various christmas 2010 thoughts

First, Merry Christmas to all of you. That's about all I got in terms of enthusiasm for the holidays this year. 

I know that I should not feel sorry for myself. I don't really. But I feel, well, if not sad ... blah. I'm not, at the core, a Bah Humbug guy. I like seeing the Christmas lights, I like seeing the decorations that other people put up, and I enjoy seeing so many people genuinely happy and infused with holiday spirit. I'm healthy, I'm employed, I have a fun hobby of attempting to play guitar, and I can run again for the first time in two years. There are billions less fortunate than I. I have close family friends who are struggling with illness and cancer. Yet I simply can't get into the spirit of the holidays this year, for perhaps what are silly reasons.

First, we have had so many people leaving our office for promotions in the last three months its been one goodbye party after another, and it seemed like there was a never ending number of holiday celebrations following. It gets *old*. Yes, I'm glad that people are moving on to bigger and better things, but after a while the forced cheer for people that you really didn't work with in an office gets old. I've already made it clear to my present office if and when I leave, I want *no* going away party. It hasn't been all that fun living out here, separated from my children for coming up on four years. I don't need to have people tell me how much they're going to miss me, because, they're *not* to miss me. Why make such a game of it? I've said if they want to have a party, do so, but I'm not going to be attending. I haven't felt this way in other offices that I've worked in, but I've been through so much personally over the past few years... 

I was taking stock driving to work this morning, thinking about this will be my first Christmas with both of my parents gone. Gift giving had gone away many years ago, but I won't be able to call Saturday morning, and have Mom pick up the phone and hear the happiness in her voice when I wish her Merry Christmas. She loved Christmas, the decorations, just all of it. She made a point to send out cards to people she barely knew. It was important to her. And oddly, I always got a Christmas card with $20 tucked in it that Mom had snuck past Dad. This year, the only Christmas cards I've gotten are the ones that were forwarded from Mom's house from people that did not know she'd passed. I've sent out letters to those cards explaining what has happened. That was hard.

I thought when I had children, that that was it. That I wouldn't be getting divorced and/or married again, and seeing my kids' faces on Christmas morning was great. Well, that's shot to hell. The last Christmas was during 2006 that we woke up in the same house. It is so acrimonious with their mother that I highly doubt they'll be waking up on Christmas with me until they're adults (and then it will be of their choice). It is really hard to explain just how acrimonious the situation is... and that they only way to "win" (and not harm the children) is to not participate. I could fly to CT, but I don't see anyway that my presence would not end up degenerating in a fight. Christmas doesn't need to be spoiled for the kids that way. They've seen us argue enough.

I'm coming more to accept that moving near my children is not in the cards, at least for the near future. It *could* happen, but the window of opportunity is closing in the sense that they'll turn 11 and 9 early next year, and before long, the young children excitement kind of Christmas thing is gone. Then I'll just have surly teens who are unhappy about everything... pfffftttt.

I think its fairly obvious from the post so far that this time of the year has little religious significance for me. At this point in my life, I don't denigrate other for their beliefs - regardless of what those are - and I do believe that God speaks to people in different ways.  I'm somewhere between pagan and agnostic now (LOL), and I don't see that changing.  And I do not want others forcing their beliefs down my throat telling me that "if you believe this, you'll feel better." I've tried, and all I've ever gotten out of it has been silence. Just the way it is, not stated to be depressing, because I'm not depressed about it, I'm not going to waste my time attempting to believe in something that does not exist for me. I'm just skeptical, I guess.

Hmmm... proofing the above, this is pretty depressing. LOL. I am grateful for the good things in my life, but going back to driving in this morning, I'm trying to put my finger on why I'm so sour on the season this year, and I realized "Hmmm. You got divorced two years ago after an acrimonious process that dragged out a year and a half, then your parents died shortly after that."

They say these kinds of life events are extremely hard on people. I'm not whining. It could be worse. I have a person in our office whom, within the time space of a month, had his wife die suddenly on a Friday night and then his father die. I don't see how he's making it from day to day. We've had other people lose their parents or friends. Two weeks ago, one my co-workers fell on a rainy morning on his bike, commuting to work,  and fractured his hip in three places. Another friend is recovering from a bout with necrotic fasciitis - that's your friendly "flesh eating disease." She'll be recovering for months. One of my parents' best friends is battling brain cancer and actually beating it much better than anyone, including the doctors, expected but takes two steps backward for every one forward.

So I guess my Christmas message is pretty simple ... be grateful for what you have *before* Christmas morning.

davis turkey trot 5K - 11/20/10

Davis, being a UC town, has a reputation, along with Boulder, as being a bike crazy - er friendly, town, to the point of maybe being more than a little wacky about it. Which means that finding a parking space near downtown Davis is almost always problematic when school is in, which it still is since it wasn't Thanksgiving week on top of it all.

In addition, this 20something edition of the Turkey Trot would be unique in that it had never rained on a Turkey Trot before, and it *poured* on Friday night. When I got up to dress and head over to Davis, it had stopped raining and there were minor breaks in the clouds, but the weather radar showed spotty showers here and there... the hourly forecast claimed the real rain would hold off into the afternoon.

It was also colder than Apple Hill two weeks before. Temps in the lower 40s, damp, but the trick would be to not overdress - so you'd roast while running - but to put on enough that you wouldn't be freezing off any vital parts while waiting to start.

Anyway, I went ahead and put two loose wicking shirts on, and used the new "water resistant" Iowa Nike storm 1/4 zip pullover on top of it, with its very handy double sided zip-shut kangaroo pocket (threw my car key and ID+cash etc. in a ziplock bag in there when I got to Davis). ANYHOW, I was very surprised to find, once I got off I-80 (actually 113) and took Russell towards downtown/campus that I was able to park less than two blocks from the starting point. Of course, the bulk of people that do this race LIVE in Davis, and a lot of the racers are students, so you're not going to have a lot of cars pulling up. Still, this was the closest I've ever been able to park at any race that I've done, and my total is somewhere up near 40 events since 2004 at this point. In other words, way cool that I didn't have to walk far and I arrived relatively late (less than 40 minutes before the 5K start).

