A belated 2008 recap

When I said “See you in 2009″ at the end of my last post, I kind of figured it would be in about a week. However, with my great ability to procrastinate, I was able to push it about 5 weeks deeper into the year. I got skills, man!
We’ll start with a little blurb in the last post. I’d made mention of seeing the cow in the brush and mistaking it for a bear. It was of course crazy because there aren’t any bears roaming the farmlands south of I-80. This past week a black bear was actually captured near a little farm town called Neponset, south of I-80. That’s only about 80 miles from where I was.

Mooing bears!

Maybe it wouldn’t have been as far-fetched as I’d thought to see one.

Ok! February 2008 brought my first half marathon. It was also my only half marathon. I sort of did a sleepwalk in the summer months with a twice or thrice weekly half hour run just to maintain a little fitness.

I picked it up just a little in the fall and actually logged some decent mileage (for me) before the end of the year. I staggered through an 8k and a 10k before a spectacularly poor (even by my standards) performance at a 10 miler in Alton. This was followed shortly thereafter by what will now forever be known as the “mooing bear” incident at Hudson,IL.

My total mileage for the year was 499.6 miles. Had I actually been watching the total I’d have run an extra .4 miles, just so I could say I ran 500 miles. That leaves my cyber-transcontinental journey still in Virginia somewhere. Some time this year, I WILL get out of Virginia. (I hope!)

December was filled with ice and freezing rain and more ice and freezing fog. I’ve never seen so much ice. Fortunately, it just snowed in January. That’s a whole lot easier to deal with. I’ve got a couple pics I took with my cell phone on a run at Allerton Park the day after Christmas. It’s about a 3.5 mile round trip from the parking lot at the main house to the statue of The Sunsinger. It was absolutely solid ice all the way out. I had the screws on my shoes so I had good bite, but I was the lone gunman out there that day. This was another day with a freezing fog.
The first pic just shows the condition of the road.

The second pic shows the end of the road leading to a circle drive around the statue. This section of road is only a 10th of a mile from the statue but from here no statue seems to exist.

Lastly, the The Sunsinger in view, arms outstretched, asking God “Where the fuck is the sun already?”

That’s kind of what I was thinking.

I’ll be back sometime in the next week or so with another post. I swear! Oh, yeah… I almost forgot. Someone, who shall remain nameless, but whose name rhymes with ‘cardogirl’ , toetagged my blog and sent it’s lifeless remains to some WordPress mausoleum.

Over my dead body

Thanks alot, betch!!!

Christmas 2008

Just a little update here. The last couple weeks have been a pretty steady blast of wind, cold and freezing rain. The parking lots and secondary streets are all skating rinks.
I’ve run twice in the last 2 weeks. One of those runs was an 8k at a forest preserve north of Bloomington. It was a cloudy, windy yet reasonably warm (mid 30s) day. It was just warm enough to thaw the surface of the trails we ran on so they were a muddy, slickery kind of mess. The wind was a steady 30 gusting to 40. It was billed as a run in nature amongst all the little animals. All the little anmals were taking shelter out of the wind because I didn’t see a damn thing. I guess that’s not strictly true. Leaving the park I saw a great black beast alongside the road in the brush. My first thought was, “My god! Do we have bears in central Illinois?” Imagine my disappointment when the beast looked up and went “Moooooooo!!!” as I drove by. It was a black angus from a neighboring farm that had somehow escaped it’s pasture.
Shortly after my last post I got a call from the director of the 10K Turkey Trot I staggered through in late November. That was the race I’d left with the timing chip still tied into my shoelaces. Apparently that hadn’t affected their ability to give me a time. Somehow I was third in my age group in that run and had a trophy waiting for me at the front desk of a local recreation center. I can only conclude that there were a mere 3 people in my age group if I got 3rd place. Evertheness, I got this spectaularly cheesy little plastic thing to commemorate my accomplishment.

It’s likely to be the only thing I ever get doing this so I’ll cherish it as if it were solid gold.
Other than that, I survived the run up to and including another Christmas. Every Christmas brings the same questions. “What do you want for Christmas?” I’ve got everything I want so I’m forced to come up with something because just saying I don’t want anything doesn’t work. So I usually just try to come up with things I’m likely to buy for myself in the next month anyway. That’s not always much fun but at least it’s not more unnecessary crap to lay around the house. So this year I said I wanted some kind of scarf to wrap around me on those really cold running days, a new broom so I could relegate the old one to the garage and get rid of what was left of the the broom in the garage and, lastly, some ink for my computer printer. There’s nothing fun about those things but they are what I would probably be buying for myself shortly. However, maybe a broom can be fun.

