Now for something lighthearted: Sesame Street Slayarrrggghhhh!

Seems to me a lot of life is reconciling opposite extremes, the video above is something nice and lighthearted compared to my last blog entry. It also shows a dualism combining the cute muppets of Sesame Street with the heavy metal rage of Slayer (properly pronounced: SLAY-AAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!)... Enjoy!

Remember: Neda Agha-Soltan (Neda Soltani)

Neda Agha-Soltan (Neda Soltani) was killed in Iran during the recent political protests. Reports allege she was shot by pro-government militia who were trying to stop protesters.

To add insult to injury, the government ordered her family to bury Neda immediately and barred them from holding a memorial service. Apparently authorities in Iran are ordering mosques not to hold services for any people who have died at the recent protests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23neda.html?_r=1
http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/06/21/iran.woman.twitter/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8113552.stm
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jeJnPi6AOx5JpqWi2Wwv3AaesBPAD98VPEOG0

Usually I like to experience the feeling of schadenfreude by reading the occassional news story about a tragedy, many of which are brought on by the foolishness, ignorance, and/or stupidity of the person suffering the indignity. However in Neda's case, she has become a martyr for the freedom and rights of humankind. Her death, as any person whose life is cut short, is a loss to be felt by us all. It makes me both sad and angry at the same time.

We have so many problems in this world to overcome without killing each other. That somebody's daughter, son, father, or mother dies because of something like this is BULLSHIT. Rage Against the Machine's song "Killing in the Name" is currently stuck on repeat in my head as a mantra of defiance against those immoral assholes who only exercise power to control: FUCK YOU, I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME!

To the kind, moral, and thoughtful people of all creeds, religions, and philosophies, I beseech you to look past surface differences and realize we are all in this together... Peace to Neda, her loved ones, the people of Iran, and the people of the world.

Politics makes me laugh...

This FITS Makes News interview with "Michelle Obama" makes me laugh... Quite unlike the crap news pundits on "real" TV news channels! My favorite quote: "Michelle, is there a reason that several hundred secret service agents suddenly trained their guns at my head after you made the sweeping gesture?" You gotta watch it to get it... Much more entertaining than the usual news talk!

Prelude to the 2009 Boston Marathon

A few days before the 2009 Boston Marathon, I got a phone message from a reporter at the Gainesville Sun, Megan Rolland, asking if I would be willing to be interviewed for an article she was writing about area runners running the Boston Marathon. I told her I sure would as it is cool to be in the newspaper as long as it isn't for something criminal!

Since the article was about five different runners from the area, there was only a little bit about each one of us in the article. But since I have this seldom-used blog here, I figure I'd post the long form answers for your reading pleasure below... Just some insight into the enjoyment that running marathons gives me. Also a little more about why the Boston Marathon is so cool and if you'd like to qualify what you need to do, sorta...

HOW I STARTED RUNNING: I started in 2000 just before my 30th birthday to try to get in shape and run the 2 miles of Gator Gallop. In the summer of 2003, I decided to train for and run the 2004 Walt Disney World marathon to re-ignite my enthusiasm for running and to get the really cool finisher's medal! That led me into becoming and considering myself a "marathoner". It's like a lifestyle to me.

WHY RUN MARATHONS: Because I can. I also like the irrationality of it all because it really doesn't make much sense to run that far!

RUNNING IDOL: Tinpothy Gordon, Gainesville's "Running Man". He actually calls me "Marathon Man" because we became acquainted at a marathon, so he's called me that ever since! (Nobody else does!)

MARATHONS RUN: 9 so far and this year's Boston will be number 10.

FASTEST MARATHON: 2008 C&D Runfest marathon in 3:11:33. I went to visit my sister and her family for a week and topped it off with a nice little run on the weekend that turned out to be my fastest marathon.

THE BOSTON MARATHON: I never thought I would qualify to run Boston, but somehow after running a few thousand miles I actually qualified at the 2007 Five Points of Life Gainesville marathon, my 4th marathon. Before the start of that race, I took a sharpie marker and wrote "BELIEVE" on my right arm and "IN YOURSELF" on my left arm as a message to myself and the spectators along the course. At the end it was the most painful race I'd ever finished in my entire life but it was worth it! When I ran Boston in 2008, it was an incredible experience. Everybody talks about how difficult it is running up the Newton Hills and Heartbreak Hill in particular. They are not that tough; instead, what is most memorable are the spectators. The streets were lined with cheering spectators, and they treated every runner like he or she was an olympic champion. They really, REALLY appreciate the effort the common person puts into running the marathon up there. It's amazing. Anybody who considers themself a marathoner should experience the Boston marathon at least once in their lifetime.

I am trying to meet the minimum criteria for joining the Marathon Maniacs club which is to run 3 marathons within 90 days, so I ran Ocala and Five Points of Life Gainesville marathons in February and plan to finish up the trifecta in Boston.

ADVICE FOR BOSTON QUALIFYING: As far as practical advice, the main thing is to run as much as you can without becoming injured or turning into a running zombie. Also, it helps to run with friends or run with people who turn into your friends; I have met some very nice people in the Florida Track Club to run with and have made some good friends with the side effect of becoming a better runner. The Florida Track Club is open to runners and walkers of all abilities (see http://www.floridatrackclub.org/). For runners in general: focus on the next few steps ahead. Don't set artificial limits and don't get mesmerized at how far off in the distance your goal might be. If you focus on the footsteps one at a time, then eventually you will end up having made a long journey that was worthwhile in and of itself even if you didn't get to where you thought you were going. I am not a talented runner, but I've achieved faster times than I could've imagined, so running marathons has been a good lesson to me for approaching life in general.

FUTURE GOALS: I will attempt to run faster than 3:10:00 at Boston, but if I don't, I will try again in the future. Eventually I would like to run under 3 hours for the marathon and run under 20 minutes for the 5k distance so I can win a pie at the Race for the Pies 5k in Jacksonville! I would also like to earn a Ph.D in the Microbiology and Cell Science graduate program at UF.

Just for fun, mashitup!

For some reason I find the idea of the musical mashup cool, but to be totally honest most of them just plain stink. DJ Schmolli is just about the only mashup artist that is musical. While I'm not a fan of Jordin Sparks or Jimmy Eat World, I have to give props for the craftsmanship of Schmolli as well as the video maker bw49. The video above is just fun and a nice slice of pop music.

Just hoping to bring a little entertainment to your day... nothing thoughtful comes to mind right now! 8^)

Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.

I saw the above quotation in Christopher Bergland's book, The Athlete's Way, where it is attributed to Frank Outlaw. Another version attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson states, "Watch your character, for character is everything." Yet another version is attributed to the words of Buddha. Just from some lazy internet googling, I can't tell who really first wrote this. But that doesn't take away from the essential truth behind the words.

One of the things I really do believe -- and I came to this conclusion before I ever saw the above quotation -- is that our thoughts and beliefs create the universe around us. Therefore we have a moral obligation to make sure our thoughts and beliefs are not corrupt, for they eventually manifest themselves in the physical. Getting the right start is almost always half the battle, so it is important that we have thoughts and beliefs that are in harmony with the universe. I am trying to live up to this concept, and I hope everybody else who reads this will strive for the same as well. Best wishes!

P.s. The above illustration is Michael Zulli's "Unknown Dervish 2: Wild Birds". Michael is a really talented artist, and if you would like to explore more of his art, just visit his website at http://www.michaelzulli.com to check out his art as well a couple of his blogs about his work and his thoughts.

Good will and happy new year's wishes to all!

Best wishes to all for a happy new year! 2009, here we come!

Please read the story at this weblink for some inspiration:
A Victim Treats His Mugger Right
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89164759

"I figure, you know, if you treat people right, you can only hope that they treat you right. It's as simple as it gets in this complicated world." Thank you, Julio Diaz, for setting a terrific example for all.

The 2008 Space Coast Half Marathon!