The baby stroller 5K went before we did. Looking at the start and the course, and previous year's registrations, I knew that this would not be a fast run because the streets are narrow and I wasn't going to get in the front, take off at warp speed and die after about 10 blocks and then go through the head messing up stage of having lots of people pass me, so I wedged myself into the front third of the start crush and resigned myself to probably losing at least a half-minute on my time weaving through the crowd vs. a cleaner start. That's one of  the things I don't like about big 5Ks, if you want the psycho advantage of being with a group that's near your goal pace, its difficult to get lined up properly for that to happen (even with signs noting where pace groups should form in the start queue). For 10Ks on up, at least in anything that I've entered that has more than 1,000 runners, where you are in the queue really doesn't matter (at least as slow as I am) because with a 6.2 mile race there's plenty of distance for the runners to sort themselves out without it too negatively impacting your start time. For half-marathons on up, it really doesn't fucking matter at all if you're a 9:00 pace runner anyway.... you put yourself wherever you want to be in the scrum because after the first mile you're going to settle into your race pace and for the longer distances its not a puke-fest its a pacing exercise.

But hey, NOT having the strollers mixed in with us was great, because there were some walkers in the group and even though we started 20 minutes after they did, I caught a few of the strollers, which, while totally meaningless, was nice, because I really fucking hate getting passed by a baby stroller. Yes, you have to make some effort to push it, but having pushed my own kids around in one, especially if you spend the $$$ for a nice jogging stroller, the weight of the kid+their diaper bag/etc. will actually pull you along (unless you're pushing the thing uphill - but in a place like Davis, which is built in the middle of a former fruit orchard in the Valley and is flat as a pancake, there is very little uphill except on ped overpasses) and allows you to conserve energy because you can lean on the stroller as you run. Ergo, IMHO, pushing a stroller is a form of cheating. OTOH, I like to see people running in 5Ks and 10Ks with a stroller, because it means they're out getting exercise and letting their kid(s) get some fresh air at the same time. Its all good... except when you pass me. Then you suck, OK?

Since it decided to lightly rain on us before the start, and the wind kicked up a bit, the race organizers thought it'd be a wonderful idea to have some overtly peppy woman (who sounded rather young) that heads those bikini boot camp sort of workouts to urge us, through the PA system, to do various workout/warmup exercises. I was a wee bit grumpy and mumbled something about "taking that microphone away" which got a chuckle or two from other runners that were standing near me (it was decidedly more colorful than I just described it, in terms of what I actually said). She was telling us not to knock over fellow runners, I personally felt we should just pretend we were in a rugby scrum, grab someone's head and start biting them. That would have been cool.

So, we shuffled off at the start, and I put my head down and pretended that I actually have some kind of football ability (which I don't, but I regularly fantasize about it and man, did I kick ass, there were so many hapless tacklers and none of those bastards came even close to taking me down) and eventually got into a clear enough area that I started picking off slower runners. For some silly reason I run more efficiently with my head down without increasing my pace - I go forward more quickly, but its hard to run for very long semi-hunched over...

While I waited to start, I saw my fellow jazz bander from a zillion years ago - yes, Pam, who I played in jazz band with for three years in high school, lives in Davis - on the sides, said Hi, and she also was at the finish chute and yelled encouragement as I trudged by looking not too far off from The Dead Thing The Cat Just Brought In To Impress You - thanks for the props - her husband and son were running and I hope they all had a good race. 

I ran another OK pace, I could tell, though, that my body was tired with this being my 3rd race three weekends in a row, although being not really in race shape - I don't honestly know if I'll get back to my 2007 form - I have been treating these races more like a hard workout than an actual race... we will see if I can actually get any better in the coming months, or if the ravages of the aging process have taken their toll. When I saw the finish chute with about a quarter mile left, and knew I would finish in my goal time (i.e. under 30:00) I let up a little more than I should have, but its all good. I've chopped two minutes off of my 5K time with maybe 4-6 weeks of semi serious training since September 1, and my Disneyland trip was in the middle of that and disrupted the training cycle... one of the harder core runners/salespeople at Fleet Feet on J Street has told me to not be too hard on myself on trying to come back from injury/layoff, just to keep doing the training runs ... the same advice my BFF Kent has told me.

I did have a little fun at the water stations, which looked to be entirely staffed by UC students, by complaining (with a smile) that beer would be a much better drink than water (and it really would) but, alas, they had no beer...

No more races until my return to Davis on 2/6/11... for the 10K Davis Stampede. And I threw caution to the wind, and assumed that my body will allow me to get ready for the Shamrock'n' Half Marathon here in March and registered... this early, you get a custom bib name and I went with "bird cult"...

clarksburg country run 5K race report 11/14/10

Well, 1st race at Age 49 in the bag... I signed up for this at the last minute. Since I moved here in 2007, I've toyed with running one of the distances. The race has been held for years at Delta High School in Clarksburg, this was the 45th rendition. There's a 20 miler, half-marathon and 5K. Many people use the 20 miler as their last long training run before the California International Marathon the first weekend in December. The course(s) are out in the Sacramento River Delta, west and south of town, and up on the levee, you can see downtown Sacramento in the distance as well as the coastal ranges. Very cool.

Really pretty day to run and just about perfect temperature of around 50F. They start the 5K late, but since I hadn't been to the race before, I left early so I'd be able to find parking. That turned out to not be a problem, so if I do this next year I'm not going to rush to get over there. Or maybe I can car pool with someone...

This race attracts a lot of serious runners as its certified and fast (because its damn flat) and since it isn't really all that close to Sacramento, the more casual runners aren't likely to show up (I don't see why, but I'm closer to Clarksburg in Tahoe Park than say, someone who lives in Folsom or Roseville (would add a half hour to the drive easily). Of course, along with the serious runners you get the high maintenance people too, but the running world doesn't have as high a proportion of those as triathlon or cycling does. It always amazes me to see people running in expensive running clothes and makeup. Oh well...

I really get a kick out of the kids' races. Neither the half mile or the 1 mile had that many participants, though, compared to Urban Cow or Apple Hill and that kind of surprised me - then again, this event attracts more serious runners and I'm guessing they tend to leave their kids home if they don't have someone to watch them in the endless pursuit of the next PR before the get too old to PR LOL

So, there's really not a lot to report, other than I should have put my car key in the zippered pocket of my running pullover rather than attempt to attach it to one of the strings on the bib # holder on my race belt (oh, another stupid comment heard before the race "You can tell who the triathletes are because they all have race belts"- um, no, I don't do triathlons anymore and I do have a race belt because of that but that's so my expensive running shirts don't get pinholes in them that don't 'heal' like putting holes in a cotton t-shirt does with a pin. You pay $60 for a high quality The North Face running shirt, you're not going to mess it up by jamming pins though it. I'll abuse running shorts that way but not a shirt).

