I (trail) run because....
...walking takes too long
...I love the reaction I get when people say "how far do you run"
...those 26.2 stickers make me laugh
...there is too much to see in this life and not enough time to see it
...I find new things that make me smile every time I run
...I find new things that make me cuss every time I run
...running is the only time when I feel like I can actually slow my life down as one minute can feel like an hour whereas one month can feel like one hour in the rush of life...
...I can let me mind wander
...pavement sucks
...I can play Laserquest without getting winded...
...it makes my music sound that much better...
...the thought of being obese disgusts me....
...I see people sitting in traffic on Walnut Grove and think about how bad that must suck to be in their position....then I smile that I'm not
...I have solved the world's problems 10 times over
...I feel much better about sitting around doing nothing after a good run...
...the visitor center at Shelby Farms has pretty nice facilities
...I love to explore new places...
...passing a biker on the trail....
...I love to experience the transition from darkness to daylight on the trail
...I have yet to answer my question to myself of "how far can I go"
...post race pizza and beer...
...the good company I have met through running
...the solitude I sometimes find through running
...the dream of the Grand Slam
...the thought of being a good example to my students
...it helps bring meaning to my life...
...it helps define me as a person...
...my bike riding buddies wouldn't have anything to make fun of me about if I didn't...
...giving "the wave" to runners I see all the time yet don't know at all
...turning new people on to the trails...
...the continuing search for experiencing "a full range of life's emotions in one race"...
...I love the outdoors
...you really appreciate solid food after 5+ hours of gel
...it makes me a much more positive person
...a "singlet" is for wrestling
...it heavily influences my attitude in a positive manner in other realms of my life
...I couldn't imagine life without it...
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Saturday, October 13, 2007
How weird is this?
So apparently mother nature has it out for me during the month of October...
It all started 2 years ago (10/3/05 - I remember the date cause there was a Panic show the next day) when I was out riding my mountain bike on the Tour de Wolf...while I was cruising along I ran into a bee and it stung me in the forearm....no biggie for the rest of the day, but that night my arm swelled up big time...the sting was on the inside of my forearm about halfway down and it swelled all the way to right below my shoulder....made me look like I worked out...on one side at least...I went to the doctor as I had been stung a number of times before and never had a reaction like this one....he said everything was fine, that I am just a little more sensitive to stings than most, but it probably wouldn't hurt for me to carry an epi-pen just in case I got stung again I had a reaction that affected my breathing...
Almost a year to date later...I think the date was like 10/4/06 (the wednesday before I raced Stumpjump last year) and I was out running at Shelby Farms and somehow a bee got in my shoe and stung me....I was pretty freaked out as this was the first time I had been stung since the year before when I had that massive reaction....I rushed home and held off on poking myself with my epi-pen because I wasn't having any reaction to this one...turns out this one never really swelled up or anything
So yesterday I'm out cruising around the Buddy when I feel something smack me in the forehead....I thought it was probably a rock or something the car in front of me had thrown up...shortly thereafter I came to a red light and I noticed something crawling around inside my sunglasses....I ripped them off as fast as I could and right about that time I felt the sting in my eyelid....It hurt pretty bad but I was able to keep on riding...shortly after I stopped at Fleet Feet to take Lauren some lunch and looked at my eye for the first time in the mirror...it was starting to swell up....I rode from Fleet Feet to Outdoors and when I went in everyone's reaction was "what the hell happened to your eye?"....I could tell it was getting harder and harder to see so I called it a day on the buddy and went on home....by 6pm I could no longer open my eye due to the swelling...I was worried I was going to have to use the epi-pen but I wasn't going to as long as the swelling stayed local and did not spread from my eye....
so for the 3rd year in a row I got stung within the first 2 weeks of October...how weird is that...I woke up this morning and had to call in to work for the first time since I cracked my face open over 2 years ago because I could not open my eye at all...the swelling is still just around my eye, so I'm not gonna use the epi-pen...just poppin' the the benadryl and icing it....
here is what it looked like last night around 8pm..
note in this picture I am trying as hard as I can to open my eye as wide as possible.....
Also the first time I ever got stung when I was like 5 or 6 it was within the first couple of weeks of October because I remember my parents were getting the house ready for a Halloween party...strange...
