Thursday, December 29, 2005
Vegas_False
Wednesday, December 28, 2005
Ship's Log 12/28/05
Tuesday, December 27, 2005
Hi Everybody!
Running; starting to dig it again. I woke up this morning and one of the first thoughts that popped up was, "Today, I get to run!" This elicited a feeling not unlike what I imagine makes dogs yip and bite at the air. I didn't do that but I might have if the baby hadn't been asleep.
Saturday, December 24, 2005
Friday, December 23, 2005
Vegas Trivia
My cuz picked him out of the crowd.
Saturday, December 17, 2005
A post actually about running
New target: Year-to-Year 5k fun run on 12/31 - See you there
Runners who Rock
Runners who rock; thats an easy one and hard one at the same time. My father (not a blogger) ran marathons throughout my childhood, thereby letting me grow up knowing I could too. I never had an doubt that I could finish my own marathon. Thanks Dad! My wife, on the other hand, gets credit for getting me up and running in my adult life. If I didn't have her healthy influence in my life I probably wouldn't be sitting at the keyboard now. Thanks babe!
Three runner/blogger people to whom I am indebted; Danny Farkas, for running his first marathon a few weeks ahead of me with such enthusiasm and attention. It was fun to watch him ahead of my own big day. Thanks Danny! Partyrunner and Drew share as spot as my virtual training buddies leading up to Vegas. Many a dark training day I might not have made it out there had it not been for the fact that I would then have to admit my lameness online. Thanks guys! Last but not least is another team - two guys who seem incapable of not replying to every comment and who get up and run even when they don't want to and so help me do the same - Jon in Michigan and Flatman in Texas.
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
Meme Post; Nothing Running Related Here
Write 5 random facts about yourself, and then list the names of 5 people whom you in turn infect. Also, leave a post to these people letting them know they have been infected.
1. I have three ear lobes. Its true - on one the right, and two on the left.
2. I speak three languages
3. I used to be a cop
4. I am mildly dyslexic but love to read.
5. I'm tone deaf, can't carry a tune in a bucket, or get the hang of the 1, 2, 3, 4 thing when dancing but when I'm alone in the car, I sing it out loudly - never in front of other people.
I also tag Partyrunner, and LJ, who because she refuses to have her own blog, is hereby directed to make her post as a comment somewhere
Saturday, December 10, 2005
Reasons to run
I feel pretty good today - completely recovered from running a marathon last Sunday. I worked a half day, did some Christmas shopping, and visited the pottery studio. After that I cut, split and hauled five loads of firewood. I have five foot lengths in the shed that I cut up throughout the winter instead of having to do all the work in the summer. The stairs are five up, a landing and then twelve more. Each load is in a four foot long tub that when filled is about all I can manage to hold in my arms and still walk up the stairs. I did five loads and quit because of lack of light, not because I broke a sweat or was even remotely tired.
So that’s one good reason to keep running. Last winter, five loads would have made me very tired. Like Drew, I want to keep up with my kids, and hopefully my grandkids. I don't want to live my life in a state of weakness where something as simple as swinging a splitting maul or walking up a flight of stairs makes me tired. Eventually I will die, but as the quote on Will's site goes, "Death catches us all, but when he catches up with me, that bastard is going to be sweaty and out of breath."
Friday, December 09, 2005
thoughts
Race report Rehash
I’m still walking around with my medal in my jacket pocket. I keep the ribbon tightly folded over the medal like a tri-corner folded flag and usually have it between thumb and forefinger while walking from one place to another. Make any mention of the race and I’m sure to pull it out to show you.
Jeff documenting the action
Today I feel pretty much like normal. Yesterday I felt a sort of a disappointment I couldn’t really pin down. I think I trained really hard, for many moons, ran and incredibly long and hard race, and then had a lot of people make a big deal about it. It was exciting and gratifying, but then we all went back to business as usual and I think I was unconsciously feeling like, “Hey, remember the big deal??”
As for the actual race report I never go around to finishing; nothing all that eventful occurred before about mile 18. I was running strong, feeling great, and getting about 30 seconds lower per mile than I had expected. Brooks ran up and introduced himself. We ran together briefly but then I lost him again.
