Ultimate Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee started this week here in Harrisburg, PA and with the warm weather coming in, it was tons of fun. My team, bumblebee tuna, is off to a 1-0 start. We had a fun time last night and managed an 11-7 win. The only thing I don't like about playing is the bloody toes. Running around in soccer cleats making cuts all day just tears at my feet.

This is what I felt like last night.

This is what I probably looked like last night.

Anyone else like to play 'Ultimate"?

Mt Penn Mudfest 15k – Race Report

Last Saturday was the 19^th running of the Mt Penn Mudfest 15k. Not a mudrun or obstacle course, just a good ole fashion trail run. I drove into Reading, PA that morning, stopped at my parents' house to drop off the dog and made my way with my brother in law and dad to the race start. Luckily we get there about an hour before the race start because of the parking situation. 800 runners expected at a tiny park. I was sure to grab a spot with easy exit access.
After the usually tee-shirt pickup I ran about a mile to warm up. I ran into the woods so I could also use God's bathroom, a tree. The race was originally supposed to start at 10am but again, because of the parking situation, we didn't get started till 10:20. The first ½ mile was on pavement to let people space out a bit. I remember hearing one guy near me say 'look at all these people blowing their loads so early.' I thought, 'look at this idiot lined up near the front and getting passed by everyone.'
As soon as we hit the trail, things turn into a cluster-fuck. The trail is mostly single track for the first 1-2 miles and ½ mile isn't enough time to space out the eventual 550 finishers. I just hung out and watched people try and pass and get hit by branches. I wanted to say something like 'calm down, it's still early' but found people tripping over rocks much more enjoyable.
The course is designed to be an out and back with a lolly pop at the top. This worked out really well until the leaders were coming back the other way. I only saw 1-2 people until I turned off the course for the lolly pop at the top. Coming back the other runners were very nice and stepped to the side to let us pass. This went on for about a mile until we saw the sweeper come through to remove the trail markings.
Coming back towards the finish area, the ground was rock-free and relatively flat so I was able to open it up to what I imagine was about a 7 minute mile. I forgot my GPS so I was going on feel alone. I was also running by myself at this point with several hundred yards between the runner in front and the running behind me. Trying to catch the runner in front while not being caught was my plan. I came to the final steps up to the ball field and with just about 100 yards to go, I sprinted to the tape to finish in about 1:29.
I can't really compare this time to my time two years ago because it's a totally different course. For a 15k it felt like I was putting in a lot more effort than the 9:37/mile shows. It must have been due to all the super steep up hills and down hills that needed to be navigated slowly (read: walked).
After the finish I grabbed some Gatorade in my finisher's pint glass and checked on my place. Turns out I placed 3^rd Clydesdale and one this sweet award.

I had to high-tail it out of there to meet some friends who were on their way to a beer fest of sorts. Great day to race and I picked up some pretty sweet hardware.
Thanks for reading.






    

It’s been awhile…

I've been here on blogger for a few years and typically just post race reports. There are about 5-10 blogs I read on a daily basis but it's hard to find the time to create blog posts of my own. I'm going to try and change that. I'm going to try and post at least weekly with things that I am doing. I doubt anyone is really interested but I'm just going to ramble. Maybe even post some cute pics of my kid.

Currently my race schedule consists of mostly running with a few triathlons in the mix. My hopes this year are to focus on ultra running and trying to complete my first 50 miler. Tentatively the JFK 50. My current race schedule looks like this:

March 30 – Mt Penn Mudfest 15k trail run in Reading, PA

April 20 - Hyner View Trail Challenge, 25k trail run

April 28 - Nike Woman's Half Marathon in Washington, DC – Team in Training even

June 2 - Rothrock Challenge, 30k trail run in State College, PA

July 12-13 - Musselman Triathlon (double mussel) Spring on Saturday, Half Ironman on Sunday in Geneva, NY

Early August Brigantine Triathlon – Sprint distance

October 5 – Blues Cruise 50k trial run in Reading, PA

November 23 – JFK 50 mile

December – Nittany Valley ½ marathon in State College, PA

I assume there might be a few 10ks and other ½ marathons thrown into the mix but the above are the main races I am focusing on right now (read: getting management approval).

This is also my 5^th event fundraising for Team in Training. If you would like to visit my fundraising page, or even make a contribution, please do so here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chesapeake Man 140.6 race report

It's been eight days since the race and I think I'm ready to start running again.  That was one long run.
Let's start at the beginning. 

Last Friday we left for the 3 hr drive through Annapolis, over the Bay Bridge, then another hour south to Cambridge,  MD.  We arrived at the high school and drove around looking for everyone.  I asked a guy on a golf cart where the expo was, and he told me it was at the Hyatt 2 miles away.  Thankfully we found it.

I got some pretty sweet swag from this race.  In our bag was a tech tee and a long sleeve jersey, but had to send it back and get a bigger size.  I was thinking the entire drive down that I forgot my race belt but luckily they gave us one.   But I did forget it. I also got a nice visor.

After the expo we went to the park to rack my bike and go for a swim.  I saw a lot of people wearing wet suites but opted for just my jammers because I didn't think it would dry in time.  I swam to the first buoy and back which was about 800 yards.  Dr. Dave and I  went for about a 10 mile bike to listen up. Checked the tires before I left and we went to set up our accommodations.

Back to the high school we went. We quickly found a nice piece of grass under a tree and pitched our tent.  It was about to rain so we didn't put anything else in there till after dinner. A quick 40 minute pre race meeting and we were off to dinner.

