There's A Lot Going On!

Last Sunday, Waverly and I drove to Dallas for me to run the Hottest Half Marathon at White Rock Lake's Winfrey Point. We left at 2:45 a.m., got there by 6 a.m. and the race went off shortly after 7 a.m. I didn't run all that well at all and in the results I was listed as a 40-year-old Jen Walk!

Monday through Wednesday, I was in bed by 10 p.m. in Jackson, Mississippi without any workouts; however, I hit the stationary bike for an hour Thursday night at Bally's in The Woodlands and I swam 600 meters at the Bally's in Humble this afternoon.

I'm going to Milano to do the Nowhere 2 Run 10K, which starts at 8:30 a.m., instead of the Beneezy Purple Monkey 10K in Alvin. I hope Adrienne kicks butt and wins tomorrow morning. Me? There's an individual that I anticipate being there that I just don't feel like dealing with, plus I can run a race in another Texas town.

Today, I stopped at the Courier in Conroe to pick up a couple of newspaper columns of mine that I hadn't seen in print. While I was there, I talked with Montgomery's Ruth Fields. Her Raging Aging team competed in the Texas Independence Relay.

I left there and stopped at the Montgomery County Food Bank to give them my $150 H-E-B gift card that I received from HARRA as part of the VVIP volunteer program. I figured that there were some folks who needed the food more than I did, plus I don't see what I do for HARRA as being as important as what others do.

I drove all the way to Sugar Land then to pick up a pair of Asics Fortitudes from Finish Line Sports.

You ask: Why didn't I just buy them at Luke's Locker in The Woodlands like I always have?

Well, since Luke's Locker fired Andrew Perry, and Rick Cook and former Oak Ridge HS and HBU trackster Becky Isaac resigned as a result of that, I've decided to take my business elsewhere. I'll probably split the buys between Finish Line, On The Run (Jay Lee, Chris Bittinger and Vera Balic) and Fleet Feet (Luke's former shoe guy Stan Timmer) as I have good friends at each of those businesses. They all can order the same shoe if they don't carry it.

A 20-year-old young man with a young wife and child wouldn't jeopardize very good money for his age over a pair of shoes of a brand that I've never heard of. It's a matter of principle for me.

I met Lajuan Ellis-Thayer while I was at the Finish Line store early this afternoon. I think her son belongs to Seven Hills Running Club is what she told me. She was on the team with the winning name in the TIR, "Victorius Secret".

Finally this evening, I spent it at Bear Branch Sports Park to watch a number of cross country races at the Friday Night Lights Invitational.

More on that later. It's 11:45 p.m. Friday night and it is past my bed time. :)

The Berglund's Pikes Peak Marathon Race Report

Jon,

As you mentioned our participation in the Pikes Peak Marathon, I thought you might like an update on our unique experience (that phrase replaces ‘miserable performance’) the past weekend.

The Pikes Peak Marathon weekend is in two parts, On Saturday, they have the Ascent, which is a slightly long half marathon, where the participants run from Manitou Springs to the top of Pikes Peak (13.32 miles and close to a mile and a half increase in elevation). There are a number of time cutoffs along the way to remove slower runners based upon the maximum finishing time. On Sunday they have the full marathon, which is the Ascent, plus a slightly shorter descent back to Manitou Springs.

We went down to Colorado Springs on Friday night and planned to watch the start of the Ascent on Saturday morning but the rain fell all night and it was pretty nasty when the start began, so we had breakfast at the hotel and followed the race on the message board. About 1,800 participants started the Ascent, and the first finisher completed the Ascent in about 2 ¼ hours, but a snow squall hit the mountain about that time and created havoc with the participants. Many of the runners started the Ascent in shorts and singlets. They were completely unprepared for the blizzard like conditions and subfreezing temperatures at the tree line (about 11,500 feet). At about 10:30 (3 ½ hours after the start) they called the race. About 750 runners had reached the top, many before the storm hit, the remainder were sent back down the hill. Over 100 runners were treated for hypothermia and several hospitalized.

The organizers and local weather bureau, predicted that on Sunday, the conditions would be even worse. Accumulated snow at the top, frequent snow squalls during the late morning and subfreezing temperatures. There was a lot of discussion on the message board about cancelling the race. As we also only had shorts and t-shirts, (plus our Sunmart jackets) we spent Saturday visiting the running stores and shopping centers around Colorado Springs trying to get some gear for the trek. We purchased ponchos, gloves, hats, a belt to carry things, electrolyte pills, and Karen got long pants and socks.

