Friday, March 7, 2008

When will it end???

The bitter cold. The winter that just won't end. This seems like such cruel and unusual punishment after running Wednesday morning in FL in shorts and 62 degree weather, and a half last weekend in the 70's. And the lows tonight are projected to be double digits below zero--mind-numbingly cold. I hope to do a 20-miler, but I'll guess I'll play that by (frozen) ear. I heard on the radio this morning that the HS baseball season kicks off 3/20. Ha! Good luck with that!

So. Florida was wonderful. I had such a nice, relaxing week down there. The first day was cold (wind chill actually and freeze warnings) but after that it was just beautiful. I ran the half (Sarasota Marathon). 'Ran' is kind of a stretch. I'd intended to do it very casually for a variety of reasons: 1) I'm not in good shape and have only averaged 1 run/week this year. 2) The start time was 6:00 am and my body clock was still thinking that was 5:00 am (having been awake since 3:38 am EST). We ran in the dark for the first 1/2 hour. Very few street lights (maybe every 1/4 mile) as it was unincorporated Sarasota County. My dad lives in Manatee County, unincorporated as well, and residents have to pay for their own street lights. Hence, there weren't many. Very weird when you can't see where you're running but a few steps ahead and you're in the middle, or in my case the back, of 3,000 people. I was in the long porta-potty line until the bitter end ... 3) I knew I wouldn't be acclimiated to the temps. 4) I wanted to carry my camera (and ended up carrying a pack of Clif Bloks, which I didn't eat, in the other). I'm glad I didn't try to run for time. The course had 51 90-degree turns in it (I'm going to upload the data to motionbased.com and see if there were actually more than that) and 5 180-degree hairpin turns along with other less sharp turns. No wonder the bottoms of my toes were so sore when I was done ... just like they were after running 10 miles on the indoor track. There was only 1 mile that didn't have a turn in it. And with my hands full, I literally stopped at every water stop and switched my camera to the other hand (I had the strap looped over my wrist so I wouldn't drop it) so I wouldn't spill Gatorade on it. I also stopped a couple times and had a volunteer take my picture with my RTC singlet on. So ... my time was slow. The winning time for the marathon was 2:51 for the men (I think it was 3:12 or 3:21 for the female), further evidence of a slow course. Someone I talked to on the 1.2 mile walk to the parking area said he ran it last year and they had a new course this year to take some of the turns out of it. (There were 51 in just the half!) Anyway, if you're really trying for a BQ, probably not the one you want to hit. But it was scenic once you got out by the bay. Flat as a pancake course, as all of the gulf coast is flat. The only hill was up and over (and back) on the bridge out to Longboat Key. I'll post photos tomorrow (Sat.)

Read a couple of books while I was away. I read Bel Canto, which I highly recommend. I'm now reading Eat, Pray, Love. Our book club is reading Atonement this month, so I'll probably have to start that before finishing the other one. Not nearly as much reading time when I'm not on vacation. ;-)

OK. Back to Rochester! Spotted running on the treadmill at the Y this morning with her new, comfy RTC T-shirt ... new RTC member Julie Stanton!

The Fetzer ad turned out nice in Run Minnesota. Also a nice mention of Pete Gilman in one of the letters to the editor. He is, indeed, a very nice guy. Fetzer registration is now also available on the Running Room website.

Got back on Wed night and looked at the Fetzer entry form in the newsletter. I was just sick. Graphics missing. Pete Martin was supposed to be pictured in the gaping hole on the front panel, and 'The Stick' logo is missing as well as the new 'No Headphones' RRCA logo. Oh, bother. Had to deal with that the last couple of days. (Update: Just returned from the post office and mailed about 353 of them. There were 3 postal (government!) employees standing there watching me tape up the sides. One guy finally volunteered to help me. Our tax dollars at work!)

Speaking of the Fetzer ... I need volunteers! Water stops, finish line, registration, setup, cleanup, etc. I will have a notice posted on the RTC website with more info. Please consider volunteering! Cookies and a thank you gift shall be your reward! Let's each challenge ourselves to volunteer at at least one event this year, and give back to the sport we all enjoy.