We decided on a gastro pub near the start.  What's a gastro pub? No worries, I had to look it up too.  It's defined as fine dining food in a relaxed atmosphere.  We went to the bar and each got a beer while our table was getting set up.  We sat down and started with chicken confi with white cream sauce nachos.  It looked like a lot when it came but we (I) managed to kill 90% of it.  Emily ordered chicken and waffles (upscale of course) and I got the surf and turf, which was just sirloin tips and not much crab meat stirred into a pasta with a brown gravy like sauce.  The beef was excellent but the sauce was over seasoned.

Back at base camp, I packed the rest of my transition and special needs bags, checked it about 3 times and we went to bed.  One thing I was concerned about for the weekend was the weather. It poured that night. A lot. I finally fell asleep around 10 and slept pretty good on our air mattress.  The alarm went off around 4:30 am to a beautifully clear morning.  I forced myself to eat 1.5 bagels with peanut butter and drink a bottle of Gatorade.  I dropped my special needs and T2 bag off and we hopped on the shuttle to the park.

The wind was howling and Choptank river was super choppy.  The announcer said it was much worse 1.5 hours ago but it still looked pretty bad.  7am soon arrived and it was time to get in the water.

2.4 mile swim - 1:11:44 -- 1:51 per 100 meters





Getting focused for a long day

Even though it looked pretty bad from the shore, the waves were not that noticable.  Thankfully the race director said at low tide you can stand in the river.  It was about 4-5 feet as we all walked/swam out to the first buoy for the in swim start.  The distance between the start buoys was at least 50 yards so it was very spread out.  I found some open water and sited the first buoy and I was off.  I just swam nice and easy trying to stay calm and not get kicked in the face.  I didn't really fall into a rhythm until about 15 minutes.  I looked at my watch as we started the second lap and it was at 32 minutes.  I managed to swallow a very large gulp of salt water and almost threw up half way through the second lap.  The entire second lap someone was also on my feet.  I don't think it was the same person but throughout the entire lap, someone was right on me.  I came out of the water feeling good and graped my bag and heading into the changing tent. 

T-1 - 7:09

A 112 mile bike ride takes some time to get ready.  I wanted to make sure everything was on and fit well to set myself up for a good day.  I got a few karma points when the guy next to me realized he forgot his towel so I gave him mine because I was done with it.  He asked for my number so he could return it but I laughed and said "don't worry about it, I've got about 10 of them."  I grabbed my bike and set out for a long day in the saddle.

112 mile bike - 6:15:04 -- 17.89 mph

Start of lap 2

We were warned the the course was flat.  We were also warned that the course was windy.  I really felt like there was more head wind than tail wind.  Just like every tri, people start passing me on the bike.  I'm ok with that.  I've got time to become a stronger biker.  I looked at this race as a guaranteed PR, and the main goal was to finish.  I basically kept my head down as much as possible, tried to eat and drink about every 15 minutes and watched the miles tick away.  The last 10-15 miles of each of the two bike laps was dead into the wind.  That was probably the hardest part of the bike, knowing I had to do it again at mile 100-112.  I rode almost the entire second lap with my competitor one number higher than me, Bridgette, who was also participating in her first Ironman.  Sorry, Ultra distance triathlon.  We were still working but talked pretty much non stop.  That was what got me through the bike.  I had to fall back the last 10 miles because my knee was starting to hurt and I wanted to conserve some energy.

T-2 - 6:43

Another complete wardrobe change in the tent because again, I wanted to be comfortable on the run.  I greased up, threw on the had and sunglasses and was out.

26.6 jog - 5:12:00 -- 11:54 min/mile

The run course was an out and back 3 times of about 4.3 miles each way.  The first lap started out pretty good averaging about 9 min/mile pace.  I kept thinking to myself 'keep an even 9-9:30 pace and you'll be done soon enough.  Keeping up a 9:30 pace turned into trying to keep it under 10 around mile 9.  Things were starting to fall apart.  My knee was really the only thing giving me problems.  I'll learn later during the after race massage that I had a knot in my quad and a micro tear in my meniscus.  I've had problems in the past about drinking too much at the water stops so I decided to carry a pack of gum with me to keep my mouth from becoming too dry.  It worked for about half the race until I was sick of it.  I ran alone for the entire race.  I didn't talk much either, just some words of encouragement here and there whenever I noticed someone was struggleing.  The sun started setting about 1/4 through my last lap.  The fellas at the far water stop promised a beer to everyone that watned one but only on their last lap.  It sounded like a good idea at the time.  I had about 1/4 can of Fat Tire and that really helped me, for about 1/3 mile.  I counted down the miles from 3 and really wanted to run strong the last mile.  The finish was a blurr.  I remember the lights and the announcer saying my name but I was almost sprinting the last 400 yards.  I remember seeing the photographer and wondering "how bad am I going to look in this picture?"  I tried to smile and look good but only time will tell until the pictures come back.




I'M DONE!



Holy Shit this hurts!

Total time to go 140.6 miles - 12:53:38

I hung out at the finish line for a few minutes to make sure I was ok then headed to grab my stuff.  I took a shower, ate some dinner, and got a massage post race.  We went back to the car and had a Sam Adams Octoberfest until I felt I was just too tired and had to go to sleep, not before updating my facebook status and returning some texts/emails that I finished.

I found out the next day before the awards ceremony I was 9 minutes out of 3rd place for my division.  We didn't stay for the awards. 

It was a great weekend and the three things that I was most concerned about, flat tires, chaffing, and stomach issues, didn't happen.  Even though that was all I could give for that event, I think I can get better and go faster.  Until next time...