Dear old Mom is still pretty crafty when it comes to wrapping presents. That Santa face is actually a hat. That means when I go for on of those Jingle Bell runs next winter I’ll have a bit of a costume to wear for a little extra spirit. Anyway, Christmas is likely over for all who will be reading this. I hope it was a good one. See you in 2009!

p.s. I got this video from my buddy Mark. His daughter Katie cracks me up. I posted it on Youtube and hopefully the link will embed here. I wasn’t able to load the video itself on here. If it doesn’t work I’m going to need somebody with a big giant techno-brain to help me.

More than I could chew

At the conclusion of my last note I confided I’d signed up for a ten miler and was reasonably sure I was in over my head. I made it out for a single 2 mile run in all of Thanksgiving week so I hadn’t really prepared very well. As the day drew near, the weather seemed tolerable so I thought I’d go take a stab at it anyway. And away we go!

49th Annual Great River Road Run

Where: Alton,IL

Date: November 29, 2008

Time: 10am

Weather conditions: overcast, slight breeze, temp mid 30s

surface: asphalt

Alton is a northern suburb of St.Louis, perched on bluffs overlooking the Illinois side of the Mississppi River. It’s an extremely hilly little burg with many streets with very sharp rises and declines. The best thing about this day was that the run was not to be held on these streets. The run was an out and back north of Alton along the river. I had to park a bit from the sign in and had a bit of a trudge to and from there and to and from the start/finish line. If my only exercise that day was up and down the steep slopes before and after the run It would have been plenty. I must admit I entertained the thought of climbing back in my truck and heading for home after the sign in. However, that would have been pretty pussy even for me. After attaching my bib number to the front of my jacket, I headed for the starting line on the corner of Broadway and State. It was pretty good sized mob. there was was a 2 mile fun run going off 10 minutes aftert the 10 miler. There were maybe 900 people doing the 10 miler. I’m not sure of the total for the 2M but with the family and friends giving support and volunteers working the event, the streets were filled for a couple blocks. This time the timing chip was on the backside of my bib number. That was kind of a new one on me. I was acutely aware of where it was since I’d managed to take the last one home with me. I think I could’ve taken this one with me but they had a recycle bin there at the finish line and THIS time I actually left it with them.

The river road was very flat with just a bit of breeze at our backs on the way out and into us coming home. I took my usual place towards the back of the back and tried to get my mind in death march mode. The gun went off and off we slogged. The first mile I got passed by about a million people. Well not quite a million, just kind of seemed like it. There are many days where you know you’re in over your head but if you put you’re head down and gut it out you can surprise yourself. This was not one of those days. At about 3.5 miles, the leaders had already made the turnaround and were going by me on the way back. The old knees and hips were kind of aching after about 4 miles. It seemed like I’d been out there forever when I made the turn around after 5 miles. I was also feeling a bit over dressed. I’d worn a jacket and had my bib pinned to the jacket sort of straddling the zipper. So though I’d unzipped the zipper, I couldn’t shake myself out of the jacket because I was sort of pinned in. As I turned to go back in, the little breeeze we’d had with us suddenly was very refreshing. It was impeding my progress but was kind of a savior heatwise. At about 6 miles I came alongside a woman that had passed me, then walked for a bit, then passed me, then walked for a bit. It was at the end of one of these walks she started running along with me just so she could pace off me a little bit. She’d come there with some younger stronger runners who would no doubt be back at the finish long before us. We exchanged small talk for about a mile and a half when finally the muscles supporting my hip joints were just screaming so I had to just walk for a bit. She was ready to walk again by that point. We probably walked a quarter mile and then began to run again. I didn’t make it real far before I had to walk again. My calves were pretty tight too. I’d been drinking water as I went along but wasn’t sure that I might not be just a little dehydrated. At about the 8.5 mile mark she went on to run again and I walked a bit longer trying to loosen up. The loosen up just didn’t seem to happen. I tried at the 9 mile mark to jog the rest of the way in but only lasted about a quarter mile, walked and then finally managed to run the last half mile to put myself out of my misery. I unclipped my bib to recycle the chip embedded in it, my hands shaking slightly, then looked for the drink stand. There were wash tubs filled with soda and water and it was a real chore to bend my knees to get down and pluck out a couple cans. I scaled the hills of Alton to find the truckster. Oh yeah, the time was 1 hour, 52 minutes and something seconds. The one 10 miler I’d run previously, last December, was 1:45 and change. That was a more difficult course but I actually ran the whole way. This was way more of a struggle because I’m just not in as good shape at the moment.