Action shot
At mile 17 I caught up with the pit crew. I wasn’t feeling as chipper as I had at mile 7. I still had 9.2 miles to go to get finished. They would be a looonnnnggg nine miles. At mile 18, I saw Super Jeff who asked me if I needed anything. Thanks Jeff!
Right about the same time, Drew materialized on my left and introduced himself. He was wearing a gray sleeveless shirt. We only spoke briefly as he was looking for his family who were at supposed to be coming up any step now. Its funny how your mental images of people build up based on the words they write. I imagined him as being skinnier and shorter but he actually looked sort muscle bound. Was there an East coast accent there too? Hard to tell when you only exchange a few words and are in a mental state where complex tasks like simple addition and subtraction are becoming more difficult.
As we were passing one of the wheelchair guys on a hill, lots of people were cheering for him and yelling out things like, "Way to go William!" and "Hang in there William!" I didn't hear anyone saying squat when he flew by us on the downhill.
I ran on by myself, down into the long straight downhill. I hit all the hydration stations but, nevertheless, became increasingly thirsty and tired. Picking ‘em up and putting ‘em down was turning into a chore. I turned my iPod on for the first time, hoping to distract myself with NPR podcasts. I had purposefully stocked many hours of my favorite podcasts for just such an eventuality and then back filled the rest of the drive with music files incased all my podcasts somehow turned out to be stinkers. Unfortunately, the stupid thing would only play the same five gangsta rap tracks, which weren’t helping me any. No matter whether I chose shuffle mode or advance to next track, all I got was obscenities and misogyny. At about mile 22 I turned the stupid thing off. I’m still mad at it and it is currently still grounded (jammed in the bottom of my gym bag). Without the iPod, which I used successfully throughout my training, I was stuck alone with my own thoughts.
It looks a lot cooler in real life - the desert at dawn.
As we came through the Frank Sinatra underpass and made our final turn to start towards the
Afterwards pizza-beer-sleep-zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the end.
Monday, December 05, 2005
Marathon Recap
I’ll try to keep my race report short. A lot of the observations I had have already been reported by my brother and sister bloggers who ran Vegas.
My stats according to the Forerunner:
Time run: 4:05:47
Distance Traveled: 26.33 (including running out into the bushes a couple of times)
Calories burned: 4539
Other Stats:
Most number of buffet visits in one 24 hour period: 3
# beers drank b4 run: too many
After racing: too many
Mile Times:
Mile 1 – 7:48 Mile 11 – 9:10 Mile 21 – 9:07
Mile 2 – 12:23 (!!) Mile 12 – 8:55 Mile 22 – 8:49
Mile 3 – 9:28 Mile 13 – 9:14 Mile 23 – 9:09
Mile 4 – 9:53 Mile 14 – 8:55 Mile 24 – 9:52
Mile 5 – 9:56 Mile 15 – 8:47 Mile 25 – 10:12
Mile 6 – 11:00 Mile 16 – 8:48 Mile 26 – 10:21
Mile 7 – 9:25 Mile 17 – 8:51 Mile .2 – 1.33
Mile 8 – 8:36 Mile 18 – 9:41 .
Mile 9 – 8:45 Mile 19 – 8:59 .
Mile 10 – 8:43 Mile 20 – 9:13 .
All in all it was an awesome experience – one of a handful I’ve had in life so far I’d say – definitely in the top five hardest things I’ve ever done. We got in Thursday night and left Monday afternoon. Thursday night we were alone – no kid, no friends, no family, aloooonnnnneeee. It was very nice because it happens so rarely. Friday and Saturday we had plenty of time to sample the attractions of Vegas. I think I got my fill of that town for a good long time. Despite all the last minute plan changes Saturday, we got to have a nice meal and meet with the blog people and then get to bed by nine. I slept from about 10 to 4 and amazingly didn’t stress too much. By the time I got to the lobby at 4:20, Jeff the super trooper had already been waiting for me there a half hour. He had the traffic figured out and deposited me at
Pursued by the Little People:
I had just stolen a golden head from one of their temples and they were trying to stick me with poison darts.
To the woman who told me not to peek while she and I peed behind some construction equipment at about mile 4; I didn’t
To the five women who were walking with their arms interlocked at mile 5; please let me know what marathons you will be obstructing in the future so I can not run them.
Did this a lot... I think this was around mile 18 and I think thats DREW behind me.
When was it we ran under the boom arm photographer. I tried not to have my tongue hanging out.