I again broke < 30:00 but man this process of coming back from almost 2 1/2 years off from running is so sloooooow. I feel fucking *old* (wait, I am fucking old). I would have probably run about 20 seconds faster if I'd not been screwing with moving the key from the belt to the pocket (and it did disrupt my rhythm, I know I slowed down  but hey, its no big deal), but I kept this run simple. The course was a simple triangle, it had a slight hill in the first mile and oh I love running up hills because I run past other people on hills, especially when said hills are at sea level rather than 3000+' up.

It was nice to run past vineyards, there's still some leaves on the trees but we are about to embark on our ironically "green" California winter. The rains will start soon, and everything turns green for a couple of months - usually until mid-April - and then the rains stop for six months and everything turns brown in the meantime LOL.

I did encourage a 12 (or maybe he was 13) year old boy who was initially in front of me to "outrun me, I'm old dude" but I dropped him about halfway through. I think I picked off a half dozen people on the way to the finish, but I should have run into the finish chute a little harder because a woman I thought I'd dropped way back pushed like hell to the end and actually wacked into my elbow at the finish line - it was cool.

I didn't beat my Urban Cow time, but, I did run < 30:00, and I know I ran hard because I felt like there Might Be A Hurling Moment after the finish and it did pass, so I put forth a good effort. I can also blame a mild upper respiratory infection perhaps, or my body adjusting to the 1/2 of a 25 mg pill of blood pressure meds I started this week. On the more upside, I've run since October 3rd four decent races considering how out of race shape I am in the first place, and Apple Hill was last weekend and very hard. That's a lot of racing for a 5-6 week period. :)

One nice thing about this race, you can take a shower in the gym afterwards. But I grabbed some pasta first, then showered, changed, and drove home. Another 5K knocked off and now I can concentrate on gradually increasing volume the next six weeks and decide whether I want to attempt the Davis half - or not (they do have a 5K and 10K as well) in February.

P.S. I am tempted to do the Davis Turkey Trot 5K next Saturday but it is supposed to be pouring rain at the end of the week... hmmm... excuse to go buy rain gear...

2010 apple hill harvest run race report - 11/7/10

What do the words "run" and "rain" have in common besides the letter R? Well, sometimes, it rains when you're running in California. I've been incredibly lucky in the years that I've been active racing - during college, and then after the long break, resuming racing in 2006 - that it has hardly ever rained on any race that I've participated in - and this covers not only running, but the duathlons, triathlons and cycling events I've done as well. In fact, some of those rec rides were so hot I was wishing it *would* rain.

2007 was my best year running, I trained hard, I cracked my '06 5k PR by over a minute (to 24:57), and at the end I dragged my tired ass to the finish line at the California International Marathon and sulked for weeks because I was a stupid, spoiled brat who was whining by missing his target time of 4:30 (for a first marathon) by 9 minutes and 59 seconds, which is not that much of a percentage miss considering the distance and the overall time.

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do running wise in '08, I toyed with it being the Year of the Half Marathon but after doing the Davis Half in February and running the Shamrock'n' 5K in March, I hit burnout and thought I'd get back on the bike, in particular, the single speed I had, and I managed to do a real number on my left hip, knee, back and left IT band by pushing a gear on that single speed that was simply too much for me. I did a couple of 5Ks in there - Doggy Dash and something else that I can't remember now - both of them were in William Land Park, I think - but I'd already started to lose run fitness because, well, my knee hurt and running wasn't much fun.

Running had started to hurt, because the IT band hurt. I had signed up for Buffalo Stampede but skipped it because my leg hurt, and skipped the Cowntown Half in '08 because my leg hurt... and it got worse, and worse. Two rounds of PT, and in '09 I was able to run the Cowtown 5K - not well, but I ran it, and the IT band got slowwwwly better but not much. Finally, I went and started acupuncture a couple of months ago, and things are *much* better. Not 100% - and along with decline in run fitness, I've gained some weight (although I've lost some) and acquired the dreaded "PF" - plantar fasciitis - in *both* feet.

I actually "discovered" the acupuncture therapist at Race for the Arts, she had a clinic at the post-race expo, and thought "why not"? I'd run that 5K OK, I felt better than I had in a long time but the IT band still was tight at the finish... and when I took on Urban Cow (formerly Cowtown - blame the race in Houston of the same name for threatening to sue the Sacramento Race over "name infringement" or something equally moronic) after doing some acupuncture - the difference - I feel my racing form coming back although fitness is going to take a while to come back - IF it comes back at all with 49 starting me in the face on Friday...

Apple Hill is an area of orchards and wineries located in El Dorado County, CA just east of Placerville and west of Pollock Pines in the Sierra foothills. There are two race distances - an 8.5 mile loop and a 3.5 mile loop. In '07 I did the 3.5 mile loop and picked the same distance for this year.

The race benefits Camino School, and is advertised as a "relaxed family race" but for those not used to running steep hills and who live at sea level - like me - the combination of hills+3000+ feet in altitude makes it, well, a challenge. Now, in '07 I was tapering for the CIM marathon and this was a tapering race (or whatever you want to call it) so I'd be sharp the first weekend in December when CIM is held. So I had great run fitness. I figured I would not run nearly as well today but having run the course before, I thought it would give me a good gauge on how "out of shape" I've gotten compared to 2007.

It was pouring when I got up at 5:30. Now, I'm not going to bitch about running in the rain; I don't mind the rain at all, but I did leave my Garmin - even though its water resistant - and iPod at home because I really didn't want to screw with either in the rain. I figured I'd get to the race site about an hour before start, walk the almost half-mile from the parking area to the start line, do the race, and then immediately walk back because the radar looked like it was going to pour all morning up in the foothills.

Its about a 45 minute drive from my door to the field by Camino School where you park, and the rain wasn't bad until I got up around Shingle Springs, then it really started to come down on US 50, then the fog set in as I climbed out of Placerville up to the Cedar Grove exit off of 50. Winter in Sacramento is mild, but you go just 40 miles over into the Sierras and it becomes rather serious business quickly. Can you say "Donner Party?" I knew you could (Wikipedia it). Its not that much farther east from Apple Hill where you get into the part of the Sierras that during the winter Caltrans requires chains (yes, I have a set in my trunk Just In Case). Sometimes, if its is cold enough, the snow level comes down to 1500' in places like Cameron Park, which is only 30 minutes from my door.

As I pulled into the parking lot across from the school, I was a little concerned as its just a big grass field, its raining, and I've had lovely experiences having trucks and cars pulled out of mud due to my 2nd ex's horse craziness. So I made up my mind to immediately head back to my car after the finish, and get the hell out of that meadow before the cars leaving turned it into a mud quagmire. It doesn't rain that often on this race - although once you get into November here, its essentially the Winter Rainy Season and it can rain at any time, but we don't get the days of grayness and raininess this early - those come in January, February and March.