We attended the pasta dinner on Saturday night and received disconcerting news from the experienced participants who were planning on running with screws in their shoes, or Yak-Traks (?) because of the dominant ice over the upper four miles. There was also a posting on the board from the area Search and Rescue group on how to prepare for the marathon the next day, which included such concepts as wear long pants and carry extra warm clothes and drink plenty of water.

At 6 AM on Sunday, the following message was posted on the board.

Posted by: eric

When: 8/17/2008 6:20:02 AM

I can observe the Peak from my house at 8,900 feet. The peak is currently obscured with a storm moving in. It is well below freezing (39 degrees at 8,900 feet). Winds are beginning to gust. There seems to be about four to six inches of snow on top. Snow begins about 11,000 feet. Good luck marathoners.

Karen and I drove to the start of the marathon and found the temperatures in the 40’s with a mist, but not rain in the air. A number of the participants had decided to go home. As we stood there looking at the mountain in the distance, covered with snow and snow clouds, we considered our options. We had done little running on hills mountains, no training at high altitudes; we did not know how to run over big rocks and boulders and had never run on trails covered with ice and snow, nor in a snow squall. But, in the spirit of the readers of your blog, when the gun sounded, I yelled the proverbial “Pikes Peak or Bust’ and off we went.

We started out slow and went at a pace that was supposed to get us to the top in about 5 and a half hours, under normal conditions. We made it through the first seven checkpoints on schedule, and well ahead of the cutoffs. We reached the final checkpoint at 10 miles at 4 hours, and climbed above the tree line. At this point they had us put on our jackets. The course was just starting to be covered with snow and ice.

The snow squall hit us at about 11,500 feet, which was about a little less than 3 miles from the top. The snow came down wet and in clumps and the temperature dropped below freezing. We put on our ponchos and gloves (mine was soaked in minutes) and continued as best we could. The snow continued for nearly an hour. By now, runners were coming down on their return leg, with stories of ice all over the rocks and trails ahead and many runners falling on their backsides. As we got amongst the rocks and switchbacks, we had to yield to the down hill runners and often helped them step down from the icy rocks. In many locations, one could only tell where the trails were by the runners that were on them.

It took us almost 2 ½ hours to go the last three miles to the top. We made it just before the 6 ½ hour cutoff. Now, we would have about 3 ½ hours to run 12.8 miles downhill to get to the finish line. Doing a short half marathon downhill in 3 ½ hours seemed workable, except for the ice, snow, slipping and falling, and obscured trails. When the race director indicated that most runners over the last half hour had followed his advice of staying at the top and not going back down and noted that because of the bad weather they had brought up buses to take us back down the hill, we considered the idea for about 2 seconds before we took his advice. It took two hours for the bus to make the drive down the icy slopes of Pikes Peak to the finish line.

Bottom line was that we failed to complete the Pikes Peak Marathon. Many of the faster runners did finish, especially if they made it to the top before the snow squall. As DNFs, we receive no medal, no jacket and no reference in the race records. We have a lot of meaningful things in our lives and are not defined by one race. But, we did get a picture of us at the top, which, of a truth, is probably worth more than any undeserved medal, jacket or recognition, and will always bring back the memories of the unique experience of two aged flatlanders trying to run to the top of the 14,115 foot mountain.

Ron

Tomorrow's Half Marathon Promotional Material

The Inaugural Hottest Half and 10k:
What's the deal? A half marathon and 10k in August in Texas? We know everybody does their most serious training in the summer months. This is an event to test your training level, do a great long tempo run or prepare for that fall marathon or half marathon! You earn bragging rights for having run The Hottest Half!
---
(I did an hour on the stationary bike between 5:15 and 6:15 p.m., making it back in time to see the start of the Men's Olympic Marathon.)

Slow Run The Woodlands 5K; Pub Crawl Scratch

I rolled out of bed at approximately 7:20 a.m., told Waverly we were leaving in 10 minutes and was soon on our way toward Barbara Bush Elementary in The Woodlands. This was how I did things the first year that I ever ran any events at all.