Mountaineer 1/2 Ironman Race Report

The weekend started with a four hour drive from Harrisburg, PA to Morgantown, WV saturday morning. I arrived at the expo to pick up my race packet and tee shirt. The start/finish is at a park downtown so, in a college town, there were lots of bars. We decided to go to a bar for lunch but not before a quick dip in the river. I did a quick 12 min swim out to the first marker and back. Then went to the bar.

It was a microbrew pub so we got to sample some of the local beers. Had some apps and decided we should probably drive the bike course before checking into the hotel. Bad idea.

The bike course for the 1/2 Ironman was three loops of 9ish miles out and 9 back. The first mile or two was taking out out of town. Then the first hill came. "Not too bad", I thought. Then we turned off onto the back roads and we started heading down. At the bottom of the hill our friends in another car pulled off and stated that we should be almost there. I looked at my odometer and said we only went 3.3 miles. Then we started up the hill... and kept going, and going and going. Not even a false flat to catch your breath. The hill was just over 2 miles long. There was about a mile of flat and then the Olympic turn around sign. This is were things got shitty. It was up and down, up and down, up and down about 5 more times in 3 more miles. Not a good sign.

We found our hotel and checked in to our room before dinner. We were there for about 30 minutes before we drive the 5 miles back downtown to have some italian for dinner. Not a bad place. Went back to the hotel and set my alarm for 5am.

Woke up the next morning to several text messages that my twin sister had a baby! So the day started off on a good note. I had a quick breakfast of a honeybun and coffee from the hotel lobby. Drove over to the park and started setting up my transition. I went over and got body marked and got my timing chip.

There were four different races going on, five if you included the dualathon. The woman's only race was about 1/2 a sprint, the sprint, olympic and half iron. We started last.

Almost 8am came around and we were finally called down to the dock. Everyone started by jumping off the dock after walking over the timing mat two at a time. The course was two laps and with the water temp at 76, pretty warm for a wetsuit. I still wore one, though. Swimming smooth and long I came out of the water in 39 minutes. Ran to transition and got my bike. Then the fun started.

I've talked so much about the bike course to friends already that I'm tired of it. The first look took about 1:10, followed by the second around 1:20 and the third lap around 1:25. The two mile hill just kept getting harder and harder. I was either going up the hills at 5mph or screaming down them at 45mph.

I felt suprisingly fresh after the 4 hour bike and ready to run. I ran with two people for the first mile. My time was right about 8 minutes. The sun went away and the temp came down a few degrees. I was having some chafing issues on my arm so it felt like I was running with a chicken wing sticking out. The run course was again a 3 lap out and back of 4ish miles on a bike path. I really only saw one person that had a smile on her face.

Each mile kept getting slower and slower and I was averaging around 9:30 miles nearing the last lap. I hooked up with an runner who was walking and decided to walk with him. Not that he slowed me down but I really didn't have the motivation to run. I was getting bloated by all the water, coke, and infinit they had. They had pretzles but with a dry mouth, they were really hard to get down. I also had to make two stops at the port-o-pot to try and make some room for the liquid. I was on my third lap and he was only on his second. We ran/walked those four miles and I left him at the turn around. I ran another .25 miles and finished in 7:03. A terrible time but considering my 14 mph average speed on the bike, not too bad.

I checked my time and to my suprise I was actually 3rd place for clydesdale! But the bad news was they were all out of awards! I wrote my name down and they are going to ship it to me.

I went over to the post race food and was dissapointed. From what I can remember, they had carrots, grapes, trail mix, pretzles, oranges, apples, watermelon and PB&J sandwiches. I filled my plate but wasn't hungry. I had two slices of watermelon and a coke and threw everything else away. Nothing seemed good to me. We packed up our stuff and started to four hour drive home. About 20 minutes in we did stop at Wendys and that's where I got my hot, salty food that I craved.

My thoughts on the race? I knew it wasn't a big race but it fit my schedule so I did it. I understand WV is hilly but I wasn't expecting all the hills. The elevation map didn't do it justice. I guarantee I'm not going back to defend my 3rd place finish next year!

Black Bear Olympic Triathlon Race Report

It’s been awhile since I posted, so I figured I would get back into it since the racing season has begun with my race report from Black Bear Olympic Triathlon last weekend in the Pocono Mts.


This is my second year participating in this race and both times with Team in Training. You can check out my website here. Saturday was a travel day consisting of 1.5 hours. First I had to mow the lawn and run some errands. We left for the Poconos around 11am. We hit some traffic because of an overturned tractor trailer and got to Beltzville State park just shy of 1pm. My wife, son and I headed over to packet pickup and got our stuff. Nothing too exciting. We were on our way back to check in to the hotel when I came upon Coach Joe in the parking lot getting his bike ready to ride the course. We said our hellos and got back into the car for the four mile drive to the hotel.

There were open water swim clinics at 2pm and 3pm and a few of us were planning on attending to check the water temp and get acclimated to the water. We all drove over around 3pm and swam for about 20 minutes. They had some smaller boys set up to practice sighting, but they were only about 50 yards apart.

We went back to the hotel to get ready for our prerace dinner in Jim Thorpe. We had a beer or two at the hotel, then a beer or two at dinner, then came back to the hotel and had another one. Just something to help us sleep.

Race morning started at 4:30am with the alarm going off. Nothing too out of the ordinary since I hit the gym most days at 5am. The hotel was serving a hot breakfast so mine consisted of French toast, sausage, a hard-boiled egg and a toasted bagel. Carbo loading (plus I love breakfast). We headed over to the park around 5:45 and got transition all set up and just hung out until 7:15 till the race was starting. I took a few strokes in the water to warm up. My wave started at 8:04ish.