I stuck my hand out the window after parking and figured that it was cold enough that I might want to go ahead and put on an underarmour shirt on underneath the wicking t-shirt that I had on with my North Face running 1/4" zip over it. I had a mini-umbrella in the trunk that I got out and used to keep my upper body dry until the start. I thought about tossing it, but folded it up and ran with it in my hand; its a perfectly OK umbrella and those things are $10 a pop, too.

People were complaining about the weather but thinking about one of my friends, who is an extremely good runner and is very ill (but recovering slowly) in the hospital right now - and who had planned to be at this race but became suddenly very ill a couple of weeks ago - I instead thought about how lucky I was to be in good enough shape that I would be able to run this distance without too much difficulty, and how cool it was to run in a counterclockwise triangle past wineries, the Jack Russell brewery, and apple sellers in the beautiful fall colors of the Northern Sierra foothills.

While we were waiting for the start, had the fun of watching the kids' races, and I helped a young man (who ended up coming in 2nd - I think - overall - of the 8.5 mile runners) stay dry with my umbrella as he changed into his racing flats. I chatted briefly with some spectators who confirmed my suspicion that a lot of people bailed on the race today (and the field was much smaller for both distances than in 2007) - I had picked up my packet on Saturday knowing that it was supposed to be pouring in the morning. The queues for the 8.5 mile race and mine were much shorter and we weren't packed in nearly as densely as we were in 2007.

If you want to take the time to look up Apple Hill, the race start, which as at the Para VI winery, starts and finishes going uphill, making this a unique little torture test if you don't regularly train in hills and altitude. The first half-mile or so is all uphill, along some very narrow roads, so you are packed in with a lot of grunting, gasping persons, including yourself, until the race turns onto Cable Road and you have room to run, and before you know it, you've run the first mile. Miles 1-3 go up and down but nothing like that first half mile, but when you get to the 3 mile marker, its *all* uphill and its a long, slow, torturous uphill on Larsen - and if you can keep running - no matter how slowly - you'll drop a bunch of people who are walking at that point and looking like they're going to throw up. Making this even worse this morning was we ran past an apple vendor that had DONUTS going and the smell... makes you want to quit running, stumble in, and start stuffing fresh hot bad for you goodies into your mouth.

Anyway, I digress. I could tell that I was not going to run this - even w/o the garmin - anywhere near my 2007 pace but the rain also slowed the pack down a lot on going up that first hill. Footing was a little treacherous and I was holding back a little because I did not want to fall and bust my ass (and get trampled in the process). I looked at my Timex at the Mile 1 marker and groaned at the time, but at that point the pack had thinned out and I started dropping people who had gone out too fast... on the way to Mile 1 I heard a *lot* of complaints about the course - a lot more than in '07 - in fact, when I parked, two young women - 20somethings - pulled up in a new Beetle next to me, and after scurrying around in the rain, bailed on the race, I think - or tried parking closer, who knows. Anyway, I pointed out "you know, this is not easy, but it beats getting poked in the eye with sharp stick!" and back behind me I heard someone mutter "lets find a sharp stick..."

Then my fucking shoes started coming untied, even though I'd double-tied them. This happened three times. I *hate* rolled laces, I don't understand why they put them in running shoes. Good old-fashioned flat laces - such as those found on Chuck Taylors - stay tied if you knot them a couple of times, even when soaked in the rain. Yes, I could get some Yankz - actually, I have a set, I'm just too damn lazy to figure them out and put them in my favorite pair of shoes for races - but you should be able to double tie the laces that come with your Asics and those bastards should stay tied.

So, the people that I'd dropped went trotting by every time I re-tied the laces, although I caught most of them even after the third time. I wished during the long downhills in between 1-3 that it wasn't so quite wet (felt myself slip on the road a few times) because I would've gone faster, but again, I did not want to fall and I did see a few people fall.

It will be interesting to see how I look on The Official Race Photos, which were taken just before the last hill and right before the ODOR OF EVIL, DELICIOUS DONUTS hit us in the face. I imagine I'm going to look extremely dorky carrying the umbrella in my left hand. In fact, I figure between being soaked to the bone at that point, tired, and not in my '07 run shape I'm pretty much going to look like shit, but I'll probably buy a race photo anyway LOL

As I said, I wasn't going to hang around because I didn't want to get my car stuck in the mud, but as I approached the finish, I kept looking around, extremely paranoid that someone behind me was going to streak by at the last second and make me look bad, but I had 50 yards of open space between me and the runner behind me. I still pushed (although I felt dead at that point) to have a strong finish. I was kind of dazed in the finish chute - we didn't need to cut off timing tags as Capital Road Race Management has switched over to the disposable tags now - and stood around until some kids from Camino school told me to move to the food and water to my left.

I grabbed a couple of granola/cereal/chocolate chip bars, some water, stuffed the bars in my face as I never eat breakfast for these short races - my stomach feels too crowded - and walked back up the hill, got to my car... as I'm walking to my car, I chatted with a guy pushing a baby stroller who remarked that it was harder with the hills - this was the first time he'd done the race - and I said "you live down in Sacramento, right?"

"Right."

"Well, that's near sea level - yes, the hills make this harder but we are also up around 3000+ feet up here. Oxygen isn't quite as plentiful - high altitude cooking rules start applying around 3500 feet."

"It is?"

Hmmm. You can kind of TELL driving up here that you're driving into the mountains...

I had fun. I hope that my IT band continues to improve, because even though this was hard, its great to be able to run again, and I was only 1:00 per mile slower than in 2007... and I'm not nearly in the run shape as I was then - and I'm three years older.

granite bay trail 5k

This was one of those races that I signed up for almost on impulse. I ran the trails out at Granite Bay a while back when I was really into bagging new kinds of run races (before my left IT band blew up in summer 2008) - my first trail run - I really wouldn't call it a race because I was simply mentally geared to surviving - was on a 10 mile trail run that turned out to be much harder (duh) than running a half-marathon on pavement. It was cold, rainy, muddy, and I was so determined to not fall on the rocks that ring Folsom Lake - its in the beginning of the Sierra foothills - that I saved the fall for a flat, open field that was actually a bog hiding in the grass. I went down on my face in the middle of a field that looked dry that day, which was good for several choice curse words and phrases (and I'd done so good to that point in keeping my shoes dry).