Goo makes me want to hurl and yet gives me the energy to keep going - its a love/hate thing...
As the others have already attested, the run itself was amazing. I think they should have done a better job of organizing the start. Maybe instead of telling us how cool it was to have been an Olympian competitor, the announcer could have spent more time telling the walkers to get to the back and the faster runners to the front. Nevertheless, by the time the first runners were away, I was finding a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye – just for being allowed to be involved in something so cool – an emotion that revived itself regularly between the start and about mile 18.
Stay Tuned - Real race report to follow...
At this point (mile 7), I loved the whole world.
She was so cute with her orange ribbons and her blogger shirt.
I think Black Beard the Pirate may be immediately to the left of 'Talia.
I think at this point she is getting goo and Advil. I'm not sure.
The Thank You Post
My wife and family made a lot of sacrifices so that I could train and come to the event. Thank you baby.
I still can't quite comprehend how generous two people can be. Jeff and smsmh drove to Vegas from San Diego, not to run the race, but just to help us runners. Thats an incredibly long way to come, both in time and money. They took us to dinner the night before the race, picked me up in the morning at my hotel and drove me to the race, and then ferried family members to different way points throughout the race. After I finished, I was driven to food and then deposited at my hotel within hobbling distance of the hot tub. Thanks guys! It was hard, but would have been incredibly harder without your support.
All the RBFers that gave me advice and support along the way made things so much easier as well. At about mile 24, I hit the wall big time. Suddenly, Drew was there, encouraging me to dig deeper and keep running. I stopped and walked briefly a couple of times after that and I'm not sure I could have ran in the last mile if he hadn't have been there to keep me going.
Thanks to Riona for blogcasting the event. I felt so special!
Signs of Life
Sunday, December 04, 2005
LV Marathon Update
SCOTT DENNIS, 04:05:47 (chiptime) @ Final time (unofficial):
powered by Devine Racing.
Overall results
1 STEPHEN KIOGORA 02:11:56 5:01 KEN
2 TITUS MUNJI 02:13:19 5:05 KEN
3 TEKESTE KEBEDE 02:14:36 5:08 ETH
4 GIMMA TOLA 02:14:49 5:08 ETH
5 ARAYA HAREGOT 02:15:29 5:10 ETH
Women:
1 ADRIANA FERNANDEZ 02:32:13 5:48 MEX
2 GALINA BOGOMOLOVA 02:32:13 5:48 RUS
3 DOROTA GRUCA 02:32:14 5:48 POL
4 NUTA OLARU 02:32:37 5:49 ROM
5 IRINA SAFAROVA 02:33:34 5:51 RUS
Where are they now?
Burning question
- Gatorade?
- That protein-based recovery drink thingie?
- Beer?
- Shots?
Half marathon update:
PartyRunner's heading for 4:01:24 and an ETA of 10:12.
This blogcasting is very exciting for me.
Go Scott
PartyRunner 15K splits
10K NA
15K 1:45:21
She's picked up the pace from her 5K split and on track for a 4:01:01 marathon and a 10:01 AM finish.
Current top 5 men: all from Kenya.
2 STEPHEN KIOGORA 01:08:26 5:13 KEN
3 LABAN CHEGE 01:08:26 5:13 KEN
4 GIMMA TOLA 01:08:26 5:13 ETH
5 GILBERT KOECH 01:08:26 5:13 KEN
Man. Here's a blog link to a really interesting series of articles about the Kenyan Kalenjin runners. They really are supermen.
Filler. A look back on our heroes
I *love* having access to someone's blog. Mwuahahahahahah!
Scott's official training schedule started on August 1. Back then his long run was 8.2 miles, well under a third of what he's doing today. And he was just beginning to discover the evils of cotton socks.
Around the same time, August 4, PartyRunner announced her plans for Vegas in a manner after my own heart: by deciding what she'll wear for the post-race party (a slinky turquoise number).
Not too far away now.
6:19 - passing Harrah's on the strip.
6:22 Now they're passing Westward Ho, which might just be the name of my next Halloween costume.
They're off!
Jeff headed out to pick up Scott and shuttle him to the start. The plan is to take Brit and Natalia to mile 7, wait for the runners, and then head on to mile 18 where Brit and Natalia will wait, and Jeff will cycle on to 20.
We're watching!