As far as the rest of life is going...I did not run one time this week...I was planning on running today but needless to say that didn't happen...
I am super pumped about the Buddy....my mom was all about it, cruisin it up and down the street and what not...Lauren was a bit timid at first but she it is growing on her ...she still hasn't driven it yet....but then again we came from very different backgrounds..I grew up riding dirt bikes and my dad rides a Harley so I'm used to motorcycles....
check it out though....
rides like a dream....at 100 miles per gallon too!
happy running, share the road, and watch out for those bees...the are vicious in October...
It all started 2 years ago (10/3/05 - I remember the date cause there was a Panic show the next day) when I was out riding my mountain bike on the Tour de Wolf...while I was cruising along I ran into a bee and it stung me in the forearm....no biggie for the rest of the day, but that night my arm swelled up big time...the sting was on the inside of my forearm about halfway down and it swelled all the way to right below my shoulder....made me look like I worked out...on one side at least...I went to the doctor as I had been stung a number of times before and never had a reaction like this one....he said everything was fine, that I am just a little more sensitive to stings than most, but it probably wouldn't hurt for me to carry an epi-pen just in case I got stung again I had a reaction that affected my breathing...
Almost a year to date later...I think the date was like 10/4/06 (the wednesday before I raced Stumpjump last year) and I was out running at Shelby Farms and somehow a bee got in my shoe and stung me....I was pretty freaked out as this was the first time I had been stung since the year before when I had that massive reaction....I rushed home and held off on poking myself with my epi-pen because I wasn't having any reaction to this one...turns out this one never really swelled up or anything
So yesterday I'm out cruising around the Buddy when I feel something smack me in the forehead....I thought it was probably a rock or something the car in front of me had thrown up...shortly thereafter I came to a red light and I noticed something crawling around inside my sunglasses....I ripped them off as fast as I could and right about that time I felt the sting in my eyelid....It hurt pretty bad but I was able to keep on riding...shortly after I stopped at Fleet Feet to take Lauren some lunch and looked at my eye for the first time in the mirror...it was starting to swell up....I rode from Fleet Feet to Outdoors and when I went in everyone's reaction was "what the hell happened to your eye?"....I could tell it was getting harder and harder to see so I called it a day on the buddy and went on home....by 6pm I could no longer open my eye due to the swelling...I was worried I was going to have to use the epi-pen but I wasn't going to as long as the swelling stayed local and did not spread from my eye....
so for the 3rd year in a row I got stung within the first 2 weeks of October...how weird is that...I woke up this morning and had to call in to work for the first time since I cracked my face open over 2 years ago because I could not open my eye at all...the swelling is still just around my eye, so I'm not gonna use the epi-pen...just poppin' the the benadryl and icing it....
here is what it looked like last night around 8pm..
note in this picture I am trying as hard as I can to open my eye as wide as possible.....
Also the first time I ever got stung when I was like 5 or 6 it was within the first couple of weeks of October because I remember my parents were getting the house ready for a Halloween party...strange...
As far as the rest of life is going...I did not run one time this week...I was planning on running today but needless to say that didn't happen...
I am super pumped about the Buddy....my mom was all about it, cruisin it up and down the street and what not...Lauren was a bit timid at first but she it is growing on her ...she still hasn't driven it yet....but then again we came from very different backgrounds..I grew up riding dirt bikes and my dad rides a Harley so I'm used to motorcycles....
check it out though....
rides like a dream....at 100 miles per gallon too!
happy running, share the road, and watch out for those bees...the are vicious in October...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
Stumpjump...
I guess I'm a bit late on this post, as everyone else has already given their side of the story....
We arrived at our beautiful Marriot hotel just in time for the ladies to wait on me to pretty up so we could head over to Rock Creek for the pre race dinner and festivities...Rock Creek moved locations since the last time I have been to Chattanooga and I must say the new store is pretty awesome...very spread out and nothing is crammed on to the racks....they also support local teams (running, adventure racing, climbing....and more)...hmmm.....but anyways, great looking store with a true interest in the Chattanooga outdoor culture....
The dinner was good, I even got to get seconds....after the dinner we went back to the Marriot for the pre-race prep of filling gel flasks and all that kind of good stuff....
