You Know You Want Me

RBF Vegas, the actual shirt
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

RBF Vegas, the actual shirt...

Due to poor communication on my part, one of our more petite female runners inadvertently ordered a men's size L shirt that she really doesn't have a use for. If the are any size L guys out there who wanted a shirt (women too I guess) but didn't get one, you now have a second chance, plus you get to be the good guy in this deal.

Ehhh? Come on now, don't be shy...

Week's end, Months End

Well, I completed my last run of October today - 18 miles out around my loop and back with a little side trip to bump up the mileage. The next time I put my Adrenilene Fives on it will be November, the same month in which we'll go to Vegas. I don't have much to say about today's run. It was uneventful, even boring at times. At this point, uneventful is good - no pain, no injuries, breathing is good. Now I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, but I don't think it will.

WEEK TOTALS	Running: 36.5 miles Time: 5h 03m 10s Avg. Pace: 9:19/mile
MONTH TOTALS	Running: 105.1 miles Time: 14h 52m 48s Avg. Pace: 9:06/mile
YEAR TOTALS	Running: 390.9 miles Time: 1 day, 23h 02m 33s Avg. Pace: 9:18/mile

Looks like I should shoot for starting with the 4:15 group - not a qualifier for Boston, but not a bad start for my first formal distance race.

Shirt news: They've shipped from overstock.com as of Thursday afternoon. Next stop the printers here in town. Woo Hoo!

My Daily Post about the Shirts

OK people, I got the quote back from the printer today 156 to buy the shirts plus 87.45 for the printing, divided by eight comes to 30.45 per shirt. Plus, if you want add four and a quarter so I can priority mail the shirt to you ahead of when we go to LV.

If you want to send a check:
PO Box 44
Longview, WA 98632

Or if you want to do Paypal, email me and I'll send you a payment request.

Thanks,
SD

Shirts, Part Duh!

I can't believe I posted about the shirts today and forgot to put the link in to the ones I ordered.

Go HERE for a peek. I hope they'll be as cool as they look online. I'm going to try to get the printing done in time to priority mail them to folks that might want to test run them before the marathon.

Shrtz!

OK, I placed an order for eight shirts today. They should be here by November 4th and I can take them to the printers then. I should have totals to everyone the end of tomorrow. You can send me a check or Paypal, whichever.

Vegas, baby!

Go Girl

I can't think of a better comment or a better example of how we all motivate each other towards the goal and better living in general. Go check out what Drew said on A.maria's blog, and hold her in your thoughts too!

Lets change that to "scotts(not)running.blogspot.com

Thats right, today I broke the cardinal rule, the big one, the one you can never recover from fully, if only deep down inside... I skipped the weekend long run.

Did I fall down the stairs and have a compound fracture? No
Was there an earthquake causing a big peice of masonry to fall on me? No

I just don't feel like getting out of the jammies today. Granted, my butt stayed in the captain's chair all weekend while I wrote a 3800 word paper for grad school, but claiming that was what kept me from going would be the definition of weakness. I just wanted to make a big pot of sauce out of the last of this season's tomatoes and be naughty.

I'll do my scheduled 12 miler tomorrow. I promise.

Riona tapped me for the 23rd post/5 line thing. Here goes:
"Normally I make no effort what so ever to run any faster than my feet want to." This was more or less running at the mouth/running babble. I was talking about how I went out too hard and got shin splints. This taught me to warm up on the days I'm going to try sprinting (rocket science).

Now, I'm going to hurry and tag five people before Brit gets them first!
Keith, LJ (she'll just have to make something up), Partyrunner, Drew, and Danny (to be obvious about it), You're it!

What is your favorite color?

I ended up deciding to call a printshop here in town before trying to place an order online. We have dealt with the folks here several times with good results, and besides, I like like to keep things local when I can.

She asked me what color I wanted the shirts to be. She couldn't give me a definitive list of options on the spot but said she'll probably get back to me in the mean time. In general, what color would you-all who are placing orders prefer?

Thanks,
SD

Order Time

OK Folks, were getting down to the wire. I'd like to shoot for placing the order this coming Friday. I played with the cart app. on the printer's website and found that I think the shirts will be 18.90 a piece plus an additional 4.25 for shipping if you want me to mail you your shirt ahead of Vegas.

Order totals:
Me - two shirts, one L, one XL
Jeff - two shirts, both M, to be handed over in Vegas
Drew - one shirt, M, to be handed over in Vegas?
P-runner - at least two shirts, size unknown. I checked, sorry but there doesn't appear to be any preemie shirt options! Shirts to be handed over in Vegas
LJ - one shirt, size unknown, to be handed over in Vegas

Who did I miss? What sizes do you-all want?

