I picked a wet, wet day for my first post-Christmas outing.
Yesterday, we had somewhere between four and six inches of rain, and today, we’re adding another two inches of wet stuff. Great weather if you’re a duck.
I wanted to get out yesterday, as it was gonna be a bunch warmer than today, but unfortunately, yesterday rains brought lightning with them. I love running in the rain, but I draw the line at running in the electricity.
I’d been planning to check out the east end of the Greenway, and see how it connected to my driveway. Today was the day to pull that off, with a slow walk to check it out.
I took off from the house, and journeyed down the uneven sidewalks. As it ends up, with all the rain, there were plenty of opportunities to fjord water hazards of some length. My tootsies got pretty wet as I continued.
The eastern trail end was about 1.5km from the house, and was a lovely new piece of paving. I wended up and down the little hills to my turnaround point, and pointed it back toward the house.
With this walk today, I’ve pretty well covered the whole Greenway (across several events), and have enough mileage data now to build great courses leveraging the Greenway for whatever distance I need.
Unless you’ve watched a lot of Seinfeld, you may not know what Festivus is. For those of you not “in the know”, here’s a graphic to help.
Festival (click to enlarge)
For almost two weeks, I’ve been tending a tender left knee, so I figured I would take it easy yesterday, and walk. And not only did I walk, but I ranged far away from my normal path on the Greenway, and took the “White Trail”. This trail wends through a beautiful neighborhood, and was amazing.
We’d gotten off work a little early, so I took advantage of the time, and made a mid-afternoon event out of my newly freed time. I walked. And walked. And walked. I was a tourist in my own town, seeing places and roads I’d never travelled before. It was an awesome, relatively pain-free walk, and wasn’t too crazy slow.
And while this wasn’t the last event of my race year, it is the last one for a few days. For all of you reading this, I hope your trails are how you like ’em — flat, hilly, snowy, clear, rainy — your shoes are comfy for the run, and the Big Guy brings you everything your heart desires. And for those of you with a little 70s in you, remember that the Christmas we get, we deserve. Merry Christmas!!!
After my slow run on the Greenway yesterday at lunch, I figured I needed to redeem myself, and put some good miles on my shoes.
Today, the only way I was gonna get some miles in was to do them after work. That puts me out there right at sunset, which is a time I really don’t like to run.
Tonight, I needed some miles though, so I hit the trail about 30 minutes before sunset.
I ran west, into the sunset, and frankly, it was beautiful. And I was chugging right along at a great pace. I have a traffic light that I hit on the course, and at this one was a particular jerk-driven Corvette who decided after the light turned red to not only stop beyond the stop line, but essentially but the wide backside of his sportswear across the pedestrian crosswalk. I thought about doing a lap around his car, but it’s a quick light, so I only turned around and applauded his stopping prowess as I went past the back side of his Chevy.
However, that patent disregard for me on the trail put me in a pretty foul mood, and that translated into keeping a nice pace through the rest of the course. And once I hit my turnaround, I was facing the moonrise.
Again, I was facing such a beautiful sky as I returned to my Jeep via the eastbound trail. And once again, I had good speed through the second half of the course.
With the sun having set, the temperature started to drop, and the radiant heat I was enjoying from our glowing ball o’ goodness was gone. It started getting cold, and conveniently, I was back at the Jeep.
It was nice to have a good run today, although once again, upon getting home, my left knee started getting funky. I’m gonna have to ensure that I do good things for that knee, as I have a few more runs to get in this year!
Yesterday, I took to the trail for the first time since my 15k race downtown. Normally, I would’ve been out on the trail earlier than eight days after a race, but…
I bowled on Tuesday.
Now, I used to bowl in leagues for years and years. I was never all that great, but I enjoyed it, and occasionally had sparks of … mediocrity. 🙂 However, last Tuesday was the first time I’d bowled in a decade. It was a work event, so we had a good time, and tried to cram as much bowling as we could into two hours.
By the time the next morning rolled around, my left knee was pretty tender, and I knew I needed to let it rest.
And rest it did, until yesterday. It was time to return to the trail.
