks-everything these days)? Jenny says I should donate them to be recycled at a local running specialty store or at an race expo. I have my own shoe recycling program. It goes something like this:

First - Use as casual walking shoes until they really start to break down.

Next - Move to the back porch and hide under the table. Now they are used as yard work or lawn mowing shoes never to see the inside of the house again. They stay here until they break down further and then are moved to...

Finally - Emergency boat shoes. I shove them into a small compartment on my boat or kayak. If I need them to walk through mud or across oyster bars they will serve me well.

If the running specialty stores want them after I'm done with them they can have them.

So what do you do with your old running shoes???

Saint Ralph - a pleasant surprise!

2010-07-30T10:10:00.004-04:00

The other night Jenny and I were having a quiet night at her place. It was after dinner and getting late, but neither of us were ready for bed (and no this is not a dirty story for those of you with dirty minds!). So we settled into the couch with a bowl of popcorn and started browsing the instant queue on Netflix. Some time ago we searched any and all movies that have anything to do with the subject of running and tossed them all into the queue. We've watched some great and not-so-great documentaries, comedies and dramas all dealing with running.

There was this movie that I've personally been skipping over again and again called Saint Ralph. For the record, I'm not Catholic, but Jenny did grow up going to a Catholic church. The picture and summary of Saint Ralph did not excite me. Basically, it's about a 14-year-old in the 1950s that wants to win the Boston Marathon to create a miracle in the hopes it cure his ill mother. Come on! Really? I'm not buying it!

But this night we're both tired, but not yet sleepy and figure we'll watch an hour or so and then go to bed at a respectable time. So I click "play." The next thing I know the credits are rolling and it's after midnight on a week night. Both Jenny and I were glued to the story and couldn't turn it off. We had to finish it. If you're a runner you can't help but like this movie.

(Here's my crazy summary): Ralph (the main character) is a 9th grader at a Catholic school somewhere in Canada. He's the classical rogue kid in the 1950s always getting into trouble, mostly because he's very mature for his age and with good reason; his father is passed away and his mother is in a hospital with an undisclosed illness. He's really living at home alone, but has everyone believing he is living with his grandparents, whom are both dead. He's even pawning every item in the house for money. It's not long before a power-tripping Catholic priest (the head-priest-in-charge-guy at the school) gets on Ralph's case and figures out the dilemma. Ralph and the HPIC guy don't see eye-to-eye on anything. One of the younger priests at the school is teaching a religion class and when they come to the subject of Saint-hood Ralph discovers that anyone can become a saint by meeting several conditions. He then gets it in his head that if he can pray, believe and do the impossible (a miracle) that it will some how awaken his ill mother from a coma. He sets out to win the Boston Marathon in 1954. It's not long before the younger priest starts coaching Ralph despite the HPIC guy's orders against it.

You'll have to watch the movie to find out if Ralph succeeds, but if you're a runner you will be caught up in this drama for sure. It's got hints of humor that only runners can relate and bits of drama for everyone. Historically, it's fiction of course. Veikko Karronen, of Finland, really won the 1954 Boston Marathon with a time of 2:20:39 and world record holder at the time, Jim Peters finished second. I searched Google and tried to find out if any kids under 18 have ever finished the full race, but my results were inconclusive. Today, the qualifying times are for 18-year-olds and up.

But if you have a little "Faith" and "Believe" then you'll be hooked on Saint Ralph!

Post Marathon Question: What's next?

2010-07-28T07:10:00.000-04:00

It's been just a little more than a month since Jenny and I completed the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. I've completed a reverse tapper (doing my tapper backwards for a few weeks to gradually increase my mileage) and pretty much given myself a day of honest rest for each mile of the marathon (excluding surfing of course). I've surfed more days this month than the previous few, which is awesome by the way! But as I maintain a base mileage of 20ish miles per week the big post marathon question is looming.

What do I train for next?

I put so much time and energy into the last marathon and really feel like I accomplished if not shattered all of my goals, but part of me still wonders what happened those last 2.2 miles that took me nearly 28 minutes to complete. Part of me really desires to run a sub-4 hour marathon and by all indications I should have been able to do that at Seattle. The temperature and weather was perfect. I was well rested. I had an amazing running partner. There was plenty of aid stations. Was it the hills? Perhaps. I've even entered my PR times for 5k and 10k races in the McMillan Running Calculator and also crossed that information with the Hal Higdon book and both indicate I should be able to run a sub-4 hour marathon. Sub-4 hour marathon was never really a goal, but an outside guess at a finish time I would've really been excited about at Seattle. I'm proud of my 4:18:00 time and proud to have raised so much money in honor of my father for American Heart Association and proud to have shared ALL of the experience with the girlfriend.

So what next?

I've mentally committed to a few things, but there's so much left to be decided. First, I want to run the next marathon with a sub-4 hour finish as the goal. Maybe if I make it a real goal and hold myself accountable then it will be come a reality. I want to run this race in ideal conditions (50-70 degree temperatures) and I want the course to be, well, more flat than Seattle. With that in mind, the next question is when and where?

The past few weeks Jenny and I have been talking a lot about the Fall/Winter and what races we should run. Jenny is making a mental commitment to run her next marathon with the goal of qualifying for Boston (she only missed it by a few minutes last year at Marine Corps, her 1st marathon) and let's face it, she was running Seattle at MY slower pace because she wanted to stay with me and share the experience. Now it's time for her to kick butt and go for greatness! She has a few races picked out as possibilities. I figure I'll at least run the half marathon at whatever race she decides on to be part of the experience. I think what I need for my next marathon is a race I can truly get excited about.

I'm also torn because there are a few very good possibilities this Fall/Winter in Florida. Florida is very flat, duh, and the chances for good weather are higher than other regions. However, in the back of my head there's a far fetched idea looming. Why risk injury, time and energy to run more than one marathon in any particular state? I've already run Disney Marathon as disastrous a day that was, but it still counts. Jenny hasn't run a marathon in Florida yet. If there's even a small chance that I might continue running marathons during the next two decades then I want to go for 50 marathons in 50 states. It's way to early to say that's what I want to do, but if there's even a small chance that it could be a possibility for me then I'm conflicted about running two marathons in Florida. Another part of me says just run another one... really run another one in Florida and do it right. Disney was more like a hike through the arctic circle.