Thanks,
SD

End of the Week Posting

Well, it was a mixed bag this week:

Oct 12, 2005	3.78
Oct 13, 2005	3.78
Oct 16, 2005	16.93

In some ways, the fact that I had a pretty good week, while having a bad one at the same time was a good sign to me, a sign that this training stuff is actually doing the trick. This week the same crud that had already done in the rest of my family caught up with me - chills, sore throat, coughing, blah, blah, you know the drill. My first scheduled run of the felt pretty good. The breathing and sweating was good for me I think. Wednesday I headed out for an eight miler and just couldn't get the steam built up. After one trip around the lake, I got in my car and drove home. The next day I stayed home from work, ill, something I do maybe once every three years.

Today's weekend long run was 16 on the schedule. I decided to go out the same route as the Turtledash half marathon but instead of being bussed out a ways, I decided to run from the house, out all the way and back. I was apprehensive about this plan for two reason; first, I still felt like hell, and secondly, this is the same route I took on Mr Toad's Wild Ride (when I got a wild hair a month or so after starting to run and decided to go out and hurt myself).

Today went a lot better. I went out really slow and had good support from my darling wife and dad, who both drove by and gave me fluids. At about mile eight I started to feel pretty good. I could breathe, the chills were burned out of me, and my energy levels were really good.

I'm not a medical doctor (OK, I'm not even a PHD), but I think my new theory is that exercise, when coupled with good diet and a lot of rest may be one way to kick a cold.

Vegas Shirt Design Number Six

RBF Vegas Shirt Design 6
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

OK everybody, here is our shirt, now with more Viva in the Vegas. I spent about an hour trying to incorporate some dice or a hand of cards in with the text somehow but couldn't get anything to look right. Drew set me a design sketch idea that I tried to incorporate but couldn't. Thanks anyway for that. If anyone else wants to take a crack at the design project, please let me know so I can send you my working files. If not, thats fine too. I'm personally satisfied with what we have.

So, unless anyone else whats to take a stab at the graphics, should we go with this look or the plain text back?

RBG Shirt Design 5
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Word of the Day is "Celerity"

Local sports reporter, Ben Zimmerman, has written an excellent article on the Portland Marathon (held this past weekend). He talks about the individual flavor of that race as well as giving a great race report from the perspective of a first time marathoner. One can almost imagine the debrief conversation of Ben and his fellow racers all heading back up to the Longview/Kelso area togethter.

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2005/10/12/sports/news01.txt

Land Fill Starter Kit

Landfill Starter Kit
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Landfill Starter Kit

You know how when you have a problem, you’re the last one to admit or realize that you have a problem? By the time you are willing to say, “I have a problem” everyone in your life is ready to give a huge sigh of relief? Well, I’m wondering if I have a problem, or if We have a problem.

Human beings are essentially big bags of water. Our largest organ, the dermis, holds in the squishy rest of us that is ninety-some percent water. We cannot live without continuously replenishing our supply. Becoming a distance runner has reacquainted me with that reality. I drink a lot of water throughout my day, and may drink 64 or even 96 ounces of fluid on a long run in the heat. I’m like a sieve in that respect.

So it strikes me as being particularly wasteful to vote with my dollars to have someone pipe up petroleum, combine it with acetates (or whatever they do to get long strand polymers – I got a D in chemistry so who knows) to make plastic, so that my 8 ounces of water can be encased in a plastic bottle. I drink water at approximately 2 ounces a swallow, so the water sits in the bottle long enough for me to get around to making four glugs – all while my home, office, and favorite running spot are all less than five miles from a river that is over one half mile wide. Then the bottle goes to the landfill, the war on terror goes on, and I go on to drink another eight ounces in another hour or so, and the cycle repeats itself.

My personal response to this conundrum has been to avoid buying my fluids in personal serving containers where possibly convenient and when someone gives me fluid in a small bottle to reuse the container as many times as I can before I lose the lid. This has worked pretty well up until now, even though we give each other fluids all the time without thinking about it - the water guy who refills the office cooler nonchalantly leaves a 36 pack of bottles as a no-cost treat. I bet the last time someone came to your house or office, you offered them liquid refreshment of some sort.

This past weekend we had 17 runners and many more spectators and general potluck attendees at our house for the second annual Turtle Dash Half Marathon and four mile walk. It kicked ass. We ran. We drank Guinness, and ate a lot of really good food. Mike barbecued three salmon at one time… After it was all over, I washed out all the empty eight ounce bottles and added them to my collection. Now, if I filled them all up, I would have enough water to supply several families of Katrina victims for a week or drink as I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail end to end.