Two of my running friends, West and Ozzy, ran the Space Coast Marathon and Half Marathon in Cocoa, FL in 2007. It was Ozzy’s debut marathon, and from what they told me, it sounded like fun. They were planning to make a repeat appearance at the Space Coast to run the HM (which stands for “Half Marathon” for those of you who don’t know the runner lingo) in 2008. Since I usually run with these guys once or twice a week, they tried to convince me to make the trip with them. While West was going with his wife, Ozzy was going by himself, yet still made a hotel reservation for a room with two beds, so I guess they figured I could be talked into it somehow! Anyhow, race day was November 30th, which was a scant 28 days since I ran the C&D Marathon. After taking a couple weeks off without running – I actually only planned to take one week off but that’s how it turned out – I was still feeling a little off my game running-wise. For some reason my legs would feel sore after distance running, a sure sign that the damage I took from pounding out a marathon hadn’t totally healed up yet. I probably wouldn’t be able to race to the best of my abilities.

So on the Wednesday evening before the Sunday race, I met West and Ozzy at the UF track to do a short workout. After our workout we were talking as usual, and I had a lot of questions about the race. The guys seemed to really enjoy it and said it was a great course and a lot of fun. Well, earlier I was balking at the idea of paying $75 to race a half marathon because I wanted to save the money towards running the Boston Marathon in the spring. But the guys made it sound too fun to resist. So after giving them a solid “maybe”, I ran back to work. After finishing up, I started perusing the Space Coast Marathon website. Hmm… among the goodies you for registering included: a long sleeve technical running shirt, a huge colorful finisher’s medal, beach towel at the finish to keep you warm, pre-race pasta dinner, and oh yeah, the kicker being hot pancakes, eggs, and sausage for breakfast after the race! West and I always joke on Saturday group runs that there’s no point in getting up early to run with the group if we don’t have breakfast afterwards…

Checking out the course map showed that the race starts in Cocoa and runs up SR-515 which is along the Indian River the entire way. It goes north halfway through the HM then back south to finish inside Riverside Park. The marathon continues south and then back up to finish in the same place. The elevation map showed there wasn’t a single significant hill. This looked like the recipe for a PB (Personal Best) race time: what race directors all across the country like to call “Flat and Fast”. That got me thinking that not only would it be fun just to hang out, get all the cool race swag, but I could knock out a new HM PB as well! And the seemingly steep registration fee didn’t seem so bad when I broke it down. A long sleeve running shirt would cost about $35-45, dinner $15, beach towel $10, and breakfast $10, so heck… it would be like buying that stuff and getting the race for free!

So I broke down and registered online for the Space Coast Half Marathon.

I almost signed up to run the full marathon instead of the HM. After having a great race at C&D, my inflated ego thought it would be easy to just jog through the marathon, run a 3:35-3:40 or so. In fact, in 2006 I did train through the Disney Marathon and ran 3:42 very easily on a cold day. However, the weather forecast was for warmish weather around 60 degrees for the low and possible rain. Not quite the ideal marathon weather which for me would be 45 to 50 degrees and overcast. Anyhow, I figured I would just run the HM and hammer out a new PB.

The Space Coast Marathon and HM offer very nice amenities for a race that has less than 2000 runners. You figure the megaraces would have the best race swag as far as cool race shirts and finishers medals go. But the Space Coast race organization did a great job with everything looking terrific. They even had marathoner Dick Beardsley on tap to be the guest of honor, but unfortunately he suffered a problem with his knee and had to cancel.

Anyhow, I had an uneventful ride down to Cocoa with Ozzy. We got our race numbers and shirts and waited for West and his wife Fran to arrive. Oh yeah, one day West was running at the track and left his race shirt from last year by the stands, but when he was done it was gone, swiped by some fool who didn’t realize it was bad luck to wear a race shirt for a race you didn’t run or volunteer in! They had some of last year’s shirts for sale, so I picked one up to surprise him with. Saw the Gators taking control of the Gators/Noles football game with a score of 28-6 at halftime. When West arrived, I surprised him with the shirt and we got in line to grab some grub. It was typical hotel banquet food: not spectacular but edible. I am crazy about food, so here are the details: simple salad blend of iceberg lettuce, carrots, and maybe some purple cabbage with ranch dressing (don’t remember the other dressing), breadsticks, 3 types of pasta (farfalle/bowtie, fettuccine, and penne) which you could smother with 3 types of sauce (pesto, marinara, or meat sauce), and chocolate mousse.

The race was scheduled to start at 6:00 AM in the morning. After arriving at the hotel, we had a discussion about when to leave in order to get our morning business done (portapotty business that is) and be on time for the race. West and Ozzy were voting for 4:45 AM versus Fran and me choosing 5:00 AM. We compromised at 4:50 AM and called it a night.

Now when you go to enough races and are as much of a procrastinator as I am, you know that it’s imperative to get everything set the night before. So before turning in, I looked up the weather forecast and chose which running clothes I would wear in the race. Then I took my race number and pinned it to my singlet. The race was chip timed, that is they use a RF-activated chip that you tie on your shoe to automatically take your starting and finishing time as you cross over a special mat on the road. You have to attach that to your shoe, so I made sure to do that. Then I laid out my shorts, socks, and even a hat and gloves just in case. That eliminates the need to think too much or do too much after waking up which is great for a non-morning person like me!

When we arrived in downtown Cocoa, we walked around a bit to find the start and then sought out the portapotties. I saw some runners in cool costumes as there is a space-themed costume contest. One of my favorites was a gal dressed up as Marvin the Martian complete with makeup on her face to fit the role. There was another who was the space shuttle – she made a space shuttle with a hole in the middle for her body and was held up by suspenders and her hands. It was an impressive costume, but didn’t look too fun to run in! There was another gal in a very realistic Star Trek costume too.

The race implemented a corral system to line up runners at the start in order from the fastest at the front and the slowest at the back. The three of us were in corral 2, but there really weren’t many folks in corral 1, maybe 10 to 20? We were fairly close to the start line which kinda worried me. You don’t want to start too far out and get in the way of faster runners behind you, and you don’t want to get suckered into running too fast by getting caught up in the wake of the speedsters in front.

It was dark at the start, but not so bad you couldn't run safely. The weather was pleasantly cool, not cold. To me, cold is preferable since I warm up considerably once I am running, and the cold temperatures lead to better times (around 45 to 50 degrees is best for me). After the national anthem was sung, they had a jumbotron TV screen at the start that showed a shuttle launch and the start was counted down by the announcer, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, GO!

We were off. Ozzy dropped back, and then after a bit so did West. It wasn’t very congested at all versus some crowded races where you have to zigzag around slower runners. I tried to get in a groove and keep it steady. A couple of very fit ladies were running next to me when one says to the other, “7:18 pace”. I ask them if they are running the half or the full marathon and one responds that they are running the half as a training run and plan to add on 6 miles after the race finish. Next they say “6:58”, so I just keep running not wanting to play the yo-yo pace game. It’s easier for me to just run, and I don’t own one of those GPS watches that tells you how fast you are running because the data isn’t good enough quality to be relevant in a race situation.

Mile splits:
1 - 7:31
2 - 7:07
3 - 7:14
4 – 7:04
5&6 – 14:16 (missed the mile 5 marker)

The race venue was terrific as we ran north right along the Indian River. It was so peaceful and scenic. I thought about how lucky I was not only to be able to enjoy a healthy hobby like running, but that it took me to places that are scenic and peaceful like the Indian River today, the C&D Canal towpath a few weeks back, and locally the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail, which I never would’ve visited nor even heard of if it wasn’t for becoming a runner.

The effort seemed too high for the pace I was running. Four weeks ago I was running a similar pace at the C&D Marathon, but it felt effortless. Today it was a struggle, and I never felt completely comfortable. Compounding matters, the weather forecast was for a wind from the south, and once we turned around you could really tell it was blowing in our faces.