We’ve had crazy warm weather for Da Lou in December. In fact, the weather dudes and dudettes have already called this the third warmest December on record here. When I hit the trail, it was 64°, but cloudy as could be. Big ol’ winter clouds filled the sky, looking like they could start dropping rain at any moment. Regardless, I headed out.
I took it pretty slow at first, and kinda felt like I was gaining speed through the course. However, the data didn’t exactly back that up. I was really slow, with my slowest 5k time in almost two months. My knee held up reasonably well during the run, although once I got home and rested, it started to be painful.
I think I just need to make sure I’m relatively careful with it, and I’ll be back to my normal lunatic running in no time!
Another lunch run today, and the last veterans’ related race for the year. I love these races. The medals are generally patriotically themed, and support causes for groups that I can really get behind.
It’s so incredibly warm around Da Lou right now. Today, it was about 50°, which made for an incredibly foggy day. When I went out, there was still plenty of fog, and this crazy springlike feel to the air. It’s no wonder that there’s some potential this weekend for severe weather.
The Greenway awaited, though, and I had to go out and put it to good use. Once again, all my kilometer splits were below ten minutes each, and I ended up with a great run. I know I’ve said it before, but it still amazes me when I think of how far I’ve come this year. Fifty minutes for my 5k’s had been a goal for so long, and now, it’s a pretty regular occurrence.
So as the year winds down, I’m beginning to reflect on an epic year of running, thanking those around me for the support, and God for the continued good health that allows me to keep putting my feet on the trail.
Today, I ran my 70th race this year. I simply cannot believe how far I’ve come this year. I’ve run over 250 miles this year, worn out a pair shoes, run nine destination races in five states (and drove just over 6000 miles to run those!)… This has been a big year.
The Run for Bacon 5K is a race put together by the Pathetic Runners Group, which was founded by David Johndrow. He’s a cancer warrior, putting a good face on it, and still out there running. Truly inspirational to those of us that have had The C-Word in our lives.
Today’s race was a return to my regular route on the Greenway. It’s not unusual for me to struggle a bit after a destination race. Between all the driving miles, and this time, the cold damp weather in Cleveland, I get the life sucked out of me for a few days. In fact, I wanted to run yesterday. The spirit was willing, but the body said “NO WAY!” 🙂
So last night, as I lay my head down to sleep, I committed to running today. I even told Darla that I wanted to run in my half-sleep stupor. She’s awfully nice to put up with the thoughts of running shoes in my head. This morning, I reaffirmed that I was definitely gonna run.
And Mother Nature made it easy. The weather is amazing — mid 50s, and sunny.
And run the Greenway I did (and Yoda, I am, apparently). I didn’t break any land speed records, but it felt so very good to be back out there, despite the struggle to get my motor going at the beginning. Part of that could be the strong headwind I was facing on the westbound trek. On the way back, the expected tailwind I thought would help my speed dissipated, and I was left with just my clunky old legs to motor me down the trail.
And once again, I was in under my target time, and felt great afterwards.
Maybe there’s a future for me with this running thing after all! 🙂
First off, let me say that I love this film. I mean, love it big. I saw A Christmas Story in 1983 when it hit the theaters, and knew I had just witnessed the birth of a new Christmas classic. Every Christmas season, I watch it. Frequently. In fact, when TBS does their 24 Hours of A Christmas Story event every year, I just leave the TV on. It’s a film you can just walk into and out of, and never miss a beat. I suppose that’s part of what makes it so magical.
Earlier this year, when I heard about the Christmas Story 5K, I knew I had to go run it. The race was in Cleveland OH, however, and I knew that Cleveland in December could be a really cold, cold race. I hadn’t been to Cleveland in over a decade (that was a bowling team trip to watch the Cleveland Indians play), but much like Raphie and his Red Ryder BB gun, though, I knew I had to chase after this race.
Bad Ice Day!
I bundled up Friday morning, and pointed the Lil’ Red Rubicon toward Cleveland. It was a facinating drive, with freezing fog surrounding me all the way across Illinois. By the time I stopped for gas near the Indiana state line, I had a good bit of ice on the Jeep’s windows and front. I get a kick out of that ice buildup, because it’s so much different than ice you see just collecting of surfaces. It’s almost like the ice is having a “bad hair day”!
