Reasons for Relays

Last year I ran my first Relay. I had heard people talk about them and the fun they were. The reoccurring comment has been "I had a really great time except for the running." After participating in two relays, I have to concur. The opportunity to be teamed up with fellow runners with for 30-40 hours can be a very smelly experience is a great experience. Plus, there is always great scenery involved and the opportunity to wear a costume when its not Halloween, meeting runners from all over without the seriousness of competition.

This year, I've signed up for the Wasatch Back Ragnar, Epic Relay and Las Vegas Ragnar. The downside to a Relay is the cost involved. A typical Marathon will cost between $75-$150 for the registration. So far, all of my marathons have been within driving distance so there hasn't been any need for a hotel. With a relay however, there is the registration, the gas involved, the food for the trip, the possible hotels. I spend an additional $200 on average in addition to the relay registration.

Is it worth the extra price involved? Absolutely. I'll sign up in a heartbeat.

Is anyone running an relays?

Comment Word Verification

I've gone back and forth on this, but i've finally come to the conclusion that any chinese porn spammer that wants to comment on my post is fine with me. Considering that my comment ratio is at an all time low. I'm thinking that if I get more comments it will attract more followers. I'm working on some new strategies to get more followers. More followers=more stuff for me that I can give away to people.

So, feel free to comment away. Do I care if you are a real person or not? Not anymore.

Friday Musings for March-Because I'll probably Forget Next Week to write something

Camping
Sure enough, It's Friday. Normally I'd be all excited and geared up for today, but I'm not. You see, I get to go on a Scout Campout. I am the 11 year old scout leader for my church and while I enjoy hanging with the boys, I'm not much of a camper—especially in winter.

Two weeks ago, we were going to go on this campout, but then a storm came in and we opted out. I was praying for another storm, but alas my faith obviously isn't enough to move a mountain because all I got was some clouds and light rain. The good thing though is that the weather has moved out of the 30s and into the 50s which means it won't be as extremely cold as it would have been two weeks ago.

20 mile run
Due to the upcoming campout, I pushed up my 20 mile run to Thursday. The forecast said the temperatures would be in the 60s and there were right on. The weather was ideal. I wore a long sleeve shirt and shorts, but probably could have gotten away with a short sleeve shirt. I ran from my home to my parent's home which via the freeway is only 8 miles, but as any runner can tell you, 8 miles can easily be turned into 20 with a little work. I got a later start than I wanted because of a last minute project that needed to get to Kinkos. I wore my larger fuel belt which can hold more GU and water. It felt like I had added 10 lbs to my weight. I had three substantial hills in the route. I made it through two of the three without having to walk for any of it. The last one was just too long and steep.

My hope going into the run was that I would be able to hold my goal marathon pace for 10+ miles of the run. Alas, it didn't happen. I did get it around 8:30 pace which isn't too bad, but not the 8:00 pace that I wanted.

Today, I am feeling sore in my left ankle/shin area but glad I got my run handled. Next week is the end of my coaching with the Shamrock Half Marathon. The following week after that is my next 20 mile run and then I start a taper to the mid-April race.

Return to High School

My son registered for 10th grade last night.  I can tell he's apprehensive about it. He's been in a K-9 charter school since 5th grade so this is a big change. At the same time, he's excited to take on the High School experience. After we listened to the intro session about High School, the kids had the opportunity to go and visit clubs,sports, teachers, etc. and find out more about High School opportunities. One of the first places we visited was the Cross Country table. Two kids were there and really excited that he was interested. They said that they'll start training in June and to put his contact information on the paper at the table...tada...he's signed up. They don't have try-outs. I'm excited for him because being involved in sports in High School is a good way to pick up girls good way to round out his experience. We then visited the other areas.. debate, AP History, Orchestra, etc... they don't offer the Arabic Foreign Language option at the High School because they are lame. They offer the typical Spanish, French, German...

To Dog or Not To Dog...

As far back as I can remember, there has been a dog in my life. When I was 5 or 6, my dad owned two Irish Setters. I remember  clearly being taken for a walk by these two dogs that were taller than me and weighed more than me. The most memorable was when the dogs came running back into the yard, but instead of running through the opening where a gate would go, they both ran through the small gap between the gate pole and the fence pole, thus slamming me into the main pole.

Then there was Sara. Sara was a Golden Retriever that my dad bought for me when I was 14. Unfortunately, my father didn't take into account that the girl who lived two houses down from us was also named Sara. I always enjoyed calling for Sara just when the neighbor girl would come outside felt a little bad for the girl when I would go out into the backyard and call for Sara to go for a walk. Unfortunately, our back yard was not conducive to the size of the Golden Retriever. I came home from school one day to find out that Sara had been given to a farmer in the area who was looking for a dog and had lots of land.