7 - 7:16 (headwinds after the turnaround)
8 - 7:12
9 - 7:23 (starting to feel tired)
10 - 7:30

Looking at the weather data after getting back, the winds ranged from 8 to 16 mph with gusts up to 24 mph. There were times I felt as if I was running backwards. I just leaned forward from the ankles and tried to keep up the forward momentum. By mile 10 it was a major struggle to maintain pace.

11 - 7:28 (felt so wiped out I actually stopped, bent over with my hands on my knees)
12 - 8:01 (walked while drinking Gatorade)

Miles 11 and 12 were where I totally fell apart. Part of it was mental. I wanted a good time, but I’m not sure I was ready to pay the price that day. I actually felt so bad that during mile 11 I stopped all of a sudden and hunched over with my hands on my knees. I always say that the race itself doesn’t matter much, that I can quit any race whenever I want because I have nothing to prove. I felt blown out and wanted to stop, so I did stop. But I don’t remember how long I stopped, just that I decided to keep plugging away. The split of 7:28 totally surprised me as I thought for sure that I lost much more time stopping. But I was still struggling and felt wiped out. During mile 12 I decided it would be better to walk through the aid station to drink a cup of Gatorade. I never walk to drink Gatorade – I insist on drinking on the run during a race. But today I was toast and felt it was better just to drink and recover a bit by walking. That obviously cost me the most time as I slowed to 8:01 for mile 12.

13 - 7:13
last 0.1 - 0:37
finish - 1:35:52 (7:19/mile)

When I slowed to a walk to drink, one runner passed me, so I worked myself back up to him and asked if he was running the half or marathon. He was one of the lucky ones running the full marathon. I asked if he had a goal, and he said he was trying to run 3:10. I looked at my watch and told him that he was running well. Then I tried my best to keep up the pace he needed to hit, 7:15/mile. We came up to downtown Cocoa and I saw Fran waving and yelling for me which gave me a boost of energy. We hit the part where the half marathoners turn east towards the finish at Riverside Park and the marathoners keep running south, and I tried to eek out a “Go for it” to the 3:10-hopeful but it barely got out of my mouth. As I ran up to the park, I could hear the announcer on the PA saying, “Mark Ou is entering the park looking strong”. The spectators on the course were extremely sparse but enthusiastic and supportive. But once you got to the finish, they were packed and excited!

The finish is a big circle that loops around the amphitheater in the park, on a covered circular walkway. It is very cool to realize you’re almost there as you rush around all the spectators in the park. And they cheer for you as if they were your own family and friends. I was moved by the response of the crowd. Everywhere you turned you could hear “looking good”, “good job”, “finish strong”. I kicked as hard as I could and was relieved it was over. Volunteers clipped my timing chip off my shoe and put my finisher’s medal around my neck. I collected the beach towel to stay warm and went looking for some pancakes! Unfortunately, by the time I got some food and headed back out to find Fran to watch West and Ozzy finish, they must’ve already finished!

Anyhow, I walked out to the main street and looked around. Once I realized Fran wasn’t out there anymore, I headed back and found everybody at the finish festival. The grub was very nice with your typical post-race stuff like bagels, bananas, pastries, but the real draw for me was fresh hot pancakes, scrambled eggs, and sausage patties. Yummm… In addition to Gatorade, there was Coke, Vitamin Water, and even Starbucks coffee. It almost like breakfast after our typical Saturday group run, though no blueberry pancakes were in evidence!

Bill Rodgers once said, “The marathon can humble you.” And 28 days after my latest, I’m still feeling humiliated! I thought I’d just show up and run 1:33 in my sleep for a PR, but I am still not up to top racing form again just yet. I ran this HM more than a minute slower than I went through halfway at the C&D Marathon! And there I felt great; here at Space Coast, I was struggling something fierce. The plan now is to just run easy, get the mileage back up, wait until I feel strong again and THEN start adding in some faster running. It was definitely too early for me to try racing all out.

West took second in his AG (Age Group) just 50 seconds behind first place. In retrospect, I wish I’d offered to pace him and act as a wind block as the wind was pretty fierce coming back at the turnaround. It might’ve been enough to get him that AG win, and instead of trying to eke out a sub-par performance, I could’ve helped West earn that 1st place award. But you never know for sure, and hindsight is usually clearer than any foresight I might have… We stuck around for the award ceremony since West was gonna pick up some hardware. I hit the little boy’s room, and when I came out Fran said West and Ozzy went to stretch their legs. When I found them in the field toward the amphitheater stage, I noticed a striking blonde female runner stretching her very long and very toned legs. She started doing some lunge and squat stretches that seemingly verged on being vaguely obscene. For some reason I couldn’t tear my eyes away, so I had to put on my sunglasses and try my best to endure through this additional ordeal… 8^)

I’m tempted to shoot for the 2009 Space Coast Marathon, as the course seems very conducive to fast running as long as the weather cooperates. All-in-all, a nice race and a good lesson in humility! I didn’t achieve a good time, but I had a really FUN time hanging out with friends, and that’s really what counts. Thank you to Ozzy, West, and Fran for inviting me and sharing the weekend! I’m already looking forward to the next time!

Caution... Crazy Runner!

When I went to visit my sister recently, her neighborhood was kind enough to put up this sign to warn drivers about her crazy runner brother! I wish this sign was up on every roadway...

Buckethead

Just because I feel like it, here is something for your listening pleasure: Buckethead! That's how I feel today, a little melancholy yet always soulful...

Great Expectations

It is a nice coincidence that the title of this blog post, "Great Expectations" pulled up the movie poster to the Gwyneth Paltrow movie adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel. Well, I am mainly tickled by the coincidence because Gwyneth looks so cute on the poster... 8^)

The other night I was just thinking about how the United States has gotten to the point that we are stuck in the dilemnas we are dealing with now. Regardless of whether you are rich or poor, liberal or conservative, black or white, if you look objectively at this country, we are still one of the wealthiest countries on the planet. Even our least wealthiest citizens can usually fill their bellies and avoid the total breakdown of their bodies due to malnutrition that some folks in much poorer countries suffer. There are jobs out there; maybe not great ones, but if you have the desire, you can make hamburgers, pick fruit, or whatever it takes to put food on the table and live somewhere. Even if you are homeless, you don't have to die of starvation.

And those people I've been talking about are the folks at the bottom of the totem pole. What about the average American? We have it pretty darn good by most objective measures. In 2007, the median household income was just over $50,000. That's not too bad. That means most people have a roof over their heads, can eat three square meals a day, and maybe even drive a car. That is amazing! Just compare that to the 3 billion people living in China and India. We are very fortunate to live in a country of such wealth.

That brings me around to the question: if we are doing so darn well, why do we seem so unhappy? Maybe it's just me, but there seems to be an air of discontent in our modern American society. The polls show that less than a fifth of the population believe our country is headed in the right direction. People are unhappy with what they have and are always wanting something more. It's not a bad thing that we are not 100% content; without the ambition to better our lot in life, we would all just be dull cows happily munching the grass and farting our days away. But too much discontent turns people against their own good, sowing bad feelings and inaction.

I think there is a disconnect between the height of our expectations and where we each find ourselves in our daily lives. Not only that, but so many of us take for granted the effort, hard work, and sometimes sheer luck it takes to reach and achieve our great expectations. It's very easy to want to be a millionaire and think about winning the lottery, but how many of us actually put that desire and imagination to work in a productive way to actually achieve that goal? People get discouraged to be so far away from the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but it truly is a rare thing to be rich and famous, not really something to be aspired to by somebody without a strong work ethic.

Maybe we are soft from the relative lack of hardship due to how wealthy our country is. Maybe we need that hunger in our belly to drive us to greater heights. It is easy to sit around and think "poor me", and believe me, I've done my fair share of doing that myself! I'm not sure what it will really take to get people off their butts and to believe in the dignity of hard work. Maybe the supposed economic crisis our country, and even maybe the world, is facing will help remold us into the society that originally created such a great and wealthy country in the first place.