That same 10 mile event from last year will be run again tomorrow. I’ve only gone for one small 2 mile run this week and if I’ve got any sense at all, and that’s debatable, I will just stay home tomorrow and try to get in 4 or 5 miles here. It’s supposed to be damn cool in the morning, possibly single digits, and I’m not thrilled with the idea of taking a road trip to freeze my toes off when I can run here, then come inside if it’s just unbearable. It also kind of snowed a little bit off and on all day too. Our first snow with any accumulation was last Sunday. I stepped out the back door and took a couple of pics. The first snow always seems so pretty before it’s been walked in or gets all crapped up.

After the first snow it gets old pretty quick. It’s going to be a long winter.

Thanksgiving quickie

I was able to drag my lazy ass out of bed last Saturday.

34th annual Turkey Trot 5K & 10K

Where: Decatur,IL

Date: November 22, 2008

Time: 9am

Weather conditions: overcast, breezy, temp 24

surface: asphalt roads and bike paths of Fairview Park

Decided to push myself through a 10K for the hell of it. It’s longer

than I’d run in awhile but seem doable. I hadn’t pre-registered for

this run, so I got there early enough to get signed in and pick up a

timing chip and bib number. It felt mmm…pretty fuckin chilly. I got

in about a half mile jog just to get my blood flowing and made my way

to the starting line. There was kind of a wide, almost four lane

road, mob at the the start. I asked the guy beside me if he could see

a timing device ahead of us. I wasn’t sure how we were all going to

be funneling into what is usually a pretty narrow area to trip our

timers. He said maybe they were just going to credit us all with the

same start and then just record the finish. That’s what they did. I

ate a pretty big stagger on that one. It was of no real concern since

I was just there for the run and to test myself a little. Having said

that it’s always in the back of your mind what your last time in that

distance was. Without going back and looking through this journal,

I’m going to say it was 1 hour and some seconds.

I settled into a comfortable jog fairly quickly and put it in auto

pilot. I cruised along fairly easily. The first 4 miles were in a

river valley with a turn around at about the 3 mile mark. The next

mile and a half retraced the original course before turning up a

pretty spectacular hill. The hill seem to last forever but was

probably only about a three quarters of a mile. After the crest of

the hill there was a slight downhill to a flat and then the finish.

The hill ate me up. I went through the finish with my tongue hanging

out and panting like a dog. I wasn’t the last one across the line but

there weren’t many behind me. I think most of the peple ran the 5K.

There were several local high school teams there and they were all

doing the 5K. It was way more difficult than I’d anticipated. I kind

of gathered myself together and trudged up the hill to the main

pavillion where the food was being dished out. I grabbed one of

everything and a couple of Gatorades and wandered to the truck. I

peeled out of the wet shirts I had on and into a dry one. Those dry

shirts always feel so good. As I was pulling out of the parking lot,

though I’d long since stopped panting and my pulse was back to

normal, I was whipped. I’d had big plans to go do that run and then

come home and pick up all the leaves in my yard and finish taking

down what little garden trash I had left. Before I got out of Decatur

I already knew the rest of my day was going to consist of pizza, beer

and a lounge chair in front of a TV playing college football all day.

When I got home I found, to my dismay, that I’d neglected to remove

the timing chip from my shoe. It was still wound through the laces.

That means I had no official time. Normally there is somebody at the

finish taking those chips. I’m guessing because of the cold they were

taking them in a heated room at the pavillion rather than sitting

there in the cold doing that. I can’t fault them for that. My brain

just wasn’t functioning quite right when I finished. I think the time

showing on the clock was at 1:03 and change when I was approaching so

it’s no huge loss getting no official time. It just sort of pisses me

off. I mailed the chip back to them on Monday. It was too far to just

turn around and drive it back.

Before I’d run that thing I’d already signed up for a 10 miler in

Alton along the Mississippi River this Saturday. It was a pretty

cheap fee. If I decide it might be too much for me to handle I won’t

be out much if I blow it off.

While I ponder that, you all have a good Thanksgiving.