There's still time to register for the Broadway Plaza Stair Climb on March 15. It's only $5! See what your quads and lungs are made of!

I've gotten a couple of inquiries about Grand Prix awards. If you won one but have not received yours, please contact Lin Gentling.

Paul and Deb Thomford are going to be running a marathon in Hilo, Hawaii next weekend. What a great time for a warm weather get-away! Then they're off to Australia to visit one of their sons. Sounds like a wonderful vacation. Paul has been testing out some of my cookie recipes. So far, so good he reports. I believe we have another cookie afficionado in our midst. ;-)

Running on TV: According to USATF, 15K championships Saturday 6 a.m. on CBS but I don't see it listed in the Rochester TV listings. On Versus, IAAF Indoor Saturday 3-4 pm.

Thank you to Larry Pederson, Jim Mason, Fred Woolman, John Dinusson, Kit Hawkins, Jean Murray, George Huston who it sounds like braved some nasty weather to help assemble the March RTC News. It's greatly appreciated! Sounds like they got it done in about an hour.

There's a new issue of Running Room eMagazine available with a 20% off coupon and as always, lots of good articles. There is a misprint in the pasta recipe I submitted. There should be 1 tsp salt in the sauce, not 1 Tbsp. Whoa ... that would be really salty, and nasty tasting.

Community Education is offering a Track and Field Camp for grades 4-8 at Mayo High School outdoor track from June 16-20. Donny Holcomb, Mayo track coach, is the coordinator.

Either Planet Ultramarathon or ABC news or googling "Buster Martin marathon" will give you info about a gentleman from Great Britain who is 101 years old and attempting to become the world's oldest marathoner by running the London Marathon. Thank you to Pat Brown and Paul Thomford for sharing the information.

There's a half marathon in Albert Lea Live, Laugh, Love Run being held in honor of April Sorenson, who was murdered in her home in Rochester last year. Still unsolved, to the best of my knowledge.

Running in 3.5" heels in Amsterdam for $15,000 prize. I think it's an annual event. There are a couple of YouTube videos from prior years as well as a pretty poor one from this year's event.

I've gotten a couple of emails from authors of running books looking for readers: Running through My Mind: Confessions of an Every Day Runner by Scott Ludwig (autobiography) available on amazon.com and Girls on the Run...! by Teresa Belgrove, also available at amazon.com

OK. Let's hear from someone else! Roger Spee, longtime RTC member and prior Fetzer/Mayowood 20K race director:

Family? Married to Linda, with two children Evan (21) and Laura (19)
Hobbies? Internet surfing, soccer coaching, traveling
Languages you speak? English only (even though my area of business expertise is National Language translation of IBM product information into other languages… go figure)
How did you get started in running? As a 10th grader in high school I went out for cross country to get in shape for basketball. I was the only one on my CC team who could finish 2 miles without stopping. Long story from that time until now… lets just say I went on to ran competitively in college and did some road running and couple of marathons after college. In 1980s I had a blood clot in my legs which caused me to lose ability to run competitively. I ran for mainly fitness during the 1990s and starting in 2000 I decided to stop running as I was no longer able to run without early fatigue of my legs.
Miles per week on average? Now I don’t log any miles. During my competitive running days 70 miles a week about my average.
Your defacto, comfortable as a broken-in shoe training route? I liked running the trails paved and non-paved by Quarry Hill park.
How often do you run it? When I was running I ran it twice a week or more.
Favorite carbo loading food? Not sure it’s really carbo food but like pizza.
Favorite indulgence food? Pizza.
Next race? At this time I don’t plan to race again.
Running goals? Who knows if the spirit moves me I might start to jog again this coming summer. My college CC captain has recently gotten back into competitive running and he has urged me to do so also. So maybe the peer pressure from him will spur me back into doing something.
Running dream? I don’t have any real running dreams at this time.

Thought for the day: He who seeks a friend without a fault remains without one.

Stay warm!

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