There is no harm in dreaming big as long as you are willing to put some elbow grease into achieving your great expectations. If we take nothing for granted, then when we fail to reach those towering heights of our great expectations, we can still look down and be satisfied about how far we have come due to our own works and be proud of the achievements we have managed to accomplish, whatever they may be.

Dork-ification...

I have to say that I haven't done much blogging as of late. Maybe unlike all the hordes of very smart people online, I just don't have anything intelligent to add to the knowledge base known as "the net"...

It probably doesn't matter much anyhow, as I think there are only two people who read my blog: my sister Maisie and my friend Jennifer (you know who you are if you happen to be reading this).

For some reason I was thinking about a lot of stuff this past weekend. And I thought there would be some good stuff to write about, but I am too lazy and busy right now to get deep into it. In fact, I actually have some work to do right now, so I will drop this and get back to you in a bit... I had something really good to write about but now I just feel like a dork! :)

So you want to drill?

Okay, two things... Tomorrow I will visit the dentist who will probably do some drilling. I think it is fun except for the part at the end where I have to write a check to pay for it. Otherwise it is fairly relaxing. I wish they had a video camera so I could watch as I think it is fascinating.

Number two, I just read that a recent Pew Research Center poll of Americans shows that more and more Americans are for drilling in protected environments and less interested in energy conservation. This is very foolish, but perhaps it mirrors our national mindset. It doesn't matter how much we drill if we end up using more and more energy in the long run. Fossil fuels are widely believed to be a limited resource, and the rate that we are consuming them is not sustainable. It's like borrowing more and more money from more places to keep up a lifestyle or keep a house you cannot afford. In the end, there will be no more places to turn to and you will still end up losing it all.

Instead, we should look to conserve energy by spending it wisely and avoid wasting it. In the meantime, we also need to invest in the future by finding sources of renewable energy, which probably include everything from solar power, wind power, geothermal power, biomass-derived fuels, and everything else under the sun that we know is either essentially limitless and/or sustainable. To be totally honest, nobody really knows what we will lose for sure by possibly damaging the environment with excess petroleum drilling. But we only have one Earth and nowhere else to go, so is it really worth taking the risk?

This is a test...

This is a test of posting to my blog from my phone. If this works then
I'll have more things to waste my time on! Ha ha!

Running and Spirituality

Somebody over at the RunningAHEAD (http://www.runningahead.com) forums started a topic about running and spirituality. I believe that my running has a very strong spiritual element, and I responded to the topic with the writing that follows below.

I find that running lends itself very well to spiritual practice. It is a physical task that can also have a mental and spiritual component to it. You have to have mental endurance to run for hours and stay on task. Running can also be spiritual as it gives you time to meditate on anything you want to. Of course, there are plenty of physical benefits to running as well!

I find that running keeps me rooted to the universe around me as I see, listen, smell, and feel the world around me when I run and feel more rooted to the present and the "now" than during many other activities. Just the physical activity of running is a reflection of how running keeps me balanced and rooted to the world, as each step requires my body to be in perfect balance (otherwise I would fall), each step puts me directly in physical contact with the ground reinforcing that grounded feeling of being part of the universe, and the sensation of flying with both feet off the ground reflects the dreams and possibilities of being a human being in this universe. As in life, running can also bring joy, elation, pain, and suffering, all of which contribute to your existence in this world.

I am not Christian, nor do I believe in any god(s), but I think everybody of any belief or creed can use their running to help realize how wonderful and miraculous this world is and to appreciate their place in the universe. If you give thanks or say a blessing before a meal, consider saying the same before your run as it is no less a gift. Personally, running has contributed an incredible amount to my personal physical, mental, and spiritual growth. It didn't start out that way, but that's what it has evolved into. It is one of the ways that I can experience and be thankful that there is something -- this incredible universe -- instead of nothing.

BIG MAC ATTAAAAAACK!!!!!

Okay, it's been a while, and a lot of stuff has happened in the mean time...

My dad retired, my nephew had his 7th birthday, and I got my Boston marathon race number!

But more importantly, somebody showed me this incredible video about fast food. Check it out below. I am in awe.

2008 Five Points of Life Gainesville Marathon

The 2008 Five Points of Life Gainesville Marathon was held on Sunday February 24th. As with last year and the year before that, I basically focused a year’s worth of training towards running this particular marathon. Basically 2005, 2006, and 2007 through now have been a slow but gradual increase in weekly running volume because I believe the major limiting factor for a recreational marathoner like me is long distance running endurance.

When I say “long distance running endurance” with respect to the marathon race, it’s really a combination of a few different factors: aerobic conditioning/cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance, and fuel efficiency. These three factors can be improved a bunch by just running a lot and running far. A lot of marathoners fear “hitting the wall” where they run too low on glycogen stores thus leading to low blood sugar, but with the rise of sports drinks and energy gels, I believe a lot of marathoners can take in enough calories to avoid this classic low glycogen “bonk”. On the other hand, many marathoners, especially because there are so many more first-timers and novice marathoners, don’t condition their bodies enough to handle the pounding involved in running so long and so far on primarily pavement. You need strong muscles, tendons, joints, and bones to race a marathon. I believe that the best way to improve in this area to accumulate higher mileage and run far so your body says, “Okay stupid, we’re going to try and build you up enough that you don’t fall apart.” It’s also something you can’t do rapidly but takes years. If you try to undergo a crash training program, you will usually end up becoming a classic case of “too much, too soon” which just means you tried to increase your training faster than your body could adapt to it.

Anyhow, my peak weekly mileage has increased over the last three marathon cycles from 62 miles per week (mpw) for the 2006 race, to 72 mpw for 2007, and 77 mpw for 2008. Doing this was a slow and steady project but worthwhile. In distance running being consistent is important for improving; you simply can’t get any better when you’re sitting on the couch injured half the time. One side effect of building up to this kind of weekly mileage was that I haven’t suffered a running related injury in a long time. Get enough runners together and oftentimes the talk turns to what hurts or what injury somebody has. Everybody thinks running a lot leads to injury, but the key is to run a lot without running TOO much! To do this, I’ve built up weekly volume very gradually as well as cutting back when I feel like I’m getting too fatigued, regardless of whatever training I had planned for the week ahead.

Another thing that some people don’t realize is that they don’t just train 12, 16, 18, or however many weeks for a marathon, but they’ve spent their entire life training for it! If you spent your whole life keeping fit and healthy, then you are ahead of the person who sat on the sofa their entire life even if both of you decided to start training for a marathon at the same time! So instead of being “serious” about this marathon for the last year, it’s really been three years of focused training building up to this race!

Since it’s always easier to remember the bad stuff that happens, here are a few bad things that happened before this marathon. On the 2nd day of my taper, I ran in the rain and had a nice slip and fall onto the road but managed to escape with merely a few scrapes and a tight right leg for a few days. Then a week later I was running late at night and was attacked by a Krispy Kreme donut. To be more precise, I had a Krispy Kreme donut thrown at me by a passenger in a passing car. I didn’t realize what had happened for a couple of seconds whereupon for some reason I reached down to pick up the donut and started sprinting after the car probably setting a new 400m PR! Luckily I didn’t pull a muscle sprinting, so no harm done other than wasting a perfectly good Krispy Kreme (a crime deserving punishment by 100 lashes of a bamboo cane in my humble opinion).

The Five Points of Life Race Weekend is run by LifeSouth which is a regional blood bank in the southeastern United States and headquartered in Gainesville, Florida. The goal of the Five Points of Life program is to raise awareness of the need for donations of: 1) whole blood, 2) apheresis, 3) bone marrow, 4) organs and tissue, and 5) umbilical cord blood. They have a cycling team that rides across the country stopping here and there to publicize the need for these life-saving donations, and a few years ago they thought about having a marathon to do the same. The event started as a marathon and half-marathon run at the same time on Sunday but has now grown to include a kid’s marathon and 5k on Saturday.