…and I lived to tell about it

 

Red Eye Run 8K

Where: Joliet,IL

Date: November 16th, 2008

time: 7am

weather conditions: overcast, 10 to 12 mph breeze, slight spit of snow, temp 29

surface: asphalt and concrete – the streets of Joliet

The overnight skies remained cloudy so the morning temp wasn’t as cool as expected. The breeze still made for a fairly brisk dawn. The winter temps have come on fairly quickly and I haven’t quite acclimated to them yet. It might have taken a mile and a half before I broke a sweat.
This was the first year for this event. They had plenty of volunteers. Lots of the local constabulary manned the intersections for traffic control. For reasons unclear there were actually a couple of bands playing along the route… at 7 in the morning…with below freezing temps. I apreciate the effort but didn’t really understand it. A blonde woman in a 3/4 length winter coat, wailing out a pretty impressive cover of Heart’s “Barracuda” to our left. On the right, a tattooed man in his boxers and nothing else, standing in the cold listening after he’d picked up his morning copy of the Chicago Tribune from the curb. Apparently oblivious to the chill. Ahhhhh… Sundays in Joliet! The race started outside and finished inside Joliet Municipal Stadium. Another band was playing there.

As per usual I lined up at the back of the pack to stay out of the rabbits’ way. My only real intention was to get my feet wet in an actual event again since it had been so long. Settled into a nice slow pace early on and road it all the way around.
The last mile and a half was aginst the breeze but it all went as well as I could have hoped. Never had to stop and walk. I did have some guy who looked to be about 75 pass me at about the 3 mile mark. More power to him! I had no real juice for a big push at the end but wasn’t just exhausted, so that’s always a minor victory for me. I crossed the line in something slightly less than 53 minutes.

Lots of breakfast type food at the finish along with water, juice, beer, bloody marys or whatever you felt the need for. I grabbed a water, juice, banana and a couple of those chocolate Snicker’s bars with the high protein and fiber. With the cold temperatures they were rock hard but they were pretty tasty. It was a good run and I’d do that one again.

About 9am this morning, which is about 8+ hours from now, there’s a 10K Thanksgiving run in Decatur. If I can get my lazy ass out of bed and get over there I’ll give that one a whirl, just to push my long weekend run out a little bit. It’s always a little easier for me to do the longer runs with a throng of people about instead of slogging them by myself.
It’s just after midnight here and the local temp is 14 so it may be a cool one in the morning. We’ll see!

November post

It’s amazing how easily I lapse out of posting here.

I just dreamt I walked out my front door to get my mail. There was a line of school children about a block long in single file in front of my house. They were allowed to investigate, a couple at a time, an archaelogical dig around the maple tree in my front yard. I plucked the mail from my mailbox and looked upon the dig with only enough interest to see that it was taking place. Shortly after returning to the house, there was a knock at the door. One of the adults chaperoning the children was very enthusiastic about a find that had just been made in my front yard. He said it was some kind of ancient submarine. I was generally irritated to be dragged away from my TV watching to see this but went anyway. There, laying in my front yard was a 20ft long kayak. 6 seats in the back. 3 slightly wider seats in the front. I can only guess that the seats in the front were first class. I mentioned to the adult it wasn’t actually a submarine. He was still amazed by it’s great age. I pointed out the Busch beer cans under the rear seat. They were aluminum cans. That meant it was considerably younger than me. There was no excavation in the yard where this kayak could have been unearthed from. Then I awoke, still kind of shaking my head.

Red Eye 8k in Joliet,IL on Sunday morning. This will finally be the first actual running thing I’ve been to since the half marathon last February. It’s at 7am and supposed to be considerably below freezing. Should be interesting.

Just a quick add on. I just noticed that I’m really only posting about once a month, and not even that in September. I suck even worse than I thought. (And I was thinking mucho sucko)

Octoberfest

I’m not sure I even remember how this works, but that ain’t gonna stop me.
It’s a rainy fall evening and the second presidential debate is about an hour away. Please God, let this crap end!
The summer has gone and the leaves are changing color. Many rounds of golf have been played and the cool mornings are perfect for running. Maybe I should push ahead with this again. My running since last May has been limited to 2 or 3 times a week at 30 minutes a shot.
Not because it’s been too hot or I haven’t had enough time. I’m just an unrepentant lazy bastard.

My transcontinental journey is still in Virginia.

At this rate I may not be out of the state before 2009 rolls around.
I’ve got the next 2 weeks off for my usual fall traipsing. I’m a little too poor for traipsing right now so I’ll spend most of the time cleaning out the garden, playing golf, riding the bike and maybe even running.
Oh yeah, the bike.