Anyhow, I decided to sign up because I'm going to blow off Warrior Dash next weekend even though I'm signed up; I just can't feel motivated to drive way past Los Banos - its at least a 3 hour drive - by myself - to do an obstacle course run, hose off the mud, and then drive back.  Yeah, I paid my entry fee, but sometimes what seems to be a good idea at the time sours, and I'm not going to have fun driving 6+ hours by myself.

Now that the Miracle Of Acupuncture has brought some soundness back to my left hip and knee, although the PF in both feet is a bitch right now, I can run without pain (its after running that the pain sets in), and I feel like while I've lost a lot of speed, at least I'm running decently now, so I kind of want to race (which is also why I'll huff and puff through Apple Hill 11/7 at 3000' - yes, I've done that run before and you can feel the altitude sportsfans when you live at sea level most of the time... but I run nicely on hills, its just getting a sufficient supply of oxygen that's the issue). I might even wear my stupid cornhead hat for Shuffle Run for the Hungry.

But, I'll hand it to TBF Racing, they keep improving the quality of the events that they run at Folsom Lake, Rancho Seco and elsewhere in the metro area, even when its a relatively small event like this trail 5K and accompanying half marathon. Everything is set up smoothly, and to my surprise, everyone in the 5K got the same high quality tech tee the half marathon runners got. That usually doesn't happen in 5Ks around here, you get a cotton tshirt and the longer distance folks get the tech tshirt.

This was easily the smallest 5K I've ever participated in - I'm guessing no more than 50 runners, tops, if that - but most of them looked sick fit, and I knew I'd be running at the BOP, which was fine by me as I was treating this as a hard training run. So I started at the back because there was no point in getting dropped immediately by the human gazelles, and I also thought I'd see - after about the first quarter mile, when the pack sorts itself out in a small race (it takes longer with fields that get much above 100 or so, especially in a trail race where the path can be quite narrow), if I could accomplish any "net drops". In other words, "net drops" are when I pass a runner after the first 5 minutes or so and that runner STAYS dropped.

My net for this race ended up being 7. I dropped a 20something couple, who actually looked thin and fit, and later, I spoke with them and it was the young woman's first 5K she'd ever finished - her running partner had done races before (in fact, he made 2nd place male 20-29, even though they finished well behind me, which says so much of whether you podium or not (I've done in once, 3rd in a < 100 5K during Earth Day 2008 festivities) in a small field depends on who decided to get out of bed that morning and show up.

After the couple, I dropped a trio of early 30s women... probably not so much because I was in better shape; they'd done races before and I think were just out for a morning jog together, I dropped another 20something woman on the first set of little hills, then I dropped a really tall guy - probably 30s, but the finish results aren't up yet... and spent most of the rest of the race chasing a guy about my age (I'll be 49 November 12th SO PLEASE WISH ME A HAPPY AREN'T YOU GLAD YOUR FOOT ISN'T ON THAT BANANA PEEL YET DAY) that eventually pulled away from me. If you look in my FB mobile posts album from today, you'll see a shot of the lake; we never really got into the woods much at all (like you do with the 10 mile race) but you just wind along the shoreline and bluffs.

The end of the 5K loops went into the picnic area where the start/finish line was, and I'd been chasing another guy - who was at least 100 yards ahead of me - the last half mile or so. I caught him in the 2nd to last set of hills... he actually took a wrong turn - at first it confused me... and went around bottom of that little ridge. I don't think he was cheating, I think he just got confused, but the path through the woods was shorter, I caught him at the top of the hill - he'd been walking on and off - and I pushed to the finish line and as soon as made the final turn to the final I knew I'd beaten him. Yay, me. Finished strong, with a smile, then hung around, had some BEER - yes, they had three pony kegs there of different varities - and waited for the awards on the off-chance I might actually podium.

If I'd been in the 50-59 age group I would've podiumed, too, so perhaps November 12 next year can't get here soon enough. 40-49 is the most competitive male group in most of these races (and the fastest growing in triathlon), but if you can make it to 50-54/55-59/55-60 you often can win small races due to attrition. I know I'm not a good athlete but I'm going to use cunning, patience and simply outlasting the rest of you bastards to get my plaques. This assumes that my feet don't blow up (I'm about to start having the acupuncture tech work on my feet too. Yes, the needles in the wrists and feet are not comfortable but I've gotten such stunning results with the IT band that I'm willing to give it a shot).

This was so much fun that assuming that I continue to progress back towards getting what little run form I used to have back that I may do some of the trail races in February and March... they have a challenge over an 8 week period where you have the option of simply running the 5K course or doing a 6 then 8 then 10 then half-marathon trail challenge. I think if I can get back to regularly running 20 miles a week I could pull it off...

post-disneyland thoughts

Every time that my children visit me, usually there's a "post-visit" effect of a lot of phone calls from my daughter, who, naturally, since she doesn't see her Daddy face-to-face as much as any of us would like right now, wants to talk. Even if all she does is read aloud the book(s) that she's reading at the moment while I listen and ask questions about the story.

The Disneyland trip was probably the most fun for my son, as he really enjoys amusement parks and rides. We ended up riding the California Screaming coaster 10x, including 4x in a row in the last day that we were went into the park. I held up fairly well except for the next-to-last ride; I got off the coaster wondering if I would hurl lunch onto the off-loading area, but the feeling quickly passed. It was almost a difficult visit in the sense that Davis really monopolized my time when we were at the park and Meredith, well... she doesn't like roller coasters at 8 yet.

I'm pretty sure that I can't find - at least in a Disney park - a ride Davis won't try... now some of the coasters you find at the Six Flags and Knott's Berry Farms of the world, as well as Busch Gardens, King's Dominion, and Cedar Point, are basically designed to see if they can make you throw up... whereas Disney tries to theme its coasters to be something besides a bare bones metal coaster that goes as fast and high and crazy as possible. I'm not sure from some of the stuff I've seen on You Tube that I could get Davis on some of those coaster - hell, I'm not sure I'd try 'em (at least on a full stomach).

Its somewhat surprising because she's the far more athletic and adventurous (as well as socially engaging) child of the two in public. We took her onto Space Mountain and she would not speak to any of us for about an hour afterwards. (It probably doesn't help that with the "re-imagineering" of SM recently that they seem to have cranked the music and effects WAY UP on the coaster and inside, and they'd added PG-13 scary images for Halloween to the ride.