When I got to the Renaissance Hotel after nine hours of driving, I dropped the Jeep off with the valet service, and got chceked in. The Renaissance is a beautiful hotel, and has been the site of lodging for 200 years. It didn’t exactly look like an old building, and was more than enough hotel for my needs.
The Ralphie Theatre
Since I’d elected to lodge in the host hotel, I just wandered downstairs to packet pickup, making this one of the easiest packet pickups all year. And at 4pm on a Friday, it wasn’t very busy at all. However, if the lines got long, the packet pickup folks planned ahead, and had a big screen setup, playing … A Christmas Story! 🙂
Poor Flick
I moseyed back up to the room to lay out my running duds for Saturday, and realized that the hotel was showing A Christmas Story on the in-hotel channel… on an endless loop. It’d stay this way until I checked out on Sunday morning. Way cool.
Saturday morning came, and with the late start of the race — a luxious 9am! — I decided to try out the hotel’s breakfast buffet. Normally, I’m a English-muffin-with-peanut-butter-and-honey guy on race morning, but there were two-and-a-half hours until race time, so I figured I could go big. The spread was outstanding, and I think I may just have to add smoked salmon to my race morning nutritional plan!
The Jake and The Blind Man
I got dolled up in my racing wear, and made my way to the start line, which was about two blocks away. It was chilly, but not really cold, so I was warm enough, despite the moisture in the air. And again, on a big screen at the start line, the race folks had A Christmas Story blaring down the city streets. I really think you’d have to love the film to be surrounded by it so much… and I totally do!
A Bandit!
There were all kind of Ralphies, Randys, leg lamps, fra-gi-lay boxes, bandits and every other character from the film you could think of. I didn’t get dressed up, although I wasn’t alone. There were about 4000 runners all lined up, awaiting the starting blast, about half in some kind of costume. Next time I do a themed race, I’ve gotta do some costuming!
Starting Corral
We got started on time, and the mass of humanity began chugging through the start line, and onto the course. Those first few minutes on-course are generally the most concerning for me. There are so many people crammed into such a small space, and many of them are jockeying for position. Faster folks for some reason will place themselves at the back of the pack, and try to zoom through little holes in the compressed crowd to move forward. I can’t imagine what their driving must be like!
The first part of the course was atop the Hope Memorial Bridge that eventually crossed the Cuyahoga River. This was a long bridge, with giant pairs of sculpted art deco statues on either end, called the “Guardians of Traffic”. They are mammoth, and looked down on the bobbing throng as we moved along. I love deco stuff, and really appreciated the chance to see those at slow speed.
Korean Catholic Church
After exiting the bridge, we crossed under I-90, paralleling it for a while. One thing that stood out to me about this stretch of the race was all the churches representing so many denominations. It seemed like every block had yet another church, each with their own personality. This is the kind of race environment I love, stretching through old neighborhoods with so much to look at. It keeps my brain occupied while I’m running and makes the race go by faster.
Feliz Navidad
Eventually, we turned into Tremont, the neighborhood in which Ralphie’s house sits. It occurred to me that all these little houses, one by one, had so much character, each similar to the one next to it, and yet, completely different. Visually, that was a very cool neighborhood through which to run. And it was great to see folks in the neighborhood cheering us on.
Sacks of Ovaltine
I got to the finish line — right at the the A Christmas Story House and Museum, collected my major award, and started working through the post race line. As you would expect, they were serving Ovaltine, both warm and cold. At the Renaissance, I had seen race helpers carrying cases of Ovaltine for this, and it was sure tasty. I noticed that they had pre-prepared bags of Ovaltine, making it simpler to distribute so much Ovaltine to so many folks. And in case you’re interested, I really preferred the cold Ovaltine, even on a cold morning.
The Line Stretched to Terre Haute
After making my way through the snack line, I found the line for the museum. With each race entry, you got a free entry into the house and museum. The line stretched well over two blocks, and I waited in it for at least an hour. The pot of gold at the end was worth it, though…
Electric Sex in the Front Window
I was standing on Ralphie’s front porch, and eventually wound my way through the house!