The swim was a 1500m out and almost back. Sighting was easy since we were going away from the sun and the water was calm. There might have been 30 people in my wave so we were pretty spread out by the first sight boys. I took the swim nice and easy, nothing too fast. My HR was anywhere from 140-145. My swim time was 22:52. 64th out of 269 finishers. T1 was 2:30, about average.

Running out of transition to the bike was uphill for about 1/8 mile. We hop on our bikes and out of the park. The bike portion is rolling hills for the first seven miles. Fast downhills and slow uphills. Coach Blob and I were going back and forth the entire time. After the sprint people cut off the course gets fast. There was a stretch of about three miles where we could just open it up. I got down in aero and cranked. The extension for the Olympic course was a lollipop and my tire felt mushy as soon as I got back to the lollipop stick.

The tires seem inflated so I kept pushing. There was a long downhill followed by a very long uphill. We were probably averaging around 7 mph going up the hill. About 50 yards from the top my tire felt very low. I stopped and checked it and there was a nice spring sticking out of it. I stood there for about 30 seconds debating on whether or not to change it or just pump it up and see if it holds air. I decided to change it. Ripped the old tube out and jammed the new tube in and inflated it with the CO2 and I was off. I estimated from the time I stopped to check till the time I was off was about 5:30-6 minutes.

I was pissed and lost all motivation to place in my division. Plus there were still more uphills. After cresting the last uphill and starting on the downhills, I gained confidence and started pushing again. Coming back into T2 my bike time was 1:32.45. The Garmin with auto-pause had me at 1:26.

T2 was fast. Shoes, helmet off, running shoes on and gone. 54 seconds. The run was two loops all on trails of crushed gravel and dirt. I managed to strain my calf a few weeks ago and hadn’t fully recovered. My goal was to take it easy and kick it up at the end. The weather started heating up but I managed to put together a decent run of 51:04 or 8:14/ mile. If my calf was 100%, I could have run at least a minute faster, maybe more. Coming up to the finish I was able to pass coach Blob with 100 yards to go.

My final time was 2:50.05, about 2 minutes worse than the previous year, but when you add in the tire change, it was a PR. I figured I didn’t place because of the slow bike so we just hung out for a while and then headed back home.

I checked the results online a few days and I was right, I was 4th in my division. (Clydesdale over 200lbs) The first place Clydesdale had a finishing time of 2:44.30, so without the tire change, I would have had a real good shot at winning my division. Next year for sure!

Up next I have the Mountaineer Man ½ Ironman in Morgantown, WV on June 24th then it’s full on Ironman training (not that I’m not already training) for Chesapeake Man on September 29th.

I need your help!

Hey Guys,

I apologize for not being around as much as I used to be. I moved departments and I'm crazy busy all day long. I have just enough time to come on here and read a quick blog or two and maybe even write a comment. The phone's not ringing now so I'll try and make this quick.


I'm back for year two with Team in Training through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This year it's personal because Leukemia has struck my family. For lack of a better title, I'm going to call my wife's brother's girlfriend my sister in law. They have been dating for a good 5 years and about 3 weeks ago she went to the doctor's office for dizziness and being tired all the time. They did some blood work, sent her to Shady Side hospital in Pittsburgh and it was confirmed she has Leukemia. She's 28. It sucks. She's my honored teammate and the person I am fundraising for this year.

She's been going through chemo for about 2 weeks and has another two weeks to go. Hopefully she'll get to come home after her last round to spend time with family. I'm going out there in two weeks because they are hosting a blood drive to try and find a match for a possible bone marrow transplant.

Anything you can give would help. My personal goal is $1.800 and I'm about 1/2 way there after only sending out letters and emails for one week. I'm hoping to raise a lot more than $1,800 because cancer sucks and we need to beat it.

Please look at my website for more details and how to contribute. Anything you can give, even if it's just $5, will still help the cause.

If you are interested in Team in Training and fundraising for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, send me a message and I can hook you up with the right people!

click here for my fundraising webpage

Nittany Valley 1/2 Marathon

27th annual this past Sunday and last year was the first I heard about this race, I even went to school at PSU and never heard of it. It's a very low key race with entry fees of $18 that included chip timing and a long sleeve tee shirt. Not too shabby.

Weather that day called for a high of 38 degrees but it was going to be a lot colder in Happy Valley. The nice thing about this race is the 10am start time. I'm sure a lot of the 600 entries don't live in the immediate area. Taking about 1 1/2 hours to drive up there, my buddy Keith and I left about 6:45. We were one of the first people there. I was third in line to grab my goodie bag which consisted of a reusable shopping bag (although it was an advertisement for Schick Razors). The car read 25 degrees with some snow flurries so we immediately went back to the car and sat there trying to keep warm for about an hour. 9:35 rolls around and we get out and do a warm up lap. Just bitter cold, and windy.

We lined up around 9:50 and 10:05 everyone started running. Not really a 'go' or even a bull horn siren. I ran the race last year so I was familiar with the course. My game plan was to run 7:45 - 8 minute miles the first half and pick it up a little bit the second half. My buddy Keith agreed with this plan. Mile one was 7:36. A little fast but aren't all first miles fast? Second mile was 7:06 and I could tell Keith wanted to pick it up even more. I let him go. I found out he averaged about a 7 minute mile. Dick.

The course is one giant loop out to the State College airport and back around it. The first half of the course is pretty flat but as soon as you pass the airport, the hills start. Mile 7-8.5 is all downhill. Fast. I tried to hold myself back as to not blow out my quads. I hit mile 8 right at 1 hour. I think that's a 7:30 pace.