About a month ago I bought a little Suzuki S40 on ebay. It’s big enough to get me around town and down the highway if necessary but small enough to get good gas mileage and be pretty maneuverable. When I took that motorcycle saftey course in July I kind of fucked myself. When it came time to choose our course provided motorcycle, I walked to the bike that had the tallest saddle. I’m not a giant of a man but I do have pretty long legs. (36 inch inseam) The bike I sat on was a Yamaha TW 200. However, the foot pegs on this thing were directly under the saddle and the bike had about a 10 inch ground clearance. This means I had my feet tucked up underneath my ass cheeks. If I was only going to be on it for a couple minutes, that would have been cool. The class was taught in 4 sessions. It was supposed to be a little book time, a little bike time, a little book time…you get the picture. The first class had thunderstorms all day which meant they didn’t let us out there. Rain is one thing, a dozen people with hunks of metal between their legs in a large open parking lot with thunderbolts all around is something else. So the second day was beautiful and we spent the whole class, 5 hours, on the bikes. The following morning, I pretty much couldn’t walk. I had a week to recover before the following weekend’s classes. The following weeknd was more of the same kind of torture. It was a valuable lesson on what kind of a bike I should never have. I had to have something where I could get my legs out from under me. So, I got myself a little cruiser.

Anyway, Maybe I can get myself out of bed early enough next weekend to do a 5k or something. I’d say there’s almost an 80% chance I’ll get it done.

?

I haven’t posted in a while and am not of a mind to right now, but, I was cruising through here and checked my stats. Under top searches, and I’m guessing that’s – searches that led somebody to this blog, numero uno was… ‘misshaped pussy’. I don’t recall that ever being a part of any blog I’ve ever written. Well, until now.

The summer flies by

I finished my first weekend of motocycle training today. I’ve got a couple of 5 hour sessions next weekend and hopefully I’ll be able to get my license. I must have stalled that sonuvabitch 50 times today. It got better after the first couple hours, but there was a couple of times I about quit the damn thing altogether. It’s been 4 hours since the end of class and I’m still kinda pissed. Did I mention I’m kinda pissed?

Have a nice day!

This was going to be a comment…

for the C-girl but it kind of got away from me.
I don’t know if Brian ever checks these things once he’s posted a reply. You may want to invade his blog and throw that at him. And yes Brian, I walk when they let me. I did play a couple courses when on vacation which make riding in a cart mandatory. There were some holes spaced apart by 1 or 2 city blocks and they feel it speeds up play. I didn’t actually play every day of vacation. There were several days where I played twice a day and walked both times.
For the C-girl: I don’t know how to compare this to anything else, though I’ll take my best shot. If you have a backpack laying around the house, put three 10lb. bags of potatoes in it and head out the door. Walk a mile and a half every hour with the backpack strapped on. The rest of the time you’re allowed to take the backpack off but you must remain standing for the entire hour. Do this 9 hours in a row and it wil approximate walking 36 holes less the aggaravation of playing the game. If at the end of the 9 hours you feel like you’ve had some exercise, you probably have. I’ve never read a chart about what kind of calories it burns, but something tells me it’s of some value. Plus like Brian says, I do play better when walking. There’s something about it that keeps my head more in the game. It may be because when riding in a cart, you’re usually riding with somebody else. That’s not bad but it is kind of distracting sometimes and can kind of throw off your rhythm.
OK, comments out of the way and nothing else to say, I’ll just go ahead and talk anyway because, well, that’s what I do.
I’m gradually running slightly more again. That covers that!
The weather has gone from almost spring to the dog days of summer in 1 week. The daily high temps on vacation were in the upeer 50s to 60s. Now the nightly lows are in the 70s. What the F????
The heat is finally making my tomato plants grow. I put them in along with some pepper plants 3 weeks ago and they mostly just sat there not growing. This week they grew 6 inches.
We’ve had enough rain that the local home improvement stores have run out of blueprints for do-it-yourself arks. I guess I’ll have to hitch a ride with somebody else once the water gets up to my rooftop.
The local farmers are fretting because many of the crops they’ve got planted are under water and many haven’t been able to plant at all. The later you get the crop in the ground the more risk of a killing frost in the fall. I took this pic last weekend alongside a golf course not too far from here.

This field just went for miles and there’s nothing in it but weeds. It should make for interesting commodity prices in the fall if this remains the case. One good thing about all this rain is that MY weeds have made an even more impressive showing than my tulips. OK, maybe that’s not so good. But there’s mosquitoes hatching at record levels too, so at least when I’m out pulling the weeds I have plenty of company buzzing around my, well, everything. Well, that’s the buzz from here. Stay cool!