Ralphie’s House
I was struck by just how small the house was, as compared to how it was represented in the film. It just seemed like a huge house on the big screen! I walked though the front room, the kids’ bedroom, the infamous bathroom and the kitchen, taking photos, and enjoying being on the “set” of one of my favorite films.
Decoding
And when I exited, the line to get in still stretched over two blocks. Wow.
The Old Man’s Olds
I walked across the street, and strolled through the museum. It was interesting, with lots of goodies from the film. And like any good museum, it dumps you into the gift shop, which here, meant walking next door to yet another house. The sales floor was huge, with loads of stuff from A Christmas Story, Elf and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I had a great time in there, and found a few things that had to come home with me.
I Was Triple Dog Dared
This was my last destination race for 2015, and probably the one I enjoyed the most. I didn’t set a PR, and I didn’t accomplish any big feat, but I got to enjoy immersing myself in one of my favorite films, and there’s certainly nothing bad about that!
This morning, I’d intended to take on ten kilometers, but I also wanted to take on a new route. The route won, and the 10k will have to wait for another day.
The city (county?) has been working to extend the Greenway eastward, with a connection between the Wildwood end of the trail all the way to Hutchinson Road. I only ran on about half of the new extension, but it seems to be nice, and doesn’t feel as hilly as it looks. There’s still work going on to clean up the trail, get signage in place, etc., but it seems like a terrific extension. In fact, I think this will allow me to run from the house to the Greenway. My only complaint is that there are a *lot* of traffic crossings, with the trail crossing back-and-forth across the access road that parallels Highway 100. I’m sure this is done for safety, but it really hinders getting into a nice rhythm.
There’s no question as November comes to a close that this year has been transformative for me. When this year began, a cold, cloudy day like today would’ve kicked my butt, and I would’ve struggled, walked, huffed and puffed through the distance. Today, I ran almost the whole route at a comfortable pace, enjoying the time out on the trail, and not feeling like I was gonna fall over. Running — at least at a 5k distance — has become enjoyable, and something I look forward to.
What a difference 2015 has made in my life!
This race benefitted WaterAid.Org, an organization that provides clean water and toilets that are essential for life.
Yesterday, I returned to the Greenway for my first run since the half marathon in Tulsa on Sunday. I’ve been taking it a little easy, as I could feel that the effort on Sunday in the cold had really exhausted me — although my body wasn’t sore, which was great news. The only fallout from Sunday seems to be the beginning of a “black toenail” on the third toe of my right foot. This seems to be a real rite of passage for the longer runs, so that’s not unexpected, although I’d rather I didn’t have one. It feels weird. 🙂
The weather yesterday was dreadful. It was cold, and rained the whole time. I know I’ve said that I love running in the rain — and I do — but there’s a huge difference to doing that at 50-60° than in the low 40s. I dolled up in my Zippy’s, my new bright orange CEP calf sleeves, my freshly won Route 66 running shirt, and my running jacket.
I’m really finding that I enjoy running in my calf sleeves, rather than my compression socks. It feels as though I have more choices that way, as I can vary my sock (thin or thick), while still getting the benefit of compression in my calves. That may be the new path for me!
I’ve been wanting to run the Mustache Dache for a while, but only just noticed this year that they had a virtual option. With that, I signed up, and finally picked a day to run.
Once I arrived at the Greenway, I stretched out, and began to run. And run I did. In fact, this became the first 5K I’ve run where I ran the whole distance. Yep, the whole thing.
I didn’t have great speed, as I was taking it slow due to the wet conditions, but also because I didn’t know what my body was gonna do. Would it give up? Would my goofy black toenail start causing trouble? Fortunately, neither happened, and I just kept chugging. Looking at my cadence data, I was really up and down on steps-per-minute, but I was never as slow as my walking pace. The was cool to see.