After the long downhill, we ran along a creek for about a mile then the uphills started. I struggled up the steepest one just barely plotting along. I came to the top of the hill and tried to pick it up again. A slight downhill and we were at mile 10. I came to a makeshift water stop and saw a sign that said "Water, PBR, Lager" I opted for the PBR. The carbonation tasted great and I could have probably had more than the 3-4 oz that were in the cup but regretted it about 1/2 mile down the road. Luckily the pain went away quickly and it was just one more long uphill to go. As I said, there were about 600 ppl entered but going up that last hill there was a guy about 30 seconds in front of me and one 30 seconds behind me with one volunteer 1/2 way up clapping. Plus, the wind was right in my face. I did notice the sweat drops freezing on the brim of my hat. That's how cold it was.

The finish was about 3/4 mile from the top of the hill and I could sense the person gaining on me. I picked it up and finished strong running past JoePa's statue and thru the finish line with a new PR of 1:40.27. Last year my time was 1:51.

Having only paid $18 entry fee, I knew there were no ammenties at the finish. I grabbed two bottles of water and Keith and I went back to his car. We went to the PSU Creamery. Best ice cream ever. I purchased 3 - 1/2 gallons and a cone of ice cream for my post run snack. (one 1/2 gallon was for my sister) After devouring the ice cream we went downtown to do some PSU clothing shopping. Driving thru campus it amazed me how many new buildings there were. Huge, modern looking buildings that just towered over the smaller ones that are 100+ years old. Kinda made me sad.

I had some blister problems around mile 12 but the pressure didn't hit me till last night. Look what I found!

That got popped real quick!

And two more pictures... The new family photo shoot...


Had to put two good ones in here after that blister shot!

2nd Annual Sticks and Biscuits 5k

Wednesday night I check the weather forecast and it says "ran/snow mix" for Thursday. It's only a 5k, how could could it be?

Thursday morning the alarm went off at 6:15am. Get up, make some coffee, put some clothes on and I'm out the door to Palmyra, PA (next to Hershey) to run the 2nd annual Sticks and Biscuits 5k. I have no idea why it's named this except for the fact that it's a fundraiser for a youth hockey league. It was raining/sleeting at my house when I left around 7am but stopped as I drove east. Since our weather goes from west to easy, I knew it was only a matter of time before it would catch up.

I arrive around 7:30am, check in and get my tee shirt and timing chip. I opted to not have a glazed doughnut they were giving out but instead finished my coffee. About 20 minutes before race start the weather moved in.

The race started at 8:15am and was basically an out and back course through a neighborhood. Of course when the gun went off there were no mats so everyone's chip started at the same time. And... I forgot to start my GPS till about a minute in. I was wearing shorts and a tee shirt with my running gloves. There were an estimated 600 people so it wasn't a small race. I went out fast. It felt good considering I lifted weights the day before.

I couldn't even tell you my splits because my GPS was a little off. I probably hit the first mile in about 6:30. They didn't have another split on the course till mile 2.5 which the kid yelled out 15:42 I think. There were so many turns on the course I tried to run as many tangents as I could but with the out and back style, I was dodging other people after the turn around. I kicked it into the finish beating the two people I was jockeying with the entire race and saw 19:19 as I crossed the finish line. A new PR (although everyone I talked to after the race said it was short). I hung around for the awards and it was kinda unorganized. I waited about 45 minutes from the time I finished till some lady came into the ice rink and shouted out names and numbers for the age groups... not even finishing times. With a time of 19:19, I thought I had a podium. Nope. The winners got pie anyway. I already had some with my name on it at my Aunt's house.

I just checked the results on line and I was 10th in my age group with an official time of 19:21 (6:15/mile). I guess the good news is there were 75 people in my age group. An interesting side note... the guy that won the race was disqualified. He seemed like a ringer. The real winner had a time of 15:34. Crazy fast.

On other news, the new boy Orion is doing fantastic. My mother in law left us Thanksgiving morning to go back to her family in Pittsburgh. My wife is doing an amazing job as a new mom. He's only peed on me twice where I had to change shirts. Stupid Huggies diapers are GOING BACK TO TARGET! My mother in law is already planning on making the 4 hour drive this weekend to see him again. I knew she couldn't stay away long.

Orion is finally here!

Sunday morning (well, last Sunday), we were at Target getting a few things and my wife has these stomach pains. Goes to the bathroom and tells me she thinks her mucus plug just came out. Oh shit. She's having contractions throughout the day, very inconstant. 15 minutes apart, 20 minutes, then 8 minutes. Around midnight she calls the doctor and he basically says tough it out as long as you can and come in when you are ready. 3am rolls around and she cannot sleep anymore so we go into the hospital. They check her out, 3cm 80% effaced. They make us walk the halls of the L&D floor for about an hour and a half and check her again. Still the same. They gave her two options: Go home or take some drugs so she can sleep. She took the drugs.

10am rolls around and they check her. 5cm. Woo Hoo, making progress. We finally get admitted, our own room, then the pain begins. She went a solid 12 hours with no pain meds until she was 9cm dilated and she just couldn't take it anymore. They gave her an epidural, and an hour later it was time to push. 11:09pm he finally popped out! I saw the whole thing! (I was also watching the Eagles MNF destroy the Redskins!) Before she started pushing I told her "Honey, I know your in a lot of pain, but you would mind if I put the game on mute just so I can stay updated?" Kinda dick? Not really. I didn't leave her side for almost 24 hours! Even while she was soaking in the tub at the hospital, I was next to her (reading a magazine)

So with out further adu. Orion Peter Fogelman 8lbs 11oz 21" long

No baby yet

Everything is in a frozen state as the official due date has come and gone and no baby yet. I'm just going to post some pictures of some of the sock monkeys my mother in law and sister in law made for Baby Foges. These are basically stuffed socks with buttons, stitching, and imagination.

the gang, just hanging out

someone said this will look like me in 10 yrs

pretty sweet lion!

monkey hanging out

Roo!