The kid’s marathon involves kids from kindergarten to 8th grade who run and keep track of their mileage at school. They complete a total of 25 miles before race day and then get to run the last 1.2 miles of their marathon at the kid’s marathon. They even get a marathon medal at the end of the race! This event was held at 3 PM on Saturday afternoon and was incredibly fun to watch! The kids loved it, and it seemed the adults enjoyed it just as much, at least I know I did! Over 500 kids participated, so it really is a great program to encourage kids to run and stay active.

For people not interested in running a marathon or even a half-marathon, a 5k was added to the schedule of events this year and would be at 4 PM on Saturday after the kid’s marathon. LifeSouth came to my running club (the world famous Florida Track Club, go team!) and asked if we would be interested in handling the timing and results. Being that this race weekend was shaping up to be one of the biggest running events in Gainesville, our club’s board of directors agreed to it once I and another member (Dawn Marie) said we’d be the race directors on the club’s side of things. So we had to set up the mile markers, a couple of water stations, the finish line area, and make sure the timing and results got done. Well, as anybody who has been a race director knows, the work is rewarding BUT it can be a LOT of work and somewhat stressful as well!

The upshot of it all is that I spent part of Friday night loading up trucks with equipment and then over seven hours on Saturday on my feet making sure the 5k race went off without too many problems. Many thanks to my partners in crime: Dawn Marie (co-RD), Tom (our club’s president), and Don (our vice-pres); without their help the 5k wouldn’t have happened. The race did bring its share of unforeseen headaches. The water and Gatorade coolers we had set up for the 5k runners were finished off by all the kid’s marathon runners. On top of that, when some coolers were refilled at a spigot off-site, the police who were in charge of roadway closures wouldn’t let us drive back to the finish area without an official personnel badge! Additionally, we use an old-fashioned race number pull-tag finishing system for results, and we had to deal with a fairly large number of not just race bandits but people who tore off the pull tag which clearly states “Do not remove tag”! What I want to know is how many of these people left the “Do not remove under penalty of law except by consumer” tag on their sofa or mattress but removed the “Do not remove” pull-tag from their race number!

All this stress and time on my feet are not what I would consider ideal marathon prep the day before the race! I would prefer to get my race number and chip, circulate and shop a little at the expo, visit with friends, and then chill out with some reading or music for the rest of the day. My feet were actually a little sore after being on my feet all day. I did manage buy some running shorts at 50% discount but didn’t have time to look through the FunnerRunner stock of fun tech shirts (only $10!!!). Anyhow, after all the excitement, I had some dinner and visited with my parents for a little while. My mom and I made plans for her to watch me finish the race and go out to lunch after the awards ceremony the next day.

I tried to get as much sleep as possible, but only managed about 3 or 4 hours which I guess is par for the course. I got up around 5:15 AM for a 7 AM start. Early morning breakfast was a bagel with peanut butter and some Gatorade. I skipped my usual race morning banana because I had been up and ate fairly late the night before.

The marathon race course is basically a figure-eight that starts on the University of Florida (UF) campus, returns to the start at halfway where the half-marathoners finish but the marathoners continue out for a different second half loop. The first half of the course runs through Gainesville and gives you a taste of what the city is like. We started by the Phillips Performing Arts Center, Harn Art Museum, and Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus. For some reason, this year the portapotty lines were crazy long. Luckily I work at a building just a quarter mile or so from the start, so I just parked at work and chilled out at my desk and had private access to my own toilet before the race. Those portable toilets are one part of the race experience I can do without! No matter the weather, I can stay indoors until the last minute and then just rush out to the start line. The past two years, the weather was nice and cool around 50 degrees which led to fast times for me. This year the temperature was 62 degrees at the start and the forecast was for warmer temps as the sun came up. I just hoped for the best, that the cloud cover would stay in place and shield us from the sun.

When I headed out to the start there was an announcement that it was fifteen minutes until the start which was apparently delayed slightly due to timing mat issues (the race is ChampionChip timed). I walked around staying loose and eventually ran into some running pals (hi West, Linda, Andrea, Christy, Abe) and even Marc, a.k.a. Mutthound, a fellow refugee from the Coolrunning running website who drove up from Orlando to run. Even though the half-marathoners and marathoners started at the same time, I decided to line up fairly close to the front because typically the front of the pack is fairly shallow at this race and there wouldn’t be a lot of people running faster than I planned.

After a booming cannon blast to signal the start, we ran from the UF campus and headed north up SW 34th Street which bounds the western side of UF, then headed west on Newberry Road past tree-lined residential and commercial areas. Being near the start, there was no congestion to run through which was nice. While my training has been pretty good this past year, I didn’t see any big indications that I would be much faster than last year’s 3:14:53 finish. But I definitely felt very strong, so my goal was to finish under 3:15 and feeling better at the end of the race than last year when my legs and feet were totally hammered. I ran about a minute negative split last year, but the soreness and pain after the race was worse than after any other race I had run before. I figured I may not be much faster this year, but I was probably tougher and feeling better at the end would be a nice achieveable goal.

The first mile marker went past, and I clicked the lap button on my watch. The first mile split was 7:16. The time seemed fast, but I knew from some runs late in my taper that my legs were feeling extremely fresh, so it was no big deal. It turns out the big deal was just a few moments later when I looked at my watch again it didn’t show any time whatsoever but instead showed a few random dots. A couple weeks ago on an early morning group run, the watch had freaked out and reset itself to midnight January 1st, but it seemed to work okay afterwards, so I figured it was some freak accident, not a low battery or some other problem. Unfortunately, this time I realized the watch was truly on the fritz. I actually brought a backup watch with me that morning but left it on my desk before heading to the start – why wear two watches and weigh yourself down with the extra weight, right?

Well, I like to say that it’s best to run the marathon by a combination of feel (perceived effort) and the your mile splits. Today would be my chance to run a marathon 100% by feel instead which technically should be good enough. There’s no use wasting mental energy being upset or frustrated by things you can’t control, so tried to push it to the back of my mind and just set myself on enjoying the miles to come.

We headed up north on NW 43rd Street which goes past a number of residential areas. I was surprised to see a number of neighborhood spectators out to watch the morning’s running festivities as in the past the spectators were extremely sparse. While the number of spectators is not high, there always seemed to be a few here and there every few blocks for the first 7 miles or so. The course cut east at NW 16th Boulevard which turns into NW 16th Avenue. Mile 6 and 7 of the route are on this stretch of 16th Avenue which is one of the few hilly areas on Gainesville. These rolling up and down hills are the famed “bacon strip” referenced in John Parker’s cult running novel Once A Runner and were a staple of training runs by many of the great runners who’ve trained in Gainesville like Olympic gold medalist Frank Shorter, Jack Bacheler, and a whole slew of other runners who’ve trained here. One of the invited elites in 2006 supposedly asked whose bright idea was it to include those hills on the course! Personally, I like them and none of them are as long or as killer as you might find elsewhere which ain’t a surprise considering Florida is not quite famous for its hills!

At mile 7 we headed south on NW 13th Street which is one of the main roads in town. A few blocks later we turned east onto NW 10th Avenue to run through residential neighborhoods. I caught up with Reagan who is a runner who’s run a lot of marathons and often demos and sells “The Stick” massage tool at race expos. Since my watch was dead, I asked him, “Do you know the time?” to which he cheerfully replied, “It’s morning!” Ha ha! Anyhow, I explained that my watch died and he told me we were about 59 minutes into the race. We had passed the 8 mile marker a little while back, so I figured I was still on pace, it still felt easy, so no problem. We ran past Main Street into the Duck Pond area of town. You can figure out for yourself why it’s called the Duck Pond. It’s a really nice neighborhood with some of the oldest houses still standing in town which is one of my favorite parts of the course.

All along the course there were water and Gatorade stops about every 1.5 to 2 miles or so. Around mile 9, I took my first Espresso Love Gu (extra caffeine!) and ran through a very colorful water stop that seemed to be sponsored by Marvel Comics! They had two balloon archways you ran through and for some reason I thought it was really cool, though right now for the life of me I have no idea why.