Personally, I loved it, Davis loved it (though  in the coaster ride picture he looked completely stunned). Meredith hated it. We tried to get her to do the Thunder Valley Railoard, nooooo... the Matterhorn was completely out of the question (Davis agreed with me that after California Screaming and Space Mountain that the Matterhorn is Super De Dooper Lame in comparison).

Meredith also did not like Indiana Jones but she was OK with Pirates of Caribbean... again its the speed and darkness that are issues, PoC goes way too slow to be scary and its not that dark except for the first two silly drops. She loved the Grizzly River Run water ride... that is the Grizzly Bear Mountain that you can see inside California Adventure, and to my surprise, when we checked into the Grand Californian, since I was such a good little consumer and had paid for the room well in advance, they'd upgraded us to a theme park side view, and we could see the Grizzly out our window.

Also adding to the coolness was bunk beds for the kids... with the lower bunk bed having a drawer you could pull out, Peter Pan like, that a small child could sleep in so you had beds for three kids. There was a queen for the adults with an extremely comfortable mattress.

Anyway, its clearly apparently that Meredith doesn't like wild rides, but she likes rides that go out into the open air (as long as they go in one direction and forward) such as the Ferris Wheel, the "bullets" (a zeppelin ride in California Adventure), she liked the teacups in Storybook Land but found most of the rides aimed at small children boring. She'll probably get a much huger charge out of Disneyland in a couple more years, although when I explained this to her she gave me that dubious No Smile Look that says "I Believe You Are Completely Full Of Shit Dad."

I'll also pimp the pools at the Grand Californian;  they've got a little water slide and a big one in the main pool. Funny how kids change... when Meredith was really little, she'd go down the enclosed water slide at the YMCA in Mississippi if I was at the bottom to catch her. Davis, OTOH, had zero interest in the water slide, but that has completely changed now; he's a water slide freak. Meredith has suddenly gotten timid; I'm hoping that this is just a phase and that by next summer she'll be more willing to take chances (I point out that swinging upside down by her legs on the monkey bars, as she's wont to do, is far more dangerous than the water slide or the rides at Disney).

I coughed up the $$$ for Mickey's Halloween Party on Tuesday night. In retrospect, while the fireworks show was cool, it made for too long a day for the kids and the candy lines were long... if I'd not told them about the Halloween Party I think they would've been fine with skipping it, and instead spending more time in the parks the next day. 

Wednesday - actually Tuesday - was complicated about an hour after we got into Disneyland on the early admission, Meredith lost the holder off her lanyard containing her five day Park Hopper pass. They gave us a one day ticket as a temp replacement and the next day they printed a new Park Hopper pass with the same numbers on it and we hung onto that one, but all told I probably spent about an hour with Disney customer service (and it was excellent customer service - as is the service at the hotel (get the valet parking, it is TOTALLY worth it versus screwing parking the car if you are staying at the Grand Californian)). After all that was said and done, Meredith really wasn't all that interested in spending time in the parks on Wed, Davis and I did CS and that was about it except for pool time.

I could not have done this trip nearly as easily had the Blonde not come with us, I'm hoping she enjoyed Disneyland as its not the same going with kids as it is going as adults, and she may have sprained her foot, because after the first day she was hobbling. She was a bit hesitant about going, thinking that it might be best for the children to spend the time one on one with me, but Meredith had repeatedly requested her presence as she really likes her, and the trip had been planned since shortly after the kids went back to Connecticut after their summer visit.

I had decided than rather than flying down, renting a car, and flying the children back to Sacramento, and then flying them out non-revenue on Delta (for those of you not familiar, their mother works for Delta, so they fly free as non-revenue stand-by passengers if space is available), to rent a car, and ended up with what I consider an *extremely* tacky bright white Dodge Charger from Enterprise that, compared to my Civic, got shitty mileage going to LA and back. OTOH, I didn't put 1,000+ miles on my car, and the thing had plenty of power when needed for the LA freeways, and its bigger than a Civic so I knew I wouldn't get the "we're cramped in the back seat" complaints on the way back to Sacramento.

That, however, meant picking them up at an LA airport, and this is where I can get kind of frustrated with the Ex sometimes. In my view, there were PLENTY of flights to the Orange County airport near Anaheim vs. LAX, which is more than 40 miles from Disneyland, and is a lot smaller airport to get in and out of. LAX is a nightmare on steroids, it will still be under construction when the Sun enters its red giant phase in a billion years. I kept pleading "Please, do not fly them to LAX, Orange will be easier for everyone" but Sunday morning, she sent their luggage to LAX and them to LAX "I had to make a guess" and they flew unaccompanied from Minneapolis (minors can fly one leg on Delta unaccompanied < a certain age if parents/responsible adult is there to meet them on the other end - so she flew from Hartford to Minneapolis and put them on a connecting flight to LAX).

We just started flying them unaccompanied like this on the return leg this summer because seats were tight for their mother to come out and pick them up, and I actually prefer doing it this way, because the less time she and I actually have to be in eyeballing presence, the better, because, well, we pretty much hate each other and the tolerance level for interaction not deteriorating into a heated argument is about 7-10 minutes max. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be getting to LAX itself but the terminals are so huge and totally screwed up in terms of being tied together (Atlanta, Chicago, Denver are all mucho better), but I'm an Iowa farm boy at heart - well, not really, but Des Moines is not a big city ... Sacramento is the 2nd biggest metro I've lived in outside of the year I spent in the immediate vicinity of DC; when I moved to Fredericksburg in 92-95 you were 50 miles from DC off of the I-95 string city; so even though Fredericksburg can be technically considered part of the DC metro its not like living in a big city at all, the analog here in Sacramento would probably be living in Auburn or out in Placerville although neither are really a good match.

I've gotten used to Sacramento. DC used to make me feel, well, a bit ill driving around it, its more than my Iowa boy mind was able to easily wrap around. LA - freak out time. I didn't drive and outside of the hotel had a fairly heavy dose of paranoia riding in the car around LA. I just don't like being in a place where you have to drive so much... the eastern cities are a bit easier to take because you have options - i.e., transit, and things aren't nearly as spread out, but I never enjoyed riding metro in rush hour when I was in DC. I suppose you eventually get used to it and learn to suppress the urge to scream at ALL OF THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE CROWDING IN ON YOU.

Anyway, once I got my gate pass to pick up the kids - and we got to the airport wayyyy early - it was actually a good thing as the plane arrived about a half-hour early from MSP. It was a 757 - I think - and it took a long time to empty out; unaccompanied minors usually are the last off the plane although the Delta gate agent and I chatted for a while and when it became apparent this plane was going to have some stragglers, she went and collected them for me.