Here's a few races I'm looking at with a goal of finishing sub-4 hours.

Run for the Bay Marathon (Apalachicola, FL) - Oct. 23

There's a high probability that Jenny will use this race as a Boston qualifier. We have friends running it as well and it could be a fun weekend vacation and a chance to pay homage to the place that air condition was invented! Although, for the record, I think the race is overpriced!

Space Coast Marathon (Kennedy Space Center, FL) - Nov. 28

This is a really flat course and it has a theme of everything Space, which is awesome. It's a 45 minute drive away and the registration fees are reasonable. In addition to a finisher medal they give you a beach towel! Oh, and check out the race date... can you imagine a Thanksgiving taper?!? However, I feel like if I'm going to go all out and train for a race like a marathon I'd at least like to travel and make an adventure out of it. Maybe I should save this one until I get old enough that I'm in a realistic age bracket to qualify? Haha.

Carlsbad Marathon (Carlsbad, CA) - Jan. 23

Now this would be a travel/adventure race. It's also a flat course (or by California standards) and I have family that live there to visit. Jenny used to live there so she would be on board as well. Although, financially it's a bit out there with airfare and all, but I could knock of California on the list and it could also be a surfing trip.

And speaking of surfing trips, I'm looking at three possibilities between now and next March/April (I promised myself I'd make at least one surfing trip before next Spring). They are Ecuador, swell chasing in Puerto Rico or Morro Negrito, an island off the Pacific coast of Panama. More on those later.

Any thoughts on the above races, suggestions, opinions???

Christmas in July?

2010-07-27T15:16:00.004-04:00

Apparently, a few days ago was Christmas in July.

I've always heard of Christmas in July, but never really -- and still don't -- understand it. Now I have a reason to like it.

The other day Jenny walked over to my place from her place (yup, she now lives within walking distance) and the plan was to do a cross training workout, bike ride and make this salad idea I came up with while surfing (romaine lettuce mixed with avocados, assorted peppers, stir fried chicken, tomatoes, broccoli, sharp cheddar cheese and splashed with citrus dressing). While at work I had researched some upper body workouts for surfing and left the print outs in my truck. I ran outside to get them to show to Jenny and found this just outside my door resting under a papaya tree (we don't really have Christmas trees in this part of Florida)!

Behold: CHRISTMAS IN JULY!

I was stoked and surprised. Upon opening it I discovered this:

Now you might think Produce Saver storage bins are a very random gift, but what you don't know is the back story. Weeks ago we were shopping in the store and I was looking for the best deal on some BPA free storage containers because I'm always not having enough to store leftovers. I really REALLY liked the idea of these containers, but they were more expensive so gave up on the idea and forgot about them. Jenny didn't.

She remembered and gifted them to me!

Totally stoked I am, I am!!! We'll see how they work. I've already got an avocado and some of that salad in a couple of them now putting them to the test!

Welcome to New Smyrna Beach!

2010-07-21T11:36:00.006-04:00

A few weeks ago Jenny and I ran the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. A few days after that we returned to Florida and immediately began a moving process. A process that brought Jenny to my hometown of New Smyrna Beach. She was previously a 2-hour drive away. Between the marathon recovery, the move and her starting a new job this week there has been little time to blog or keep up with the blogger so that my friends explains my absence from the blog-sphere!

I've got some big news to report! Well, maybe not that big, but it's exciting for me as a surfer. Yup, this is a rare surfing post (sorry runners). Since New Smyrna Beach is a "surf town" it's only proper that if you are an athlete and plan to live here that you learn to surf, or at least try. And to do that my friends, you'll need a shred stick! After much thought it was decided that a performance shape longboard would be best all around board for Jenny to learn with given our beach breaks. A few months ago a non-surfer friend of mine got hooked on surfing. One ride and he was stoked beyond believe. He researched and hunted for an inexpensive board with some quality that will last and hold up to some abuse while he learns to surf. What he found was Triple X Surfboards or XXX Surfboards, which I was highly skeptical of at first.

The website claims: "Triple X Surf and Skim was founded in 2004 with the goal in mind of producing top quality surfboards, skimboards and wakesurfers that rival any custom or production board available..."

I rode along with my friend when he purchased the XXX board he scoped out online. At first, I was skeptical because my first guess what this company is probably keeping price low by having their epoxy boards mass produced and "popped out" in China. Upon looking at the 9'0" performance longboard he was buying I was satisfied that the shape and specs were decent. Upon riding it in some waist high surf a few weeks back I was satisfied that for the price of these boards a beginner can't go wrong. The board is not heavy and paddles fast. It's easy to maneuver and turn rail-to-rail with the squash tail and hard rails. It's single to double concaves and sidebites give it drive and speed to make some of the sloppy sections we get here in Florida. I was even able to walk up on the nose (something I can't do on my Walden Magic 9'0") and hold for a few seconds. The board is super flexible, probably because it's got less layers of glass, which is probably why its weight is low. Less flex is super fun, but probably not great for a more advanced surfer that is going to charge more powerful swell. In other words I could see it breaking on me in hurricane swell. Nevertheless, what a great deal for the price!

That's why I decided to surprise Jenny and get her one! I chose the 8'2" mini longboard that is 22 3/4" wide and 3" thick. For Jenny's size it is perfect for her to learn on and if she advances and decides she wants a high quality surfboard we could always sell it and buy a better one or she could keep it and start a quiver. I conspired with the new landlord to let me put the surfboard in her apartment the day before she moved in so it would be a surprise. Everything went perfectly! Jenny was stoked!

We've gone surfing half a dozen times and she's learning very quickly! And we're continuing our running adventures, but that my friends is another story!

Seattle RnR Marathon PHOTO RECAP

2010-07-09T08:22:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures from the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on June 26, 2010.