As we ran through downtown Gainesville we headed toward the Hippodrome State Theater which is one of the cultural highpoints of Gainesville. Heading east we ran back towards the UF campus where we ran through a tunnel underpass beneath SW 13th Street. At this point the clouds started to clear out and the sun started to beat down on us. On campus we ran past numerous UF landmarks like Century Tower and University Auditorium (which have featured in a number of movies as a double for Ivy League surroundings) as well as running into Ben Hill Griffith Stadium which is the home of Florida Field and the Fighting Gators football team! As we headed toward the southeastern entrance to the stadium some Gator cheerleaders were up early to cheer us on which was much appreciated! Once through the stadium, we ran past the baseball field, dorms, and down Frat row which is a nice curving downhill. Then we traced Museum Road around Lake Alice but didn’t catch any alligators sunning out there. Thanks to Jeff who took the picture above and gave me some encouraging words at this point! Coming back to the start we passed by my workplace and the softball stadium whereupon the half marathoners turned right to finish and marathoners turned left to continue on.

This is the point that in past years it got fairly lonely as the majority of runners were running the half marathon. Surprisingly it seemed like a large number of runners around me took the marathon turn off! The clock at the halfway mark showed 1:35:10 as I ran by it, so I was a bit surprised as my half marathon PR is only 1:34:31. I wasn’t too worried as that was from 2004 and is a soft PR since I’ve only run one half marathon since 2004 (and that was back in 2005). Maybe I would run 3:10 today, after all, I still felt great and the running seemed fairly effortless.

Once we turned off campus, the course runs on a paved path parallel to SW Archer Road which runs between Shands Hospital and the VA but soon transfers to a nice Rails-to-Trails paved trail. Around mile 15 I took my 2nd Gu and was surprised to see an old lab-mate (he got his Ph.D in the lab where I work), Adnan, manning the upcoming aid station and water stop! I don’t run with my glasses, so I didn’t recognize him until I got closer, but he was yelling, “C’mon Mark! Let’s go! You can do it, keep running!” He gave me a water cup and and energy boost from seeing him out there volunteering!

On the Rails-to-Trails it the runners really spread out as the guy in front of me seemed to get farther ahead, and I couldn’t hear anybody behind me. Once the course hit Williston Road the race went from city residential areas to a four lane divided roadway. There are some neighborhoods running off the side of Williston Road, but basically mile 18 through 22 is a fairly deserted stretch of road with mostly police traffic control and the occasional race volunteer and aid station to keep you company. One nice boost was passing a police officer that told me I was in 8th place. Whoopee! That was 2 higher than the 10th place finish I had last year. However, at this point I was no longer in the shade of trees and the clouds had blown away to reveal the sun rising higher into the sky. It started to warm up.

At mile 18, I had thought to myself, “Only 7 more miles. Less than an hour left.” At mile 20, I was thinking, “Even if I slowed to 8 minutes per mile, then I’ll still be done in less than 50 minutes.” It was getting hot, and I was starting to feel tired. The clock at mile 20 said 2:26:something. I struggled to do the math: under 2:30 at 20 miles plus 6 times 7.5 minutes per mile is, uhhh… well 6 times 7 is 42 minutes plus half of 6 is 45 minutes equals… ummm, under 3:15, so we’re still in PR territory? Okay, even 8:00/mile means something around 3:15, so just keep running! This was the point on the course last year that I caught and passed a friend of mine, Matyas, who is typically more than 2 minutes faster than me over 5k. Last year I felt strong and eager to catch as many runners as possible from that point on. This year I could barely see somebody a million miles ahead of me or was it just a mirage but who cares because he/she/it seems to be farther and farther ahead. I want to look behind to see if anybody is catching up, but I’m too tired AND too scared. The next aid station was at mile 22, and since I didn’t want to run out of energy too early by taking in a Gu at mile 20, I held off waiting to hit mile 22 and the aid station waiting there.

I was getting hot and tired. All of a sudden I had a side stitch. I’ve heard of such things before, but I’ve never had the pleasure of having one; in fact, I’ve never had any type of cramps whatsoever in my entire life. So when I’ve seen somebody cramp up or hear about it, I’ve had absolutely no idea what it feels like! The stitch was on the right side, so I grabbed it with my left hand just out of instinct. I kept running but tried to breathe as deeply as possible to relax my diaphragm. It didn’t seize up completely, but I did spend a few miles grunting, groaning, and grabbing my side sporadically.

The people at the mile 22 aid station were absolutely fabulous, a sight for sore eyes, tired body, and fuzzy mind. I took my Gu and water hoping for enough energy to power to the end. Just past the mile 22 marker the course runs north on SW 34th Street past apartments and businesses. It’s one of the biggest roads in town, basically a six lane divided roadway with a concrete median. However, the entire course had been coned off with excellent police traffic control everywhere, so I felt perfectly safe from the passing motorists but not from my own stupidity! I wasn’t weaving back and forth, but I sure felt like I should’ve been! At this point I had a lot of salt buildup on my face and arms, and it was clear that the sun and heat was a totally different animal than the cool conditions the last couple of years. I told myself it was only four miles, in four miles it would be over and I could stop.

At mile 23, the course turns east on SW 35th Place which is lined with many apartment complexes catering to a lot of students. It’s a two lane road, and the entire eastbound lane was coned off for runners. John, a really good runner I’ve run with a few times, drove by the other way in his SUV and shouted, “Go Mark! You look great!” It was terrific to see a friendly face at that low point, but I thought he had to be lying as I felt like crap! Last year I had some muscle soreness and foot pain at this point but was still scooting down the road at a good clip; this year I wasn’t sore at all (except for the side stitch) but just had a general feeling of malaise and why the hell won’t my feet move any faster boy everything seemed so promising a lifetime ago at the halfway point?!?! Historically, the split for mile 24 has always been long whereas mile 25 is short – I’m not sure why but they always average out to a pace that makes sense -- so the one positive about having a busted watch was not knowing how slowly I was going.

Just after mile 24, the course turns onto SW 23rd Terrace, also known as Cow Road because of the UF Beef Teaching Unit that is located there. It’s a 65 acre farm with over 100 cows, and when the temperature and the wind are just right, it smells like cow poo all around there. I know because I used to live on that road! Luckily today it wasn’t ripe at all, but the police have always had runners jump on the concrete sidewalk on the far side of the curvature of the road when the shortest route is actually a bike lane on the inside. It does make for a better close up look at the cows, but let me tell you, that was a tough slog. And at this point one runner ran by me but I had absolutely nothing left in the tank to respond to him. So much for 8th place, but 9th place was still one better than last year.

Some friends from the Florida Track Club planned to have a cheering station right near mile 25. Dawn Marie is the member who has been in charge of FTC efforts to cheer on runners at this race. For three years straight she has gone to represent our club at the race expo, and she’s had materials for people to make signs for runners to see which she plants on the course early in the morning. So THANK YOU to Dawn Marie for all her efforts! She has also been in charge of getting volunteers to cheer at mile 25, and it was GREAT to see some friendly faces after that long slog. My friend and running pal Jennifer said she would be out there, and since she had been healing up from a serious stress fracture, I hadn’t seen her as much and was looking forward to catching her out on the course. She had recently been the recipient of a special gift from another good runner (Tom): a cowbell for cheering on runners. So needless to say, I was looking forward to and, at that point, in dire need of some cowbell! I was extremely happy to see and hear all the people out there cheering for me! Thanks to Dawn, her husband (Rob) and kids (Shauna and Spencer – so cute!), Jennifer, and Don for the encouragement! I remember specifically Jennifer telling me, “Go Mark! You look so good!” and Don, who seemed really excited, came running up to me and yelled, “You’re 8th man!” I was just putting one foot in front of the other at that point and told everybody, “I don’t FEEL good. I think I hit the wall.” I wanted to high-five the kids but at that point they probably would’ve knocked me backwards. Dawn Marie shooed me away with, “Don’t talk! GO!!!” which was the energy-saving kick in the butt I needed -- not that I sped up any, just that it kept me moving forwards instead of stopping dead still!