I laughed when I saw Vincent Attanucci and he told me that he had done RTW 5K at least 65 times and that this morning was the longest that he went before he saw somebody he knew!

There were a lot of young men and women from Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball that were probably doing the event this morning as a time trial for the upcoming cross country season. (I'm looking forward to going out Friday night to the Friday Night Lights cross country meet in The Woodlands myself.)

I almost threw in the towel on this race this morning as I started the first loop. I was hurting from yesterday's workouts, especially the muscles which run up the top of the leg in the groin area. I really felt the left one of those after swimming yesterday.

But the miles, without injury, will make me a little tougher I hope. The humidity didn't do us any favors today either. So today stunk from a time perspective!

Mile 1 -- 9:31.26
Mile 2 -- 10:14.59
Mile 3 -- 10:32.79
Last .1 -- 57.31
Total -- 31:15.95

I chatted with Tom Sherwood, Wayne Rutledge and Tracy MacEwan after the race for a little bit as well as Tom McHale, Vincent and his son, Michael. (Vincent said that he wasn't going to do a 10K next Saturday unless he got into the 21s this morning. I guess he'll be going to Alvin - or perhaps Milano, based on what I was telling him.)

[A sidenote here. Tom Sherwood is going to write a piece for "Deer Tracks" about his experience at the U.S. Olympic Trials in early July and how what he saw there led to what took place in Beijing the last two weeks.]

I also ran RTW this morning with nothing in me, which probably isn't the best thing. Therefore, Waverly and I stopped at Egg and I for breakfast before we made it home. That decision made for me to be a scratch from today's Bay Area Running Club Pub Crawl.

It is something that I enjoy, but I also only know a handful of people (good people, nonetheless.) And Wayne is one of those people and he said he wasn't going down. Plus Bill Dwyer said he needed to complete a project for his wife, Sandy, or he'd be in the dog house. (I think it was a way of getting out of running seven miles - even though it is a start and stop affair.)

So I may rest up, go to the gym and bike for an hour, then plan my drive to Dallas early in the morning for tomorrow's Hottest Half Marathon. I'm also looking forward to watching the Men's Olympic Marathon this evening as well.

500 Meters and ...

... an hour on the treadmill, plus another 25 minutes on the bike has left me a little beat up!

Enough for me to take two Advil this morning at 5 a.m. or so to see if I can do either Run The Woodlands 5K today or the BARC Pub Crawl.

Bad Blogger!

After going out last Sunday morning to the Ironbabe Sprint Triathlon that Jessica Alexander, Cassie Mondragon, Sarah Graybeal and Anna Sumrall Helm (that last one isn't a misprint) participated in, I added my fourth straight day's worth of an hour's worth of running on the treadmill. A separate spectator report is due to you worthy readers. :)

Jim Braden finished his eighth Pike's Peak Ascent - and first since 2002 - on Saturday in the midst of some gnarly conditions at over 14,000 feet above sea level. He had tuned up the previous month at the Vail Half Marathon. I didn't hear how our friends - and readers - Ron and Karen Berglund did at the Pikes Peak Marathon on Sunday.

Each day, I increased the pace on the treadmill 0.1 mph -- just keeping it nice and easy from 4.3 to 4.6 mph. (But it did feel at the end like a respectable 10K pace on the ground.)

Now what's going on?

Sunday night, we had a meeting for the first annual Bill Crews Remission Run 5K to be held at Carl Barton, Jr. Park in Conroe on Saturday, January 31, 2009. It will be run on a new set of trails that have been recently built and the folks with Conroe Parks and Recreation have told us that they have been underutilized. Here we come!

Tomorrow, I think I'm going to do Run The Woodlands 5K then go to Clear Lake for the Bay Area Running Club annual Pub Crawl. Always a good time with good friends!

And early Sunday morning, I'm going to drive to Dallas' White Rock Lake to do the Hottest Half Marathon that is put on by Lewis George with Mellew Productions.

Somewhere in between there I plan to watch an underdog (my prediction) win the Men's Olympic Marathon in Beijing. Hopefully, they'll stick with it more than they did the Women's Marathon.

Now, I hope that you all are still with me.

Of course you are. You're loyal readers. Right?