Jeanie, Jenny and myself just before leaving the hotel and beginning our epic journey to the start line. Jeanie flew up with her boyfriend from Sacramento to run the Half Marathon. She PR'ed!

A little inspiration I wrote on my hand that I saw on Frayed Laces blog a while back and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it! I wrote one word on my other hand: "Breathe!" which seemed appropriate the last couple miles and going up those hills. I'm also wearing a Brooks running jacket that I found in a thrift store for $4 and planned to use as a throw away before the race (temps were in the mid-50s), but I couldn't part with it and left it in the car. Now I'm stoked I still have it!

This is Jenny and I running by my family members somewhere around mile 15 or 16 I think.

One of the people donating to our fundraiser specifically asked us to use their donation on ourselves in Seattle. We decided to buy matching shirts and Brooks running hats. We also decorated our shirt backs. Mine reads "For Dad and A.H.A. Seattle Marathon Rock n Roll!" Jenny's shirt reads: "We love (*red heart) Seattle Marathon Rock n Roll."

This was taken at the family reunion area at the finish line. It was the first time Jenny and my parents met each other. It was also quite cold and I started shivering uncontrollably. Now I know why they give you those emergency blankets.

At the Health and Fitness Expo the Planters representatives were handing out free pedometers. I've never used one before and I'm not sure about the accuracy and quality of it, but I clipped it onto my pants anyways. This picture was taken at the finish line. More than 41,000 steps? Holy crap if that's accurate! Wow! No wonder my feet were tired!

After having our free MGD 64 beers and getting into a car to warm up we went to the food court in a mall in Tukwilla near our hotel to gorge on food. This was taken unbeknown to me in the parking lot. I'm standing there completely dazed and staring at the single step that lies between me and the food!

Later that night all of our families and friends met at the Tap House in downtown Seattle for dinner. I couldn't decide on what local microbrew I wanted to drink so I ordered the bartender's special and got a variety pack!

I just have to show off what I rewarded myself at the expo for 18 weeks of marathon training - the new Brooks Cascadia trail running shoes! I haven't run in them yet, but I was wearing them during several of our walking/hiking trips after the race. This was on a dock on Lake Crescent in the Olympic National Park near Marymere Falls. The shoes feel awesome so far!

And finally... to redeem myself for the MGD 64 comments that Will Run for Beer called me out on in my last post I have to show everyone that I did, in fact, celebrate the marathon properly with this awesome giant Hennepin Belgian Ale! I drank the whole damn thing the night after the night after the marathon and loved every drop!

Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon RECAP

2010-07-07T12:14:00.005-04:00

I guess this recap is better late than never . . . nearly 11 days ago Jenny and I ran the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and I have no excuse for posting my recap so late other than life comes at you fast sometimes. Here's how it all panned out!

The Health and Fitness Expo at Quest Field

Absolutely the best race expo I've attended yet. Competitor Events, Brooks and the Rock 'n' Roll series did it right and absolutely smoked the Disney Marathon Expo, Run for Donna Expo and Bay to Breakers expos to name a few I've attended in the past 6-months. It was absolutely huge with Brooks taking up at least a third of the expo. Yup, I was in Heaven. Jenny and I tried on the new Cascadia trail running shoes. I purchased mine and Jenny held off. Good thing because when we got home we learned she won a free pair in a drawing! All the vendors were amazing and for some reason it seemed as if there was an abnormal amount of free stuff to be had. I scored all kinds of free swag. I think Jenny and I lived off all the free snacks, nutritional bars & candy for at least one day trip of the vacation!

The Start Line
Jenny, Jeanie (who flew up from Sacramento to run the Half Marathon) and I scouted out the starting area the night before and learned it was exactly 2 miles from our hotel. I don't know if it was the cool-dry air or the nice beds at the Tukwila Comfort Suites, but I slept better the night before this race than any other race yet! Jenny probably didn't sleep, but that's the norm usually for both of us the night before. We were up before the alarms sounded at 5 a.m. and each of us went into pre-race routine. I think for future marathons I'm going to make a rule that whatever time we decide to get up and get to the start line that we add an hour to that time as we ended up rushed just like Disney in getting to the starting area. Our plan is to have Jeanie's boyfriend drop us off in our rental car and have about 30-to 45-minutes at the start line to do what runners do before races - use the bathrooms again and again. This is the first and one of the only FAILS for the race. A half mile down the road from the hotel we come to a dead stop in traffic. Many runners are getting out of their cars at this point and running or walking to the start line. We continue on at a soccer mom's pace (no offense all you soccer mom's out there. You've probably passed me in races before!) and I can tell that Jenny is getting anxious. I have no desire to run a mile or two before running a marathon. We still have plenty of time, but the clock is ticking.
We finally come to a "runner drop off" area and the vehicle traffic is being filtered directly onto I-5. There's no choice but to get out here and all the runners are being directed to the north along side the I-5 entrance ramp, but eventually underneath it. This is NOT what we envisioned last night. The start area is less than a quarter mile from where we get out of the car and now (since we can't cross the road) we are being directed away from the start area. At first we walk patiently and learn that we are going under an I-5 overpass and in a giant circle that leads into the back of the corrals. Jenny and I had our corral changed from 11 to 6 at the expo. When someone says the time and how far we have to go Jenny and I start running to the start line. Instant Deja Vu of the Disney Marathon back in January where we had to run a full mile to the start line kicks in. As we arrive at the corrals it appears that we are somewhere around corral 40! All the bathrooms have at least 50 people in line each! We continue to run through the 30 or so corrals until we can see the start line. There's 4 minutes until the 7 a.m. start time and no short lines in site! We jump the fence into Corral 6 and decide our only option is to start the race and use one of the bathrooms at mile 1 or 2. The race starts and the elites take off like a heard of gazelles being chased by a pack of lions. Corral 2 advances to the start line and we all start to move up. A minute later the gun fires again and all the crazies in Corral 2 get on it. We move up again ever so slightly. Corral 3 takes off. I look around at the people for the first time. Most people appear to be wearing half marathon bibs. Then I spot a woman that is at least 7 or 8 months pregnant wearing a yellow full marathon bib. Holy sh*t! And she's in the 3:40-3:48 pace corral. If that's not hardcore I don't know what is! When corral 6 makes it to the start line we have a minute to make a critical decision. Leave the corral, jump the fence and use some bathrooms we have spotted 50 yards away with only a few people in line or start the race and lose time using the bathrooms down course. We decide to hope the fence. See ya later corral 6 and hardcore pregnant lady! By the time we get back and jump the fence again we are in corral 10 almost where we originally would have been in corral 11. The gun fires. Our marathon officially begins!