We have about 20 of these for the baby. I think they are pretty sweet. My inlaws are so freakin' creative. I hope Baby Foges gets some of that!

Oh and by the way, if you don't follow DC Rainmaker, do it. He has some great posts and also gives away free stuff!

30?!?

Tomorrow is the big 3-0. I really thought I would be dead or in jail by this point, but in a surprising twist, I actually grew up. Homeowner, reliable job, baby due in 6 days. Things have changed a lot from college where it was drinking, smoking and doing drugs (not the bad kind, just weed) on a daily basis.

Moving back to PA changed my life in a good way. I realized that I was overweight and saw all the other people around me were overweight and did not want to end up like that. I really buckled down, counted my calories, ate only whole, healthy foods and lost the 65 pounds that was weighing me down. Who knew that diet and exercise actually worked!


Living in CO, I never realized I was overweight. Everyone is so active there. I was extremely active as well, but still ate like crap. I drove to the mountains almost every weekend to ski, rode my bike around Denver's beautiful paved trails and even tried to climb Mt Evans one time. I only made it 1/4 of the way up.


I can pretty much say with certainty that I am in the best shape of my life these days. Completed my first marathon about a month ago with several more on the horizon for next year. Olympic Tris this summer moving up to 70.3 distance next summer. Maybe even an Ultra Marathon 50k trail run thrown in.

I had an internal interview this morning for a different department as well. It is a lateral move but the ladder goes much higher than where I currently am. I'm in a pretty good mood!

I'm an uncle!

My twin sister gave birth Monday morning at 1:40am to a 9.5lb 21.5" baby boy named Jed. They are doing awesome. Sister is coming home from the hosptial today. She really wanted a halloween baby but 11/1/10 is pretty cool also. We turn 30 in 4 days and only 9 more days till I'm a proud papa.

Because she gave birth at PSU Hershey Medical Center, I had to get a pic of me with the Lion Shrine! WE ARE PENN STATE!

T minus 12 days and counting...

Till my life gets turned upside down. Huh? As my title goes... 3 out of 4 things completed. Ran my first Marathon HERE, raced several triathlons, and I'm obviously a pretty cool dude in every post but one goal gets met in +/- 12 days.
Baby Boy arrives. Life is going to change. Hopefully for the better. We have been taking classes offered by the hospital for about two months now but I honestly don't think anything is going to compare to actually holding the little guy.

The last and final class this past Tuesday was all about what to do when the baby is at home. The instructors set up stations that we would rotate through to learn different things. How to wash a baby, change a diaper, put on a onesie, and other junk. One thing we forgot about is baby-proofing. Obviously that's still several months away but it hit me that there is SO MUCH stuff that they can't teach us in class. I'm just hoping for a healthy baby and we'll cross each obstacle when it gets here.

As I was leaving work last night, a coworker asked me to help her carry something out from one of the training rooms. I follow her and SURPRISE!!! they throw me a baby shower. (yes my wife was there too) Totally unexpected!
All I could think about was "how long is this going to take? the sun is going down and I need to get 7 miles in before the trick or treaters come" Obviously that wasn't going to happen since it gets dark about 6:30 these days. It was extremely nice of them and a total surprise to me. My first baby shower. We got a gift card for Target from everyone. I told them "I think this is enough money to buy a Wii and the new Big Buck Hunter game, or diapers... we'll see"

Did you guys see the new Big Buck Hunter game for Wii? That's my favorite game to play at the bars (when we used to go to the bars all the time) I'm tempted to buy it just to play that game, the same way I bought a PS2 for Guitar Hero. I'm more responsible now (because The Wife already said no).

So anyway, we got home around 6:45, turn the light on and wait for the trick or treaters. It was unseasonably warm so we sat outside and waited for them. We had a good night!

I think I found my HIM race!

I had this crazy goal this year of progressing through triathlon distances one year at a time. Even thought I spend 3 years doing sprint distances, this year was my first Olympic, no wait, that was a duathalon... This Olympic was an 'official' Olympic, next year I want to do another Olympic in the spring then a Half Ironman in the fall and eventually a full Ironman in 2012. Well, you know how it goes. You go to all these races and people start talking about other races. Ultra Marathon Trail runs? Sure they sound like a good idea except why are they always on the weekends you have other races?

I have been looking around a great website just putzing around looking for different races. I would love to do the new Pocono 70.3 Half Ironman but $275 entry fee? Really? That's too rich for my blood. So back on beginner triathlete and I found Cannonman Triathlon and as of this post, there are only 2 poeple entered. EASY AWARD ALERT!!!!!
The entry fee is reasonable at $130. The site is about 2 hours from me which isn't too bad but the only lodging listed on the website is a campground. I love camping just as much as the next guy but camping is reserved for staying up late, drinking beer, and having a good time. Not waking up early to torture your body.

But I'm really pumped about it and I think I can fit it into my race schedule. The only other 'A' races on my calander are a triathlon with Team in Training (not announced yet, but probably a sprint or Oly in early summer) and a Marathon with my sister. (her first)

So if you are interested in racing a cheap, low key HIM next fall, let me know (please note: not accepting M30-35 unless you are slower than me) SO WHO'S WITH ME FOR THE CANNONMAN 70.3 2011?

p.s. I also changed my profile picture to an actuap picture of me! This is me at my very first triathlon 3 years ago. I was also 60lbs heavier. I'm skinny(ier) now!