Anyway, if I do this a next time, I'm flying down on Southwest, and renting the car for just the time in LA, and flying everyone back to Sacramento after Disneyland is done, because its just too fricking long and stressful of a drive to LA and back. Leaving at 7:15 am on Thursday, we did not really start climbing out of LA until almost 9:30 in the morning. At least an hour was spent in stop and go traffic. For those of you that I know that live in SoCal, I don't see how you do it.

So, we puttered around Sacramento; I took them to a pumpkin patch/farm that's over in Dixon, east of Davis, bought pumpkins one day and came back on Saturday to play with the pumpkin gun - a contraption the farm owners had built in Louisiana that uses compressed air to hurt a 7" pumpkin at a target. Oh yeah, its great fun, Davis and I took a half-dozen shots each. I offered the opportunity to Meredith but she wasn't interested.

Sunday, I put them on the plane to Minneapolis as unaccompanied minors, and again, the professionalism of the gate agents here in Sacramento is just awesome (I suppose it helps that they may take it a little more seriously in that they are children of a Delta employee (but that should make no difference)). 

So, this week, I've gotten a lot of calls, from Meredith, as she readjusts to being away from Dad (this time, as they laid down to sleep the night before leaving, both of them cried a bit. I know its hard for them... its hard for me too)... they had fun but mostly they just miss hanging out with me (my house and parenting approach is *very* different and much more laid back. I don't yell when I get frustrated, which I think they appreciate - their Mom's style is to fuss and scream when people don't comply (shuddering at the memories)...

pre-disneyland thoughts

15 years (actually, coming up on 24 since I Elvised the UI with a MA in Urban and Regional Planning). I keep thinking of the line from Grosse Point Blank, where John Cusack's character is sitting in the BMW owned by a high school buddy who is in real estate now, and the dude keeps going "10 years, man! 10 years!"

Some of you know who I work for (and if you really are dying to know, you can email me and ask), but today was acknowledgement of 15 years with the same employer (but in three different offices in Virginia, Mississippi and now California). Technically, the anniversary isn't until a week from tomorrow (Friday), but they hand out the awards on a monthly basis; I got a certificate suitable for coffee table display and a 15 year pin that will likely end up on the Kors blazer, rarely worn.

Its been a long weird journey to 15 years/23+ years, starting out with short stint in the Twin Cities, then moving to Battle Creek, MI, Indianapolis, IN, Dayton, OH, Fairfax, VA, Fredericksburg, VA, Richmond, VA, Jackson, MS and now Sacramento, CA... and who knows if the journey is over yet. Having my children on the opposite coast most of the time, is, well, a bummer, but its not always possible to have the career/family balance exactly as one wants it, particularly when you are a 2x loser in the marriage sweepstakes.

That said, it was nice to have my hand shook during the office meeting and of course, now, its 8 hours of leave per pay period sportsfans. Everyone keeps telling me that "now you'll find yourself with leave you can't use." Ha. I'll believe that when it happens.

Speaking of leaving, in < 72 hours I will be at Disneyland, and fingers crossed the children will be there with me.  Driving down on Saturday, and yesterday, I got a phone call from their mother wanting to know if I was going to be in LA on Saturday (the answer to that is Yes), as she was contemplating re-arranging her work schedule at the airport so that she could get off early, and they could take the last flight out of Hartford and perhaps make Orange County or LAX late at night. I'm pretty amenable to that. The Blonde also loves Disneyland (and they go to great lengths to decorate it for Halloween - apparently they've put ghosts into Space Mountain (that should be way cool)), and will be assisting this trip, although I do not plan to stick her with Meredith, who does not like scary rides, while Davis and I try to see how manly we are (or, more likely, he'll try to see if he can watch his old man puke from being on the roller coasters a little too much). I may have to use a financial incentive to get Meredith on the coasters, we shall see on that one...

So perhaps the Non Revenue Stand By Flight Gods will cooperate and they'll be there on Saturday... I've reserved a different hotel as we check into the Disneyland Grand Californian on Sunday until Thursday. I've coughed up for the Tuesday night "private" Halloween party tickets at Disneyland, apparently they will have a special fireworks show (and I'm thinking, contemplating that, that this must be one fucking rock out of a fireworks show, because the "regular" one that I saw back in '08 is the best one I've ever seen. Tinkerbell laser holograms flying in the air. Yes, really really) that will consume several thousand of my brain cells in wonderment. I told the kids to pack their Harry Potterverse Gryffindor costumes from last year (they don't have masks, so they'll be able to see and while there will probably be forty zillion other kids there in Harry Potter crap at least I'll be able to easily recognize my kids).

But I can't wait to get Davis on California Screaming. We must ride that coaster together. It is truly sick, 6000' of metal coaster, the only one in the US that uses magnetic induction rather than chains, the longest with an upside down loop and it accelerates from 0 to 55 at the start in 3 1/2 seconds. My three favorite rides at Disneyland are that, Space Mountain and the Hollywood Tower of Terror. They all rock. The Indiana Jones ride isn't bad either but the lines for it are monsterous...

The nice thing about staying at the GC is that it is the only Disneyland property hotel with a private entrance to the park (California Adventure side), so once you've parked your car and checked in, you can come and go as you please as long as the parks are open. Its great. One thing I have learned since the '08 trip is that even if fly down like we did last time, it really makes sense to have a car in LA, because you are stuck with the eateries in downtown Disney and while there are a few places within walking distance, its barely walking distance because, its well, LA, where the car is Darth Vader. So tomorrow morning I'm picking up a rental from Enterprise... something with a little more power and oomph than my riceburner - er Civic EX - that will be comfortable to drive down to LA and creep and crawl along the freeways.

And thinking about all the walking I'll be doing in Anaheim, I had to feed the REI habit - er addiction - today. Since I am a member, I went by to pick up a California topographic atlas. This is because no one makes decent maps anymore of anything. AAA has quit giving out free maps, and IMHO there is overdependence on mapping functions on your iPhone (Google Maps is not always correct). Plus a book of topo maps you don't have to worry about it running out of battery charge, you just flip the thing open and *look*. Of course, I started wandering around, and before I knew it, I'd bought two new The North Face 1/4 zip fleece tops (it can be chilly in Anaheim in the mornings and at night, but a hoodie can be overkill), and they had a pair of discontinued Asics Gel Kayano 15s that feel so good on my feet. Well, at least I get a little back on each purchase for next year... LOL

Running and The Bird Cult Is EVERYWHERE

Moooooo. Moooooo.