The Race

Starting temperature is upper 50s. Finishing temperature is upper 60s.

It's a little crowded to begin with, but nothing as bad as the first few miles I experienced during the Disney Marathon. The race heads north along Lake Washington on wide closed off roads so there's plenty of wiggle room. The night before I wrote on my forearms the pace time for each mile to finish at 4 hours. Every few miles I check my watch for our chip time and cross check it with my forearm. We are doing great! Each time I check we are 1-3 minutes ahead of the 4-hour pace time. Thinking back after the race I realize I was pretty freaked the first 10 miles. I was quiet and reserved. We decided to run through the aid stations, something I had not even done on any of the training long runs. We took water, but on the fly. During the first 10 miles I'm feeling great, but scared more of uncertainty of how I'll do later on than the actual act of running 26.2 miles. Jenny on the other hand was relaxed and enjoying every aspect of the race. After the race she asks if I remember seeing multiple things and I have no recollection of most of them. I was in a zone with tunnel vision. There are some great bands we pass along the way. There are some not so great bands along the way. One of them is playing some kind of jazz/blues music. I remember telling Jenny to please kill me or the singer! One band is playing a Blink 182 song and the singer looks like Bon Jovi. I raise an arm and make the "rock on" sign with my fingers and the singer acknowledges with enthusiasm! For about 5 miles we are running near a guy that is constantly yelling at a woman to keep up the pace. He's trying to motivate her to finish the Half in under 2 hours, but he's NOT being nice about it. He even runs ahead of her and comes back almost like he's doing circles around her. She's breathing so hard we can hear her from 20 feet away. Jenny is getting so upset with this situation that I'm afraid she is going to go kick him in the balls or something. Finally we pass them and one older fellow next to us makes a remark about how that relationship isn't going to last past today! Somewhere around the mile 10 mark we split away from the half marathon runners and head out over a bridge that goes toward Bellevue. I'm stoked to be leaving behind the half runners because the course really thins out. The bridge is about a mile long and is one of those floating bridges. It looks beautiful, but looks can be deceiving. I quickly decide and proclaim to Jenny and anyone else within earshot that "this bridge sucks!" For the first time in the race I start to feel a little discomfort. There is a significant amount of wind over the lake that actually makes me cold. Plus the nearby traffic lanes are thick with cars and while it looks scenic my lungs are telling me a different story as they breath in exhaust fumes. There are no bands playing on the bridge and no crowd support. We run across and then all the way back and no sooner am I thrilled to have that over with we are faced with a tunnel. At first I think, better to go through a tunnel than run over whatever I'm running through. A minute later I decide the tunnel, like the bridge, is also no bueno! It's loud and I can't hear a thing Jenny is saying. It's also warmer than the normal outside temperature so it's kind of like shell shock to go from the cold windy bridge to the warm loud tunnel. There's one band, or single dude, with two turn tables spinning rave music inside the tunnel. For some reason this is funny to me. He's wearing a tux and sunglasses.
When we emerge out of the tunnel downtown Seattle is in full view and we're on a series of overpass highway roads heading straight for it. We pass the 13.1-mile marker and I check my watch. We're right at 2 hours exactly! This is bittersweet because while it's an awesome Half Marathon PR for me (busted my old PR by more than 16 minutes) I realize that we're going to have to do negative splits to bust 4 hours and I know there's hills on the horizon. The 4 hour mark really isn't a goal for this race, but it would be nice. It's more of a long term goal that I realize will come with more running experience. As we run through downtown there are hundreds of people lined along the course and for the first time I feel the advantage of having lots of crowd support. Jenny and I try a new strategy to make up some time. Since she is better running up hill than me and I'm better running downhill than her we flip flop back in forth on the hills. She sprints up leaving me behind and I sprint down catch up and even passing her. This works and we're back on track a few minutes ahead of the 4-hour pace up until mile 15ish and that's when it happens. Nope, not the infamous "wall," but something worse... our parents! Just kidding! I meant to say a long hill that goes up for more than a mile, but we do encounter are parents during this part of the race. First, it's Jenny's parents on the other side of the road. We wave and yell hello and keep running. Then it's my family. They've got water guns, bongo drums, cowbells and cameras and are cheering for us! All this in about a quarter mile and since we haven't introduced our families yet, they don't even know they are so close to each other! At the end of this long drawn out hill (aka my worst nightmare since I like them steep and short) there's a bridge and a turn around. Just before the turn around I notice the 4-hour pace group leader passes us. The hill has slowly worn me down and with only around 6 miles to go I feel my hopes of a sub-4 hour marathon slipping away. I see the red sign with black letters "4:00:00" bobbing up and down and slowly running away from me and there's nothing I can do about it. Not even on the next mile, which is mostly downhill, can I regain my composure and catch up. It's now that, for the first time, we walk through an aid station. I slam two cups Cytomax. Jenny points out that soon we'll be coming upon our parents again and I say, "well, I guess we should probably run past our parents," and she laughs. This time around all of our "parental units" are on the correct side of the road. My cousin, Bob, sprays us with a water cannon. It feels great! Jenny's mother, Sally, has made friends with a squad of cheerleaders (probably high school cheerleaders) and they are chanting a cheer with Jenny and my names in it. Her mother is so excited for us and her father is taking pictures!At mile 21 we emerge out of the Battery Street Tunnel and I'm in a ton of pain. The camber of the road is steep as it is a curve and every step I take is rocked with pain in my ankles. I slow to almost a walk and Jenny turns around to see what's wrong. I look up at her and almost start to cry. "You know what the best part of this moment right here is," I ask rhetorically. "I can see the finish line," I cry out. Off in the distance 3 or 4 miles away we can clearly see Quest Field. For a minute I forget the course map and the fact that we have to run a mile past the field and then back before exiting the Alaskan Way Viaduct down to the finish line.If you haven't already run 21 miles this would probably be the most scenic part of the marathon. Imagine being up high on an overpass highway with a clear view of the Pugent Sound to your right with the Olympic Mountains dominating the horizon and to the left dozens of high rise buildings making up downtown Seattle. It's an amazing sight to behold even when you're driving it in a car, but at this point it becomes less and less enjoyable. The road is concrete. The hard kind of concrete with visible rocks in it. Most of the course is concrete, NOT asphalt, and neither Jenny nor I anticipated this factor. Jenny always says she doesn't want to run NYC Marathon because it's mostly concrete. I told her after Seattle that she might as well of run NYC. The visible rocks within the concrete start playing mind games with me and I imagine feeling the individual grooves between rocks through my Brooks Adrenaline shoes and directly upon the balls of my feet! I can honestly say I enjoyed ALL of the marathon except these last 2-3 miles. There are bands playing along the way, but very few spectators have made their way atop the viaduct. At mile 24 I'm feeling completely defeated and stop to walk through an aid station. If there's a "wall" for me this is it. My brain is telling my feet to take run step in front of the other, but my feet will not listen and continue to walk. At mile 25 we see a girl laying on the side of the road getting medical attention. She does NOT look good and I tell myself to shape up, it could be a lot worse. Jenny motivates me to start running again each time I stop. We pick a random object ahead and decide we'll run once we get to it until we have to walk again. It's slow going and the last 2.2 miles takes me nearly 28 minutes. That's more than 10 minutes longer than my intended pace that we held for so many miles. Around mile 25.5 I hear a girl behind me ask, "Tallguysurfing, is that you?" I spin around and instantly start running to keep up with these two strangers as they run past. "Yes," I respond and instantly recognize that it's Marlene from Mission to a(nother) Marathon and she's running with Tall Mom on the Run.I couldn't believe it! I knew they were also running this race, but never thought I'd literally run into them, or them run into me during the race. Just like at Disney when I ran into long lost high school friends during the race, here are two bloggers that have recognized me. Marlene looks at Jenny and says, "you must be Jenny" and for a second I can see Jenny is a little shocked until she remembers that I write about her so much. Marlene and Mel are looking strong... a lot stronger than myself and they continue on ahead as I am voiced to walk again despite my brain's constant orders to feet to run!Near mile 26 we exit the Viaduct and I again almost cry as the finish line is so near you can feel it. Hundreds of people line the last 285 yards and I hear Jeanie yelling my name from within the crowd. Jenny and I cross the finish line running. My official chip time is 4:18:00 and like a true Southern gentleman I let the lady go first with her official chip time clocking in at 4:17:59.