Anyhow, after mile 25, the course crosses busy Archer Road to the southern boarder of the UF campus. Running along the sidewalk here, a compact woman runner passes me, and she looks strong, her legs just moving back and forth metronomically. Then some curly haired guy runs up to her, and for some reason he didn’t look like he was in the race, but he seemed to be pacing her at that point as they ran together stuck at the hip in front of me. We headed onto campus through a small tree lined road named Surge Road but there weren’t any surges left in my legs. It’s a curvy road, snaking back and forth. At this point I ran into another FTC member, Art, who took my picture and told me I was looking good, whereupon I immediately feel my right hamstring seize up! As I’ve said, I’ve NEVER had a cramp in my entire life, but NOW I know what it is like. I shuffled a couple of steps then stopped still for fear of having it lock up completely. I grabbed the affected hammy and squeezed it with both hands. Then I thought, “Keep moving ahead but not too fast” and it seemed to loosen up enough to run/shuffle again.

Having run this race the first two years, I knew it wasn’t very far to the finish. After passing the entomology department, Surge Road runs inbetween a large experimental agricultural field and an experimental citrus orchard. It’s kinda nice since orange trees are very Florida, and the field has all kinds of crops like corn, sorghum, peanuts, what-have-you growing there. Right at the mile 26 marker the last 385 yards goes west on Hull Road towards the starting point. This stretch of road is very familiar to me as usually run on it 4 or 5 times a week during my daily run. It’s a very slight uphill incline to the finish, and then a sharp dogleg turn left into the parking lot where the finish line awaits. Maybe 50 yards from the turn, my mom pops out from the side wearing her trademark hat and yells, “C’mon Mark! Come on! Run!” and starts running right beside me. I only live a mile away from my parents and see them all the time, but it was still very exciting and I can truthfully say that I was happier to see my mom than the finish line.

The very last trauma of the day was that after making the turn left onto the last 50 feet or so of the course, there was a sign standing in the middle of the road! People started yelling, “Go to the right! Go to the right!” At this point in the race, I was totally confused and all I could think was, “What are these crazy people talking about, go to the right… they’re crazy!” But then when I came up right to the sign I saw it read “Half marathon” with an arrow pointing to the left and “Marathon” with an arrow pointing to the right! Ohhh… I crossed over to the right just after the sign to run over the timing mats set up for the marathoners instead of running over the timing mats on the left for half marathoners. I looked up at the clock: 3:17:48.

The finish line area was terrific with great volunteers and medical staff. They were very efficient in clipping off my ChampionChip timing chip and asking if I needed water. After collecting my medal, I talked with my mom and ran into a good running pal, West and his wife Fran. The race organizers did a great job of getting some fantastic food donated at the finish ranging from the traditional bottled water, bananas, and bagels (Publix) to cheese pizza (Domino’s), ice cream (Ben & Jerry’s), coffee (Starbucks), and one of my favorites, those day-glo orange crackers and peanut butter snacks! The race awards were very nice imprinted backpacks for the top 5 men and top 5 women along with some nice cash awards ranging from $900 for 1st place to $150 for 5th place. Age groupers won slightly less glitzy but still very nice imprinted drawstring backpacks – a very nice alternative to the typical shiny plastic trophies! I was 10th overall, 8th male, and 1st in my age group AGAIN like last year! If that sounds like a complaint, believe me it’s not! I feel it is mostly luck when I am able to place that well because faster runners didn’t show up to run on that particular morning at that particular race. My hats off to Brite and Mary Kate, the race directors from LifeSouth who did a great job!

Unlike 2007 where I ran a negative split of a minute faster for the 2nd half versus the 1st half, this year turned into a huge seven and a half minute positive split for the 2nd half. It had all seemed so promising at halfway in just over 1:35, making 3:10 or a PR at the very least look so doable. Unfortunately, since my watch died barely a mile into the race, I don’t have a ton of mile splits with which to analyze my race. The official results have a few splits: halfway – 1:35:07 (7:16/mile), 20 mile – 2:26:55 (7:21/mile), finish – 3:17:48 (7:33/mile), net/chip time – 3:17:38. So there was an inexorable slowdown involved. The funny thing is that I was still on pace for a PR through 20 miles, but the last 6.22 miles left were run in just under 51 minutes (50:53) for an average pace of 8:11/mile. The other bad thing I notice is that I slowed between halfway and mile 20, whereas the last couple of years that was a really good stretch of running for me where I typically ran a pace faster than my average overall race pace.

One confounding factor is the weather. While online weather resources seem to show that it only went from about 62 to 66 degrees from 7 AM to 10 AM, it definitely felt hotter than 66 degrees at the finish. That wasn’t just my observation but that of other people as well. Most of the course up to mile 18 has some shade, whereas once the course hits Williston Road at mile 18, there is very little to no shade. The direct sunlight seemed to make a big difference, and at the end of the race I was caked with salt all over my face and arms from dried sweat. When I look at the results, I see the majority of marathoners had positive splits, but a few still ran very evenly paced splits like the woman who passed me at mile 25. And if you look at marathons in general, the majority of people run positive splits, so I’m not sure how much of it was due to the weather versus going out too fast.

I’m not sure if I could’ve had a PR if I’d held back more on the first half. On one hand, I didn’t feel that 3:10 was an unreasonable possibility. On the other hand, maybe it really was too fast and I crashed at the end. I really wish my watch hadn’t died so I could see just how my mile splits went over the course of the race.

I will also re-examine my race day nutrition. Last year at the finish I could hardly stand up. In fact, I even told the medical guy at the finish I wanted to lie down, but he told me not to and instead to keep walking. Then my legs and feet were sore and in pain which lasted a few days. This year I really wasn’t much sore, the only thing that had me walking a little funny was a blister on my foot! Near the end, I just had the feeling that I couldn’t generate enough energy to move my legs any faster. After the race, my mom got me some water, and after pouring it in me and on me, along with eating a banana, I felt so much better. In fact, I could’ve done some running today whereas last year it was impossible. That leads me to think maybe energy usage and glycogen sparing through nutritional intake could’ve helped stave off the slow down.

All things considered, I still had a very good time – by which I mean an enjoyable time! It was a lot of fun to run into so many people and talk with them before, during, and after the race! And just to end on a food note, here is what I ate after the race: 2 bottles of water, one small scoop of ice cream, one banana, half a slice of cheese pizza, 2 peanut butter crackers, and to top it all off, I had lunch at Cedar River Sea Food: a big ol’ glass of sweet tea and the lunch order of fried oysters with steak fries and fried okra!

Shoes: If they ain't broke, don't fix 'em

Ah, shoes... mmmmm... More specifically, running shoes...

Yes, as a runner, I have a very close relationship to my running shoes. While some people can get away with running barefoot, I prefer to wear running shoes to protect my feet. When I first started running, I didn't know anything about running shoes, and the first pair of shoes I used for running were actually Reebok tennis court shoes. When I figured I was actually serious about running, I went online and read that people should use shoes specifically made for running. Who'da thunk it? I never realized there was such a specific animal.

So when I went down to ye olde chaine sports emporium, the high school kid working there told me, "New Balance and Brooks make good running shoes." I didn't know anything, so I just picked some NB shoes that were $65 figuring they were expensive enough but not too expensive, and they seemed to fit good, just snug enough to be good for running. Little did I know that shoes too small could lead to the dreaded "black toenails" worn as a mark of pride by some runners. But those shoes withstood more than 1500 miles of running. By the end of their tenure, a huge amount of the black rubber on the outsole of the shoe had worn away to expose the white cushiony foam midsole. I never once got injured wearing those shoes, and I still have them sitting around in a box for old times sake.