I really think the half on Sunday gets the credit for my success yesterday. I kept chugging, hill after hill — none as big or long as the ones in Tulsa — and I could just put the distance in a little box in my mind, knowing what I’d just done a few days earlier. Every hill was “just” a hill, every kilometer was “just” another. And at the end of the slog, I’d run my race, and heck of a good race at that.
This is the big weekend for me … it’s the Route 66 race weekend.
I got into Tulsa yesterday morning after an uneventful drive from Da Lou. It was nice weather, sunny and 50ish… if only that were to last!
The Holiday Inn was awaiting me, and was able to do an early check-in for me. This was great, letting me get unloaded and parked for the weekend. I walked to the Cox Business Center, which is where packet pickup was. Things were about to get… interesting.
I walked in the exhibit hall to pick up my packet, and stood in one of the longest lines in which I’ve ever stood. And while I stood there, the line continued to grow and grow. After 35 minutes or so, I had my bibs in hand, and went to sign in at the volunteer table.
I’d signed up to help out at the t-shirt tables, and still had an hour until my shift was to start. When the volunteer director saw me, he asked if I could help now, and sent me to registration. By this time, the line was truly amazing, and from what some folks said, it was at least an hour from the end to the tables. Yikes!
Packet Pickup
So for the next two hours, I ran back and forth, grabbing bibs for folks checking in. At the end of two hours, the line was down to almost nothing, and I’d earned my first medal through my running around. The funny thing is that my Garmin said I’d gone just about 5km… on a course that was about 75 feet long! 🙂
Medal #1 in hand!
The Stage!
Later in the afternoon, I was part of a running bloggers panel at the expo. This is the first time I’d done anything like this, and sharing the stage with three other much bigger names than me, we talked about blogging, running, and what made us tick. It was a great time, and hopefully we inspired someone in the audience to blog their travels.
I got back to the hotel, and laid out my stuff for this morning’s runs. It’s really amazing just how much gear it takes to put me on the road at one of these races! This morning, it was about 37°, with 20-30mph winds, so it was multiple layers and all the winter gear… and it still wasn’t quite enough.
The hotel shuttle took me up to Guthrie Green, and like many others, I began looking for shelter from the biting wind. The gear check tent worked great as a shelter, and kept most of the wind off. Race time started to get close, so a bunch of us worked our way up to the start corral.
2000 of My Besties
Eight o’clock came, and our throng — two thousand strong — flooded the streets of Tulsa. With the confidence stemming from so many 5k’s this year, I set out confidently, and ran most of the course. I was trying to stay in a steady rhythm, and that really worked for me, keeping all my kilometer splits within thirty seconds of each other.
Last year, I really struggled with this race, although I fought hard and brought back on of my best finishing times of the year. This year, I shaved 4½ minutes off last year’s time. Wonderful!
Medal #2 in hand!
I was also signed up to run in the Fun Run. Originally, Darla was gonna walk this with me, but she had a knee injury that kept here in Da Lou, so I decided to just continue my nice pace from the 5K, which seemed to work for me. Again. In fact, my mile averages for each race were identical.
Medal #3 in hand!
Woody
I called the hotel shuttle to have them pick me up at Guthrie Green. The driver came by — a guy a little older than me — and we started to chit chat about the race. He commented how impressed he was with people that ran, and that the challenge really seemed to be with getting started. I told him my story, explaining about my colon cancer, and that being the catalyst for my beginning this journey. We talked about my cancer, and my early diagnosis. And then he said he’d been putting off having a scoping, and that he was rethinking that after hearing my story. Man, that was cool!
Major Awards
So now, I sit in the hotel, pondering my first half marathon tomorrow morning. I’m both confident and terrified, which I suppose is normal. I really feel confident that I can finish. I’m not going for any kind of speed, just a finish.
I picked a wet, wet day for my first post-Christmas outing.
First off, let me say that I love this film. I mean, love it big. I saw A Christmas Story in 1983 when it hit the theaters, and knew I had just witnessed the birth of a new Christmas classic. Every Christmas season, I watch it. Frequently. In fact, when TBS does their 24 Hours of A Christmas Story event every year, I just leave the TV on. It’s a film you can just walk into and out of, and never miss a beat. I suppose that’s part of what makes it so magical.