Well, after driving home last night from Jackson, Mississippi (a 7-hour drive basically), I went to the pool this afternoon at Bally's in Humble and swam 500 meters. The first 300 meters were fairly consistent, up and back. Well, up and back. Stop for 30 seconds or less and repeat.

I plan to be there more often. It isn't that hard. It is just going to take a lot more practice. If my math is right, 1.2 miles is 2,000 meters. That's 80 trips up and down the pool, right? There's no reason at some point fairly soon why I can't do that.

Time will tell, I suppose. Stay tuned.

Weekend Workouts / General Information

The last two nights (Thursday and Friday) in the gym, I've watched - while riding the stationary bike (after running) - Michael Phelps win golds no. 6 and 7 as well as Dara Torres winning her semifinal in the 50-meter women's freestyle.

So what have I done the last three days?

Thursday - An hour run on the treadmill plus 20 minutes on the bike.
Friday - An hour run on the treadmill plus 20 minutes (hard) on the bike followed by another 10 minutes (easy, cardio) there as well.
Today - An hour run on the treadmill.

I almost pulled the trigger on going to run a half marathon that started at 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning Pacific time northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada - near Area 51.

It was the E.T. Full Moon Midnight Marathon and Half Marathon.

When I missed an opportunity on a certain reward travel combination, the travel connections just got more dicey. Therefore, I just decided to stay home.

This weekend was the first one in four years that I didn't run the News and Sentinel Half Marathon in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Actually, I was able to get a 25,000-mile reward flight into Columbus, Ohio, but frankly it was fun to do the event because Cassie and Manny were there.

It's a great, down-to-earth, all-American town and it's a great race; however, not this year. It would be fun to have a bunch of us go there and run that race as a group. :)

On Friday morning, I was at Conroe's Carl Barton Park to meet with Lauren Arnold from the City of Conroe's Parks and Recreation Department and Bill and Dana-Sue Crews (and their son, Dylan).

I was there for Bill and Dana-Sue to see the park as the site of the Bill Crews Remission Run 5K that will take place on Saturday, January 31, 2009. It will be a celebration of Bill's fifth year of remission of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. One of the things that will be very interesting is that it will be a trail run that in some parts will be a single track that may be a little bit more narrow than Huntsville State Park.

I'm very honored to be included on the Committee (which we will be meeting tomorrow afternoon) that will be putting together the race. Waverly will actually be trying to recruit, as Student Council President this year, her fellow student council members to volunteer for the race.

And finally, Footprints is pretty much put together for the September edition. Edwin wrote a really, really good story about Chevron Houston Marathon masters winner John Hill of Kingwood. We also have a first-hand account of Luis Armenteros' workout with Kara Goucher and Galen Rupp and hanging out with Alberto Salazar while they were all here in Houston. (If this is the second time that I mentioned this, I apologize.)

Penn State's Beaver Stadium's Fans are ...

... among the best, according to a panel of 20 college football experts -- coaches, ADs, players, refs and the media.

Here are the rankings of the best college football student sections that were listed in the August 25th issue of ESPN: The Magazine:

Best Overall
1. Penn State. 2. Texas A&M. 3. Oregon. 4. Florida. 5. Notre Dame

Most Fun
1. Penn State. 2. Notre Dame. 3. Virginia Tech. 4. Texas A&M. 5. Texas

Loudest
1. Florida. 2. Oregon. 3. Tennessee. 4. Penn State. 5. Texas A&M

Nastiest
1. Wisconsin. 2. Florida. 3. LSU. 4. Ohio State. 5. Rutgers

Most Spirited
1. LSU. 2. Wisconsin. 3. West Virginia. 4. North Carolina State. 5. Michigan State.

Most Creative
1. Notre Dame. 2. Penn State. 3. Alabama. 4. Virginia Tech. 5. Yale.

This post was for all of my Aggie friends! :)

This Blog's Readers Featured In Print

Yowza!

This blog had a double-whammy - two (well, three) readers featured in print this week!

(This, of course, doesn't count Edwin Quarles, who writes for the Lufkin Daily News, and Ken Johnson and Katy Lampson, who split up column writing duties for the Huntsville Item.)

Kingwood's Karen and Ron Berglund were featured in Roberta MacInnis' Running Notebook in the Houston Chronicle and The Woodlands' Vincent Attanucci was featured in the Conroe Courier yesterday about his running streak.