Here's the race stats and break down:

Full Marathon: 4,094 Finishers (2,068 Men)
Male Winner: Jynocel Basweti - 2:18:19
Female Winner: Sopagna Eap - 2:43:05

My Splits

Chip Time start: 7:11:52
5K mark: 27:54
10k mark: 56:05
9-mile mark: 1:21:31
Half: 2:00:32
30k mark: 2:53:26
24-Mile mark: 3:50:33
Finish: 4:18:00

Overall Finish: 1,499th

Gender Place: 996th

Division Place: 168th of 343

By comparison the Half Marathon boasted 17,608 finisher (5036 male/12,572 female).

Post Race
We grab whatever food we come across. My sweat quickly turns to goosebumps as the shivers set in. We sit down within the "chute" to collect ourselves before meeting up with our families. I'm spent. I can officially say that I left everything out there on the course. I didn't bust 4 hours, but I accomplished every other goal I set out for, all of which take higher priority over time. A few minutes later we reunited with our families at letter "J" and introduced them for the first time. The rock band Tonic was set to take the stage in about an hour, but at this point I could care less. We managed to go get our free beers. I can say that MGD 64 has never tasted so good! Then we made our way back to the cars to warm up and head back to the hotels to recover. Overall it was an amazing experience and I'm pleased to say this will not be the last marathon for Tallguysurfing!
I'll post some pictures from the race in my next post. Stay tuned! And once again thank you to everyone that contributed to our efforts to raise money for American Heart Association!

Marathon Training RECAP

2010-06-24T07:03:00.000-04:00

It's been quite a ride these past 18 weeks. When I started training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon it was the end of winter, one of the coldest winters in Florida of my life! I remember complaining on here about the cold and wishing that I would actually "sweat" during some of the training runs. I also seriously doubting whether my Achilles tendon would hold and remain injury-free for the entire training period. Well, we went from the coldest winter in memory to one of the earliest and hottest summers in a long time and we ran through it all. My wish was granted and I experienced an entirely new level of sweating on the last few long runs. Being more soaked than when I'm surfing without ever touching the water... getting so hot that I actually stopped sweating (yeah, I know this is bad)... hearing my saturated shoes make "squish/squash" sounds with every step... you name it!

Yeah, we put in our time - sweat and shivers.

Now the hour is finally upon us and here I stand; uninjured, determined and ready. I know it's been awhile since I posted a "Thursday Stoke," and since it's Thursday this might as well be one of the best Thursday stokes!

I'm stoked to be running the Seattle Rock 'n' Marathon this Saturday! That's only 48 hours away! I want to mention a few things, all of which I'm stoked about. First of all, my goals.

Goal #1 - complete 18 week novice runner training schedule injury free. CHECK!

Goal #2 - Raise money for American Heart Association in memory of my father and to raise awareness of heart disease. CHECK!

Goal #3 - Have FUN and finish the marathon without injury. Leave it all out there on race day and get the best time possible, take as much of it in as possible and have as much fun as possible. Enjoy the run with Jenny!