Since then, I've been indoctrinated into the standard runners' thinking about running shoes. They should match your feet and the way you run. They lose a lot of their cushioning properties after 250 to 500 miles, and if you run too long in them you risk getting injured. I dunno if it's psychological or not, but when my shoes get to around 425 to 500 miles old, I do usually end up starting to feel dinged up. When I notice that I'm a little banged up it always correlates to the shoes having that many miles on them. It's weird considering that I used to run everyday in those cheaper New Balances which lasted 3 times as many miles.

For the last 4 years or so I've stuck with running trainers that I've been most comfortable with, mainly the Nike Air Pegasus and the Mizuno Wave Rider. Each company tends to release a new model of the shoe every year, with the Air Pegs changing more radically between years while the Wave Riders stay pretty close to the established formula. I must not be particularly picky as I've worn all these models without much complaint and have also run races in some lighter weight Nike trainers (Air Skylon and Air Zoom Miler trainer) without problems. I like to alternate days between the Air Pegs and Wave Riders to put slightly different stresses on my feet and legs to avoid any repetitive motion injuries. The shoes are slightly different as the Pegs are heavier and stiffer whereas the Riders are much lighter and flexible. They make a nice complementary pair.

Three or four weeks out from a goal marathon, I like to buy the shoes I plan to wear for the race so I can get a couple of long runs in them and then set them aside as "almost new" until race day. This year, I got a pair of the Wave Rider 11 which felt absolutely terrific on the two training runs I took them on, both runs being 23 milers. No problem there. However, this year I needed to replace some old Air Pegs at exactly the same time, but Lloyd Clarke Sports was out of my size in the Pegs! While they are fairly common shoes that I could've gotten somewhere else, I like to support the local sports store so they continue to carry running oriented merchandise (plus they give our running club, the Florida Track Club, a 15% discount). So even though it was only three weeks until race day, I tried out some new shoe models.

Now if you're not a runner, you might not think this is a big deal. But it is a big deal to many runners, especially when their particular shoe model is discontinued. We get used to certain shoes and are convinced when we change shoes they will never be good enough or they will cause us to become injured. This can be especially disturbing as a big race is looming since we don't want to get injured right before the race and end up not being able to run or hobbling through the race, thus wasting months of preparation.

While I didn't like it, I decided to try on some different shoes, since I am convinced that it is better not to be locked into any one particular shoe. I don't want to be too dependent on one factor, and I want my feet and legs to be strong enough to adapt to any kind of shoes I decide to run in. After trying on three different shoes, I settled on a pair of Saucony Trigon Ride 5. So far after 2 or 3 runs in them, I can say they are okay even though the first time out in them felt very weird. Race day is less than a week away, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these shoes don't do anything bad to me between now and then.

I know this post probably doesn't fully express how panicky changing shoes makes me feel, but I felt a mixture of excitement and dread when I picked out these new shoes. As a runner, running shoes are the most important gear I can obssess over, and while it's cool to read about and look at the new and upcoming models, I actually prefer to stick to the ol' reliable no matter how sexy the new models look. I will give the new kid a chance for now, but I'll probably revert back to the same ol' same ol' once these new kids are worn down.

Have a nice trip and see you next fall!

I've been thinking of running the Five Points of Life Gainesville Marathon, and this week is the start of my race taper. For those of you not in the know, before a race it is adviseable to reduce the amount of your training so you feel refreshed and 100% for an important race. For the marathon, I like to reduce the amount of miles I run starting about 2 weeks before the marathon. The first week I plan to run about 70% of the miles I was running before, and then the second week maybe about 45%. One side effect of cutting back on the miles is what is termed "taper madness". Because you aren't running nearly as much as you are used to, you start getting a little stir-crazy. You have a lot more energy because you aren't using it up in your running, so it kinda makes you go a little mad.

Anyhow, so tonight's run was a nice and easy 6 miler in the cool rain. Just the other day I was looking at the shoes I planned to wear tonight and saw they were getting kinda old. Some of the rubber on the outsole of the shoe was pretty worn down. During tonight's run I came to an intersection where two cars were at a stop sign and went to run behind the first and in front of the second. To do that, I had to jump up a curb at the corner and then down off the curb. Well, when I hit the road with my foot it must've hit a slick spot as I lost my balance and started to fall. Luckily the 2nd car was still fully stopped as I utilized my karate training from when I was a kid to properly roll into the fall and avoid any serious injury! Thank you Mom for making me take that one summer of karate! I managed to escape with just one slight scrape near my right elbow and some stinging hands which look and feel perfectly fine right now. My right leg was semi-gimpy when I rolled up out of the fall, but I just kept on running. It feels just the teeniest bit stiff right now, but I'll take it easy tonight and rest instead of doing a planned strength training workout.

The rest of tonight's run was fairly uneventful except for the heavier rain that started to fall out of the sky soon after my tumbleweed impression. It's always a nice change of pace to run in the rain no matter how wet my socks get. Well, I better get out of these wet clothes and into a nice hot shower. More to come later on the subject of running shoes...

Synergy: coffee and donuts

Another lighthearted posting today instead of the more philosophical stuff I was blabbing about last week or so...

Before going to work today, I stopped to fill up the gas tank of my car and realized I had a coupon for a free cup of coffee at the little convenience store attached to the gas station. This place also has a little stand that sells Krispy Kreme brand donuts (or doughnuts as the company prefers to label as). Just FYI it was a 20 ounce cup of "Sumatra" brew with a couple of chocolate frosted Krispy Kremes. I always like to buy one donut for now and one for later.

While on the drive to work, I sipped some of the coffee, and while it wasn't absolutely terrible like some convenience store coffees, it wasn't exactly first-rate. BUT... when I got to work I decided to eat one of the donuts while drinking the coffee to keep the coffee from sloshing around my stomach giving me a mild tummy ache. Wow, what a revelation! A good donut really makes mediocre coffee taste incredibly good!

For those of you who don't know, here in Gainesville, Krispy Kreme has long ruled the roost. And I can understand because I think Krispy Kreme makes the best donuts bar none! Something about that tiny little batch of dough and grease that is just so full of tasty sweet goodness! But recently a couple of Dunkin Donuts have opened up in town to compete. I've been up in the northeast where Dunkin Donuts is just crazy busy with customers. In the middle of the afternoon there were people sitting there eating donuts and drinking coffee like it was a weekend morning.

Well, I've read that Dunkin Donuts is the biggest seller of coffee in the US. So I couldn't wait to try their coffee at these new stores. However, I was pretty disappointed. I don't think I'll be buying their coffee all that often, I just didn't feel that the brews had very much body or flavor. Even their lighter roasts don't have the brightness I would expect though I have to give them decent marks on acidity. Anyhow, it got me to thinking, "Why is this place so popular?" I didn't think the coffee was all that good. But it must be due to the synergy -- when the whole becomes greater than merely the sum of the parts -- of coffee plus donuts.

My experience today was that mediocre coffee was elevated to a new level when you add in a great donut. So perhaps it is the synergy of coffee and donuts that accounts for the massive amount of coffee sales that Dunkin Donuts generates. Now I personally prefer Krispy Kremes, but I do like some of Dunkin Donuts varieties and they are generally very delectable. So next time I am in the neighborhood, I think I will conduct the experiment of combining their coffee with their donuts.

Oh, and for you folks that live close to me, let me also recommend Donut Connection. I was just googling it to give you the location, but I was blown away by learning that it is actually a national chain with stores all along the east coast of the US and stretching to Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota up north. I thought it was a stand-alone local store, but it's actually everywhere. Anyhow, the donuts there are also very good on par with Dunkin Donuts, and I actually liked the coffee better too. Reading further, I see their business model is a business cooperative, somewhat different from the typical franchisor or company owned store models. Anyhow, the donuts at the Gainesville store are good. It's located in Timber Village at 5205 NW 39th Avenue just next to David's Real Pit BBQ.