The Chronicle story is here.

The Courier story is here.

Pretty cool stuff - and friends!

(I know I forgot Mr. Carey's cycling piece that he mentioned on his blog as well as Veronica Hoge writing the Bay Area Running Club report for Footprints and, of course, El Presidente's (aka Anna Sumrall Helm) column in Footprints.)

Chevron Houston Marathon Allows Full Refunds

The Chevron Houston Marathon announced yesterday in an e-mail that they will allow full refunds through the end of the month. It either a.) took a lot of courage to make that decision or b.) the negative things being said about announcing the transfer policy "after" the sellout got to be a little too much.

Either way, it is a good move.

I had a wise man, who practices moderation in all things that he does, last year at the HARRA Summer Celebration advise me that the Houston Marathon Committee doesn't really like any criticism. If that's the case, then b.) must have been the reason.

This is what I wrote in my Tuesday, July 15 column in the Conroe Courier (which they posted online that week because it set off my Yahoo alert):

You can’t say that you weren’t warned.
The Chevron Houston Marathon and the Aramco Houston Half Marathon sold out its January 18, 2009 event early last week, setting yet another record, despite organizers having increased the field by a thousand to 18,000 runners.
Montgomery County residents have helped fuel the growth as 971 plan to participate in one of the two events, including five members of the Dziak family from Pinehurst.
David and Elizabeth and their three children, Adam, 20, Stephanie, 16, and Monica, 14, will all run the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.
Many runners, hoping not to get shut out after last year’s registration feeding frenzy that sent some athletes seeking sold out entries of eBay and craigslist at prices upwards of $250, bought an entry hoping that they would be able to sell it if they couldn’t run the event in January.
Marathon officials, however, changed the transfer policy after this year’s sellout was announced in hopes of deterring the practice.
Not only do runners transferring their bib numbers to another prospective participant must go through the event itself, they also bear part of the burden of the $40 transfer fee. Runners will receive a refund of $65 for the marathon and $40 for the half marathon.
A year ago, the runner purchasing the entry effectively paid the entire fee, which is one of the highest in the sport.
If runners had not signed up prior to January 31, when the prices were $85 for the marathon and $60 for the half marathon, the transfer fee in effect increases with the original buyer bearing even more of the cost to move the bib number to another runner.
While the Chevron Houston Marathon is to be credited for allowing runners to transfer their entry if circumstances allow for them not to run in one of its events, its panache for increasing the cost for the privilege to do so is rather unique itself.

Yes, I wordsmithed it a little bit at the end - I had to look up panache - to temper my disdain.

The Saturday before last, I asked somebody that was very passionately mad with the Marathon over their decision whether they were mad that 1.) walkers were no longer allow to start early or 2.) they weren't notified in January about the decision.

As I assumed, with this individual, it was the latter.

There is something that I wrote when Barbara, Karen and others were hotter than a pistol about the decision that I was going to wait a few days to post here; however, I can't get my hands on it.

It was basically that I agreed with the decision to get the early starters off the course (and for the CHM to not look the other way as they had in the past), but that Steven Karpas should have set down Denis Calabrese and Debbie Goldberg Mercer and said, "This is the way that it is going to be back then."

Rodney Hayden in Tomball Friday Night

Waverly and I drove about 12 miles down FM 2920 to Main Street Crossing in Tomball to see our friend, Rodney Hayden, play an acoustic set with Jason Allen (who I like too) and Josh Ward.

I typically like to just hear Rodney, but I had heard Jason Allen once before at the River Road Run (12-Miler) in New Braunfels on a cold January Sunday morning. He's got some good stuff and a pretty good following. Rodney, I think, would have more of a "following" if he were more of a "showman", but the one thing that I like about him is that he just gets up and plays.

He played a few new songs from his fourth - and new - CD, "12 Ounce World", including two songs about his wife, Shawna, and his late mother, Laquita. The latter, "Song For Momma", brought tears to my eyes, and the song about his wife, "Waltz With Me", was equally as good. We heard that song at his Fourth of July performance in The Woodlands.

He's even got a song called, "Huntsville"! (Have to play that one for Katy!)

I had Waverly to go and ask him to play "Waltz With Me" and he mentioned - before he played it - the fact that we've seen him perform many, many times since 2001 or 2002.