I haven't accomplished goal #3 yet, but in my mind the first two and hardest two goals are met. The last goal is the easy part! All I have to do is run.

Here's some stats I pulled from Dailymile.com, which I used to track only my marathon training progress from start to finish (I'll probably keep my account active after the race).

Miles run - 403
Time spent actually running - 61 hours and that's not including all the time spent stretching, recovering and EATING like a king!
Total workouts - 63
Distance traveled around the world - 0.02 (hey, it was on .01 FOREVER!)
Donuts Burned - 255 (but I didn't eat one single donut...wtf?)
Gas Saved - 22 gallons (would someone please put 22 gallons in my truck?)
TVs powered - 840 (don't really understand that statistic)
Fastest Run - 7:26 minute pace 5-miler on June 8th
Longest Run - 20.3-miler on June 5th
Shortest Run - 2-mile taper run on June 23rd (seriously Hal Higdon, what's the point of this run?)

It really has been a great experience and I'm so happy to have had a wonderful girlfriend to share the long runs with on the weekends. I've met a great group of runner friends along the way as well.

I've also been totally humbled by EVERYONE that has donated or supported us in one way or another. We set out to raise $795 or simply $15 for each year my father was alive (he passed away of a sudden heart attack when I was 15-years-old) with a simple website HERE. Without even having to try hard we immediately shattered our goal. The donations kept coming and coming and as of this posting we are at $1,888.60. That's absolutely amazing! Nobody asked us to raise funds and we aren't running this race as "official fundraisers," but it's been a great experience. I can't even begin to thank everyone!

As you're reading this Jenny and I are traveling to Seattle. Tomorrow is the Expo and Saturday is the race. The forecast as of today calls for a low of 56-degrees and a high of 69-degrees - perfect in my opinion. Jenny would like it a little hotter, but I'm content with anything under 90 degrees at this point! I'll try and get a recap up as soon as possible. I am Bib #11050 for anyone wishing to track me.

Wish me speed and endurance!

Waiting .... waiting .... waiting....

2010-06-21T13:18:00.003-04:00

First off, thanks to everyone's suggestions about my Brooks in my last post. I've decided to do two short runs (my last two runs) this week (a 3 miler and 2 miler) and wear them both again individually before deciding to wear the mid-mileage pair or the newly broken in pair. I'll probably make a last minute decision, but all of your comments have helped me realize that 225 miles is NOT too many miles and in the end I'll be fine no matter which shoes I decide upon.

Last weekend we did an 8-miler in Gainesville. It was the last long run of the 18 week training schedule. It was easy and fun. Three of Jenny's good friends ran with us as we weaved in and out of Gainesville neighborhoods and the campus of The University of Florida. We set out just before sunrise and by the time we reached the 5 mile mark we stopped for water at the football stadium (a.k.a. The Swamp) and low and behold there is Urban Meyer right in front of us! One of the only long runs that I don't bring my camera and we literally run into Urban Meyer! He's just arriving and getting out of his car while talking on the phone. He looks at us, looks away, looks at us again, grabs his briefcase, and then looks at us again before walking into the stadium. I yell to him, "Go Gators," as he walks away. I ponder why he gave us the strange look for the rest of the run. He had to be looking at us as we were the only people around. Then I realized how odd we must have looked; myself and 4 girls all older than college aged kids. I'm 6'7" tall and one of the girls is less than 5 feet tall. Plus, we probably seemed to come running up from no where. He was probably thinking something like, "oh crap, what are these people going to want?" Maybe the strange look was him being perplexed that we pretty much ignored him and headed for the water fountain. Regardless, it was 7:15 a.m. on a Saturday morning in JUNE and that man was at work! No wonder he had health problems after last year's national championship game. Anyways, it was good to see him and Go Gators!

I feel like I'm in a holding pin right now ready to be thrown out into an arena full of gladiators. Ahhh Tapering! There are 5 days until the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon and I'm ready to rock for sure. So much time and effort has passed to get to this point and now only a few hours left. I've written packing lists, gone over plans, made finally hotel and travel bookings and even come up with motivational ideas to write on my arms and hands. I'm ready. Let's do this!

I'll close with a preview picture of things to come after the marathon!

Behold! My new shoes as of yesterday!

Question!

2010-06-16T19:44:00.003-04:00

Everyday it seems as though it gets hotter and more humid so I wait to start my afternoons later and later. It seems like they are becoming full on night runs either before the sun comes up or after it goes down. It's hard to believe that only a few months ago I was complaining about not being able to get my sweat on during my runs. Now it's just ridiculous. I'm drowning in sweat!

But that's not the reason for this post. The reason is I have a question or am looking for suggestions. In exactly 10 days Jenny and I will run the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon. I am currently in full on taper mode right now. My body is experiencing a range of emotions both physical and mental. One day I go on a really short run and it seems harder than a long run a few weeks back. The next day I go on a slightly longer run and I kill it and want to run even further after finishing. I'm trusting the training schedule (Higdon) and trying to follow it to the tee. It's kept me uninjured so far so I'm becoming a believer!

Tonight's run was a 6 miler. The last 6 miler of the schedule. I only have four more runs left; a 3 miler (I can't remember the last time I only ran 3 miles), an 8 miler, another 3 miler and finally a 2 miler. Tonight I decided to wear my older Brooks Adrenaline shoes. The last time I wore them was the 18 mile train run in Gainesville that seriously kicked my butt and got them extremely dirty. As I ran tonight they felt extremely good on my feet. I started thinking about how they actually feel better than my new Brooks Adrenaline shoes that I plan to wear during the race. Now I'm full on stressing out trying to decide if it's a fluke run/feeling or if I should wear my older Brooks instead of the new Brooks.

Older Brooks = 225 total miles
Newer Brooks = 75 total miles

I know that 225 is not that many miles and that I can probably get another hundred in ligament runs out of them if not more, but what do you all think? Is 75 miles not enough to break in the new ones? I wonder why the old ones feel so much better on my feet? They are the same make and model and size.

How many miles do you like to have on your shoes on marathon race day???