Arrived at the race about 6:30 for the 8am start...I'm kind of a freak about getting to races early as I want to make sure I have everything taken care of before the race starts....
When the RD got up to explain this years race he told us teh course was going to be a bit different than year's past, we were going to make an extra 2 mile loop on some non-technical gravel road on the way out before we hit the single track which I thought was a good thing as I remember the singletrack bottle necking hard last year....
The siren (or gun or whatever it was ) went off and I took off with the front 30 or so folks...The pace was fast right off and immediately my heart rate was up there and I was breathing pretty heavy....I wanted to slow it up a bit but I knew if I did I would get passed by a wave of people and then it would be really hard to pass once we got into the single track so I stuck with it, hoping the pace would chill out soon so I could fall into a groove....
We arrived at the aid station where the single track began (labeled mile 5.1) at 1:06...this is where I began to notice something was up with the distances....the guys I was running with were a bit stunned as well...1:06 and 5.1 miles...no way, we were rolling way faster than that...anyway, the singletrack began and it bombed us down a very steep hill which I was able to keep a good pace going down...that dropped us out on a road and another aid station not too far away where I refilled and kept on chugging...by this time the pack had spread out a bit and I was falling into a rhythm on the more runnable sections of trail but my rhythm was always disrupted by a climb within a few minutes of moving along...
I rolled through the drop bag aid station at mile 10 and got in my bag just long enough to grab some e-caps and switch out my gel flask...I was poppin e-caps like candy (2-3) an hour as it was really hot and I felt like i was on the verge of cramps all day, though thankfully they never struck...I got to the "mile 16" aid station at 3:06....I was getting frustrated at this point...3:06 at half is a 6:12 split on a good day...I was thinking there is no way I'm moving at this pace...the other guy I was running with said he ran a 5:11 last year and felt like he was in good enough shape to do it again and he was shocked at the time at 16 miles....
Whatever..I convinced myself that my time was going to be off from last year and that now my goal was to pass as many people as possible in the next 16 miles....after the race I learned that the 16 mile aid station ran out of water for later runners...I just want to say I'm sorry, if I had of known I would have only filled my bottle half way...In the next section I passed quite a few people that were beginning to feel the effects of the heat...I rolled into mile 20 where my drop bag was and picked up the ipod for some motivation to take it home...
I had a massive playlist set up so that I could just scroll through and leave it on whatever caught the mood but luckily I didn't have to mess with it too much as I fell into the groove with some Panic early on the playlist....the next 10 miles were all about passing....I would pass somebody, then run hard til I got someone in my sights to pass again.....I finally made it to the last aid station and I knew it was easy from here...I passed 2 more folks on the last 3 mile section before busting out of the woods and seeing the finish line...this was a huge relief as I was really starting to feel it....I ended up crossing the line in 5:44....good enough for 17th out of a hundred and seventy something finishers...I was very pleased with my effort...I felt like I had left everything I had out of the course...even though I started fast I didn't feel like I ever really gave out...I had energy throughout the entire race....I ran some hills that I would have ordinarily walked....
after finishing I found out the reason my times were off at the aid stations is that they were using the signs from last year and that this years course was actually 2 miles longer...I sat around and relaxed (and got sore) while waiting on the other Memphis crew to come in...Drew rolled in and we hung for a while and then Michael came rolling in...before too long Holly came rolling through followed very shortly by Lauren, then Elle, then Patrick and his mate....
Super pumped for all the 1st time Memphis finishers..you guys rocked it out and this was a very hard day on a very hard course!!! I'm pretty sure most of the Memphis crew has Sylamore on their minds now....for me I'm tossing Swampstomper in there in January and the aim for that one is to pick up some speed between then and now...
oh yeah..I bought a scooter today....a Genuine Scooter Company Buddy Italia....125cc that goes around 65 mph and gets 100mpg......but I'm pretty pumped..only thing is I have to drive to Chattanooga again this weekend to pick it up...
hope all is well...happy running and share the road (with bikes and scooters)!
We arrived at our beautiful Marriot hotel just in time for the ladies to wait on me to pretty up so we could head over to Rock Creek for the pre race dinner and festivities...Rock Creek moved locations since the last time I have been to Chattanooga and I must say the new store is pretty awesome...very spread out and nothing is crammed on to the racks....they also support local teams (running, adventure racing, climbing....and more)...hmmm.....but anyways, great looking store with a true interest in the Chattanooga outdoor culture....