I am now grown, have kids of my own who have never experienced a dog except for the occasional stray that has come over. We've had more than one neighbor dog who my children have adopted. We'll be finishing our fence this year and the next thing that comes up in the conversation is how soon and what kind of dog we'll get. I'm not sure if I am ready to become a dog owner again. I'm open to the idea of raising a dog who can accompany me on my runs. It's an appealing idea. After all, the dog would be my wingman, just like Goose and Maverik.

On the other hand, visions of Where the Red Fern Grows comes to mind, followed by Old Yeller and Marley and Me come up. How could I possibly own a dog in these instances? After all, what would I do per chance I am running and my dog has to fight off a mountain lion and ends up becoming beef jerky? I couldn't take that. At the same time, we watched My Dog Skip over the weekend and while it was heart warming and the dog didn't get run over, die of cancer or anything else like that it did in the end pass away. I had just gotten over this movie when my latest copy of Runner's World came today. What was the first article right at the front of the issue? The editor's note about his dog dying. How can I possibly compete with this? What kind of life would I bringing into my house. Not to mention, what would I do now that my back lawn is finally growing grass instead of clover.

Does anyone have a good non-dog dying story?

New Recipe for Breakfast Before 13 Miles

What has 692 calories, 18 g fat, 113 g carbohydrates, 692 calories, and 28 g protein? My breakfast yesterday morning before a 17 mile run.

I like sleep. Especially on the weekends. I dislike waking up when I don't have to take anyone to be anywhere or take anyone anywhere. As a result, I wait until the last minute to get out of bed for my long run. I also wait until the last minute to eat something for breakfast. It usually looks like a Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwich with a protein drink on the side. This week I purposely got up early to test out a new breakfast concept. 

Clearly this photo would look much better
had I taken it before adding the yogurt.

 I received an email earlier in the week from Active.com for an "Unbeatable Breakfast". It had a testimonial from Ironman Chrissie Wellington touting this breakfast. I was in an adventurous mood this week so I picked up the multitude of ingredients. On Friday evening, I started to put all the ingredients together. The first thing I noticed was that it can't fit in a normal size container. I had to get out a feed bag mixing bowl to fit all the ingredients. The wife and kids looked at my prepared meal calculating which of my personal belonging they would get if I died from this  in wonder at how much food was there.

It took me about 30 minutes to get through the meal because I was busy on facebook I wanted to give myself a head start on digesting. Surprisingly my body took this new meal in stride with no complaint. After the meal, I was full, but not busting at the seams. I started the run feeling no slow-down or sluggishness. Midway through the run, I did an internal check of where I was for energy and I still felt good. It wasn't until about mile 14 did I start to feel like I needed something to keep going. After I got home from the run and was prepping my ice bath, I noticed that while I was hungry, I wasn't starving.

New pre-run breakfast now on the books.

16 Miler Weekend

The forecast for the weekend called for a winter storm which meant my Saturday long run became questionable. There was the possibility of running indoors, but the thought of 16 miles on a treadmill was daunting.

Thursday night: Winds pick up, gusts of over 30 mph
Friday morning: 6 inches of snow on my driveway. Definitely not looking good for Saturday.
Friday 5:00 pm: Snow has stopped, temps got up to 43 degrees, snow has melted. Forecast calls for part 2 of the storm to come through in the early morning. I'm thinking maybe I can get in a run between the storm. If the roads are clear, I can handle running through a snowstorm as long as it is not a white-out.
Saturday 5:00 am: I wake up for some reason. I get up to check outside. There is a little snow, but it isn't snowing and the roads are clear.
Saturday 6:00 am: I'm up, showering and having breakfast
Saturday 7:30 am: I'm on the road. There is a little bit of wind and snow, but not much. Things are looking good.

The rest of the run was uneventful, occasional gusts of wind, some snow patches, but in the end 16.65 miles done. My average pace was 9:03 which is under the 9:15 that I should be at for my training.

Boston Fever?

After a strong winter of continued running, I started toying with the idea of getting a Boston Qualifying time this year. My training has been solid. The course I chose is a faster course which gives me a bit of an edge. Things were looking hopeful if I continued on the same path.

I returned home on Thursday after a solid Interval run. After a shower, I sat down to compose an email to the 1/2 marathon group I coach. I pulled up a few blogs to discover that the Boston Athletic Association changed the qualifying registration process for 2012 and the times for 2013.

My first reaction looked something like this.

After spending some time digesting this, I think I have come to the following conclusion.

It's their race and they can do whatever they want.

I could go on and on about how the BAA is similar to the BCS system in their catering to the elite runners and ruining the sport for those who struggle and work their butts off just to qualify, but I won't. If someone really wants to thumb their nose at the Boston Marathon, there are 5 other states (Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Virginia) that offer a city named Boston....surely someone could create a marathon there.