20-Miler in Gainesville summer heat

2010-06-09T08:38:00.007-04:00

It's the pinnacle of any marathon training schedule. It's the top of the hill. It's the week you look at during week 1 and say, "holy sh*t! I wonder if I'll be able to do that!" Or for marathon veterans, it might be the week you look at and say, "I can't wait until I'm rockin' that mileage again!" For Jenny and myself it was last weekend and it involved a 20-miler ~~through~~ around, over and across the city of Gainesville, Florida. That's right; home of my beloved Florida Gators!

To make things more interesting the weather forecast boasted a "low" of 77 degrees and humidity levels were 90+ percent so basically that's the best it's going to get no matter what time we set out to run. Being one of the highest overall mileage weeks, my body was down right sore and pissed off. Runner's knee in my right leg and an old lower calf/Achilles tendon injury speaking up in the left leg. Bottom line: TallguySurfing was nervous, anxious and driven all at the same time.

I convinced Jenny (who isn't human when it comes to running in hot weather) that we must get up at 4 a.m. and be on the road by 5:30 a.m. to give us at least an hour to 90 minutes of running time before the sun begins scorching us. I could tell this didn't sit well with her as it's nearly an hour earlier than we've ever gotten up for a long run. This strategy veers from the routine. She's nervous about getting started earlier than our norm and I'm nervous about getting started too late. We attempt to go to sleep super early, but really only get about 5 hours, of which the last hour Jenny lays there awake.

As planned we start running at about 5:28 a.m. from the Gainesville Health Center down University Blvd. and it's humid. It's so humid that the water vapor is clearly visible in the air beneath the street lights. By mile one I'm covered in sweat and we're going at a 9 minute pace. "Ugg, it's going to be a long run," I think to myself.

The conversation begins to flow as normal, but I'm not feeling very talkative. Looking back I realize how freaked out I was about the 20 miles before me and the higher level of focus occurring, which unfortunately was hindering my conversation skills.

We are both wearing hydration packs to allow for more fluid consumption and to not have to worry about how far until the next water stop. Mine is filled to the max with a full pack of Crytomax blended into it. They will be serving Crytomax at the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon and want to make sure it agrees with my system in case I need something more than just water on race day. I'm also packing four GUs, including a Jet Blackberry with 2x caffeine for those last few miles.

Around mile 9 we are running through Hale; an upscale neighborhood with large and expensive homes. We stop at a tennis club. It's an upscale facility that I imagine the likes of the Stepford Wives or Desperate Housewives using at a more respectable hour. Since it's hours before anyone actually arrives so we have the place to ourselves. The water fountain is like that of a soda fountain with disposable cups, chip ice and cooled water. I'm in Heaven. I fill my Camelbak reservoir with ice. We discover the women's room is decked out with hair products, lotions and soaps. I curiously go to the men's room to find it barren and basic. Can you say "what the eff?" See pictures below. There are clean cloth towels ready for my sweat at courtside. This was the nicest water stop ever!

At mile 10, we met up with Tracey, whom planned to run part of the route with us (about 5 miles). As crazy as it sounds this relaxed me knowing that Jenny and Tracey could chat away and I could just push on through without having to worry about talking. I'm not going to lie. At this point of the run we are down on Archer Road west of I-75 heading east for 2 miles straight into the early morning sunrise. There is no shade and lots of traffic noise. I was not having fun at this point as I realize my shoes are actually squishing and squashing because they are full of sweat. Never in my life have I sweat so much that my shoes have become saturated this much. I've heard stories, but generally I'm not a crazy "sweater" guy. My feet feel heavy and my legs on par with fatigue. I ponder if I'll actually get blisters and if the new sweat saturation will help or hinder blister development. Tracey and Jenny are 20 feet ahead of me deep in conversation. We finally make it to a gas station at 75th and turn north. Knowing that we have passed the point of being the furthermost point from where we started helps my mental state ever so slightly. We stop at the gas station to use the restroom. My urine is a brilliant shade of yellow kind of like an elite Kenyan's shoes. No bueno. Back on the road and I'm slamming GU and sucking Camelbak like a big baby, but I keep to myself as I follow the two girls going north on SW 75th. At mile 15 it's time to say goodbye to Tracey as she needs to head back to her place and we have to head the opposite way. It was great having her company for part of the long run!

By now the temperature is surely in the upper 80s and while my legs are feeling pretty good all things considered, my cooling system is not happy at all. Jenny looks at me and tells me I look better than previous "hot" runs we've done. "You're fine," she says and urges me to keep going. This is good in my mind. At least she isn't worried about me. We hit a short 1-mile stretch of road with no sidewalk and little shoulder. The highlight of this section is an overpass bridge going over I-75. Jenny is NOT thrilled about this section and tells me we need to get over it quickly. She takes off (probably only at our original 9-minute pace that seems like a sprint now) and I'm left chasing the pony tail up the bridge. In my mind it's Mount Everest. By the time I reach the top she's already at the bottom on the other side. I stop and walk as a reward for my accomplishment of conquering this peak. The scenery of a 6-lane highway below me is not very rewarding so I begin running down the hill where I find Jenny waiting at the next intersection. Only a 5k to go from here!

During those last 3 miles I had to stop 4 times because of the heat. It went something like this:
1.) You feel your breathing begin to increase involuntarily almost to the point of hyperventilation.
2.) Your brain tells your legs to keep running, but the lack of oxygen (reaching VO2Max) overrides the orders of your conscience and primal instinct makes you stop and walk.
3.) Annoyed as all hell you either a.) cry, b.) curse or c.) grunt
4.) After a matter of seconds or minutes of involuntarily walking you are able to catch your breath, replenish your blood oxygen levels and your brain can force your legs to start running again.

This is not my idea of a good time. I'm so out of it that I don't even stop my watch as I have previously done at water and bathroom stops (I wanted to have an idea of pace while running on this run). With 1 mile to go we can see the gym where we started. This is almost cruel as we must turn away, run through a neighborhood, up and down another hill and then return to the finish. This is also good because the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon course goes by the finish line at the halfway point and again with a few miles left. Finally, Jenny points to a brown sign and says that's the finish line. We both finish strong and a sense of joy overwhelms me knowing that I just ran 20 miles with my girlfriend! And, my legs are feeling pretty good. Without the beginning stages of heat exhaustion I think I would be perfectly fine running 20 miles. A new level of trust in the training schedule is achieved!