The dinner was good, I even got to get seconds....after the dinner we went back to the Marriot for the pre-race prep of filling gel flasks and all that kind of good stuff....
Arrived at the race about 6:30 for the 8am start...I'm kind of a freak about getting to races early as I want to make sure I have everything taken care of before the race starts....
When the RD got up to explain this years race he told us teh course was going to be a bit different than year's past, we were going to make an extra 2 mile loop on some non-technical gravel road on the way out before we hit the single track which I thought was a good thing as I remember the singletrack bottle necking hard last year....
The siren (or gun or whatever it was ) went off and I took off with the front 30 or so folks...The pace was fast right off and immediately my heart rate was up there and I was breathing pretty heavy....I wanted to slow it up a bit but I knew if I did I would get passed by a wave of people and then it would be really hard to pass once we got into the single track so I stuck with it, hoping the pace would chill out soon so I could fall into a groove....
We arrived at the aid station where the single track began (labeled mile 5.1) at 1:06...this is where I began to notice something was up with the distances....the guys I was running with were a bit stunned as well...1:06 and 5.1 miles...no way, we were rolling way faster than that...anyway, the singletrack began and it bombed us down a very steep hill which I was able to keep a good pace going down...that dropped us out on a road and another aid station not too far away where I refilled and kept on chugging...by this time the pack had spread out a bit and I was falling into a rhythm on the more runnable sections of trail but my rhythm was always disrupted by a climb within a few minutes of moving along...
I rolled through the drop bag aid station at mile 10 and got in my bag just long enough to grab some e-caps and switch out my gel flask...I was poppin e-caps like candy (2-3) an hour as it was really hot and I felt like i was on the verge of cramps all day, though thankfully they never struck...I got to the "mile 16" aid station at 3:06....I was getting frustrated at this point...3:06 at half is a 6:12 split on a good day...I was thinking there is no way I'm moving at this pace...the other guy I was running with said he ran a 5:11 last year and felt like he was in good enough shape to do it again and he was shocked at the time at 16 miles....
Whatever..I convinced myself that my time was going to be off from last year and that now my goal was to pass as many people as possible in the next 16 miles....after the race I learned that the 16 mile aid station ran out of water for later runners...I just want to say I'm sorry, if I had of known I would have only filled my bottle half way...In the next section I passed quite a few people that were beginning to feel the effects of the heat...I rolled into mile 20 where my drop bag was and picked up the ipod for some motivation to take it home...
I had a massive playlist set up so that I could just scroll through and leave it on whatever caught the mood but luckily I didn't have to mess with it too much as I fell into the groove with some Panic early on the playlist....the next 10 miles were all about passing....I would pass somebody, then run hard til I got someone in my sights to pass again.....I finally made it to the last aid station and I knew it was easy from here...I passed 2 more folks on the last 3 mile section before busting out of the woods and seeing the finish line...this was a huge relief as I was really starting to feel it....I ended up crossing the line in 5:44....good enough for 17th out of a hundred and seventy something finishers...I was very pleased with my effort...I felt like I had left everything I had out of the course...even though I started fast I didn't feel like I ever really gave out...I had energy throughout the entire race....I ran some hills that I would have ordinarily walked....
after finishing I found out the reason my times were off at the aid stations is that they were using the signs from last year and that this years course was actually 2 miles longer...I sat around and relaxed (and got sore) while waiting on the other Memphis crew to come in...Drew rolled in and we hung for a while and then Michael came rolling in...before too long Holly came rolling through followed very shortly by Lauren, then Elle, then Patrick and his mate....
Super pumped for all the 1st time Memphis finishers..you guys rocked it out and this was a very hard day on a very hard course!!! I'm pretty sure most of the Memphis crew has Sylamore on their minds now....for me I'm tossing Swampstomper in there in January and the aim for that one is to pick up some speed between then and now...
oh yeah..I bought a scooter today....a Genuine Scooter Company Buddy Italia....125cc that goes around 65 mph and gets 100mpg......but I'm pretty pumped..only thing is I have to drive to Chattanooga again this weekend to pick it up...
hope all is well...happy running and share the road (with bikes and scooters)!
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