Should I just give up on the bottle washing? Just take them all to the recycling center? Should I not even bother?

Wow, I wish I could right this much with so little effort for one of my night school papers.

She is just that fast, really
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

She is just that fast, really

Mothership must be near
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Mothership must be near

Freakishly Large Tack in her shoe is what I heard...
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

Freakishly Large Tack in her shoe is what I heard...

Its a dead heat...

As I tally it, we have two votes so far for cards, dice, or something to go with the Las Vegas lettering on the back, and two votes abstaining. My take is that the plain lettering on the back of the shirt just doesn't capture the Elvis/HunterS.Thompson Viva Las Vegas spirit for Partyrunner and LJ. What about a compromise of no cards or dice, but we change the "Las Vegas 2005" to the official Las Vegas Logo?

Also, I forgot to ask people to specify what shirt sizes they want. If you want to go to the printer's website, I think I made the original post with the link Jeff found on August 17th, or there abouts.

Sorry for the fly by posting, hectic life continues (I'm getting my runs in though, heh, heh).

SD

RBG Shirt Design 5

RBG Shirt Design 5
Originally uploaded by gene_poole.

OK, I think its time to order shirts. This was the last design concept we came u p with. The front logo moved to the left breast. Things we talked about that I didn't get to included registering a shorter web address and getting it pointed to the rbf blog list and adding a hand of cards to the writing on the back of the shirt. I would like to finalize our order at the end of this week that is just starting and get an amount figured out for what each person needs to pay.

What I need to know from each of you is:
1. How many shirts do you want?
2. Do you want your shirt(s) mailed to you ahead of time or handed to you by me when we get there (I will mail them to you at shipping cost to me).
3. Will you have any trouble sending me a check?
4. What is your vote on whether the front logo should stay on the left breast or move back to covering the chest?
5. What is your vote on adding a hand of cards to the back?
6. I don't think we should do the web address this first time. Do you vehemently disagree?

Thanks,
SD

Salmon of Capistrano

"Some place warm, a place where the beer flows like wine, where beautifulwomen instinctively flock like the salmon of Capistrano.."

Last night we barbecued 1200 servings of salmon at an open house for the public. I was on the barbecue crew and spent 3.5 hours slinging fish. I inhaled a lot of smoke, got physically tired from the fast work, ate about a pound or two of delicious fish, and can neither confirm or deny that I may have had a couple of Coronas as well. After that I went for my second longest run of the week, which is currently seven miles. I thought I'd be paying the piper but aside from me being a little extra thirsty the run was quite pleasant and my times were good.

Like a lot of people, I tend to obsess about my diet and hydration leading up to a run. I usually make myself eat a big serving of oatmeal about an hour before my long runs and spend a lot of mental energy to those ends. Its nice to know that its possible to also have a good run after less than optimal preparation.

Is a salmon hangover possible?

Hat Trick Quick

Tonight had three easy miles on the schedule. I went to run my favorite run which is about 3.7 but who's counting, right? At about the first mile I looked down to see why Garmin wasn't beeping at me. I had forgotten to turn it on, gah! At the 1.5 mile marker I decided to stop and turn it on and stretch until it connected up with the mothership. Then I thought, "What the hell. I'm loose and limber fromt the first half. Why not pour it on?" I did the second 1.58 in 10.20, or about a 6.39 mile pace. For a mile and a half I could have kept up with Jeff or Keith. Now I just have to work on being able to do that for longer... then a little longer...

Another Week Come and Gone

..and we're one week closer to boogie time in Vegas. I'm meeting my weekly training goals, am injury free, reasonably pain free, my gear is holding up, no sickness to speak of, know that millions of people have followed roughly the same path that I am headed down, one culminating in running a marathon, and yet I get really freaked out sometimes. I haven't had any running anxiety dreams that I can remember, but I'll be running along on a training run, listening to a podcast, listening to my breathing and the thud, thud, thud of my body moving along and suddenly I'll think something like, "If this were Vegas, I'd still have eighteen miles left! Holy crap! I've only run eight miles here and I'd have 18 left. What am I thinking!" Then I go back to telling myself how many millions of people have already done it, most not requiring hospitalization afterwards...

Another first on yesterday's long run - peeing in someone's yard. We are semi-rural out here, so finding a clump of concealing landscaping to duck into wasn't much of a challenge. Lucky for me, they waited until after I was done and back up on the road and had been running along innocently for at least three seconds before coming around the corner in their SUV, waiving at me sunnily and pulling into their driveway. "Hi! Never mind the pee on your bushes!"