After 20 miles!

I'm drenched from head to toe and feel like I just got out of the ocean. There's not an article of clothing on me that can't be wrenched out. We head home, shower, meet friends for the biggest brunch ever at Flyin' Biscuit and then nap the afternoon away. By evening we're feeling pretty good. During the run we played a game. The runner that curses the most has to buy Seattle Manhattans at The Top to celebrate the 20-miler and beginning of taper later that night. English curse words count as 1 point. All curse words in foreign languages count 1 point for ever two since it takes more premeditation on these words. If you've read my entire post up to this point it's not hard to imagine that I'm buying us drinks. I owned this game and even dropped profanity in English, Danish, German and Spanish during the run!

Here's to the Seattle Rock n Roll Marathon, running our 20-miler without injury and beginning a slow 3-week taper! A round of "Seattle Manhattans" at Gainesville's Top bar and restaurant.

Running update (way over due)

2010-06-04T11:16:00.008-04:00

Wow.... WOW! I haven't blogged since Bay to Breakers.... shame!

And here I was thinking I'd have more time to put up posts and then reality hit home with a busy work schedule plus the last few weeks of high mileage leaving me wondering where all the time went.

What I need to do now is bring you all up to speed in my training for the Seattle Rock 'n' Roll Marathon on June 26th.

May was nuts with almost each weekend being out-of-town events such as Bay to Breakers, Muddy Buddy and a weekend in Gainesville. I last left off with Bay to Breakers so we'll start the weekend after in Gainesville. This was the scheduled 18-miler long run weekend. Jenny and I decided to do it on the trails of San Felasco Hammock State Park. We were joined by Rochelle and her friend, but since they aren't in the same training situation as us they only joined us for the first 10 miles. We got a late start and the sun was already up. It was unusually humid and by the end of the first mile I was already sweating. The day before I purchased a Camelbak (Classic 2010) hydration backpack to wear. Honestly, I'm not sure I could have finished the run without it. We stashed Gatorade two miles in at a point that was also the 10 mile mark. I consumed all the Gatorade and all the water in my Camelbak well before we finished along with three GUs. The heat and humidity definitely took a toll on me. I was reduced to taking multiple walking breaks the last three miles. Jenny, of course, was a trooper and kept me motivated to finish. "Chase the ponytail," I remember telling myself several times! During the last 1/4 mile we came upon an ancient oak tree with a huge cave-like hole at the base. It reminded me of the South Park episode with the "underpants gnomes." I either imagined the gnomes coming and going from this hole or I hallucinated it! By the time we made it back to the trail head I was borderline heat exhausted. Goosebumps were forming on my arms and I was no longer sweating in the 90+ degrees heat. I colapsed upon the Earth in my TallGuySurfing tradition for after a hard long run and Jenny took a picture. We stopped at a fuel station and I purchased several sports drinks, Rockstar energy drinks and a TON of food, which I attempted to consume before making it the rest of the way home. After regaining my wits I checked my GPS and learned that we actually ran 19 Miles!!!! Sweet!

Two crazy runners going the distance on trails!

Spotting one of many deer...

The tree with the "underpants gnomes!"

Finished!!!! 19-freaking miles!

With 200+ miles on both my current running shoes (Brooks Adrenaline and Asics 2150s) I decided to get some new ones for the marathon. After trying on equivelant versions of Merrells, Saucony, Mizumo and Adidas I ended up buying the same Brooks I already have! Look how dirty 19 miles of trails leaves your shoes compared to brand new ones!

The next weekend (Memorial day weekend) was spent a home. The FishStock fishing tournament was in full swing and this year they held an inaugural 5k race. The training schedule said 14 miles. We decided to stir it up a bit by running 11 miles (actually about 10.5) before the race arriving only minutes before the start gun. We were joined at the race by Erin, Justin and a few other friends. I've run a few races in my home town and never seen more than about 200 people in any one race. This race saw 497 registered runners! Not bad for an inaugural race. Jenny and I started near the front back and Justin worked his way right up to toe the start line. I really didn't want to get caught up in a fast pace group. At the first mile I checked my watch and I was right on 7 minutes. Jenny was in my line of sight about 100 feet ahead. I checked my watch again at mile 2 and I had fallen back to a 7:20 pace. As we headed back along a scenic riverside road and the sun hit us I hit a wall. Not the kind of wall where you can't run, but the kind where you can't sustain your pace any longer. I felt my legs involuntarily slowing down. Old men and girls began passing me. Yup, I was being chicked! I lost sight of Jenny up ahead and no longer cared. I crossed the finish line at 24:50. Not even close to a PR, but good enough to get 4th in my age group and not bad at all for running 10.5 miles as a warm up! According to Weather.com on my cell phone at race start at 8 a.m., it was 86 degrees and 96 percent humidity. Whew!

After the race! Erin, Justin, myself and Jenny. Justin and Jenny both claimed 2nd place finishes in their age divisions and Justin took 9th overall.... speedster!

After the running what better activity than the beach? We spent two days surfing and relaxing at the beach. I'd also like to note (since my blog seriously lacks surfing content these days) that leading up to last weekend we finally got a decent swell in New Smyrna Beach. I surfed 7 of 8 days and the swelled peaked on Wednesday with 7-8-feet wave faces at Bethune Beach, which I charged repeatedly on my 9'0" Walden Magic performance longboard.

Tomorrow I'm in Gainesville to run the longest run of the entire 18-week schedule. A 20-miler. It looks like several of Jenny's friends are going to meet us at different spots of the run to join in for 5 or 6 miles at a time. My goal is to be out the door by 5 a.m. and have at least half the run over by sunrise. My fear is that we'll get another late start and the heat/humidity will kick my arse! Stay tuned for the recap!