A special thanks to Sam for reminding me I can use hyperlinks in my posts! She's also here!

Compression Socks

With all the talk lately about compression socks, I really wanted to get a pair. But I really didn't want to pay $35 for them. I also thought about just wraping my legs with ACE bandages after a hard run as well, but luckly a friend of a friend is a rep for a sports clothing company and was able to score me a free pair! I got them in the mail yesterday and my wife forgets to tell me. This morning, as I'm finishing my coffee, she tells me I got a package last night. Of course it's like christmas whenever I get a package. I tear that shit open and put on a sock. It took me several minutes though, because they are pretty tight (obviously). I was going to wear them to work today but my wife thought otherwise. I can't wait to use them this weekend!

Here is a pic my wife took this morning (with the dog eating breakfast next to me)

Steamtown Marathon Part Deux

I’ve had some time to reflect on the events from this past Sunday and wanted to produce a list of pros and cons from my first Steamtown Marathon Experience.

Pros:
 Pre-race notifications were great, although I had to find them first(find the asst race director’s twitter page and click on the link to the newsletter.
 Website tracked weekly entries until the race was sold out.
 Lots of options for hotels and restaurants in the area that were not $200/night
 Held a pre-race meeting at the expo talking about the course
 Race morning there were tons of busses ready to heard everyone 45 min to the start line
 Forrest City Middle School was well organized. We had a guy with a sign saying “Follow me”, cheerleaders screaming cheers and handing out water.
 There were plenty of volunteers and water stops along the way, even random water stops
 At almost every water stop there were 2-3 port-o-pots (I’m a guy, I pee in the woods)
 They had plenty of photographers along the course and even after the finish line
 They gave us a plastic bag to put our food in.
 They had showers for us at a local college

Cons:
 Stupid Mother Nature made it 30 degrees at the start.
 The expo was lacking in merchandise to sell.
 The goodie bag included one crappy pair of really small orange sunglasses from an eye doctor, and lots of junk paper.
 The start line wasn’t spaced out enough, took almost a minute to cross the start.
 I didn’t know your ‘official time’ is clock time, not chip time.
 There were no energy gels on the course, just apples and oranges (and gummy bears that I only noticed after I passed them) Good thing I bought some gels at the expo
 I found my new best friend/running partner Tim’s name but could not find him on Facebook to thank him.

I found some pictures also! http://www.runphotos.com/browse.cfm?race_id=192&bib_number=665&searchword=&subFind=Find+Photos

My legs have been pretty beat up these last few days but I went out last night and did a real easy 3 miles. The first mile was slow, and downhill. I felt like my dad running. (limping mostly) Then the road flattened out and went slightly uphill and I could pick up the pace and work out some of that lactic acid and I actually felt pretty good at the end.

Steamtown Marathon Race Report

The weather report for Scranton, PA was 40 degrees at 8am rising to 65 by noon. Perfect day for a run. The drive from Harrisburg to Scranton took about two hours but just flew by because of all the fall foliage on I-81. The leaves are not changing as dramatic in Harrisburg as they are just a few miles north.

We arrived at the Expo around 2:15pm. Scranton HS is this amazingly modern high school with crazy colors and curvy lines. Parking was a disaster. There was a pee-wee football game going on and I heard students were also taking SATs Saturday. We drove around the entire school before finding a parking spot around back that probably wasn’t really a parking spot. Entered the Expo and went to pick up my packet. Number 665. Got my tee shirt and poster and went to walk around.

Reading different blogs and hearing people speak about compression socks I wanted to pick up a pair for myself. Apparently everyone else heard about them also because there was only one pair left and they were $35! For socks? Really? Oh well. I bought some Gu packets and a pair of cheap running gloves. They had a sign up that said it would be 30 degrees at the start! Thanks to Steamtown for not charging more than $2 for a pair of gloves.

We left the expo and went to the hotel to check in. The Super 8 was maybe 15 minutes from downtown Scranton. What a dump! But for only $55 a night, I didn’t complain (much). They said they were going through renovations. The hallways smelled like shit and the bathroom was so dirty!

We went to Arby’s next door because it was around 3pm and we haven’t eaten since breakfast. Having a 36 week prego with me, she has to eat every couple hours. Couple things off the dollar menu felt kinda good. I waited an hour and went on a light 3 mile run around the area.

The race committee hosts a pasta dinner the night before but we didn’t feel like driving back to Scranton just to eat some pasta. We ended up going to Ruby Tuesdays one exit down at the base of Montage Mountain (ski ‘resort’). We wanted to go there mainly because of their delicious salad bar. Apparently everyone else decided to go there also. I think we waited longer for an table then it actually took to order and eat!

Race morning started at 5am when my alarm went off. I heard lots of doors opening and closing and knew it was time to get up. I dress and we jump in the car for the 15 min drive to the finish line. Being a point to point race, we all loaded in school busses for the 45 minute drive to the start line 26.2 miles away. They did a great job with cheerleaders there cheering, handing out water bottles and just wishing us well.

We all sat around in the gym for about an hour till it was time to start. It was an extremely brisk morning but I still felt comfortable wearing shorts, a tee shirt and my newly purchased running gloves.

There is a huge downhill within the first mile and everyone does the ‘Steamtown Shuffle’ down it. “Don’t go out too fast” and Don’t try and bank time” was the theme from everyone this weekend. Everyone was passing me the first few miles but I was on my pace and knew I would be fine. I’m not going to go into detail here about every mile and what happened, because I really don’t remember. I kind of just zone out and try to keep my breathing in check. There were some bands and lots of people cheering so that made time fly by also.