Really, I couldn't think of anything more clever to type to start this RR off. First off, I want to thank Capital Road Race Management (CCRM) as they've made exactly the improvements to the race this year that it did not have last year, pulling the marathon portion out to reduce the size of the field (and not to compete with CIM, I think), and focusing on making this a quality half marathon with a 5K for those of us who either a) don't want to run a half or b) signed up for the half but still didn't realize their IT band issue was not sufficiently healed to return to a half marathon training schedule for 8 weeks (i.e., me).

Last year, they had a band at the finish but I suspect that the neighborhood either bitched up a storm, or, more likely, its just too damn noisy at the finish to listen to a Top 40 cover band play the crap that Jack FM plays for free, or, even better, that you can just play the crap Jack FM plays through the public address system off of iTunes plugged into the PA system for free and without the inane Jack FM commercials. I don't know if Jack FM is Clear Channel or not, but its all terribly evil IMHO and I'd rather have them throw a curveball and play Coltrane as that would freak everyone out in what I believe would be a really good way... play "One Down One Up" or is it "One Up One Down" - anyway, it really doesn't effing matter, just hearing the greatest tenor player of the 20th century howling away in some extended improvisational freakout would be super de dooper cool.

But I listened to Linkin Park's "Meteora" while I ran, so my musical taste is probably questionable anyway.

The other major improvement was separating the food area. Last year, the food was right at the finish chute, and I was so close to a dyin' that I walked out of the food area, and then the bastards wouldn't let me back in. This year, you just needed to have your bib #er on and the fine folks from Chipotle gave you a chicken burrito or whatever the hell it was, it wasn't bad although like Taco Bell I do not consider Chipotle even remotely Mexican food. And they also had free samples of beer, which was good. Beer is good, and a wonderful way to start off one's day. They had wristbands in the race packet that you donned to get your free sample of beer. I skipped paying $3 for 16 oz beyond the free sample (it wasn't that great).

I almost didn't do the race this morning. I made the mistake yesterday afternoon of taking a nap, and between that, and being super jacked about Iowa Jolly Stomping Penn State (8 out of the 9, baby) last night, I couldn't sleep. I finally snagged about 2 hours of sleep, and fell out of bed at 5:45 am when the watch alarm went off.

And awoke to find that my post game celebration of 3 Taco Bell Grande orwhateverthehelltheycallthem tacos at 9:30ish last night was a really stupid idea. Um, cramps, but Cramps Without Results. For about 20 minutes, I thought there was no way I'd go because I really didn't want to um, have an unfortunate non-fatal but extremely embarrassing accident on the race course, but things calmed down, I hopped in the shower, threw my stuff on, and dashed out the door at 7:00 am hoping I'd be able to find parking within spitting distance of William Land Park before the 8:00 am start. Made it with no problem, really, I was milling around all the other mill-arounders at 7:25 with the half marathon starting at 7:45.

I was still kind of half dazed from little sleep, the grumbly tummy, so I just sort of... stood there, until my friend Nicole Young - the women's overall winner of this year's (and last years) Eppies Great Race (run, bike, paddle) virtually poked me and we small talked a bit before the start. With 4,000 - or however many - half marathoners, we had to wait an extra five minutes for the slower walkers to clear the 5K part of the half marathon course, and the air horn went off, I hit the Start button on the Garmin as I crossed the timing pad and began the weave through the crowd to settle into a race pace, Linkin Park blasting in my ears.

Even though I felt draggy, I ran the first mile in 8:48 which was a big surprise. Um, I knew it was way too fast given where I am shape wise right now - my PR for a 5K is 24:57 on a flat fast out and back course and I'm nowhere in the race shape I was in 2007 - but I wasn't suffering that much so I thought I'd see how long I could go pushing a little more than I thought I should be pushing. By midpoint at 1.6 miles I realized I could finish under 30:00 - again, not great time, but I haven't run a sub 30:00 5K in two years because of injury - if I did not blow up.

And I didn't. I felt myself slowing down, but I kept watching the Garmin and knew when I hit the half-mile left banner that I would beat 30:00 (unless I were kidnapped by aliens or if my heart seized up and I fell over dead, or I got knocked out by a golf ball (there's an 18 hole public course in William Land Park and I like to torment the golfers by yelling at them "Hey, dude... we are getting more exercise than YOU!") but surprisingly there were very few golfers on the course this morning... I guess 59F is too cold for golf in California). When I got to the signs that divided the starting groups up into pace groups, I put my head down and passed about a dozen other runners into the finish chute, and waited a little to hit the stop button so I didn't mess up my finish photo (I also stopped and did the fake finish smile in front of the banner with Official Race Photographers (all very cute girls which of course makes it easier for an old fart like me who's way too sweaty to smile even though I really felt a little like grabbing the railing in the finish chute, leaning over for a bit and looking just old and tired).

This 5K course loop in William Land Park, which I've run about a half-dozen times now in different events, has always been shown as 3.15 miles on my Garmin rather than 3.11 so its a little long. Official preliminary time was 29:16, which is faster than the first 5K I ran after a 20+ year hiatus from running in 2006 (that was 29:28 and on a much tougher course with much higher humidity). According to the watch, which I probably stopped a few seconds after I actually crossed the finish timing mat, I ran 3.15 in 29:09, which with the Garmin distance translates to a 9:15 mi/pace. My goal was to run the 5K < 30:00 and I knew I'd need to average around 9:30 to make that... official preliminary race pace was 9:25.  Finishes - Overall 158/273 Males 89/216 and Age Group 12/43. Actually, aside from the time, not bad... that may have been my best AG finish in a 5K except for the one 5K that I placed in a few years ago (yes, I actually finished 3rd in a very small field - the only time I've ever made podium).

Anyway, this is an extremely encouraging race result, proving that the acupuncture is helping, and training smarter is helping. Like I'm really trying to prove anything.

Oh, speaking of 3rds... Nicole finished 3rd in 30-39 women. She didn't expect to have a great 5K as she'd spent the previous day in an insane bike run bike run bike run training "loop/brick" for two hours.

Its all good. Oh, as I was walking back to my car, I had worn my Iowa throwback jersey as part of a) being a rabid Iowa football fan and b) celebrating said Jolly Stomping of Penn State last night... some other runners that had finished the half marathon and were cooling down ran past me - I think they were part of the Fleet Feet racing team - and one of them yelled "Good win last night Iowa!" I said "Hey you recognize the throwback jersey?" and he said "Yeah, Iowa City is one of my favorite places in the world!"

The Bird Cult is EVERYWHERE, man. :D