We had a good time, but knowing that I had to be up at 4 a.m. on Saturday morning we left at 10:30 p.m. I'm suspecting that they kept playing until near midnight. (They started at 8 p.m.!)

Happy Birthday Karen!

My plan this morning was to run from the Branch Crossing YMCA in The Woodlands to the Shadowbend YMCA to cover the Kiwanis Kids Triathlon.

I had the chance to run with my fellow Texas Independence Relay teammate Holden Choi as we covered the 4.87 miles (Holden's Garmin) in a comfortable time of 53:25.48. I was hoping for a little bit of a better pace; however, I carried on a conversation with Holden the entire time (which was very good, in an of itself.)

Earlier, before the various training routes started, Bill Dwyer and I surprised Karen Felicidario with a cake for her birthday today. We all sang Happy Birthday to her. Happy Birthday Karen!

While at the Kids Triathlon, I saw and talked to Lance and Sherry Phegley of RaceShots.net, Courier assistant sports editor Howard Roden, Ironman Bill Crews, South Montgomery County YMCA marketing director Roxanne Davis and runner and triathlete Kelly Vowles.

After the run and the triathlon, Waverly and I had breakfast with Debbie Tripp, Missy Baugh and Susan Meyer among others. Of course, it was always good to see Kim Hager, Stephen Smith, Beth Whitehead, Pete McNamara, Jeff Paul and others before the start of this morning's run.

It is truly a blessing to have such good friends.

Most Important Matters

I've neglected to state something that is very important to share, and that I haven't done an admirable job of doing so.

When Waverly went to youth camp about three weeks ago, she accepted Jesus Christ as her personal Savior there in Tennessee. Her entire family is certainly happy about her decision.

Last Sunday, at North Park Baptist Church in Humble, she made a public profession of her faith and was baptized during the second morning service.

As you all know, I couldn't be more proud of my daughter for her to come to this realization.

Through some of my personal struggles, which some of you know about to varying degrees, I've not done the best job that I could possibly have done in spiritual matters with her. So I'm certainly thankful that God still allowed for me to be productive in the workplace, earn a living and to be able to send her to youth camp - where I also accepted Christ as my personal Savior. (Not the same camp, mind you.)

For various reasons, I felt that it was important to share and I'm certainly not embarrassed to do so. I hope that if I've ever put myself in a situation around any of you that I've not been as Christ-like as I can possibly be that you'll forgive me for not being the best example that I can be.

Thank you for allowing me to share this with each of you here.

Still Running; Just Busy

The "I've been busy" card is going to get played again, and I haven't lied about the "Jackson is dragging me down" story either. It's still real. :)

So, let's see if I can recap and bring everyone up to speed as quick and as possible.

Last weekend saw me do the following:

+ Thursday - Hour on the treadmill, 12 minutes on the stationary bike.
+ Friday - Hour on the treadmill, 25 minutes on the stationary bike.
+ Saturday - Scheduled 11 miles; Accomplished 8.2 of them. Went off course and the humidity royally kicked my butt. (Pools of salt formed at the bottom of my shorts. That normally doesn't happen until mile 20+ of a marathon.)
+ Sunday - 50 minutes on the treadmill

When I got back last night from Jackson, I've accomplished the following:

+ Thursday - 90 minuntes on the treadmill
+ Friday - Almost an hour core and strength workout with a personal trainer. (I was whipped. I was going to run for a half hour. Ha! I lasted five minutes, came home and showered.)

Tomorrow may be a little bit crazy. :)

I'm working on my Runner Triathlete News column and finishing Footprints. Edwin has done a great story on Kingwood's John Hill for it. We'll also have Luis Armenteros' account of working out with Kara Goucher and Galen Rupp, and hanging with Alberto Salazar. Also a Q&A with new Power In Motion co-director Lisa Foronda. (Ever wonder why the best in the sport have no problem in getting along with me and others can't - even when I'm not pumping out all of the material that I used to? As June says, "I'm just saying!")

I helped Bill on some content for the August issue of "Deer Tracks" as well as coordinating the six-weeks-old version of "eDeerTracks" - which we took the idea from the great job that Joe Carey does with the "eBARCer".

It's great to have the friends that I do. Thank you for all that all of you do. :)