I noticed around mile 12-13 that this guy and girl were waiting at a port-o-pot and she just jumped in front of him. He stood there for a few seconds and just started running again. I said to him “that’s pretty cold, leaving here there like that.” He said “I’m not with her, she just cut me off.” So we continued on, talked about race goals and whatnot and he was shooting for the same time as me. So I asked him “do you want to run together and we can work together?” Thankfully he said yes and it was a combined effort. He is also a math teacher so I let him do all the math for our calculated finish.

The miles just seemed to fly by. I remember hitting the ½ way mark in about 1:49 which put me right on track for my 3:40 finish. I didn’t know until waiting in the gym that no water stops would have any Gu. I only brought two with me. I took one at the 13.1 mark.

We hit the 20 mile mark and I took my second Gu. We kept asking each other how we felt and honestly, I felt amazing. A slight pain as I could feel a small blister forming on my right foot but that’s it.

Those of you that have run a marathon before always talk about ‘hitting the wall’ and honestly it didn’t even occur to me that I was going to hit one until about mile 22.5. I started feeling it in my quads and him flexors from running downhill for 20 miles. There was also a huge hill around this time that thankfully was filled with people but that was my worst mile split at 8:55 (besides the first mile where we were so backed in and I had to keep dodging people).

Another 3 block hill in downtown Scranton at mile 25.5. Just cruel. Tim, my new running buddy told me that I was 15 seconds back from hitting my goal of 3:40 so I told him I’m going to push it and I’ll see him at the finish. I powered up that stupid hill only to notice that the finish line was still at least ½ mile out. My legs were trashed. My HR was through the roof and I had to wait till that came down to make my final push. I hit the finish line in 3:40.45. I was happy. Start the cramping.

Tim finished about a minute behind me and we got are pictures taken together at the finish line (coming soon). Hips, quads, calves, hamstrings, all throbbing in pain. I had one of two options, 1) sit on some chairs to the right or 2) stand in line and get some food. My total calories consumed were a mere 200 so of course I opted to wait in line and eat something. I knew if I sat down I would never be able to get up anyway. They were handing out shopping bags and I asked Tim “what the hell is this for? A puke bag?” Nope, just for food. Good. I had nothing to throw up anyway. Loaded up on food and found my wife. I sat down in the grass for a good 30 minutes, just trying to stretch and eat something. When we finally decided to leave, she tells me she parked 4 blocks away. Oh what an awful walk that was. Luckily she parked next to the place we could take showers at. Of course the showers were up 3 flights of stairs. Just mean!

Showered and dressed I hobbled my way down the stairs, got in the car and found the nearest McDonalds to chow down! I deserved it!

It was a great race and a very positive experience for my first (of many) marathons! My sister already signed up for Pittsburg on May 15th so I guess that’s my next one!

Final stats: Chip time 3:40.45 8:25 avg pace. 45 of 85 M 25-29

If I were an old man or a woman, I would have qualified for Boston!

Marathon this Sunday! TnT is dyno-mite!

Steamtown is this weekend! I'm pretty confident that I'm going to succeed and hit my goal time. My training is going excellent thanks to the last few long runs done with Team in Training. Although I already completed my race with TnT, they still encourage alumni to come out and continue to train. My friend told me to find a guy named "Steve" and run with him because he can keep up with me. I met up with Steve, and after introducing everyone we were off. 18 miles was on the agenda.

Steve is one heavy breather! When we hit the first water stop, around mile 3, he turned to me and said "can you believe I used to be 318 pounds!" He just started walking then running and now he's about 200lbs maybe 6'1".

Around mile 9 we started hitting some hills and he slowed down. I left him. I continued on my way, stopping at the water stops and having some water and Gu. Nutrition was perfect with no stomach or ankle problems! I had to get home ASAP and finish our fence with the inlaws.

Monday morning I was off to Irvine, CA for a few days for business. It was beautiful and I took a few pics with my camera phone on the beach.





Not too bad for a camera phone!

This past Saturday was my last "long" run before the race. I ran with a woman who called herself Cindy from TnT. She qualified for Boston. What she didn't tell me is her qualifying time was 4 hours. Regardless, she made a great running partner. We chatted the entire time and ended our 14.58 miles at an 8:35 pace. That really gave me a boost of confidence for this weekend.

Another TnT alumni training for IM FL on Nov 6th returned a book to her called UltraMarathon Man by Dean Karnazes. If you have not read this book, read it. It's amazing. Don't ruin it for me. I still have a few more chapters to go. I basically read it all weekend. He's a great story teller. Makes me want to run an ultra! (in fact, i think i am going to run a 50k trail run next year)

Quickie

I'm studying for a test Friday afternoon so not much time to write a blog. But I did remember to take pictures.

Yesterday in the mail we got our baby jogger thing. This is my wife practicing at 7:30 this morning.


Monday I put the baby crib together. Not as hard as I thought it would be. Now it's full of baby stuff because the in laws are coming this weekend.


Last night we rented a Lowes truck to drop off some lumber. In laws are coming in this weekend to help me put up a split rail fence. I unloaded all this lumber right after my 10 mile tempo run. Still had my sweaty shirt on. Oh yeah, we got a hot tub too (in front of the shed) My parents didn't want it anymore so I took it off their hands. Needs water.

It may not look like a lot but those rails are 11' long and HEAVY.

That's it for now. Here is the book I'm reading (for my test) BOO!